Fiber Monday

 

In Which There Is Progress:

I've been working hard on everything and I'm happy to say that I had a great time at the Knitting Circle on Saturday. I managed over 500 stitches just while walking (I only did so when there was a straight area with no fellow pedestrians, driveways, or road crossings), and I ended up with 2400 stiches or so on each the gusset and pocket!

Top Right: finished front panel (80 rows x 50 stitches + 1 3/4 round single
Center Diagonal: gusset in-progress (over 2250 stitches of 15sc rows)
Bottom Left: back/flaps in-progress (over 2250 stitches of 50sc rows)

I'm not done, but it's seeming like I'll actually finish, at this rate. I'm also working on a top, but that is in very very early stages and just looks like a tangle of red. I am very excited to be making so much progress, and oh boy am I even more excited to *finish* these projects!

I've started patterning another pouch, too, but that'll be the last thing I make for the Ren-Faire, I think. I'm just about stitched-out lol.

I am also a bit excited to talk about my week tomorrow, but that's not entirely crochet-related, so we'll talk about that then.

For now, I'm going to keep working hard, and hopefully I'll have some finished stuff to show you on the 28th!

That'll do it for me.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which It Is Raining

Today's weather has been absolutely fall-like (which I'm very okay with). I'm in terry capris and a flannel shirt over a tank top, and I have been holed up in my room most of the day.

I'm so okay with that!

Today was rainy and windy and gray, and it was the perfect day to cozy up in my blanket fort and untangle a skein of yarn that I am now splitting the strands of. It's a cake of It's A Wrap, so that's not exactly hard, since it's just four strands held together to begin with. I'm not looking forward to dealing with the damaged strands, but eh, that's life.

I did 100 more stitches on each of the parts to the pouch today, too.

I also played a lot of Stardew Valley.

My farmer has a roommate! Yeah, I chose the bachelor option with having Krobus the Shadowguy merchant move in with you! Which means I demolished that friggin crib posthaste. Krobus is a premium roommate - he makes breakfast (fried eel! strange buns!), he brings in a little house plant to share with you, and he gives great hugs.

10/10 would roommate again.

I kind of wish that you could get Linus to move into one of your little multiplayer cabins for the winter or something.

I've made this playthrough specifically to make friends with The Weird Ones - Linus, Krobus, Rasmodius, etc. I have accidentally also maxxed out Friendship with Sandy, but that works for me. I'm always a bit alarmed by how easy it is to get Emily to her first cutscene.

Anyway, all I need are 2 more apples and I'll be done with the Community Center by the end of Year 2! Sadly, no one is willing to sell me apples, and my bats are apparently obsessed with Salmonberry, Blackberry, and Spice Berry...

Also I have a chicken named Frozzy and a Duck named Junabell. I love them.

But enough about the game, here's the plan for the next couple days:

1) paint something for Thursday!

2) work on more crochet!

3) sew the pocket linings for both Z's pouch and mine.

4) cuddle the cat.

I have great plans :P

I think that'll about do it for tonight!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which I... Didn't do much today...

So I promise, I made progress since last week on my pouch! It's just.... not a ton.

The front panel is now finished, at least.

I even did a border around it to round the bottom corners and even things up.

Sure, it's upside down, but it's done!

The panel itself is 50 stitches across by 80 rows, plus three sides bordered in single crochet with 3sc in each corner and one stitch per stitch or row. This means that the gusset, which will be 10 stitches across, will need to be about... 212 rows? Thereabouts? And the back & flap section will need to be about... 115/120 rows? Plus a button hole? I'll know more later, when I've finished all three parts. Then I'll make some sort of strapping system (probably starting with a pair of 5 stitch wide loops to put belts/straps through)

After all three panels (front, back, gusset) and the loops are finished, I'll stain them brown somehow and then sew on the leaf detail on the flap and sew all three panels & loops together. Hopefully it works.

If it doesn't, I'll make a shoulder strap and it'll be a purse.

One way or another, this will be finished by the end of the coming month. It has to be lol.

