Occasionally I finish things

Published
by
Miss Lissa
on September 4, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 1 Comment

Spey Valley

Pattern: Spey Valley from Nancy Bush’s Knitting on the Road
Yarn: Plymouth Happy Feet, I don’t recall the color
Mods: I did my own heel, shortened the leg and used a standard French (?) toe.
Time to knit: FOR-FREAKIN’-EVER.

Turned out nice, they’re pretty comfy. It was the wrong yarn to use for this pattern, a plain color would have shown the very nice pattern on the leg, which is lost in this variegated yarn. Still, I’m pleased with them.

Meanwhile, I’m working on the following:

WIPS

On the left are Malvina’s birthday socks, the eponymous Embossed Leaves socks in a sassy orange from Cherry Tree Hill. Then, in Tofutsies, is the Undulating Rib. Both these socks are in the Interweave Favorite Socks book.

I don’t know if I like working with the Cherry Tree Hill, it has a weird texture. But, the color is great, and let’s face it, I’m happy enough to be working with Red Heart, so whatever. I quite like the Tofutsies; I’m glad I have another sock (and another skein, courtesy of the Momma) to work on - the fabric is nice. I forget what chitin is (ground up sea slugs or something) but I like it.

From here on out, it’s pretty much going to be Christmas related projects, which I am totally going to blog about because that’s how I roll. I just won’t say who they’re for, hah. I think I’ll be trying out some fingerless mitt patterns, and hat time for sure. I owe Sam a hat for his birthday (since he lost another one I made him) and there will be some weaving projects for Christmas as well. The project I am currently working on is going well - I really got better tension this time around, so practice really does make perfect.

THE LOOM OF DESTINY

Published
by
Miss Lissa
on September 3, 2008
in daily, drawings and weaving
. 3 Comments

I am really not sure when it happened that this blog turned into a craft blog, but I guess that’s the way it’s rolling.

My goal for the next few months: MOVE. Like, physically move - unload my storage unit with all my Texas stuff and find a place to live. I may already have done that. Does anyone have $40K? Hello?

Once I move, presumably into a two bedroomed place, one bedroom will be the Studio. I have been far too remiss in the part of my life that I miss the most: drawing. I want to get a proper drafting table and lighting and soon will delve back into illustration , specifically comics (yeah I know) and some narrative work. Click the pic to the left to embiggen my last significant piece that was actually sort of finished. It’s old, from May or June, I think, and I totally drew it at work while on the phone. I have drawn a few zombie-related comics (naturally there are no zombies in them) but they are not done.

I really miss all the time I used to spend on the drawings - and I know that technically I could make time, but I have to say, this whole “working for a living” really cuts into my me-time. However, in the end, I have still been fairly artistic and crafty with all the knitting and teaching myself to weave and all that. I got my sock mojo back. I dumped my hojillion skeins of sock yarn on the bed the other night and sorted it into AWESOME and REALLY AWESOME piles - I have a really great collection at this point. And I really want to make something out of the Dream in Color Smooshy.

This weekend I am going to Ikea with my mom. I saw in Craft Magazine a project I would like to make. It involves these apothacery (oh god how do you spell that???) drawer things that glued together and screwed to a different table base makes a great jewelry stand. I don’t normally buy Craft because it is stupid expensive, but the latest issue was all about weaving, and I have been bitten pretty hard by the weaving bug. In fact, I finished my first project and warped the loom for the next one:

Woven Scarf

I used various socks yarns to complete my first project, primarily some Knitpicks Essential Kettle Dyed in Bordeaux (?). The Essential is quite soft and makes a nice end project. I didn’t like the Bordeaux color at all (wasn’t variegated enough, but I bought it when it first came out so their dyeing process is probably improved at this juncture) and was actually going to return it, but then thought it would be a good yarn to try my hand at weaving with - because I wouldn’t care about cutting it up.

Weaving

The new project is being woven out of Noro Silk Garden Sock, which while GORGEOUS was kind of a dumb choice - the yarn is very sticky on itself, and makes moving the heddle rather annoying. However, the end product will be worth it. My tension is much better on this piece, and the colors are super awesome! Too bad I am ALLERGIC TO MOHAIR. Also, you’d think I’d be a little more freaked about cutting up a $20 skein of yarn, but OH NO, I cut that sucker with an  evil gleam in my eye!

