Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which I Work

I have been a busy beaver the last couple days - ground some rocks, wrote some paragraphs, did some crochet, sketched, embarked on an ill-conceived art project, and even went for a walk!

The weather has been super weird - going from nearly 70℉/21,1℃ to being closer to the mid-40s(6-8℃), dry to wet, sunny to foggy - and with that weirdness comes the dreaded Insomnia. See, I require a very cool, dry room in order to sleep, and that's... just not happening lately. Either it's damp or it's warm or it's both. Tonight, I'll do my best to zonk, but it could take a bit. I'm jangly and weird when the air pressure changes.

Now, as for the coming week, clearly I've got art to finish for Thursday - both the Guaranteed category (Geometric this week), and a Suggested piece (Animal), so watch out for those.

Next Monday I should be done with the shawl. We've heard that before, but I really do think it'll get done this time.

Next Tuesday, I'll be back to blather!

Now, as for the manuscript, as you might be able to guess, not being able to sleep does mean that writing gets harder. I've missed a few days, wrote only a spare sentence here and there. Tonight I wrote a little over 200 words and I'm on the next chapter! The total words this week was a paltry 554. I'm so far behind, wordcount-wise, but at least the story is progressing.

It's fun writing alternating points of view that keep missing one another. It's cat-and-mouse but one wants to hide and the other just wants him to be okay!

Anywho, if you want to have further say in what I make for art this week, there's still time to shoot me a coffee on Ko-Fi and indicate which category (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Dedbert, Location, Geometric, or Word) you'd like to see!

I'm getting ready for beddy, so y'all stay cozy and

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which I *should* do things...
But I probably won't.

I am both extremely bored and incredibly unmotivated today, and that isn't a bad thing.

I know, usually I complain about lack of motivation and I get concerned, but this doesn't feel like a Depressive Episode.

It feels like rest.

The most complicated thing I've done today was refill the kettle to make more coffee. I'm not getting anything creative done today, I don't think.

And why shouldn't I rest?

It was... not a great week leading up to Christmas. A lot of things went horribly awry, especially during that awful storm on Friday. People I love lost power, were injured by the storm, were incredibly stressed out, and/or were sick. Some were various combinations of the above. My father is one of the sick ones - he gets the Christmas Crud every year (possibly because he's the only one of us who plays in the pit band for the high school musical, now, and he gets exposed to all those teenager germs), and this year's is really quite nasty.

The difference between Friday and Sunday was indescribable. Not only did we get up to find a thin peppering of snow on the ground (not a white Christmas by any means, but better than we expected), but the winds, which had been howling between 35-75mph since Friday had finally calmed to a much more reasonable 10-20mph.

The day was made up of steady feasting, starting with a delightful set of cheese boards my mother set up - pepper jelly with cream cheese, cheddar jack, and white cheddar on some crackers. I made fancy Mexican hot chocolate that was thicker and richer than a millionaire mukbanger's arteries. Gifts were opened, joy was shared, and it was honestly just a fantastic day!

Yesterday was pretty great, too! I rested a lot, ate some snacks (I got so much chocolate), and just hung out on the internet.

Today, I've also been resting. I need it, apparently, since my elbows and hands are sore.

I plan to, tomorrow, work on some art. My friends got me a really neat watercolor set that I'll be checking out and photographing. First, I'll swatch the colors (which are helpfully labeled - a first for watercolor sets I've gotten since I got back into painting), and then I'll paint something! Don't know what I'll paint yet, but I'll be working on it.

As for the rest of December (which is only a few more days, yikes!) I plan to have one more post besides the Thursday Art Walk, and that will be on Saturday, December 31.

In it, I'll tell you my ideas for the coming year!

After that, we'll see how things go :)

For now, though, I think it's time to watch videos and relax for a few more hours.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which I Am Pooped
And I'm Sure You Are Too.

Friends, Craftsfolk, Netizens...

The Christmas Crunch of 2022 is finally over.

I was hooking up a storm right up til 9AM on Christmas morning, finishing my dad's gift - a simple half-double-crochet hat - and it's finally, finally over.

Now begins the Christmas Crash.

The Christmas Crash is exactly what it sounds like - after you've finished the Crush, you're exhausted, so you basically take a week off. As 99% of my activities were Crochet-Related, I'll be taking the rest of this week away from yarn, I think.

If that changes, you'll know because I'll have something new next Monday and a frantic explanation of why I totally couldn't take time off because I had a great idea lol.

For now, though, I'll take a break. My knuckles are sore and it'd be nice to watch a video without subconsciously counting stitches.

It is so important to take breaks. Please remember to rest your hands after a long period of crafting! You can't make if you can't move!

