This cannot end well

I have discovered the Knitting Olympics and its partner, the Ravelympics.
Well, technically I already knew about them, but I had no idea what actually went on :P

So, I, the Olympics' number-one fan (it's pretty much the only sports program I watch ever), have decided to go for it.

My challenge? Pomatomus, in my Plymouth Dreambaby DK.
(Yes, I know I blogged about doing this pattern before, shut up, SHUT UP!)

And like the real Olympics, it will probably be filled with dangerous screw-ups, tears of frustration, and lots of screaming. Oh, me and my big ideas!

By the way, Happy 4th (am currently in New York, will be busy tomorrow, so am making the announcement early)!!!
Go Team USA!!!
Help me!!!

Apologies for the lack of words

Summer is weird; I am either totally and completely overrun with things to do, or I have absolutely nothing to do at all.
So yeah, of course I haven't been blogging :P

But I can offer hope for this situation: I haven't written short stories (or really, anything) for a while, so I am officially making July Thinking in Magenta Literature Month. Every Sunday I will post a new original short story, four in total.

Right now, though, it's still June, so here's some art to hold you over.

This one is actually kind of strange. I started to draw a girl, made her underwater, made her a doll, and made up the story that the doll was dropped into a pond. Yeah . . .

My cousin Rebecca was a good model and held a great pose for me at the pool last week. Her reward was to keep the original copy.

See you in July! :)

Sorry, fishy!

I can't believe I forgot to post about my new fish!

He was a graduation present from my aunt. Lava is by far the most brightly colored of the three bettas I've had before *sniff* (hence his name)

We fed him these little mini-shrimp-fish-things that he loved, but sadly they all died in a couple days, so he's on regular dry fish food now.
Although I've watched him eat those pellets almost as fast as he gulped down the live shrimp ;)

I'm so happy—he seems to like his new place so much he built a bubble nest the day after we got him.

Yaaaaaaay fish!

Bored . . .again . . .

So for the past week, my schedule was pretty much blah, blah, blah. I had no piano, no acrylics class, didn't start my job yet, and so on. So I pretty much just sat around.
All.
Week.

Boredom does weird things to you. This week I spent my time either boiling my eyeballs in a mad Internet/Ravelry frenzy, or burning my hands knitting, knitting, knitting.
And ended up finishing this in two days:


It's my contribution to Issue 2 of Teen Knitter and Crocheter Magazine. Right now I have some test knitters working on it, and it should be out in July along with the rest of Issue 2. I also have a comic for the said magazine to work on, to busy my idle time.

But I'm still boooooooooooooooored . . . . .*moan*

To me, it actually looks quite messy

What Your Handwriting Says About You

You are a fairly energetic person. You know how do pace yourself, and you deal well with stress. You are somewhat outgoing, but you're not a natural extrovert. You think first before you act. You tend to be independent, rational, and logical. You are balanced and grounded. You know how to get along well with others. You need a bit of space in your life, but you're not a recluse. You expect people to give you a small amount of privacy, and you respect their privacy as well. You are somewhat traditional, but you are also open to change. You listen to your head and your heart. You are a decent communicator. You eventually get your point across, but sometimes you leave things a bit ambiguous.

What Does Your Handwriting Say About You?

FO: Mum's Ring-'O-A-Wisp

Knit faster than a speeding bullet, certainly prettier than my last one . . .

It's Ring-'O-A-Wisp!

Stages of knitting Wisp:
1) I know I don't have enough yarn, but I'll just make the thing shorter and narrower.
2) Crap! It looks like I'm running out of yarn! I'd better just end it here.
3) Crap! I still have a lot of yarn! I'll just put in one more repeat to make it look even.
4) Aw whatever. I'll make it a cowl.

So Wisp is a cowl, and it is lovely.


I can't believe I actually finished it this fast. Since I'm out of school but my brothers aren't, I really didn't have anything to do yesterday, so I picked it up and knit away. Like an hour later, I finished grafting the ends together and set it out to block (these pictures were taken before it got all wet). Only 53 more days until I can give to my mom ;)

Now I have more time for socks.

The Dreambaby DK? It will be a pair of Pomatomus. Because I saw it on Ravelry in many, many different solid blues and started drooling. Because I am a huge dork who loves mermaids. Because I need those socks :P

Aw crap

I finally finished all my friends' gloves and I finally gave them out today on the last day of school and they loved them ( :D ), but guess what?!?!

I FORGOT TO TAKE PICTURES!!!!!!!

stupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupid me!!!!!

So now I am going to scream into my pillow for a while, and hopefully my friends will email me pictures of the finished products.

*slinks off, pulling out hair*

The woes of solid colors

Remember this yarn? This wonderful, soft, smoooooshy, DELICIOUS yarn?

Well, in case you haven't already guessed, it's has started to drive me crazy.

I must find a pattern for this yarn. I must find a pattern for this yarn. I must stop myself from going OCD by finding a pattern for this yarn!

Alright, alright, I confess: I broke my own rules and cast on for the second Loooove Monkey. I couldn't help it! Once I took out the sock for the photoshoot and started to pet the loooovely alpaca, I ran for the dpn's. So then I was thinking about making more socks, and thought, "Maybe I can use the Dreambaby DK . . ." I got out a US #3 and started making a gauge swatch, and what do you know ;) I must knit tight or something because I have the standard sock gauge of 8 stitches per inch (!), and so I went to Ravelry for patterns . . .

Stop. Do not continue reading unless you would like to deal with my perfectionism anxiety. Because I used Ravelry's experimental search and used the pattern tag "sock" and the category "free" and looked through all 53 pages and I still did not see any socks I think would work!!!!!!

*slams head off keyboard repeatedly*

Yeah I saw plenty of patterns I liked, but I'd go into the Projects page and see if anybody had made them in a solid blue color or at least a solid color, and then I'd examine them on people's pictured feet and see if the socks could be stuffed into shoes without the pattern getting all bunched up and uncomfortable, and then I'd closely examine the stitch pattern to see if I really liked it, and nearly all the ones I at first thought would work were done in some wonky gauge.

I know at this point I should probably give up and just wing it with my own design, but honestly I don't think I trust myself enough (translation: I can't think of anything to design).

*groan* Why must socks hate me?

In case you were wondering, "Where'd the love go?"

First sock is DONE!


Actually, has been done. Since like, April :P Yeah, I know, lots of un-posted and un-updated projects on the list here, but I'll get to them all (eventually).

Here's the deal:

~When I finish all the gloves, I'll go back to Trendsweater.
~When I finish Trendsweater, I'll go back to the second Loooove Monkeys.
~When I finish the socks, I'll go back to either designing a new pattern, or doing whatever ;)

In the midst of all this, I'll be working on my mom's Wisp.
In November, I've promised myself to start a Cherie Amour out of my Manos del Uruguay (for NaKniSweMo).
Plus, my dad announced he'd like a cycling jersey, old-style wool.

Oy. Vey.

A well-deserved break from gloves

Remember when I had all that mohair and nothing to do with it? Well, here's a solution, four lace repeats in:


I'm using the Ironstone Yarns English Mohair (in periwinkle) to make my mom a Wisp for her birthday in August. This will accomplish my Knit Lace goal, get rid of some mohair, and provide a birthday present for my mom! What's not to love?!

But of course, there are problems. *grr*

I knew there wasn't enough yarn. I knew it, but I thought I'd change the sizing to make it work. So instead of 46 stitches, I cast on 32 stitches and everything's going smoothly. However, I'm four repeats in and I have half the yarn I started with.

"Blocking!" I thought. "Blocking will work miracles!"
Or perhaps just a really short scarf.

But I don't know that.

"Maybe I could just slip in an extra eyelet and make it a keyhole scarf."
Make a giant crater on purpose? My conscience wouldn't let me.

"What about making it into a cowl?"
Yeah, so my mom could get thousands of mohair fuzzies in her hair. She doesn't like getting her hair wet with Pittsburgh drizzle, let alone mohair fuzz.

Maybe blocking will fix that . . .

AGH!!!!

Maybe I'll just go back to gloves :P