Anyway.

I also got a haircut. I like it a lot.

New Hair + Scarf

I think that might be the debut of my “new” glasses on this blog, too. I’ve had them for a couple months now. I was getting a lot of headaches and realized that it had been about three years since I’d been to the eye doctor.  Time to get new glasses.  I’m slowly going blind, of course, and I suspect bifocals will be in my future, but for now, my vision has settled in the 20/40 and 20/50 range. Also the doctor did a pressure test on my eyeballs where he numbed them and put a glowing blue contact on each one (glaucoma test?) which SUCKED because I totally have an eyeball issue, like, don’t touch them! Or get near them! Or talk about them getting squished or poked in any way!

Oh god, now I have to lie down; I’ve disgusted myself.

P.S. Be sure to check out WANTED, the movie about the LOOM OF DESTINY and fraternity of assassins who use it:

I thought it was pretty awesome (and better than Batman, BUT EVERYTHING IS BETTER THAN THE DARK KNIGHT). Okay, the movie is not really about weaving, it is about explosions.

Photo!

Published
by
Miss Lissa
on August 31, 2008
in daily
. 1 Comment

I just found out a photo I took in San Antonio has been selected to be part of a sort of tourism/map website. Check it out!

Inside Mi Tierra Restaurante y Panaderia

Pretty cool!

We Interrupt This Broadcast

Published
by
Miss Lissa
on August 21, 2008
in beading, daily and knitting
. 0 Comments

To announce that I totally got a raise last week! A sweet sweet raise!

I’ve been meaning to update this thing, but I have been busy, apparently. Busy getting raises. Hah. Actually, I’m trying to think what I did last week that prevented me from updating but I am drawing a blank…

Oh, I did go to the Gem Faire at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center in Sacramento on Saturday. I went with my cousin Janelle and we had a great time! We also hit Bead Fetish, U Bead It, and Rumplestiltskin while we were up there.  And I, like, bought yarn. (oooh, shocker!) I REALLY wasn’t even going to go to Rumplestiltskin because, dudes, um, I have yarn. But we went to lunch at the waffle place on S and 10th (the name of which I CANNOT ever remember) and that is but a block away from Rumplestiltskin which is on R and 11th (ish). So we went over there and I caved like the weakling I am.

Regia 4-ply But you GUYS they had new Kaffe Fassett Design Line yarn from Regia! I hate that guy! Yet he makes awesomely colored yarn! I find this annoying! I think he annoys me because my mom has some old books of his that are from the eighties, and let’s face it, the eighties have a lot to answer for, fashion-wise. So there was this guy with all these ugly color combos on eighties clothes that were just completely horrendous.

But then I saw the first wave of the sock yarn, and kind of changed my mind about the color thing (art school helped too). And in his latest book, Kaffe Knits Again (or whatever) were patterns I would actually knit! Not that I remember what they were. So, I apologize for judging you too soon, Kaffe Fassett, you rock. Especially this latest stripey color combo. Which I want to cast on right away but CAN’T because I totally have socks on all my sock needles, dangit.

Anyway, the other yarn I got was me being totally seduced by a floor sample that was already knit up.  It’s Online Supersocke in some awesome colors that did not photograph well at all at 10 p.m. (Go figure.) Online Supersocke 100But let me assure that it is pretty danged awesome. They had all the colors of the Supersocke from what I could tell, along with a ton of the Noro sock yarn. I like Noro colors, but it’s not my favorite to knit with. I did make those crocheted Noro scarves last winter, though.  That was okay.

So, I bought yarn. I was bad. Bad to the bone.

I also spent approximately $200 on beads, including these awesome electroplated leaves:

Earrings Cypress pendant

On the left are maple seed pods (”helicopters”) and on the right is a cypress leaf.

I made the seed pods into earrings that I am wearing today.  They are really fun.

IN CONCLUSION I LIKE TO SPEND MONEY.

CLOCK
(I bought this at Target, it is AWESOME.)

Actually, I am kind of “stocking up” because I will actually be moving in October (I KNOW, right? My sweet sweet life of mooching will be over!) and will be paying crazy San Francisco Bay Area rental costs and will NEVER HAVE MONEY AGAIN. Except, I might still, since I got that raise. And I only have one more credit card payment and I own more than half of my car, so things are looking pretty excellent!