I should be back tomorrow to talk about the final stretch to Christmas and my plans for the next few days, but for now...

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which I Am Sore For Silly Reasons

Today I had lofty goals. So very lofty. Such goals have never been seen before.

My goals were as follows:

• Get up before 10AM
• Polish the rocks from my goblin horde as seen on Instagram.
• Shower
• Hang out online with my boyfriend
• Eat 3 meals.

Yeah... Not really what I managed to do. Or at least, not entirely and not in that order.

I woke up a little after 10AM, sadly, and when I went downstairs to prep for my shower and morning coffee, I was asked to please shower first, which is maybe suboptimal for when you're planning on making a mess with wet rocks. After my shower, I dressed in clothes I was fine with getting mud & toothpaste on and headed downstairs to polish up the rocks.

I filled half of an empty Sargento Balanced Breaks container with water and popped the rocks in there to soak, hoping the water would offset the dust I'd be making. Then I put that down on my dad's work bench, put a handkerchief over my hair like a cottagecore lesbian with a secret 60s fetish, and strapped on a proper dust mask and safety goggles. Never ever use power tools without protective equipment. Unfortunately for me, I have very short hands and my stubby fingers do not fit into any of the safety gloves we have, so I ended up with a few abrasions from the grinders, sanders, and even the woolen polishing wheel.

First I used a cone-shaped grinder attachment to roughly bring down the peaks of the stones where necessary, and this was where I discovered that perhaps the orange and white pebbles were not going to be polished today. See, my fingers are chubby, the pebbles are tiny, and the grinder bit hurts when it hits you even on the first setting, so I gave up on them pretty quickly and tossed them into the empty half of the container. The rest of the rocks were also difficult to grind because despite my hands being tiny, they are also chubby, and it's hard to grip what amounts to Large Gravel with wet baby hands. Whenever the rock would start to throw dust, I'd dip it back in the water, hence the wet hands. Every time I finished grinding a rock, I tossed it back into the water, which made the water pretty silty and muddy.

The second step was sanding, and I used a larger drum and a smaller drum for each rock. This was when I lost two of my pebbles. One, a scallop-shaped stone with lots of mica in it, I found right before I headed back upstairs at the end. The other is still hiding somewhere around my father's workbench and no amount of bending and pointing a flashlight in random places could reveal it. Other than rocks being flung around the cellar, there wasn't much that happened here. More dipping-when-the-dust-began-to-fly. More standing around and hoping I wasn't getting too messy (spoilers - I was). I ended up popping the rocks back in the muddied water between the large drum and the small one.

The final step was the "polish" step, and here's where I am 100% sure I botched it. See... my polishing compound was completely solid, so I had to improvise. I was gonna use spackle (yes, feel free to yell at me for that in the comments) but the tub wouldn't open. I did, however, have a small tube of toothpaste that had fallen on the hotel floor near a toilet without the cap on while I was on an adventure once. I experimented with the toothpaste and found that, while it kind of worked, it just left everything sticky and unpleasant.

Fortunately, my efforts were not entirely in vain. Turns out that all that silt in the bottom of the water container could be added to the wool wheel and used to serve as a polishing medium.

By this point, however, I was exhausted. I'd been standing in the cellar for about 3 hours, and I was ready for food, a stretch, and a warm washcloth around my neck. 

I had hoped to have this all done by noon.

Clearly not all stones polish well, but I'm pretty happy with the top left one...

So here's the new plan: from now on, all polishing will be done

• outside when possible
• In proper safety gear
• As soon as I get new rocks
• in very small batches (1-4 rocks)
• BEFORE a shower.

So that's what I've been up to lately lol!

For the next few days, here's the plan:

• Tomorrow I'll draw & paint
• Thursday I'll upload art
• Sunday I might tell you about a few cups of tea? We'll see.
• Next Monday I really want to have some pictures of crochet progress
• Next Tuesday I'll blather some more.

That's my plan as the world stands now. We'll see how that goes in the next few days - especially since my neck is now so sore from holding position and grinding all morning!

If you want a say in what I'll be drawing, go ahead and send me a Ko-Fi donation with a message saying which category you'd like!

• Animal
• Vegetable
• Mineral
• Dedbert
• Word
• Geometric
• Location

That'll do it for me today, I think.

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

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which I Am Still Tired, But For A Reason

I have had quite the busy long weekend! On Friday, my boyfriend came over and we had a great time watching videos and snuggling on a pile of blankets. On Saturday I overslept and dozed but still tried to get stuff done (didn't do much productively but hey, sometimes that's life). On Sunday, my sisters came over and we had a big cookout and fire pit and that was fun. And yesterday, my dad surprised me by bringing my boyfriend by again and we got to hang out all day!

