Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which I Don't Even Know, Man...

I have not felt like doing much of anything lately. It's not laziness - laziness is a delicious and hedonistic desire to stay still, and what I've been feeling is absolutely not delicious or hedonistic.

I've been stuck.

I'm back to chugging too much coffee, back to losing time, back to being tired all the time, back to losing interest, back to anxiety at weird times when nothing's wrong.

In short, I think I'm having a very annoying depressive episode.

I'm not in any danger, though. No Bad Thoughts or anything, just... meh. Not feelin it, lately.

I'm pretty sure it started when I realized at the end of September that my wrists ache. There's a feeling of stiffness and soreness just above the knob of my wrists, and it's worse on the left than the right. I started feeling a little melancholy - mid-30s is a bit early for arthritis, and there's no inflammation or swelling. They're just a little stiff and sore. They've always sounded like they've got gravel in them when I rotated them. Same with my ankles, though they're not sore yet.

The discomfort isn't too much, but it does interfere with my art and crochet, so I'm very behind on Cozytober and haven't done too much crochet lately.

Aching wrists aside, we're fixing the deck this month, and I absorb other people's stress like a sponge. The deck repairs have not been going well, and there's been a lot of upset on my parents' part as they work to make sure it's both sturdy and good-looking. It does look very nice, so at least all that hard work has been worthwhile! Still, that's been stressful for me by transference.

It's been raining a lot since I got back from the Ren-Faire, which makes it very frustrating to get around and do things, so I've been stuck inside.

And then Evie got sick again. It's a chronic infection, so we were given the same antibiotic as last time and we're pilling her at both 8 AM and 8 PM, so that's been fun.

The most recent demotivator has been the fact that pretty much every time I venture outside something goes poorly for me. My local fiber circle canceled this month's meetup and I didn't find out until I'd already crossed town. On some attempts I made at being social, I was chased by hornets. When I try to go outside and get some sun on the few days it's here, I'm buzzed by my neighbor's honeybees. Heck, I've even been hearing more people yelling rude stuff while I'm out walking! It's a residential neighborhood, you weirdos, don't yell at the preteen girls who are jogging past me that they'd better keep going or you'll kill them!

Seriously, don't do that. If you try that again, I'll unhinge my jaw and eat you. I'm getting grumpier in my middle age.

The weather has been nice and chilly, at least, which I prefer to hot and sticky. I just wish there had been more nice days that I could go down to Main Street and paint.

It's going to be too cold for that, soon, and I'll have to switch to sketchbooks. I really should get a soft-cover drawing pad with detachable sheets - it'd be fun to be able to sell sketches as I work.

But hey, enough morose nonsense - I do have good things to talk about!

I made iced tea this week! I've never made iced tea from teabags before! I dumped 7 Meyer Lemon teabags in a pitcher full of cold water and left it overnight in the fridge. The resulting tea was just a touch sweet, a touch bitter, a touch sour, and incredibly pinkish-orange. The Meyer Lemon tea I have is made with rosehips and hibiscus, so the pink was expected. What was unexpected was how freaking delicious it was with a splash of Cranberry & Elderberry juice to sweeten it. The color deepened to a regal purple-red and all of the sweet/bitter/sour notes soared. Just lovely!

I also got to have my first taste of cider for the season, which was also delightful. Early apple cider is better than winter apple cider and I will fight you on this. It has none of the mealy undertones of a winter cider.

And when I say cider, I mean the pressed apple kind, not the alcoholic variety.

I'm being needlessly pedantic sorry lol.

Oh! And today, after years of trying to fan-cast a new Kolchak series, my guy & I came up with the perfect new Kolchak - Bob Odenkirk. I dare you to disagree. You'll be wrong lol.

Anywho, I am still planning on catching up on my missing Cozytober pieces, despite having missed... a lot, so I'm going to need to get back to the drawing pad.

Go Enjoy Something, folks!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Did A Digital Thing LOL

Since I've been addicted to Stardew Valley the last few days, you might be able to guess that I haven't been painting much.

You'd be right.

In fact, I decided to do a random colorplay study with Paint.Net!