There are other projects I'm working on, but they're secondary.

I think that'll do it for tonight!

I hope you're all working on creative things and they're all going well!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which Progress Is Being Made...
Slowly

It never fails to shock me how long a rectangle can take to come together in crochet. I've got more added to the pouches since last time we chatted, but most of my time has been taken up by making a stab or six at a dragon companion.

At first I wanted to make this fellow, and I still love him a lot, but he's rather... big. And I have very limited supplies. Instead, I'm going to try to make this little beastie. My first problem is this: I only had 1 shade of purple worsted weight yarn, and it was very dark. I wanted that for my dragon's body, but some variation would be very nice, so I went hunting in the yarn piles for another purple.

A sample of my basic purple, partly worked into a soon-to-be frogged star blanket

Now, I could not find a second shade of purple. I only have the one dark color, and I needed some sort of contrast.

I found no acceptable yarn in ball, cake, or tangle form.

What I did find, however, was a lovely handmade sweater from my mother's mother with a disastrous pick in the front, a size or two too small for me, and in a shade of purple that, while lovely, makes me look unwell when I wear it.

So I found one of the knots inside the seams and picked it free.

And now I've frogged the entire right front panel of the sweater and caked that panel into a usable ball!

As you may be able to guess, there's a lot of sweater left to frog

I will be balling the yarn from this sweater and also from a nice red fair isle sweater she gave me that has a moth hole and a few missing buttons. Both are acrylic, so I will be able to reuse the yarn for plenty of different projects. For now, the purple sweater is becoming a dragon's tummy.

Working from a video is not particularly easy, especially since I'm bad at going back & forth, keeping up with instruction, etc. Also, Chrome likes to make YouTube forget where I was in the video so I have been writing down what round I'm on.

I don't have progress pics of the worsted version of this dragon yet, but when I do, you'll all see them!

For now, I've got some old episodes of America's Most Wanted and a cup of chamomile tea to keep me company as I dismantle more of this poor old sweater.

I hope you guys are having a good time working on all of your projects, and I hope you

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which This Week is Heavy

So. My father has COVID.

I live with my parents.

Thus, I am currently in Quarantine, hoping I don't catch it.

It'll be hard to tell - my allergies are awful lately (the damp really aggravates them), and hand sanitizer/cleaning supplies make my sinuses itch & ache, so uh... yeah. Not gonna be fun.

We're taking precautions - Clorox everywhere, hand sanitizer, masks, hand-washing, ventilation (despite the rain) - but man, could we, collectively, catch a break, here?

I've got friends down with the 'Rona, my dad's down with it, my mom and I are doing our best to avoid it, and I don't get to hang out with my partner this week, which makes sense but sucks, and all of this is not fun at all.

I'm trying to stay upbeat and trying to keep my mind occupied. I have crochet, Tears of the Kingdom, books, art...

And I should be fine. Vaxxed to the gills, taking precautions, avoiding standing too close to people.

If I can, I think I'll go outside tomorrow. I might be able to sneak in some outside time between thunderstorms.

Besides brief forays outside, my plans for tomorrow include... art, really. I have some ideas I'd like to try out - some are fanart (not all Zelda-related, believe it or not), and some are just ideas I've had. We'll see. Optimally, I'll get some sleep tonight and wake up refreshed enough to paint like crazy. Maybe I'll even be able to finish some really good ones and scan them!

Maybe nothing will get done - maybe I'll stare at blank pages and wish for better luck.

I'll probably paint though.

Regardless, you'll hear from me on Thursday with *something* to post.

And if I finish my art in a way I'm satisfied with, I'm going to read, dammit.

And write. I've been neglecting both since May.

For now, I'm just very sleepy (I did not sleep well last night because of the thunder, rain, and sticky air). I hope I sleep well tonight - it'd be nice if my brain would politely slip into dreamsville on command lol.

With how much I've been crocheting, I'll have the 2nd leaf finished for next Monday, plus I could even get the pouches themselves finished... that's probably overambitious, though, so I'll just aim for leaves lol.