Which is why there was no blog yesterday lol.

I was busy watching Unsolved Mysteries and helping treat a really messy blackfly bite.

I put in my window fan yesterday, too!

And honestly, I've just been very busy this weekend. Even Saturday was busy despite me not really doing a heck of a lot, that I can recall.

So today I am a tired bunny.

And yet I still did more! My friend messaged my guy & me and asked if we'd like to come with on errands, so we hung out in various shops around my home town today!

We hit up a couple of clothing places, the ol Wally World, and a grocery store, and I came home with Mirin (which I had not realized would need ID to buy oops) and Stroopwafel and a Cherry Coke, and my boyfriend ended up adding a few things to his wardrobe plus some fun charcuterie stuff including jam, Spanish cheeses, and some tasty meats. Now that we've gone back to our respective homes, I've gotta admit...

I'm way more tired than I should be after such a simple little stroll in the drizzle & cool!

It was a gray morning of around 56℉/13,3℃ that cleared off and still only reached maybe 63℉/17,2℃. It's been gently breezy, but that just means that the bugs that were absent on Sunday are back en force. the blackfly population has boomed.

And of course, the June Bugs are making their appearance.

I have a love-hate relationship with June Bugs. They are God's Perfect Moron. They will concuss themselves on trees, flying with less agility than a drunken bumblebee and they stick to everything. They have always seemed attracted to hair - especially mine.

But they're kind of delightfully stupid, in a way.

They're so completely inept at everything bug-related, but they're also just big clumsy creatures trying their best in a world they literally cannot understand.

And I really, really relate to that.

As for this coming week, I think we all know I'll do my best to stick to the schedule, but life uh... finds a way.

• Thursday should involve a new piece of art out!
• Monday should (hopefully [FINALLY]) have some sort of advancement on the toadstool bag we've been plugging away on. Has anyone else had luck stabilizing the mouth of the bag? I'd love pointers.
• Next Tuesday should see me back again to blather at you!

That'll about do it for me, to be honest. I'm ready for bed and it's not even 8pm!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which I Am Lump

Today was another sunny, windy, chilly day that reminded me that I live in a state that has half-seasons. Currently, we are not in either spring or winter. We're in Wing, which is kind of like spring, but it's freaking cold.

I confess, the only things I've done today are crochet, eat, drink coffee, and grump. I woke up later than usual and felt far less rested than I should have. Apparently my brain thought I needed a dream about getting abandoned on a road trip with strangers... how annoying.

So I woke up cranky, went downstairs and chugged a mug of mocha. After that, I talked to my guy for a bit, put on my sweatshirt and fuzzy pants, and went back to bed. I repeated that two or three times, minus the adding layers of clothing lol.

I did some more work on the Mystery Project (not a ton, just a round and a half with the new thread, which feels lighter than the old stuff...), ate some tuna on a burger bun, tried to nap, failed, read over my notes for the stories I'm working on, thought about art, then ate dinner (meatloaf & fried cheesy potato pancakes). All in all, not a bad lazy day.

Right now I'm listening to Mikey Chen exult a brunch buffet while I type. It sounds and looks incredible. I'd recommend his video on Zuma.

Anywho, the plan for this week is to sketch or paint something for Thursday, and then get more work done on the Mystery Project for Monday. I have no fancy plans because my brain barely functions lol.

I hope that my art this week is good, and I'm hoping that the area warms up a bit again. The day it was near 60 was very very nice, and I miss that.

That should about do it for me today. Not many tales of cats or nature, just a quiet day in for myself.

Go Enjoy Something,

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Have A St Patrick's Day Picture For Ya!

I am beat lol.

You may wonder - what exactly did I do to get so tired?

I'm almost ashamed to admit that I'm so tired from... shopping two days in a row and taking my cat for a couple of walks. Like, yeah, I walked around town yesterday, and yeah, that was after a shopping trip that turned into a semi-surprise hangout with my guy and a delicious Thai lunch. It was really fun! I loved spending time with my guy, then trundling back home and pounding out that Wednesdaymania blog from yesterday!

I'm also out of shape and still having trouble sleeping, hence me being pooped again lol.

But tired or not, I still managed a fun little painting for you guys!

"Lucky Spring" Watercolor; 2022

I'm still experimenting with different weights and colors and tones and I know that Oxalis don't grow like that and their flowers are rarely pink-tipped, but... I'm really pleased with how most of those leaves came out. I'm pleased that the watercolors I used actually went where I wanted (for the most part) and look how I wanted them to look (largely). I'm really quite pleased with this little sketch!