"Devolution_Pink"; Digital Art; 2023
[GEOMETRIC]

As you can see, the project was... interesting.

That arrow in there is not a mistake - I used the different shapes in Paint.Net and then built a gradient off of that. the fuzziness of the image is actually intentional - I outlined each shape with a gradient from one color to the next and sort of played around with making my own gradients. I could make a much looser gradient if I wanted to, but I kind of like the slightly blurry look.

To be perfectly honest with y'all, I really love making bizarre little images like this. I like just going bonkers with colors and shapes. I'm trying to train my instincts so that I use better combos of colors, tighten my palette (my first instinct is to Use Everything Everywhere All At Once). I'd prefer to have a tight palette or a specific gradient to play with.

As for the rest of tonight, I'm going to be fiddling around with some more art, playing with my yarn, and maybe I'll throw in an hour or two of Stardew (I'm in Year 3 and Grandpa was Pleased!). I feel pretty cozy, and tomorrow is supposed to mostly be good weather and bright sun, so we'll see about that, too.

For now, though,

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which We Are Finally Done With The Blue Shawl!!!

You read that right, folks, in a nearly three hour marathon of work, I have finally completed the blue shawl!!!

It's probably hard to tell in this shot, but it nearly spans
my twin mattress in every direction!

A more refined shot of it crossed over itself

This thing is at least as wide as my armspan and does indeed reach down to my tailbone.  I finished the top by making a 3dc, ch2, 3dc shell in the 3rd chain of every chain space of the final actual row. That was the longest part of the final jog to the finish.

There's probably a couple yards of thread left - not enough to make anything bigger than an ornament or something like that. I'm very very pleased with this result, and once it's finally blocked and the ends are sewn in, it'll make a fun addition to my shawls.

If I had been sensible, I would not have made a mesh shawl with such a small gauge of fiber and such a tiny hook, but no one could ever, ever accuse me of being sensible lol.

The final count of time spent on this shawl was twenty hours, one minute, and around twenty nine seconds. That's a timer of 20:01:29!

Here's where I tell you how much this would cost if I charged minimum wage for this very shawl: $276.35

It's a nice shawl, to be sure, but I'd probably never find a buyer for such a simple garment at that rate. This is why crochet you find in department stores makes me cringe. Since crochet is to complex to automate, that means a human being had to make that $25 handbag, and they had to do it by hand, and they probably got paid pennies to do so.

It makes it very hard to sell handmade items when mega corporations are wage-slaving the craft so they can pump consumers for profit.

How do crafters price things? I honestly have no idea how much the shawl would be worth.

Regardless, I'm really glad to be done with this project, and I can't wait to start on the next pattern.

I did have one more thing to discuss before going the hickety heck to bed, and that is this: I have finally found someone who actually understands those vintage patterns I'm so in love with.

The YouTube channel is called Just Vintage Crochet, and the lady who runs it is an absolute delight. She has a calm, clear voice, she explains things clearly, and sometimes, she randomly crochets things up from vintage patterns without knowing what she's making until she's done. If you've ever wanted to learn how to read properly vintage patterns, absolutely check her out! I maaaaay be trying out a pattern or three from the channel eventually.

As for me, I'm going to rest up. Tomorrow I'll be back to blather. How are all of your own projects going, folks?

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which I Continue To Work on The Blue Shawl.

I have reached the point where, despite working for nearly 2.5 hours this week on the shawl, there's not a huge difference in what it looks like this week. I'll have to go hunting for one of my many and sundry rulers/measuring tapes in order to measure it out, but currently it's pretty darn wide but not very deep. I don't think it'll ever reach all the way down my back, which is too bad but not unexpected. These are the hazards of using up leftover yarn lol.

As for the total time spent on this shawl, we're at just over 17 hours now. And it doesn't quite reach my waist from my shoulders. *sigh* I should've known that something made of thread and a small hook would be an eternal slog, but boy, this one's kicking my butt.

I've started three side projects - one is blue, another is multicolored/brown, the last is white. That is all I shall say about them beyond this: I doubt at least one of them will be finished because my attention wavers like a timid twelve year old giving a monologue during a play they didn't want to perform in but was handed the lead role because no one else could do it.

