I've been thinking

And this post brought it to the fore again, and I may have talked about this before. What is it about someone else's failure that is so entertaining for others to watch or read about? I think some of it is comfort. Seeing that someone who is far more skilled than ourselves at whatever it is (Or maybe not, that blog I linked? I was laughing at it, laughing hard) who messes up or is unable to complete something that they are usually good at makes us feel not so bad about our own failures. Seriously, go read that blog and see if that particular post doesn't make you feel as bad about your own horrible mistakes. I'll wait.

For another example outside of knitting or crafts in general, as I've said, I've been watching a lot of TotalBiscuit's "WTF is..." videos on youtube. (this is actually part of a lot of the knitting time I've been having lately) My main reason for watching is to see what games I might find interesting, getting a free first impression for myself in a way, but sometimes there's a game I'm not interested but I don't skip over the rest of the video to the next one. I don't because even though the game isn't my style, TB is not doing so well with the game, either because it's not something that he thinks he's good at or the game mechanics just aren't that good and it's a struggle to do anything well. Those, though they seem far and few between are very entertaining for me to watch, because I don't always see myself as being very good at a lot of games.

Maybe just something to keep in mind the next time someone starts having trouble with something.

Bright Blessings!

0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13

So, the pattern is based off of the golden rectangle which is a visual of the Fibonacci sequence. I started the small "1" squares with 10 stitches. The largest finished block is 80, and you can see that I've started what would be thirteen. Likely my progress will slow down greatly now, one is just the length of the rows and two is that I'm making blocks, and I just have to knit more to make a square. This is the main project I've been working on lately. The main part of that is that I've been marathoning TotalBiscuit's "WTF is..." videos. So until I'm done with that (I'm on 101 of 196, you do the math)I'll probably be working on this nearly exclusively.

As I said, one friend said this sounded painful because there would be a lot of math. I'm still not sure that's there's going to be a lot of math. Actually, I think I should probably work out the sequence a little further along than I am, just for knowing how many rows I need to knit for each block, but that's not very hard math.

Bright Blessings!

A Blanket

So, why is it that when I get an idea in my head that I can't get it out until I start working on it? I don't know, but if you look at the picture maybe you can figure out what type of pattern I'm using to decide the size of the blocks. I had one friend say it sounds painful because it would involve math. I really should have told him that all knitting involves math, because in some sense it does. Other than this really hasn't. You can call me a lier if you want, but picking up stitches off the side of an already worked piece isn't really a lot of math. That and I've already worked out to a fair point how many stitches/ridges I need for a fair bit a head of where I am. Granted, you can probably guess that the picture right there is a little old. A few days, I am further along than that shows.

Here's about where I am now. Yeah, and a cat decided to show up today to help me show you how much it's grown. Though it probably doesn't help all that much since the first picture doesn't have all that much of a sense of scale in the first place. Also, this new picture probably gives you a better idea of what I'm doing for my "pattern." There are actually two answers I'd consider right, but I want to see if anyone wants to guess. Though I do wish that the pink, black, and blue yarn would have flashed more, I find it pretty for some reason. Maybe I'll have make this kind of afghan again and use it on a smaller block or a larger one later on. Also? Kitty says that row counters are fun cat toys.

Thinking Ahead

This is one of those things that I have down pat for knitting, but for other parts of my life I kinda fail: planning ahead and acting on it. This year on my mother's side with our family reunion we added an auction to help raise funds to cover up front costs of getting a place set up for said family reunion, but they only allow either local or handmade goods. (Given that this is the side of the family that taught me knitting, crochet, cross stitch, and sewing, not to mention that my grandma on that side is teaching me quilting. Not a hard thing to manage.) The reunion is held once every two years, and our last one was this June or July. Yeah, I'm thinking ahead on this one. And from what's running through my head you'd think that I'm trying to fill the auction table by myself. This is the start of one of at least two pairs of socks. Then there's going to be plushies or toys of some form, a set or two of dish/wash cloth sets, knit or crochet patterns of mine, and now I'm also thinking of making a couple of hats. That last one will take about about a day per hat, but yeah, if I got this planning ahead thing to work in other parts of my life I'd be set. ...I should tell Skidge about this, she'll think I'm even more magic.

Bright Blessings.

My dream of a council of dragons

I'm an ambitious knitter, and most regular readers have probably already figured that out about me. One of my wishes for eventually getting to is having made several of the dragon plushies (not that I wouldn't keep other dragons out) and kept them on my bed, or just carry them around. They would be my council, because who wouldn't want to be surrounded by dragons? (Okay, stupid question. I'm sure that some people on witchforum.com would disagree with that.)

Well, that's about all I have right now. I'm awake because work is being mean again. Anyhow, a little shorty post.

Bright Blessings!

I'm a bad blogger

It's not that I haven't been crafting, I have been. On multiple things even, I just haven't been getting out my camera to mark my progress. Did that today, though.

I'll start with the last thing I showed you. I actually finished it. Which probably isn't that much of a surprise. Though I did have to fight through some disinterest in the project since I had to rip out everything once. If I were to make this again I would adjust the size of the cups and the length of the back piece. I am glad that I made the cups the way I did so I can go back and shorten the straps as it gets stretched out. That's one thing I know will annoy me as time wears on. I also think I'd have been happier with it if I flared the skirt part of it a little. Oh well, live and learn.

I am still working on the crazy pants Afghan. and as you can see, I'm actually starting to sew the blocks together. This is the second strip, actually. Seeing as each strip will be 15 blocks long, or 14 if I have a double sized block in one, that means I do have a few sewn up as it is. Though the pins I use for knitting have seemed to go missing, so I'm having to pin blocks together with pins that are far too short for the thickness of the fabric I'm working with. I've looked through some of my stuff where I think they could have gotten off to, which has had no luck. Seems like I'm missing a good deal of things.

Though I'm not missing this, and I'm still plugging away on it. Really, I should settle down on all the projects I'm working on and make this my main one and I would probably get farther along on it by the next time I gather up everything for a photo shoot. We'll have to see what happens. I have a couple of late shifts coming up so I won't have evenings for knitting, really. (Honestly, all of those early morning breakfast shifts have gotten to me and I don't really mind since they still do give me some mornings.) One thing is that the colors are so close now it's hard to tell them apart and I'd probably be lost if I cut them, which I rarely do for the knitting. That's probably a saving grace on this top.

And it feels a little silly to be working on this right now. I'm making mittens or gloves or whatever to wear over the long gloves I made a few years back. This was an idea rattling through the back of my head for a while. It just feels weird to be working on something that I don't need as I'm working on it. But maybe that means that I'm actually starting to think ahead a little bit. (Now, if I could apply that to things other than knitting I'd be set.) I do have the idea rattling through my head to try and make these into the dragon claw idea I had a while ago, but I'm not sure if that'd work or not. I guess I could try, no harm in that.

And finally, my altar cloth, which kind a looks like it's made out of scales of some sort. At least that's how it looked to me when I laid it out and saw it in the picture. granted, you can see where I'm going to knit the next part because I've already picked up the stitches for it. I should probably kick into gear on that. I am making it out of left over yarn, but I doubt that there will offence taken to that. It shows that I'm respectful enough of the earth to not want to throw out everything.

There is another thing I'm working on, but it's not very far along at this point. Nox von Luminari, another member of Chimental. I know that he suggested that I do Hunter and Crystal next. But something about Dr. Nightlight called me. Probably the glow in the dark yarn for his shell. Oh, I should probably tell you that he's a hermit crab. I have a basic idea for the shell, but I need to go do research on what hermit crabs look like without their shells. because I can easily make a shell to size, but I want to be able to fit Dr. Nightlight in it, so I need Dr. Nightlight.

Bright blessings!

My lastest top

so this is what I have of the project I've been working on for the last week or so. So the wind got knocked out of my sails a little bit when I tried it on as I was actually planning on wearing it and everything was the wrong size. The two pieces on top are for--well they're kind of like bra cups. Those were both too small. The bottom chain was for the back of the band that would go under the cups. and that ended up being too long. There will be a skirt for on the top where the skirt like section. I'm trying to pick up some of the enthusiasm and the momentum that I had for this project before I had to basically rip everything out. That part hasn't been so easy. I'm working on it slowly but I'm not making the same time I did the first time. Last time I worked each cup in about a day and a half. I'm far past that mark now. I'm still trudging along on it though, so I guess that's something.

On a related note, one of my co-workers keeps telling me that I should get into selling my patterns. I'm thinking I may. Granted, all of my patterns are in my head at this point and I need to get them written in some point, and possibly test knit (or crochet in some cases). I'm open to suggestions and helpful comments.

Bright Blessings!