Hey, it took me 28 years, but I finally have my shit together, more or less.

I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.

Published
by
Miss Lissa
on August 11, 2008
in daily and knitting
. 2 Comments

…That’s what you’ll hear when my sock yarn collection collapses upon me. Yes yes, I bought more, shut up:

DSC01672

How could I resist real wool sock yarn from a big box chain store? I couldn’t, I tell you what. Actually, I have some Kroy socks that have held up quite well - but have never actually seen it in stores (I think I ordered one skein from Herrshners back in the day, not realizing that I probably should have gotten two…footies ahoy!). Anyway, I got the Kroy and the new Soles & More (the Joann Sensations line) at JoAnn’s Superstore the other day, after my initial shock that they Actually Had Sock Yarn wore off. The Red Heart Heart & Sole (awkward!) I got at a Michael’s in Redding. I don’t know if they have it at “our” Michael’s in Pleasant Hill, but that Michael’s kind of sucks - I prefer the Michael’s in Antioch, which always seems to stock more stuff AND I can go to when I’m killing time before a Brentwood board meeting.

Anyway, my initial impression on the yarn, just by touch is favorable. The Heart & Sole (Red Heart) feels VERY similar to the new Lion Brand Sock Ease, and also boasts aloe in it, much like the Sockease and also Austermann Step. The Kroy is surprisingly soft, and the colors quite vibrant. Also: stripey! Yay!

Anyway, the other thing I did was finally block the Swallowtail Shawl in some floral-scented Soak, and it turned out magnifique! What a great pattern.

Swallowtail Shawl - Finished

Closeups:

Swallowtail mosaic

Pattern stats:

Pattern: Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn Clark (available for free on her website)
Yarn: Araucania Ranco Solid in Daffodil (Purchased at nearby LYS Fashion-knit)
Needles: US 4 29″ circulars, Susan Bates
Mods: None, except for I didn’t swatch, so I think it’s smaller than it’s supposed to be.
Thoughts: Nupps were easy, I don’t know what everyone is bitching about. I totally used a crochet hook to make them on the purl side, I didn’t even bother with that nasty p5tog. I will totally make nupps again, but then it turns out I am a shameless bobble hussy, so there you go.

Aaaaand, that’s all she wrote.

Next time on Behind the Smile: book reviews and weaving update.

Magic Loopin’

Published
by
Miss Lissa
on August 2, 2008
in knitting and tv/movies
. 1 Comment

Just dropping by to announce that I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth in terms of blogging. I have just been… not inclined. Or distracted, or busy, or whatever.

Last weekend we were in Redding for my cousin’s wedding. I forgot to bring any knitting, so when we were at Sew What! (a funny quilting/knitting hybrid shop) I bought some Panda Wool (bamboo/wool/nylon mix) and a 40″ US2 circular, looked up magic loop on my laptop (free wireless at the motel) and taught myself magic loop:

Sock started in Redding

I am not super enamored of it for socks (DPNs 4eva!), but the possibilities of its use for sweater sleeves, hat decreases, etc., are pretty great. I look forward to using it on top-down sweater sleeves, where DPNs are kind of a pain.

I really like the Panda Wool, it has a nice drapey quality to it.

***

I went and saw the Dark Knight last night, and was VERY BORED by it. It is NOT the second coming of superhero movies, it was basically boring in every way, rather masogynistic (only main female character gets burnt to a crisp and the only other female character who even talks turns out to be owned by the mob) and way too long. Props to Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, and Heath Ledger, though: they turned in top notch performances. And Aaron Eckhart was hot as usual, even with half his face melted off.

Still, I was way more excited about the crappy preview trailers for the new Terminator movie and the Watchmen movie coming out next year than I was about the Dark Knight.

So, go watch it if you’re inclined, but I thought it was boring.

Loominous

Published
by
Miss Lissa
on July 22, 2008
in daily and weaving
. 1 Comment

Well first of all, I think it is noteworthy to inform the interwebs that my intestines have betrayed me. As soon as I finish writing this I am going to LIE DOWN.

Anways…

I am totally weaving you guys! My loom came in the mail last Wednesday. I’d been feverishly tracking its progress here via UPS and was rather irked when I got home from work and it hadn’t arrived. But then the UPS dude dropped it off at 7 p.m. and all was well.