I also have a few other projects I'll probably be starting, including something that will require.... cabbage. Of the fabric variety. Basically, I'm gonna look for scrap fabric around town (I'll see if anyone's left anything viable in the local fabric store's cabbage bin) and start teaching myself how to sew patchwork. Specifically French Seamed Patchwork.

Because I'm insane.

And also because it just seems fun! And cheaper than buying yardage...

Anywho, there's no picture of the shawl this week because it's only a couple of rows longer and I don't have a good background for it right now (I usually use my bed and my sheets are about the same color as the shawl lol).

I think I'll put my yarns away for the night now and start thinking about tomorrow's blog :)

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which Work Has Been Done!

Okay, I have been doing a lot of work on the shawl this week, even though it may not really look like it. Just bear in mind that this picture is of the shawl folded into 1/3 of its width and it's nearly as long as a twin mattress is wide.

Micron Pen for Scale

This whole shawl has now taken nearly 15 hours total work to make it. Bearing in mind that I have also had to detangle massive yarn barfs, am working with an inky-dinky hook and thread, and keep one eye on various videos, this isn't so bad :P

Speaking of said videos, this week's timing was about 2.5 hours of videos watched. I am hoping that the way I've been working (play a video and perform a task as it plays) continues to work out for this week's art.

I'll be a little behind tomorrow, though, because I'll be running some errands in the morning. You may ask yourself if you'll notice the difference.

Probably not, let's be real.

I'm the one who'll notice the difference because I'll be the one who can't sit down to crochet or write or draw in the morning lol.

Anywho, that'll do it from me - I've got to get some writing in before I conk out tonight!

I will keep crocheting the Blue Shawl until it's done, and then I'll start showing you some of my Experiments!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which I Have Made Progress on the Shawl...
But Have Nothing To Show For It.

That's right, I forgot to take pictures of the blue shawl I'm working on despite all the time I spent on it. Sorry, guys.

And when I say I spent a long time working on it, I mean it.

I spent over three hours crocheting one project this week!

Since I time myself using videos, that means that over the course of 8 sessions (eight separate videos) I crocheted a good 2" of length and probably 6" width. And each session was about 23-24 minutes long. I am thinking that I'll be trying to do more things using that Video Timing Scale.

I spend a lot of time watching videos. Maybe if I Did More Things while watching videos, I'd get more done lol.

Actually I'll try that tomorrow and we'll see what happens! As it is, I'll be doing more work on the shawl. Maybe I'll even remember to take a pic and post it on Twitter or something.

I'll be perfectly honest, my family and I took a trip to the planetarium at UMO on Friday and I've been completely wiped out since then. Some of that could be attributed to my overindulgence at Dysarts, but let's be real, you cannot underindulge at Dysarts.

You must fully indulge.

And you 100% must have pie.

So maybe that's why I'm a little draggy lately lol.

Regardless, tomorrow's another day, and I'll test my Videos=productivity theory and get back to you.

For now, Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which I Have Progress!

It was my mom's birthday last week, so I made her a present, which took about 3.5 hours to make and came from this pattern.

It's about as tall as my hand is long and took almost 3.5 hours to make!

As for the blue shawl? I have hit the second shade of blue! I spent about an hour and 20 minutes this week on it, bringing my total time up to about 8.25 hours. It's... not very long, but it's quite wide. Maybe it'll be good for summer - that's what it's designed for after all!

It looks much longer than it is in this image

It Also looks longer than it is wide in this image, but...
It's pretty wide, bro

If anyone has any of this shawl-in-a-cake yarn they want to get rid of, I'll happily give it a home. Can you imagine these kinds of yarns made into lightweight hex cardigans?! Or a lightweight scarf?! This blue has a much better hand than the green stuff I used, because it doesn't unwind while you crochet with it.

I am given to understand the Lion Brand version of this yarn is discontinued (boo), but I really enjoyed it, so if I have an opportunity to grab more, I'm gonna have to take it. As for other lace weight yarns, you better believe I'm keeping an eye out. I also need to get on figuring out my drop spindle and gold mawata...

