It's almost October

I've done a lot (as usual) and just need to take photos.  In other news, I am attempting to write a knitting pattern.  It's for a houndstooth pullover.  Hopefully, my brain can work this out.  And hopefully I will not be wasting six skeins of Rowan.

It's That Time of Year Again

I always get the hunger for knitting & crocheting projects around May or June every year.  Thinking I'll start with a scarf first.

The Herringbone Project: just plans for now.

I know what I'm making next and, I have to say, I'm a little excited, a little obsessed.  Lots of color and texture and I think I'm having a mini stroke at the idea of it.  I'm frogging two old projects-- both in Noro, to harvest the yarn to make it happen.  So, TWO Noro colorways and a solid.  More later as the details come together.

100% random thoughts on the addition of Kidsilk Haze

I guess I was jonesin for some instant gratification. I went and started a second project, a Gaia Shrug.

Confession: I did this pattern a couple of weeks ago in Misti Alpaca Handpaint Worsted with mixed results. (Too lazy to post at the moment.) The pattern was written for Noro with Rowan Kidsilk Haze and I thought to myself, "Alpaca worsted will have the same effect as worsted weight Noro with a strand of Kidsilk Haze which is no thicker than a cobweb."

WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG

So, so WRONG.

The Alpaca shrug is nice, don't get me wrong. I altered a few things: I used 8mm needles instead of 9, I cast on for a size Large instead of a Small and probably should have made it longer. But it's overall much more open, despite the smaller gauge... I can only explain this as being due to not having the Rowan.

So now I'm doing the pattern more as written with 9mm needles and casting on for a Small. I'm using Noro Retro in Steel Blue (did someone say Magnum?) and Rowan Kidsilk Haze in Ghost. I'm nothing short of amazed at how much bulkier this knits up. It's already a bigger piece despite fewer actual stitches. The Rowan, as I said, is very fine and threadlike with little wispy bits but does not look like it would have much impact. No, the whole thing is very fuzzy now and reminds me of an angora sweater I used to have. The two yarns have an unexpected bit of contrast going between them too with the Noro being very gray and the Rowan more white. I think I'm going to really like this second shrug. Who knew???

It's been a minute

I really do want to learn to knit-- I can do it, I just need practice and a little guidance. Maybe this should be a goal... with, like, steps and rewards and junk.

and one more thing (bear with me)

I ordered the Noro online and was totally disappointed when I got it. The pukey green was on the outside and I'm pretty sure I made a big frowny-face when I took it out of the package. As it turns out, I'm much more talented at choosing yarn when I can't physically see it first. The good stuff was on the inside (think of fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt and the green was the watery crap that sits on the top) and now that's it's all mixed together, I even like the pukey green. So I'm giving myself a big fat high-five as if my own skill brought this to pass.

noro

Why do ravelers go so crazy over Noro yarn? The colors are obviously beautiful but there must be something else that I just can't seem to see. It's not soft. Maybe I should try it out and see what all the fuss is about. Whatever I attempt is going to have to be small though... it's a little expensive.

I have maybe three projects to finally finish off then it's time to take on knitting. Who knows, I could totally love it.

aniboom

Last year Aniboom.com had an animation contest in conjunction with Radiohead. You can see the winners' (there were 4) finished videos here. Not that I do animation or anything, but I love Radiohead and I think this kind of stuff is great.

I personally loved the video for "Reckoner." So beautiful!

eyeballs (there, I said it.)

Amigurumi typically has button or embroidery eyes. Creepy cute recommends polymer clay, so polymer clay it is.

I bought my clay at Michael's, in black and translucent white as suggested. I've never bought this stuff before so I didn't really know the difference between the brands. I randomly chose one and, after completing Ninja, made a set of black eyeballs for him. It took me about 40 minutes or so to go through the whole process.

After Ninja, I figured it would be more efficient to make multiple eyeballs at once then just keep a Ziploc bag of eyes in my Amigurumi supplies. I had also decided I wanted more than black and black/white eyes-- especially for Project #4 which I was already planning at that point. I returned to Michael's only to realize that the brand I'd initially chosen really didn't carry colors that were appropriate for eyes. The alternate brand did but this clay had completely different baking instructions. I bought three colors (mossy green, gray-blue, light brown) and some more translucent white, thinking I didn't want to mix two clays with different instructions.

At home, I invested more than two hours making eyeballs. I made multiple sets in each color in the new clay, then plain black and black/white.

It sounds so simple. Well, the plain black is simple.

• Roll
• Smoosh
• Bake

Any color + white = notsomuch.

The process for mixed colors is more like:

• Roll white
• Smoosh
• Roll color in a ball that will smoosh to just the right size so that it mostly fills the white but still leaves a border.
• Smoosh.
• Cut a pie-wedge out of the color with an exacto-knife.
• Lift colored, wedged clay from kitchen table without 1) gauging a pit in the table 2) altering the shape of the clay 3) smearing clay all over the place.
• Carefully lay colored clay evenly on white clay and gently press in but not too much!!!
• Make two minuscule white clay dots and place strategically on colored portion of eyeball to give the illusion of glistening.
• Bake
• Scream because translucent white in the new brand apparently turns more translucent yellow than actual white and the eyeballs look disgusting.
• Throw away eyeballs.

So after wasting all that time, I decided to go out on a limb and mix my clays. I made a single set of green eyes with new green clay and old white. I followed the directions for the white, figuring there was more of it and the white was the problem with the last batch and they turned out perfectly. Lesson learned.

Anyway, the point of the post is this: Save the experimental stuff for days when you just don't have anything better to do. Or you've remembered your meds. That helps too.