So that night I put it together while watching the first episode of Project Runway Season 5, which I have to say was not very interesting. Tim Gunn seems put upon. But I got the loom mostly together until I got to the part where you attach the handles “with the screws that are already attached.” Well, mine came with extra screws, but they didn’t fit the handles as they were too wide and too long. So I knew I had to go to the hardware store. I also needed to get a candle to melt the ends of the nylon cords together. I’m definitely not a candle person so I was a little irked that I had go buy fire.

Anyway, so I also needed to get some T pins to block the Swallowtail shawl, so I stopped at JoAnns on Saturday and picked up some of those and also a candle tin that was only a buck. I also stopped at Ace Hardware and found new screws that fit perfectly in the handles, and only set me back thirty whole cents.

I tried to take a picture of me melting the nylon cords together, but that proved impossible with how quick the strings caught fire and melted together. So, here is a picture of the crappy candle and the mess I made, trimming the ends of the strings to match:

Burning the Cords

You can see on the right the little melted black blob where the ends are fused together.

And I finished putting together the loom and then I made a warp on the warping board (a Kromski Harp has a built in warping board on the underside of the loom - you just insert pegs and get to it) out of some Knitpicks Essential (the new kettle dyed stuff, I wasn’t too impressed with this reddish colorway - I was going to return it, but then realized that I wouldn’t care if I screwed it up so used it for the first warp) and put the warp on the loom:

Setting up the warp

It is pretty obvious that I ignored the instructions on how to center your warp, but for just eyeballing it I came pretty close. I am not super sure that it really matters on a rigid heddle, but I am just winging it at this point.

Then I started to weave, using the other ball of knitpicks essential that had a better color variation, and I added some extra sock yarn bits I had lying around and wah lah, I have a scarf well on its way to completion:

Weaving

Woo!

Anyway, so it is pretty easy to get started. My next project will be a wider and shorter scarf out of Noro Kureyon Sock yarn. I am learning a lot from this project, about tension mostly, and I REALLY like weaving. I suspect that once I get my initial projects out of the way I will be doing a lot of Christmas presents on the loom. Also, I think it will be an awesome way to get rid of some of the goofy novelty yarns I have lying around - I think they’d work pretty good as wefts, not so much as warps. Luckily I don’t have any crappy fun fur but I do have some random stuff I picked up at Hobby Lobby and JoAnns.

I still love socks, I just totally got bored with them (all at the same point):

Socks in Progress

So for now you all will have to suffer through this whole weaving binge! :P

(Also no, apparently I do not make socks that are not pinkish or greenish.)

Enter Weaving

Published
by
Miss Lissa
on July 17, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 3 Comments

Well, I have been waiting rather impatiently for the UPS guy to deliver my birthday present and FINALLY yesterday he did:

Kromski Harp

It has been a light spot in an otherwise hectic couple of weeks. I have spent the last two weeks training newbies and having to be “on” all the time, which is really tiring when all I want to do is hide in my cubicle and write minutes, you know. (Well kind of, since I hate writing minutes. Anyway.)

I am feeling whingey apparently.

So anyway, yesterday I finally got the loom and put it together while watching the first episode of Project Runway Season 5. I don’t have any readily accessible candles, so I can’t make the loops to attach to the end things yet, but I think I’ll probably do that tomorrow, along with picking up my mom’s blocking wires and blocking the shit out of the Swallowtail Shawl, which is otherwise finished:

Swallowtail Shawl

Speaking of whining, I don’t see what the big deal is with the nupps on the Lily of the Valley part of the shawl (for the uninitiated, the edge part of the shawl with the “pea pod” like sections).  I rather enjoyed them. The P5tog on the wrong side? I totally used a small crochet hook, and the sections went really quick.  I like the texture and would totally make nupps on another project. I also really liked the “elastic bind-off” which I think I might use forever more instead of the regular one.

I didn’t use any lifelines on this project, though there are definitely some goofs scattered here and there. I like to call one of them in particular the “Twin Peaks Fuck Up”, even though I will be the only one who knows its even there.

So yeah, Twin Peaks, a big fat WTF towards that television show. I got the first disc from Netflix and watched the first episode, which is supposed to be this iconic moment in television history or whatever and IT WAS NOT INTERESTING.

After I was done watching it I watched the alternate ending for the international release and okay, it totally had a random dancing little person (the guy who played Samson in Carnivale) so while it was weird, it certainly made an impression.