As pleased as I am with my progress (and I really am!), I need to start considering what the top of this shawl should look like. Should I leave it straight across? Should I do a row of shells somehow? And if I do the shells, should I figure out how much lace that takes? Ah, conundrums.

Well, I'm just going to have to keep working on the shawl in order to find out.

Also, I really want to make another hex cardigan or two - maybe even one with cuffed sleeves that reach my wrist?

And I still want to make a vest dangit...

Seems to me like I've got plenty of ideas to sustain me this year.

How are all of your projects doing?

That'll about do it for me - I'm getting distracted by my cold toes and need to go throw on new socks.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

Y'All Ready For Some Shawl?

Because yeah, I worked on the shawl for a whole... hour and 26 minutes this week, bringing my efforts up to a total of 6 hours 53 minutes or so.

And it's not even halfway done.

So if I was to charge an hourly rate at my state's minimum wage ($13.80/hr), I'd have to charge over $95 for this thing just based on labor!

And this, kids, is why there's no such thing as a "fair price" for handicrafts and artwork.

But enough about that, you'll want to see the shawl!

Yup, that's my knee in the shot at the bottom left
and my laptop in the top right.

I've got quite a bit of work left to do on this shawl, and while it's one of the easiest shawls you can make, it's also incredibly slow going with a 2.75mm hook and lace weight cotton.

It's really pretty though.

I kind of wish I had another cake of the green lace from this brand so I could make another shawl in a more springy color... maybe add some cute little pink & white sakura blossoms onto it as décor...

But nay, I shall finish this sucker!

And then I shall make another project!

Who knows what that shall be. We'll find out.

Anywho, I'm gonna go brush my teeth and put a hot pack on my neck for reasons I'll explain tomorrow (they're very silly reasons). I hope all your projects are going well!

That'll do it for me tonight.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which I Have Crocheted!

First things first - it doesn't feel at all like a Monday. Today felt like a Sunday, and a particularly weird one. I've been even more tired than usual, lately, but that hasn't stopped me from crocheting!

First we have the water bottle holder I made for my dad!

It was my father's birthday recently, so I made him a simple wool water bottle holder. Did he need one? Probably not, but it's always good to have one on-hand. I based this off of several patterns on Ravelry while making my own choices. The wool is very old and had developed a sticky, dusty texture from having gone unwashed the whole time. I took a little fragrance-free, color-free laundry detergent and some cold water and gave the thing a soak & scrub. After a good long soak, I took it out, wrung it gently and then rolled it dry in a towel before hanging it on the towel hook in our bathroom.

It's now in fantastic shape sitting on the table, awaiting use.

In Other News, here's the shawl I've been working on this month.

This week's progress was made over the course of about an hour and 40 minutes. It's coming right along, I think. Eventually, it will switch over to a darker blue, but we've got a while yet before that happens. I just hope it happens at the start of a new row. I'm sure I can fudge it to make that happen...

Regardless, I'm still plugging along, hooking and drawing and typing, and while I may feel ridiculously sleepy most of the time, I shall persist.

or something lol.

I'm also still using videos as a means of timing how long I've worked on something! That's been a lot of fun, actually. I strongly recommend it. I don't recommend having the Autoplay feature on, though, because then you might not know how long each vid you've watched while working was! You might be surprised by how much you can get done during an episode of Food Wishes or Oliver The Beagle.

Anyway, I think I'm going to get my words in over on my manuscript now.

If you want a say in this week's art work, feel free to drop me a coffee over on Ko-Fi with a message telling me which category (animal, vegetable, mineral, dedbert, location, geometric, word).

And as always,

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which I Finished The Shawl!!!

I did it! The shawl is 100% finished!

Laptop for scale

Yes, that says 54 inches (137cm)

It's shockingly warm, and I only have a couple feet of yarn left! 10/10 would crochet again.

And how long did the whole shawl take? 6 hours, 53 minutes, 23 seconds. Or so. About 7 hours and a full Mega skein of yarn! It'd probably be several regular sized skeins of worsted weight yarn with my J-hook. I did have to switch from double crochet to half-double crochet on the last round, though. I would've run out of yarn 3 inches from the end otherwise!

And what did I do after finishing one obscenely cozy shawl?

I started a second one.