I might also make a leaf crown for myself (or a leaf necklace...), and I am still trying to figure out my Shoulder Dragon concept...

I'll post whatever crochet I do next Monday, then I'll give you life updates next Tuesday.

Tonight is for silly videos and snooziness.

Tomorrow is for art.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which My Energy Has Been Sapped

I went for a walk today. I went for a much longer and warmer walk on Friday, but I walked today, too. It was probably about 3/4 mile round trip, had some hills, and it wore me right out.

Sure, I'll be the first to admit, I'm out of shape, but I'm more tired from today's 3/4 mile walk than I was after Friday's 3.5 mile walk in hot sun. I had to drink three whole bottles of water on Friday, whereas two small glasses satisfied me today. I was sore on Saturday, sure, but I wasn't still tired. Today I'm tired. And it all hit at once about three hours ago. 

I was working on some crochet (which, yes, I flaked on yesterday) when all of a sudden my whole body felt soft and slumped like it usually does when I finally start feeling sleepy around 1AM. It was 5PM. It was not bed time. My mind didn't feel sleepy, either. Strange.

None of my muscles are sore. I don't feel sick, nor do I feel like I'm getting sick. I'm just tired. This is not ideal.

I wanted to read tonight.

I wanted to finish this owl panel I'm working on (not sure what for, just yet).

I wanted to sketch something for Thursday.

I wanted to write more.

What I'll do instead is lie on my back with my laptop balanced on my knees, shoulders & neck propped up by comfy pillows. I'll pour myself a big bottle of water. I'll watch videos with the sound low. I'll do as little as possible until I feel sleep call me, at which point I'll simply obey.

Maybe it's the weather? It's been unusually gray and damp for June. I wore a flannel shirt today, which has been impossible in previous years at this point.

Whatever it is, I'm just going to have to wait til tomorrow to work on art, writing, reading, etc. And that's okay.

What I cannot do now, I will do later. That is life.

Regardless, I do have plans for Thursday's blog, so we'll see how far I get!

And Who knows what next Monday will hold?

If you have any requests for Thursday, don't forget to send me a coffee over on Ko-Fi along with a message telling me which category (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Dedbert, Location, Food, Geometric, Word) you'd like to see, and I'll get it done!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which Today Was... Not That Productive...
Yes Because of Video Games

I'm gonna come right out and say I'm avoiding the Depths, specifically the Minshi Woods Chasm. Yeah, I'm at that point in the game. The reasons are many - I'm afraid of the dark, I don't want to fight the Gloom Hands, my controller drift makes using flying or driving devices really annoying, etc - but honestly, I just wanted to have some more fun in the overworld. Clearing monster camps? Super fun. Teaming up with the Monster Control Squad? A blast. Hunting critters for parts so I can have chonky armor? Delightful. I need more fireproof lizards. I drank most of them not realizing that Goron City doesn't catch you on fire anymore.

Now that I've given you an update on my Tears of The Kingdom progress I've got another confession to make:

I did not draw, paint, crochet, cook, or watch wrestling today. I haven't written. I haven't read.

I barely feel awake, and it's only 8:30pm.

Maybe I'm not at my best.

I am, however, going to be spending tomorrow doing a lot of things besides playing TotK. I plan to go for a walk, despite the mugginess we anticipate. I plan to draw. I plan to paint. I plan to add a few rungs to the belt, though as I continue, I begin to realize that maybe this is not the waistband I should use. I'm beginning to wonder if I should instead just go with a more traditional style of skirt or just make a pair of flaps since I don't really need a full on skirt.

I'll still try to finish that waistband - it can be used for another skirt another time, but I might try other patterns. We'll see.

In art news, the 2-in-1 is back up and running again (or it was yesterday). We replaced the battery (again) so it should be okay.

So if you have any Requests for me, send them as a message along with a coffee on Ko-Fi telling me what category you'd like to see - Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Location, Food, Dedbert, Geometric, or Word - and I'll work on it for Thursday!

I am going to watch some vids and go to bed soon.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which I Am Very Sleepy, but Content.

Last week I was just returned from a trip out of town where I had a lot of fun but didn't get much done. I haven't done a whole lot this week either, unless you count playing Tears of the Kingdom for hours and serving as furniture for my cat. I did go for a nice walk today, added patches to a pair of jeans a couple days ago, painted a tiny piece of art, wrote all of about 1200 words since the 14th in two separate stories (I've gotten some more work done on that wrestling story I've been working on, plus I added more to the other one I've been keeping track of on here!)

Only about 330 of those words are from the piece I've been keeping track of, but that has brought the whole wordcount of that manuscript to a whopping 17650 words!!!

In other news, I got some Crocs as a belated birthday gift from one of my sisters! They're celery green and comfy as heck. Yeah, I'm one of those dorks who wears the Idiocracy shoes. They're comfy.

I'm still trying to figure out how to work on the skirt that I'm trying to make for the Ren Faire in September. Should I make panels and then shrink them down to fit on the waistband? If yes, then I'm thinking I'd make a few different panels, each separated by a braid detail. Maybe animal motifs? I still don't know. We'll have to wait and see how wide the waistband gets. I'm thinking the transition from waistband to panel would be v-stich double crochet, but I'm not sure.

The plan for the rest of the week is to keep making art for Thursday, especially if anyone makes a request via Ko-Fi or commissions me. I will also keep working on the crochet waistband and show any progress I make next Monday. Next Tuesday, I'll be back to blather!

For now, though, I'm probably going to go to sleep, because boy am I tired lol.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which I Have Been Busy lol

I say that I'm busy a lot. This week was a little busier than some, and next week will be even busier - in fact you might not see anything up here next week, because I'll be out of town. As it is, this week, I was busy figuring out ways to get some exposure here in town. I took my art down town and gave some paintings to some cool shop owners and also to the library. I also painted on Main Street, sitting in front of a local tavern and dabbing away with my watercolors.

I even printed off some silly little business cards in case anyone had questions about where I had art.

I have started putting my finished pieces in a binder so they're all together, in case someone wants to ask me about a piece's availability. I've gotten a little more active on Instagram. I've written out my Commission pricing & basic guidelines.

I also finished that pouch yesterday and started on something else. Not sure what it'll be yet.

As for writing, I'm afraid I haven't gotten anywhere near what I'd like. Only 440 this week. That's a full 260 words below what I'd prefer.

On the other hand, I did start a new art shop over on Threadless! I've been thinking about switching from Redbubble ever since they announced their new fee structures, and now I've got a shop live. It only has 6 images so far, and I'm not putting any fan art or Dedbert-related art up there (though I'll take commissions for either!), but it's a fairly decent start. Threadless has a few different requirements for file sizes than RB did, but I can and will make it work. It just means me having to make art... bigger.

Aside from crochet, art, and shopbuilding, I also watched the cat this weekend, so that was a handful, especially when she gave me a heart attack when she vomited and there was blood in the vomit. Yeah, that wasn't fun.

Then I realized that the little dingaling just cut her mouth with some of the sharp sawgrass we have in the yard. At least, we call it sawgrass. It sure sliced us up enough to earn the name. Evie was playing at being a sheep for a bit outside, and I guess during a moment of distraction she'd wandered up to a patch of the sharp stuff and gave it a good chomp. The combo of bleeding gum and rough grass was probably what led to her throwing up. She barfed a couple of other times after the pinkish puddles, and those were all clear. Her appetite is back, too, so that's a good sign.

Sorry for the graphic cat tale, but I had to get it off my chest. Again, she's absolutely fine. She even kicked me off of my own bed today because I couldn't hold my position where she was sleeping on me and in her ire, she kept pushing at me until I got up and gave her my seat lol!

What else happened this week?

Oh! I got an early birthday gift from my mom! She got me a Torvi top from Holy Clothing and it's absolutely gorgeous. I can't believe it's mine!

My goals this week are:

make some more art for Thursday

pack everything I need

do as much as I can to have some blog updates while I'm away

I'd also like to read, though I've been very distracted lately. I want to finish Everybody Knows by Jordan Harper and write a review. It's been amazing so far.

I'm pretty tired tonight, though, so I think I'll let y'all go!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

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

Fiber Monday

 

In Which I Did Some Work!

I think I mentioned on Thursday that last week's Crochet Blog didn't happen due to A Lot Of Reasons, one of which being that I had a gift to make someone!

So here is the gift!

"Sir Batwington" aka "Chonky"

Yes, that is a chubby lil battyboo. Yes, I made him for one of the niblings, who named him Chonky. Because he is Chonky. Heccin Chonky.

Chonky here is made from Red Heart Super Saver yarns, safety eyes, and polyfill. I got the pattern from Sweet Softies and he came together like a dream. If you've got a bat-lover in your life, this pattern's a fantastic option! I'll probably check out other amigurumi on that site in the future.

I have other requests for critters, so I'll get to work on those soon enough, but for now, I'm still working on that Blue Shawl. I only worked on it for 52 minutes this week, but that still brings our total time on this one shawl up to over nine hours!

Future projects may include: a few more Goblin Bags (scrap yarn bags that'll hold random goodies plucked from random places), a couple of water bottle holders from the cotton yarns I've accumulated, possibly another cardigan, possible a shoulder dragon. We'll see.

If I do make the shoulder dragon, I'm going to use it for, of all things, making a cloth pattern so I can sew up an alternate version of it. The cloth dragon will be filled with sand. This is for a character I'd like to work on for either the RennFaire I'm attending in September or possibly future Halloween usage.

Any suggestions for cool looking free dragon crochet patterns would be deeply appreciated. I cannot wait to start working on him.

Anyway, that'll be all from me for now. I know it's late. The day got away from me lol.

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

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which I Have A Very Silly Confession

I... am a klutz. A clod. A total stumblebum.

That last one especially, considering I managed to fall flat on my butt while air guitaring to - of all things - Knights of Cydonia by MUSE.

Yeah.

I'm super hardcore, you guys...

I was wailing away on the ol air guitar, but I'd made a critical error - you cannot air guitar in slide-on slippers, comfy as they are. My foot slipped out at an inopportune moment and I landed hard on my butt. On top of a paperback Diablo novelization I've never finished reading. I immediately got back to my feet and kicked off the slippers, finishing the song and a few more, but uh...

Yeah, it bruised my backside.

And strained my neck and upper back muscles. In fact, it strained those muscles so much that I made myself a little dizzy. The dizziness and stiffness are gone now, but the bruise and some residual soreness remain even now (the tumble was on Saturday night). Today, I am pleased to say that I'm quite comfy and after popping my back (very carefully and during a very gentle stretch) while sorting recycling, my neck soreness is almost entirely gone.

So that's why I needed the heated neck pillow the last couple of nights - my neck muscles were sore and stiff and needed relaxing. Now I'm feeling great.

As for the rest of the news of the week, I'll confess I haven't drawn since Thursday, but the 2-in-1 battery showed up yesterday, so I'll be playing around with digital art tomorrow. If you've got any requests for art, drop me a coffee over on Ko-Fi with a message telling me what category you'd like (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Dedbert, Location, Geometric, Word).

I wrote 186 words tonight, which brings me up to 1219 words this week and nearly 8600 words total! I'm pretty pleased with that progress. I'll be working on the shawl some more tonight before I sleep.

Honestly, I'm pretty sleepy, though, so maybe not.

The plan for the rest of the week is:

Art on Thursday

Crochet on Monday

Blather on Tuesday.

I hope you guys have a good night tonight, and that your creative juices are flowing!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

This Week Has Been Weird

So I normally complain about how tired I am and how I can't sleep and wah wah wah, but man, this week has been * ~ * w E i R d * ~ *

I slept almost all day yesterday. Seriously. Got up at noon. Went to bed at like midnight the night before. Did the same last night and slept til nearly 10AM. It's snowing, so it's all quiet out there like I like.

Don't know what it is about taking care of a couple of very old, shockingly chill (though occasionally naughty/ridiculous) Jack Russels, but I've been helping out on Mondays & Tuesdays, and it has meant totally-zonked Wednesdays and barely-functional Thursdays every time.

Frankly, I'm okay with it. I have rarely slept so well.

Kind of annoying to miss out on a whole day of progress, but that's just life.

Speaking of progress, uh... not much has been made on that shawl. I've worked on it for a total of... less than 20 minutes.

I cannot be sorry about that when I've actually finished three separate pieces of art for you guys today!

"Side Eye"; graphite on sketchbook; 2023 [DEDBERT, ANIMAL]

This first image is a fun little sketch of our boy Dedbert giving a Look to a confused little squirrel. This was composed and sketched during coffee while the snow fell softly, right before the snow stopped, in fact lol! I love drawing little scenarios where Dedbert, who is actually only about the size of my head, is much bigger than other animals. I have a Beanie Baby nearly his size, after all...

"Independence"; Digital; 2023 [WORD] [GEOMETRIC]

Did I use the ol Red White & Blue to signify Independence? Yes. Did I also use the letters of "independence" to plot out the shape here? Yes. It's been a hot minute since I did any bubble art. This one was made in Krita with a few different brushes. Sadly, my 2-in-1 tablet computer croaked, so I did this using my XP-Pen and my normal laptop, which... doesn't always work out great for me. See, when I use Krita on the 2-in-1, it lets me draw around things without buffering. On my laptop, it buffers and that's why the lines are more jagged. It's very frustrating.

You know what isn't frustrating? This last piece:

"Mountaineer"; digital; 2023 [LOCATION]

Oh boy am I satisfied with the way this sky turned out! This is another blender/brush combo experiment and I'm thrilled with how it came out. Especially the way the colors are blended on the mountains. That's the blending stump on Krita used against several other brushes in multiple colors. The sky is all pens with the first wet blender in Krita. The water was made the same way. The trees are several brushes and pencils in shades of green blended down with the cotton bud blender, and the ground is one of the watercolor brushes with a pallet knife blender run around it.

I will keep experimenting with ways to blend colors and build depth, I think, because it's really fun to experiment.

All of these images this week were requested via Ko-Fi, so if you'd like a say in what I paint or draw next week, feel free to drop me a coffee over on Ko-Fi along with a message telling me what category you'd like (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Location, Dedbert, Word, Geometric) and I'll make it happen, no matter what life tries throwing at me. Come dogs or blizzards or insomnia, I will make the art!

Speaking of making art, I have been working on that manuscript, still. Today's word count was a whopping 365! That means that since last Thursday I've gotten 1077 words done. Not as good as some weeks (I missed a few days like yesterday, wrote less than 100 on others) but that's still more than my goal of 700 words a week!

And how about you guys? How have your creative projects been going? Have you guys been getting anything done? Are you looking forward to working on something artistic? I hope so!

As for me, I'm going to go back to bed - yes, I'm still sleepy and cozy and dopey. I'm okay with that. I got three pretty okay pieces of art and over 1000 words done this week. I did good.

And so did you.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which This Is Kind of A Catchup Blog

I'm going to be honest - I didn't draw at all this past week. Sorry. Mostly I have simply been busy and haven't made time like I thought I would. Probably after next week I'll have a better grasp on my art! I do, however, have a series of updates and one quick sketch to put out there for this week!

So, Monday.

I did do a bunch of crochet - in fact, since last week I've worked on that new shawl for almost 2 hours and 10 minutes! That means it's been a total of 5 hours, 8 minutes, and 45 seconds with a 2.75mm hook and lace weight yarn!

Yes, it's very meshy.
Also, yes, I've worn a small patch into the touchpad of my laptop.
That's life.

