Spork You Later

Dudes, I am so excited about the following that I had to take a picture and show you:

Way too excited

Yes, I am the proud new owner of a titanium spork. Available at REI and other fine retailers!

I have to admit, being a pasty nerd-type, I was not exactly in my element while at outdoorsy REI, but I pressed on! The spork would be mine! And there it was, with the rest of camping junk. Hooray!

I have always wanted one, but never really thought to check REI or Big 5 or something, until yesterday when a brain synapse fired and it occurred to me that I could, you know, Google it. Success! And $7.95 later I have a titanium spork in my hot little hands.

I use sporks a lot at work, but they are the plastic kind you get at Taco Bell or KFC. Now I know this one won’t break, so I am pretty stoked, all in all.

Occasionally I finish things

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

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.