Anyways.  Tomorrow is hardcore costuming right up until we have to head to the theatre, so rock on.  I will be making S.P.E.W. badges all day tomorrow, which I plan on selling at the Harry & The Potters concert (!!!).  I will be book Hermione with a vengeance, oh yes.  Yes.

I haven’t ordered my Options needles yet, but only because I can’t make up my mind whether to grab a couple of the standard circs in the smaller sizes or not.  I know I can always get them later, and since I’m not comfortable enough yet to start making socks, I really don’t need them now.  But… but… they’re THERE, looking at me.  Christ, as if the regular standard set won’t be enough.  Oh no, sizes 4-11 – you cannot satiate me.  I’m bonkers.

 My foot picture is now the featured picture for the Frolicking pattern on Ravelry.  This is slightly embarassing, seeing as how I don’t much care for that picture.  It shows clearly that my pants are all ragged on the bottom and that I haven’t vacuumed in forever.  Also, I really need to finish the left slipper.  Maybe I’ll do that this week.  It should only take one day, and I could use a crochet break. 

I realized last week that I’d destashed a little too much over the past month or so.  Yes, this is possible.  It had been so long since I’d bought yarn just to buy yarn, being as fed up with Joann’s as I am.  I can’t really afford to shop at Canvas Works on my stupid babysitter’s salary, you see.  But, I ventured over to Michael’s and the local Value Village and brought home a nice haul.  Three different skeins of Plymouth Encore DK for only .50 each and four clearance skeins of LB Wool-Ease.  It’s enough to keep me relatively busy for the time being.

Tomorrow morning for sure, I will order my Knitpicks needles.  Yes.

Squee!

My Kyoto sweater has been sitting untouched for a week.  Mainly because my grandfather is coming to stay with us, and I’ve been cleaning like a crazy woman for days now.  I’m so full of allergies at the moment that I feel like I have the flu.  Not pleasant.  So, in order to avoid breathing in too much yarn dust tonight, I’m probably going to stick to the Nintendo DS.  I’m sure it will be good times.

Now, I should go lay down.  Oof.

It is so hot that I’m going to have to be much better about keeping up this separate crafting journal, cause I feel kinda silly embedding my LJ into my account.  So many of my posts on my regular blog only give slight vague details about my yarn adventures.  I’m going to have to start keeping things more separate and settle for doing the occasional cross-post when something warrants it.

So.  I’m kungfufighting on Ravelry, like I am on LiveJournal, just to keep things simple.  I’m crossing my fingers that a nice shiny new digicam will be in my hands by my birthday in August.  Good times.

Just finished Shen’s little Fat Bottom Bag, so at the moment, I’m only working on the Kyoto pullover.  I’m debating about whether I’m going to keep that going or not, though.  I really do want the sweater, but my stockinette is so inconsistent, and I may just wait until I can actually afford the cotton yarn that I want to use for it.  We’ll see.

In all honesty, I still prefer my crochet work.  But for sweaters and socks, my needles will be a-flying.  It’s going to be sweet.

About three years ago, I checked out Debbie Stoller’s Stitch & Bitch book from the library, fully determined to learn how to knit.  Unfortunately, because I was so new, I went with the style of knitting that she said she preferred, which was English-style.  If I’d known then what I know now, I would have attempted Continental first, being a crocheter who naturally leans towards holding yarn in the left hand and working stitches with the right.  But I didn’t, so I failed miserably and dropped the whole idea.

It wasn’t until I got very good at crochet work that I wanted to try knitting again.  I love crochet for the sculptures it can make out of yarn, but I can’t really get used to most forms of crocheted clothing.  Plus, good patterns for crocheted wearables are near impossible to find.  I’ve made scarves, hats, bags, and all sorts of accessories, but in the end, I just needed something new.  Then, in a box of yarn given to me by a friend of my father, I found two sets of knitting needles, and I figured it was a sign.  Time to try again.

It took several knitting videos online, however, to really grasp what I was supposed to be doing.  There are no knitters in my family, so there’s no one I could turn to for actual help, and I spend far too much money on yarn to be able to afford lessons.  But unlike crochet, I just couldn’t figure out the motion from static drawings in a book.  One night, however, it all clicked, and I was good to go.

I’ve still been crocheting, though – never fear.  I’m working out some technical issues with a Fleuri bag at the moment.  I don’t want to use ring handles on the bag, seeing as how I already have a Fat-Bottomed Bag from the Happy Hooker book that I love for that purpose.  What I really want it to be is a delicate going-out purse, which means it needs to have a strap.  All my going-out bags have to have straps rather than handles, since it usually only takes one gin and tonic for me to forget my bag at a bar and no one needs that.  I’m worried about support and where to attach the straps.  It won’t be carrying much weight, but my cell phone is a bit of a monster, and it together with my wallet can prove a little hefty for a delicate tiny strap.  And I refuse to line the bag.  It’s too cute as it is right now, and I don’t want to get out the sewing machine right now.

I’ll post pictures when I figure the damn thing out.  For now… I shall puzzle and play, for that is my favorite part of the game.

It’s not because I don’t like the forum.  It’s been a godsend overall.  It just kills me to think I’m getting so close to finding the perfect pattern for something, only to fall on my ass when the links go nowhere or the patterns are only for knitting.  Don’t ask me why people persist in posting knit patterns on a crochet forum.  I wouldn’t mind the knit patterns, except they only pop up when I’m trying to make something like a particular kind of sweater, which I would fail miserably at if I attempted to knit rather than crochet. 

I can knit a scarf.  I can crochet almost anything.  Therefore… crochet is the way to go, most times.

Works In Progress:

- Star-Shaped Afghan.  This thing would be completely done if I hadn’t run out of yarn.  Boo.  It looks cool, though.  I’m thinking of taking this crazy boucle yarn I have and making a rug out of the same pattern by doubling up the strands.  It’d be neat.

- Fingerless Gloves.  I’m almost finished with one – I keep re-doing the middle finger because it ends up too tight.  I must have a fat middle finger.  I dunno.  I’m proud of how it looks, though.  It’s a really cool pattern.

- Wool Cap.  I will never finish this damn thing, because I’m too picky.  I’m doing it in spirals rather than rounds (inspired by amigurumi, obviously), and while it looks awesome, I’m dissatisfied with the increase rounds.  Something’s not right.  So, I keep frogging it and messing with it.  It might be done in time for summer.  Oh, wait… yeah.  There you go.

I also have a stack of patterns that I need to get to, and a box full of novelty yarn that I need to get rid of.  Damn.

Hi, I’m M.  I’m a 24-year old student at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA.  I’m majoring in education and Japanese literature, and next spring I will be actually going to Japan for two months.  After that, I plan on teaching English in Japan for a year.  And surprisingly, I loved Japan before I learned about amigurumi.  Things that are cute and wacky get me through the day.

 I guess I’ve been crafting for a good 20 years now.  I used to make dresses for my Barbies out of Kleenexes, if that counts.  I had a My Little Pony sewing machine at about six or seven, which surprises me – my crazy overprotective parents actually let me have something with a sharp needle.  What do you know.  Anyways, I learned to sew, do plastic canvas, crochet, knit, and do all sorts of various crafty things before I hit high school, and then immediately quit all of it until I got to college.

 These days, I can’t go to a single store without finding at least one thing I want and thinking to myself, “I can make that.”  It’s a blessing and a curse.  However, it thrills me to no end to see the resurgence of crafty teens and twenty-somethings.  I had forgotten relatively everything about crochet until I picked up Debbie Stoller’s Stitch and Bitch: The Happy Hooker last summer, and it re-invigorated me.  So, lately, the craft of choice has been crochet.

 I am, however, a big anime fan, and I do work quite a bit on cosplay costumes each year.  If that’s your thing, you can look for that too. 

 Rock.

- M