We'll see if I actually have enough thread for this, but it's being made with a 2.75mm hook and lace weight yarn/thread in a cotton/poly mix. It's very soft, but also very splittable and it yarn barfs terribly, but that's just life sometimes.

At a little over an hour in, this is still only about the size of a cellphone. It's not big, but it is deliciously delicate and flowy and drapey and it'll be lovely for spring/summer. Why another shawl? Why not. It's what I grabbed and started, after all.

As for the leftovers from the last project, I think I'll take a K-hook and start turning it into a neckline for a Goblin Sweater. We'll see how that goes. I'll try and record the Goblin Sweater, too.

Next week, I'll have more crochet to show you - the lacy shawl, maybe that Goblin Sweater, who knows what else!

For now, though, I'll be adding another hundred words to my manuscript, maybe sketching, and then? I'm going to bed.

I am hilariously sleepy lol.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which I Have Finished A Thing Again!

So last week, I finished a lacy shrug that was in one of the colors for a wedding I'm going to in... 5 days. Yikes. And this week, I finished something else, just in case the DA Lady Sibyl shrug isn't quite broad enough for my linebacker shoulders.

Remember my sudden obsession with hexagon cardigans? I actually finished one!

And she is an 80s daydream!

If you can crochet a granny hexagon, you can crochet this sweater, and you can probably do it better than me. Just make sure you actually have enough yarn! And buttons! I gave the sweater 5 button holes, but... I only have 4 pearly buttons from an age when you could get 4 buttons for 49 cents. They'd be perfect, but such is life. It looks better open, anyway!

The sleeves reach a bit below the elbow on me, but you can make them way longer or shorter by adding more rounds to the hexagon or just adding more rounds to the sleeves. If you are not packing a gut like I am, you'll probably want to do less rounds on the hexagon and more rounds on the sleeves/bottom, but it's so simple you'll probably figure it out on your own. As for the neckline... you may want to sew the sleeves up about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way instead of halfway like I did. That neckline is waaaaay too wide - which is why I skipped the chain spaces on the neckline along the back and reduced in even intervals from shoulder to shoulder.

How I fastened the two hexes!

I strongly recommend the Hex Cardi hack, guys. It's so incredibly easy, and if I had enough coordinating yarns, I'd make enough for every single person in my family. They're comfy, they're cute, and they're really fun to make!

Basically, I just seamed up the sleeves, then seamed together the back before adding three more blue rows in single crochet around the sleeves (skipping the chain spaces, so the cuffs were slightly smaller), and then running three rounds of single crochet around the inside opening (around the collar, down the left front, around the bottom, then up the right front, I think? I might have said that backwards). If you're adding buttons, leave some chain spaces open for them on one of the front sides, then sew the corresponding buttons onto the opposite side.

My version of seaming, by the way, was to slip stitch, chain one, then slip stitch into the matching stitch on the other side, then slip stitch in the next stitch, chain one, slip stitch into the matching stitch on the other side, etc. I did this for both sleeves and for the back. This made something like a rick-rack pattern!

I might use this basic pattern for the Goblin Cardigan idea I've been playing with.

Which is a topic for another Monday, I think :)

Now, if you've got any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments - I check them every time I post, so it may take a day or two for your comments to appear, but I'll give it the go-ahead when I see it! And I'm going to go see how much more I can get done in five days...

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which I Have Speedy Little Updates

This week has been... a lot.

It hasn't been bad, don't get me wrong. I've been fairly productive by my standards and nothing tragic has befallen me, but boy has there been more activity than I'm used to.

I'll probably get more into it tomorrow, but for now I'll just say this:

Boiled frosting is hard to make.

Spiders don't care how hard it is for you to sleep when they're over your head.

Scrap Yarn is just another opportunity.

Gordian Knots can be unraveled without cutting them (or at least, I'm pretty sure they can)

Good friends are the best.

For today, however, I'll just talk about the Yarn and the Knot!

Behold The Goblin's Purse!

Last night, I was listening to some music and trying to avoid a spider on my ceiling, so I decided to use up a tiny amount of blue thread I had leftover from a long while ago! I started my pouch based off this Treasure Pouch Pattern by Pahavit's Universe, but I had misread what kind of thread they were using, and they were using a Size 3 thread for their 2.25mm hook and I was using the 2.25mm hook on a 10 weight thread.

This meant that when I reached the recommended stitch-count circumference, my pouch was... itty-bitty. We're talking "won't fit over an American Girl Doll's hand" small. The pouch I ended up with is small, make no mistake, but it's at least large enough to hold a small handful of coins, some shiny rocks, or whatever other minor detritus you might scoop up on a walk if you, like me, are a cross between a crow and a goblin creature, hence why I'm calling it The Goblin Purse.

R1: Make a magic ring, then sc 6 stitches into the ring, close it. Do not turn work, do not chain. Work in continuous spiral rounds. (6sc)

R2: 2sc in each sc around (12sc)

R3: (2sc in next sc, sc in next sc) around (18sc)

R4: (sc in next sc, 2sc in next sc, sc in next sc) around (24sc)

R5: (2sc in next sc, sc in each of next 3 sc) around (30sc)

R6: (sc in each of next 2 sc, 2sc in next sc, sc in each of next 2 sc) around (36sc)

R7: (2sc in next sc, sc in each of next 5 sc) around (42sc)

R8: (sc in each of next 3 sc, 2sc in next sc, sc in each of next 3 sc) around (48sc)

R9: (2sc in next sc, sc in each of next 7 sc) around (54sc)

R10: (sc in each of next 4 sc, 2sc in next sc, sc in each of next 4 sc) around (60sc)

R11-25: sc in each sc around (60sc/round 900sc total)

At this point you can either continue adding rounds in 60sc increments or do what I did and finish it off. I chose to finish mine in a crab stitch, which is, as best as I can describe, a single crochet, but backwards? There are other people who can describe how to do this stitch. I am not one of them. You can finish it however you like! Remember to weave in your tails!

To make the bag cinch shut, you take two strands of thread or cord and sew them through the top of the bag to make a drawstring. Then tie the ends. I put my threads over two stitches and then under two stitches around.

After you have your drawstring in, if you want to add the little wrist strap that I have on there, you just find the opposite side of your bag from where the drawstring comes out, and put your hook through the holes to either side of an sc. Then attach your thread and chain as many chains as it takes to get your hand through, slip stitching back into the same stitch you chose. If my instructions aren't clear enough, I 100% understand, and it's absolutely fine to, say, make a loop of chain stitches that your hand fits through, and then sew that to the back of the bag. You can even add a cute button or bead to hide your sewing!

At this point, you have a fun little goblin bag to take out adventuring with you! If you make one of these, feel free to @ me on Twitter with pics of the bag and any trinkets you collect in it! I'm hoping to take it out for a spin maybe tomorrow or Wednesday :)





Now, as for the Gordian Knot I mentioned...

You see, I have a tangle of yarn that has become a bit of a recurring character here on the blog, and its name is Gordon. Gordon is a large quantity of what I think is a DK weight acrylic yarn. I have had it for years and never have I ever been able to detangle it.

This week, however, I've really been working hard on him and...

I think we're getting close!

Gordon has gone from being a pile of yarn that pooled to a width that dangled over my tv tray or totally filled a 12" cube to a ball the size of a very large cantaloupe, a tangle the size of a grapefruit, and after finally locating his other end, a small pile of spaghetti in a paper bag.

Not a particularly overlarge paper bag, either.

So I'm thinking that this is Gordon's last week as a mess. Next week, he'll be one ball. And after that? Well... I don't know, but he's kinda scratchy, so maybe he's not going to become anything that'd touch skin. I would like to use my 3.75mm hook on him, so I'll go hunting on Ravelry or elsewhere on the interwebs. If you have any suggestions for what appears to be approximately an entire mile of primary blue yarn in about a DK weight, I'd love to hear from ya!

I think that'll about do it from me tonight. I'm tuckered out, and I hope you appreciated the linked and free patterns!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

It Is So Nice Out!

Today's been Very Much A Day, but at least the weather has been lovely. It's been warm and sunny all day long. The breeze is cold, but can you really beat a 49℉/9,4℃ day where the grass is green and the lawn is getting starry with wildflowers?

Even if those wildflowers are dandelions?

"Dandy"; watercolor brush pen on watercolor paper; 2022

I'm still figuring out the best ways to use and blend these brush pens, but I'm fairly happy with the way the flowers & leaves came out!

I was working on the confetti-ish background when my mom's mom stopped by to visit and needed help with some medical stuff (as far as I'm aware, she's going to be alright!). That took some doing, and then the cat needed out, so I got her ready while my mom enjoyed her coffee. After walkies, we ate some ginger snaps and I finished up the painting.

Confession: this painting is, for some reason, uncentered. It's far more on the left-hand side of the page than the right-hand, and I don't really know what I was thinking. Also, the brown shadow for the ground is too high up and not rounded enough, so it looks a little clumpy. I should try this again sometime!

I was thinking of maybe taking a walk today but... honestly, I'm already worn out and my back hurts, so I'll probably just stay in unless my mom decides to take bottles back or something.

I might sketch some more and see if I can start next week's drawing, too!

Regardless, that'll do it for me today!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday: FINALLY

 

In Which I Have Finally Finished the Stocking
(Kind Of)

Despite all of my procrastination, seasonal depression, unrelated stress and anxiety, and just plain not knowing what I was doing 90% of the time, I have finally finished the stocking! Kind of.

The stocking is done! I have the whole body made up, just have an end or two to weave in, but I haven't even begun to think about where to put the name or just how I'll do it. Do I do a 5x5 stitch cross-stitch? 3x5? Serif or sans serif? Lots to think about.

But that's Tomorrow Me's problem because Today's Me is proud of what I've accomplished!

LOOK AT IT!

I'm so pleased with how the antlers came out, and I can't wait to add the name. It was suggested that I put it on the foot, and I may go with that :) Regardless, it's done and it's huge and I know there's nothing there for scale, but I measured it at about 32 inches (81cm) top to toe!

I'm thankful to you all for bearing with me, to my sibling and nibling for their patience, and to my joints, which have gamely stood up to several months of use for this project. I only have a handful of that original skein of blue yarn left now, though both the brown and white are much more plentiful.

I feel like I've earned a few days away from the hook lol

What do you guys think of this project? Is it too big? Should I have made it bigger? Should I have put less space between the borders and the snowflakes? Should I put the name on the foot or do I monogram it around each snowflake in a V formation (one initial to the upper left of the snowflake, another to the upper right, and one at the bottom center)? Whaddaya think? :P

For me? I'm just gonna....

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday: Cyberstruggles

 

In Which Today Was Very Difficult

This morning, I woke up before 10AM (around 8:30 I believe) and found that I'd unplugged my laptop in my sleep. I've developed something of a (not very healthy) habit of falling asleep watching YouTube videos with my laptop on my lap in bed. My poor laptop was quite old and had already had one battery fail completely. I replaced that battery with one at 76% of its life expectancy and... well...

Something went terribly wrong.

It's my partner's birthday today, by the way, so if you see them around the internet or you read their blog Attack The Stack, then please offer your congratulations! I'm dating an awesome person, so I decided to post on their Facebook wall just how I feel and offer my best wishes etc, and halfway through my deeply heartfelt message...

Everything stopped working. My laptop 100% froze - no hard drive activity, no fans, no amount of ctrl+alt+del or tapping the power button worked. I had to unplug the laptop once more and pull the battery, which if you do any IT work, you know that's a BIG NO NO. But desperate times called for desperate... what? Measures? WHO SAID THAT?!?!?! (inside joke, don't worry about it).

I pressed power again and... nothing. The internet and power lights were on, but the screen stayed black, the fans spun once and stopped, no hard drive activity.

I am not ashamed to say that I absolutely panicked. It wouldn't even be the first laptop I bricked, but it's Pandemic Times and I spend roughly 75-85% of my days on my computer, whether it's listening to music or reading or playing games or checking patterns. I freaked out. Luckily, MLK Day is a holiday for hospital IT guys (I know, it doesn't really make sense, but I'm grateful for it today) so my dad, who is the Computer God in this family, was home. Unfortunately, he was also on the phone and my family has this condition called "I'm Talking And I Can't Shut Up", so he was going to be in that conversation for... quite a while.

I tried everything I could think of while I was downstairs.

Except for the thing he suggested when he walked in and saw me struggling.

"Did you try taking the battery out, plugging it in, and trying to turn it on?"

Guys. It worked.

But! That dear old laptop has a very wobbly AC port and I knew that I couldn't function with it like that, so it was now time for an upgrade.

Which is a longwinded way of letting you know I'm typing this from a very nice not-that-new laptop. Like most things I own that I like, it's second-hand, refurbished, and my dad and I rebuilt it over the course of the afternoon. As you may have guessed, this left almost no time for crochet, so there's no progress from today to share, but I can still give you a picture of how far I've gotten since last week in general on the stocking!

Roku Remote for Scale

So there you have it - a massive, truly HUGE stocking! I have one last design band to put on and I am planning to put my nibling's name on in cross stitch. I don't put info about minors on my blog, though, so I'll show you the finished stocking sans name :)

It's gonna be so freaking huge...

The whole length of the Red Heart Super Saver skein is actually sitting in the foot right now.

Alright. I'm pretty pooped, so I'm gonna finish my last cup of tea for the day (more Meyer Lemon - I'll try to do a review some Sunday of all the teas I got for Christmas!) and get ready for my partner's birthday bash online :)

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday - Stocking Suffer (lol)

 

In Which I Make A Biiiiiiiig Sockbag

Y'know, when you think about it, a Christmas stocking really is just a big ol' sockbag that you cram full of cool stuff...

(This is gonna be a bit of a story time, kids, so if you just wanna skip down to the pics of what I'm working on first before you get the context, I'd understand ;) )

So my family has always had some really clever, crafty ladies in it. My dad's mom knits, his aunt crochets (though I did not learn crochet from her), my mom's mom knits, and I'm about 75% sure they allllll sewed. I'm pretty sure I wore a lot of clothes made by relatives, growing up.

My grandmother, until recently, has made everyone's stockings. Mine was a pretty white one with an angel on it. Around the time my younger sibling was born, however, the stockings went from normal-sized to... giant. Seriously, they went from "this Pringles can dominates the stocking" sized to "I dunno I put the American Girl doll in here and I think her horse could fit, too" sized. Now, I'm the middle child of one of my Grandmother's younger kids, and I'm in my early 30s, so as you may be able to guess, my Grandmother is getting up there in years and she's quickly become overwhelmed with how darn many of us grandkids and great grandkids there are.

So some of my young niblings are lacking in gargantuan crazy stockings.

This is sad, so me, being very interested in making things and wanting to prove to myself that I can make things, I volunteered to make one. For reference, the, uh, shaft? of the last Big Ol Festive Sockbag was about 7.5 inches (19 cm) across and as long as my arm, not counting the foot, so you may be asking yourself....

IS THIS BLOGGER NUTS?

Yes. Yes I am.

But I have a ton of blue and white yarn left over, and I found a cute pattern for a reindeer head (which... I might use a crazy color for instead of going with the brown I'd originally though I'd do... maybe red & green?) and some snowflakes, and I've already graphed out how to crochet the kiddo's name near the top, so why not? I can do this!

Especially since I'm not using a set of probably 3mm needles.

I'm using a 6.5mm K hook on Medium/4/Worsted weight yarn (Red Heart Super Save, mostly). Currently it's 54 stitches around (because the deer head is an odd number of stitches across, so that's 27 stitches per side) and about... 42 rounds long (the first pic is at only about 18 rounds). I'm working on the heel (which is its own kind of challenge lol). The deadline is, of course, by next December, but I think I can do it faster than 11 months lol!

This afternoon, right around 1PM, keyboard for scale

Right now! Look at that chonker of a sockbag!

I'm pretty darn proud of my progress, especially considering the first attempt I made was... not this big lol. I started that one with a 6.0mm hook and made it only 42 stitches across (for 21 sitches/side) and it was only about 3" long when I started over.

I'll try and finish the heel and get started on the (sigh) shaft by next week!

If you're working on something, good luck on it!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC