As mentioned previously, I want to learn to sew at least as well as I knit. I’ve taken one class, where I made a tote bag, and I’m taking another class next weekend, where I will learn all about adding zippers to projects. G’s parents gave me an awesome sewing / embroidery machine
My new friend SR (who’s actually a phlebotomist at one of the medical offices I frequent) and I met up today. Our last outing was for coffee at the excellent SoulFood Coffee House in Redmond, so we decided to aim for lunch this time. As we are both gaming geeks – though of vastly different generations (SR was born a month after I graduated from high school; also: I am old) – we decided to check out the recently-opened Bellevue location of MOX Boarding House, a game store / pub / restaurant. (No. Really.) (more…)
This is the almost finished version of the hat. You can see that the dark blue points curl up, and the green cap doesn’t sit quite as flat as one would like.
The knitting and tacking down of points (yipe) and weaving in of (many) loose ends was actually done on Thursday. However, as you can see, it was still a bit unfinished, with the curling of the dark blue leaves and the popping up of the cap leaves. (The curling of the other leaves was handled by sewing down the points and peaks to each layer below. Yes, that was a lot of sewing.) But, since there’s no ‘layer below’ for the dark blue layer, that process wasn’t going to work. The instructions said to iron the hat, and I pondered that, but I also wanted the points and peaks of the green cap to lie more flat, so I went another route.
![[covert-ops] bullhorn](http://www.covert-ops.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/co-bullhorn-sq-500-200x200.jpg)
I assume that most of the people who would be interested in this are already aware of it, but just in case someone’s missed it, I thought I’d point out that there’s currently a Doctor Who Audiobook Humble Bundle going on. As of this writing, there’s about 5 and a half days left on the offer. It’s a pay-what-you-want bundle, though there are price points to unlock some content. (Currently $15 or more to get everything in the bundle.) (more…)
As mentioned in my last post, I’ve made sufficient progress on my Brownstone sweater that I’ve reached the end of the first 10 skeins of yarn purchased for the project. (I also ran into a problem that involved unknitting and reknitting 10 rows or so, but I’m now back at the ‘ready to start the next bag of yarn’ state.) This seemed like a reasonable time to provide a new status photo, complete with Smaug for scale.
The sleeves (knit first) have been joined to the body. There are, however, no shoulders yet. Those will be coming up very soon, after a few more rounds of stockinette. (I do find it somewhat distressing that, at this late point in the game, I’m still only on page 7 of 12 the pattern.)
This won’t be my first finished project of 2015, though. The Flore should be finished up this weekend. (Pictures once it’s complete.)
(The only image I could find for ninja yarn was an animated GIF, which didn’t work well here. So, instead of ninja yarn, you get a yarn ninja.)
A few days ago, I was working on the sweater, and was reaching the end of my skein when I realized that I was actually reaching the end of of the first bag of yarn I bought for the project. The following conversation happened on IRC. (more…)
(Warning: Links may contain spoilers for TV shows / books / audiobooks / comic books.)
As you are likely aware, I recently rewatched all of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. If you watch either show, then you know that the character of Spike is played by James Marsters. As it turns out, Mr. Marsters is also the narrator of the Dresden Files audiobooks (my current audiobook series). Having finished up my Buffy and Angel marathon (254 combined episodes in 7 weeks == insanity, by the way), I’ve switched obsessions to Arrow. On this show, the role of Quentin Lance is played by Paul Blackthorne… who played Harry Dresden in short-lived Dresden Files TV series.
I know the world is small, and that sticking in the sci-fi/fantasy/comic book world makes it even smaller, but this is getting kind of silly.
Further enabling my growing Funko Pop! addiction, G has added to my collection with a dancing baby Groot! (I am Groot!) Clearly, the only sensible thing to do was to give stewardship of the One Ring to Groot. Sauron (predictably enough) is not amused. (more…)
I posted about the Sanquhar Cowl by Wendy D. Johnson a while back. Even though I’ve been obsessing about it ever since, it hasn’t hit my needles yet, for two reasons. First, I’ve been working on other projects. Second, I haven’t had the available funds for the yarn. Well, progress is definitely being made on the existing projects, so the first reason may not be a factor any more. And, some wonderful friends gave me a gift card to WEBS for Christmas, so I may be able to afford a bit of a yarn shopping spree.
I’ve narrowed down the yarn options to three potentials, and now I’m stuck.
This is where you come in. (more…)
I’ve decided that I want to start using Pinterest for bookmarkers (though I’m willing to be dissuaded). Mostly, I’m tired of having some of my bookmarks available to me in (Google-synced) Chrome browser and some available to me in (iCloud-synced) Safari. (And, of course, this only gets more annoying when I move to other computers / mobile devices.) I’d like to have one place that I can go to for all my bookmarking needs. (I admit that I’m no longer sure why I quit using delicious. Didn’t they have some big going away / taken over / aliens invading scare a while back? Is that no longer an issue?) (more…)