I’m not sure why we are supposed to care about Twin Peaks, and I will not be watching any more of it. Also I went on Wikipedia and spoiled the end for myself, whatever.

The other stupid thing I watched this week was a 1999 adaptation of Mansfield Park (Jane Austen). I’d watched the recent adaption with Billie Piper on PBS earlier this year and other than Billie Piper’s hair, it didn’t make much of an impression on me, so I thought I’d get this other version to compare. I have never read Mansfield Park so I can’t say anything about plot, but I CAN say that this 1999 Mansfield Park was HEINOUS in its interpretation. Also kind of boring. You would think turning a Jane Austen story into a bodice ripper with hints of lesbianism and Jonny Lee Miller would be kind of, well, awesome, but you would be SO wrong that it is not even funny. I’m not even sure what the hell was going on during the whole movie, with Fanny Price talking to the camera and making out with Henry and then rebuffing him, and to top it all off I stayed up stupid late watching it so I was really tired all day today.

So, don’t watch that Mansfield Park unless you don’t know anything about Jane Austen. Jonny Lee Miller was pretty good, but I kind of like him so whatever.

I read you read we all read

Published
by
Miss Lissa
on July 14, 2008
in books/reading
. 1 Comment

Book meme stolen from Jennifer…

  1. One book that made you laugh: I can’t think of any off hand. Meg Cabot can be pretty funny.
  2. One book that made you cry: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. WHAT. Do not tell me that you did not shed a tear for Fred, for Lupin, for Tonks.
  3. One book that you loved as a child: I loved a lot of books as a kid, most notably the Sue Barton Student Nurse books (Helen Boylston), anything by Edward Eager, and the Betsy-Tacy books (Maud Hart Lovelace). When I saw the entire set of Betsy-Tacy books at Barnes & Noble in a nice reprint, I bought them ALL. Love ‘em.
  4. One book you’ve read more than once: I read a lot of books more than once, but the book I’ve read the most is Jurassic Park.
  5. One book you loved, but were embarrassed to admit it: I read a lot of crap, I am not embarrassed to admit it. I will never admit to having read most of the Jackie Collins oeuvre though. Oh wait.
  6. One book you hated: Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath can suck it.
  7. One book that scared you: I was quite freaked out by the R.L. Stine books when I was a kid.
  8. One book that bored you: Most of Shakespeare, The Color Purple, Red Badge of Courage, um, most of the books I was supposed to read in high school.
  9. One book that made you happy: The final book in the YA series from Meg Cabot, The Mediator. I forget what it was called, but it pretty much embodied the perfect ending to a series: nicely wrapped up with a happy ending. Sweet.
  10. One book that made you miserable: I don’t read miserable books. I can think of a few that pissed me off to the extent that I stopped reading the author’s books.
  11. One book that you weren’t brave enough to read: Most of the horror genre. Despite my love of zombies and gore, I just don’t do horror.
  12. One book character you’ve fallen in love with: I kind of love Stu Redman from Stephen King’s The Stand, even though I never finished it. (still 200 pages to go)
  13. The last book you read: After the Kiss by Suzanne Enoch. It was okay.
  14. The next book you hope to read: The new Artemis Fowl.

Now I think I’m going to look for my copy of The Stand and maybe finish it.

Post Holiday wrap-up

Published
by
Miss Lissa
on July 6, 2008
in adventures and daily
. 2 Comments

On Friday, I celebrated Independence Day with my immediate family by eating pork ribs at their house and then going home, and then going to the fireworks at College Park later in the evening. I’ll spare you the police and fire-zone related issues, and suffice it to say, a good time was had. My aunt, uncle, and cousin found us and we all watched the fire works together.

My sister took a short video of them:

Yesterday (saturday) was my 28th birthday, and there was yarn and sheep cake involved:

Huffin and Puffin

(I ate its jugular vein; that is, where the pink ribbon is. I named it Stan.) Earlier in the day, I went peddle boating with my dad at the Lafayette Reservoir and then we had breakfast at Country Waffles.

Now I’m going to order my loom and call it a day.  Looks like we’re in for another heat wave, yay. At least the air quality has been better lately from all those fires that have been raging across California.  Oh, and I learned how to put washer fluid in my car, that was pretty exciting.