Now, as for Tuesday blathering, I went on some adventures with my guy and our friends on Valentines to have something of a Palentines Day filled with sushi, burgers, and fun. It was a fantastic trip, I ended up with a massive dark chocolate Kit-Kat, and we got to hang out with cute dogs.

All in all, it's been a fantastic week!

Also, the writing is going pretty good on my manuscript! I had a day where I did no writing (yesterday), but I made up for it last night. In total, I've written 1176 words since last week! And I've got a good idea of where the story is headed, too.

As for art...

I've been bitten by brainworms about a Weird Western idea I had way back in the day regarding a man who was made to look like a demon and had to wander around the desert trying to clear his own name.

Like a lot of story ideas I've had, it's grown up a lot since then, and now I think Devon "The Devil" Deepenham has a deeper well than I'd imagined.

Maybe I won't be as cruel to him as I've been to some of my other characters lately.

That seems unlikely, since the poor man is basically a Frankensteinian monstrosity who escaped an unscrupulous circus sideshow in the twilight of the Civil War...

Anyhow, here's a quick sketch I mocked up of his profile in about 10 minutes:

"The Devil"; pencil sketch; 2023 [ANIMAL]

Oh boy am I not happy with that. I need a lot more practice with profiles before I can get him right. His face is all scrunched up.

Then again, I only gave myself 10 minutes to crank that poor boy out.

I've got work to do with him, especially since I'd really love to figure out a simplified version of him to draw consistently.

He's such a delightfully visual idea.

Next week's looking to be a lot like this week, so I apologize for that, but hey, I'll keep trying to do art no matter what. I can't guarantee it'll be *good* art, though.

Anywho, that'll about do it for me tonight. I have writing to do, sleep to catch up on, and some cranberry/elderberry juice to sip like a fine wine (if you haven't tried it, try it, it's incredible). And if you want a say in next week's art, go ahead and shoot me a coffee over on Ko-Fi with a message telling me which category you'd like - Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Dedbert, Geometric, Location, Word!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

In Which I Have Progressed!

This past week, I have been plugging away at my shawl. While I didn't have any crazy one-hour sessions, I did make some decent progress. Sure, I didn't have a single session longer than 22 minutes, but I did have seven sessions, and at this point, I'm favoring consistency over volume. So here are this week's pictures!

The first video I watched was a 18 minutes, 38 seconds long
and brought me to about 38.5" of width

I made it to 39" wide after a 16 minute, 7 second video

And another 17:53 took me to 43"

+18:48, 43.5"

+13.24, 47"

+20:31, 47.5"

And finally, +21:58 got me to about 49" wide!

My first shawl is a humongous 72" wide (or so, with the lace edging included), but I think this one will be warmer, more compact, and heavier. Perhaps it will stretch much wider.

Now, in case you're curious, I increased the width of my shawl from 36.5" to 49" over the course of about 2 hours, 7 minutes, 19 seconds. That gives me an average increase of approximately 5.9" per hour.

If we do more math (sorry, I'm feeling mathy today, bear with me), we can see that it has taken me 5 hours, 26 minutes, 54 seconds to make a 49" wide shawl, meaning that I can make about 9" of progress every hour. This method of tracking isn't quite accurate, though. Why? Because every single row takes longer to complete than the previous row! There are more stitches in every single row.

So why the math? Because I'm curious how long it takes me to finish a solid double crochet triangle shawl made from a single skein, and the only way to do that is to keep track! It's good to know what you can get done in a time limit and with limited supplies, after all.

I'll have more updates next week, but don't be surprised if it's somehow less work done than this week - I'll be taking the weekend off for family! My yarn and hooks will remain untouched from probably Friday through Sunday. As for tonight, though, I'll be hanging up the yarn until tomorrow. I'm sleepy and chilly and satisfied with today's progress. Actually, I'm wearing the sweater I made last year, so that's a lot of fun!

I'd love to hear how your own projects are going, either in the comments or under wherever you found this blog or heck, even @ me on Twitter (@TheFilthyCasua8)! I am very shy in DMs, though, so if you send me one and I don't respond, it's because I'm in a sweaty mess trying to figure out how to say hello lol.

That'll do it for me tonight.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which Today Got A Late Start

I prefer to wake up around 9AM. Today I woke up after 10AM, which is fine, but my day just refused to start. I have actually been staring at this blank blog page for over an hour, listening to old commercials. I worked on some crochet today, but mostly I've just wanted to go back to sleep.

Seriously.

All I want is to sleep.

But I must finish my gifts. Same story every year.

As for the schedule this week, here we go:

• Art for Thursday - you can have a say in what I make if you send me a coffee on Ko-Fi with a message telling me what category you'd like to see (animal, vegetable, mineral, dedbert, location, geometric, word)
• I'll be continuing to work on gifts & snowflakes so that's what you'll see me talking about on Monday.
• Next Tuesday I'll probably complain and whine about how much work I have left to do leading up to Christmas.

Let's see... what else should I update people on?

Well, I got a new phone back in May and just now activated it. Why did it take 7 months? A couple reasons. One is anxiety - I stress about dumb things (and yes, it was dumb to stress about it), but also because it came with a year of service and I wanted to wait til the last second to roll that service forward. It's done now, and I have to say, new phones are weird. I miss buttons.

Other updates for the week include:

We have lots of deer - saw half a dozen at the bird feeders the other day.

It's been bitterly cold for the last few days, so of course we're getting spring weather again in a couple days...

We had some snow, it's gone now.

I tried a snickerdoodle flavored Lindor Truffle - 8/10 stars. It tastes just like a snickerdoodle cookie dipped in white chocolate and has little crunchy bits in it. Quite good, very sweet.

My cat sees the sun shining during the day and demands to go out. It is too cold to be out for long, so then she whines to come in. It's very cute, especially since she actually wears the sweater I made her.

I think that about covers my week? I'll admit that I just can't sleep enough to feel awake, so my brain is mush (as usual).

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which I Have No Sleep Schedule...

So...

I don't sleep correctly. I try - believe me when I say I do my best to increase my sleep hygiene - but even the Military Method isn't reliable. Maybe it's the squirrelbrain thing I've got going on.

This means that I can't ever predict when I'm going to fall asleep or (more importantly) wake up.

Today I woke up at 10:57AM.

I have not felt awake at any point today, though I do otherwise feel pretty good.

This means that I have finished zero snowflakes today in my Snowmageddon 2022 endeavors. I haven't drawn, I haven't written, and I haven't even planned for anything. I just... flailed around doing self-maintenance (you know, eating and exercising and bathing, that kind of thing...)

It also means that my general cravings for caffeine have been off the charts.

I want coffee. It's 6:30PM. Coffee is a no-no. I will probably have coffee anyway and to hell with trying to sleep lol!

It was a lovely cold day today, too. Temperatures hovered between 30 to 40℉ (-1 to 4℃), the sun shone, the winds were still. It felt like a proper November day in the northeast!

So of course it's going to be anywhere from 40 to 50℉ (4 to 10℃) for the rest of the week with rains, heavy at times, and up to 65mph winds (105kph or so). Dandy.

At least Friday is supposed to be clear.

Speaking of the rest of the week, the plan is thus:

• Carry on with Snowmageddon by crocheting at least 1 snowflake/day until Monday!
• Art for Thursday. I have no plans but I have a new toy to play with so if you have suggestions for me to try out, feel free to buy me a coffee over on Ko-Fi (button in sidebar!) and leave a message with your donation telling me which category you'd like me to make art from. Categories are as follows:
• Animal
• Vegetable
• Mineral
• Dedbert
• Location
• Geometric
• Word
• Get pictures of all the snowflakes for Monday, possibly with some shots of them being blocked!
• Back again to blather on Tuesday :)

Hopefully I can rectify this sleep nonsense (Update: it's after 7 and I never got that coffee. I'm being kind to myself here), but until then, I hope you all...

Go Enjoy Something!

FC