Would I do some things differently? Yes! I'd actually sketch it first if I did it again, then lay in the sky tones (which I'd do wet-on-wet, rather than trying to blend out the markers, which works... sort of).

But I still think it looks good!

I hope all of you guys are staying safe and having a good St Patrick's Day out there!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which I Am Derp

I... don't remember what I wanted to talk about today lol.

I could tell you about the weather (it got to about 45℉/7,2℃ on Sunday and was a mere 35℉/1,7℃ today), since it's been rainy and weird lately. I could tell you about the deer that have been pillaging our bird feeders, the turkeys at my grandmother's house, the 11 Mallard ducks we had in my backyard, the possibility of a bobcat in the area...

I could tell you about the art supplies I bought, the Thai food I ate, the walks I've taken, the silky feeling of Red Heart Unforgettable slipping through my fingertips as I chase a small wooden hook through loose stitches and try to turn an aquatic mammal into a hardass marsupial.

I could mention the naps not taken and the sleeps interrupted with angry winds whipping at the cracked siding across the house, the ceaseless rumble of the railway's turntable that seems to drive everyone but me crazy, the clinking click of my lamp shifting subtly that drives no one insane but me, the way I've tried to introduce my cat to the consequence of being swept into my arms if she doesn't stop clawing the woodwork next to the doors.

I could even talk about how hard it is to find pajamas that work in March (too fuzzy = too hot, not fuzzy = too cold, there is no in-between apparently), or how I need to take some expired salmon into the farthest part of the back yard so the crows may feast on it (and hopefully not invite the local seagulls who are the least grateful birds in the neighborhood).

But since I've already mentioned all of these things, now my fickle brain doesn't want to expand on them lol.

So instead, I'm going to talk about my plans for the next week or so!

I don't have anything to discuss this Wednesday, but keep an eye out for an upcoming Wednesdaymania. You can probably guess what it'll cover if you watch wrestling.

Thursday, if it goes well, should be a double-header! I have, indeed purchased yet more art supplies and will swatch them. Equally exciting, I have nearly finished that pixel art project and since it's 200 pixels by 200 pixels, you'd think it'd be exceptionally tiny, right? Well.... it's 10 pixels per centimeter, so no. It's 20x20cm. That's a little under 7.9"x7.9"! Small, but not infinitesimal, which 200pix sq sounds like lol.

I'm not 100% sure why I go pixels per cm instead of pixels per inch. Probably just because that's how someone did it in a tutorial I half paid attention to ages ago.

Again, pretty pleased with Thursday's projects!

Next Monday I really hope I can sneak out to a WalMart for that crochet thread. It's getting to the point where I'm just gonna have to break down and order it, hoping that Cardinal Red is the actual color I need...

Next Tuesday I hope I'm more focused and don't forget to post during the day lol!

That's the next week covered! I hope you'll stick around for Thursday's art post!

And Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Am... Not Done.

Now, usually, when y'all are kind enough to visit my blog while I'm working on art, I have the art finished, or at least presentable for you. This is... not the case today. That's nobody's fault but mine! I embarked on another "let's experiment with colors, math, and pixels" journey and... it's really neat looking, but it's barely half finished.

So I figured I'd give you guys a peek at how this particular image is going!

"Squares ver 0.1" digital art; 2022

No, you resolution isn't off, it's just TINY for now. I'm going to fix that once I'm done by decreasing the white space and increasing the pixels-per-centimeter, but for now it's tiny and blurry. The blur is intentional (sort of) because it's something of a color study! I'm pretty stoked about how it's coming along, and eventually, Squares ver 1.0 will release lol.

As for why it's going up so late on Thursday, that's because I'm kind of frazzled this week. I have no excuse for that besides the wind. It's been windy as heck up here.

The threat of possible nuclear war certainly isn't helping me sleep either, but I'm not gonna talk much about the situation in the Ukraine because I'm not a journalist or an expert on European geopolitics. I am anti-war, pro-democracy, and I'm getting really sick of constantly having the world change for the worse. That's where I am on that subject.

This is not the kind of blog that hyperfixates on the state of the world regarding COVID or ongoing wars. I'm just trying to make art and sometimes banana bread.

I hope that's alright.

Anyways!

So I'll be continuing to work on Squares, versioning it up until it's 100% done, and then I'll post the finished piece!

It's been snowing a lot here, so the plows have been going by a lot, and between the noise of the plows & the wind, and the yo-yo temperatures, I'm constantly wiped. I'll be back on schedule soon, though, I think! Can't wait to tell you all the stories of my cat, the ducks, the crows, the deer, and just general blatheriness!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC