Sunday, January 31, 2010

Jayne's Hat

Any Firefly fans out there?
Watch out. It's Daniel "Cobb"

A few years ago my housemate Daniel had me watch the entire series with him. Excellent series. So when Daniel's birthday came up I asked if he'd like me to make something. He had a little spasm when he realized I could make Jayne's hat for him.


His birthday and Christmas are within two weeks of each other, so this hat counted as both gifts. It would seem like giving one gift for both a birthday and Christmas would be cheating. Not so. I told him I bought him the yarn for his birthday and knit the hat for Christmas.

A few days after getting the hat, Daniel was listening to some sort of podcast (I forget which) and called me up when he learned that in the movie Serenity, the crashed ship on the Planet Miranda was numbered C-57D. That is the same number as a ship in Forbidden Planet. Fun little factoid.

After he told me, I asked, "Were you wearing the hat?"
Daniel: "...yes."

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Granny Square Slippers

Tada! I've finished the Granny Square Slippers. The pattern is by The Purl Bee.
Stylin'

Too bad they don't fit me. I didn't check my gauge mostly because I was using the pattern in order to show Lindsey how to crochet. I'm not too disappointed though. It'll be fun to give them away to a friend.
I call these the Elven Slippers

Saturday, January 23, 2010

It's Hip To Be A Square

I've been debating whether or not to start a Granny A Day since I've got a stash of acrylic yarn I need to bust. It's my own fault. I have a hard time not buying yarn when I see it at the thrift store.
The acrylic level of The Stash is overflowing

Of course doing a granny a day is no fun without having a friend to do it with. So I spent the day teaching Lindsey how to make grannies.
Crocheting Fiend

We've decided to start with a smaller project first. The Granny Square Slippers by The Purl Bee. I only recently learned how to make a granny square and Lindsey learned today. Pretty good for a first try.
My first square and and Lindsey's first square

Scooter joined in the fun as well
Scooter learns to crochet

It briefly cleared up today, so I got to do a quick photo shoot for the fox hat.
Foxy

I think I'd like to do a few woodland creature hats. Although I'm not sure what animals I should go with. Any suggestions would be helpful. So far I'm thinking about doing a bear hat and a raccoon hat.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

You Must Like Metallica

I was looking at my itunes to see what kind of music they thought I might like. It was all fun and games until I saw this.
As far as I can tell, the only thing that Nevermind and Metallica (self titled) have in common is that they were released the same year. Way to go itunes. Way to go. Apparently I might like albums released in 1991.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Rain Rain Go Away

I've finished the Sheep Hat that I mentioned in an earlier post and a Fox Hat. Unfortunately, it's been too rainy to take pictures. So until the rain lets up, I'll leave you all with a fun picture I took the other day.
To see you better with, my dear

Friday, January 15, 2010

Scooter is Back

Scooter has come back to visit. He usually stays with my parents, but they were going out of town, so I get him again. I tried to get a good picture of him today, but he was busy pouting.
Pouty Scooter

I thought I'd share some of my drawings of him. Whenever he is gone, I start comparing all sorts cute creatures, real or otherwise.
From my moleskine

Scooter isn't always so pouty. He loves to run. And not come back. He's an explorer at heart.
Scooter at the beach

In other news, I've been knitting crazily, but most of my projects still need pieces added before they are complete. I'm hoping to have two complete hats by Wednesday. But until then, here is a picture of the Woodland Hat in progress.
It's been slow going

Monday, January 11, 2010

Moleskine Passport

I was so inspired by HelloSandwich's post on making a Moleskine passport, that I just had to make my own.
New Zealand recently redesigned their passport. So of course I had to have a New Zealand moleskine passport.
New Zealand Moleskine Passport

I drew on my black moleskine using a fine metallic silver primacolor premier marker. Doing a draft on the moleskine with pencil didn't work, so I just freehanded it. The front of the moleskine was then covered in mod podge to keep the pen from smearing.

I found one other person who did a moleskine passport. Fake Glue on flicker did a Russian moleskine passport.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Baa Baa White Sheep

It's official, I will be doing an independent study as one of my classes this quarter. I'll be knitting/ writing patterns. I'm so excited! Here is the beginnings of the Sheep Hat.


So many loops

I made one for my Dad over winter break, but I''m checking over the pattern as I knit it. I've already made a few adjustments. While I'm knitting the Sheep Hat, I'm also working on the design for the Woodland Hat. I've gotten the yarn already (which influenced the look of my blog...) and I'm working on the color graph.

Universal Yarn Inc. - Cotton Supreme

I bought the yarn with only color in mind. The hat is going to be more of a hood, but I'm a little worried that the shape won't come out as well as I am envisioning. I guess there is only one way to find out.

Monday, January 4, 2010

First Finished Object of 2010

My very first FO (finished object to all the non knitters/crocheters out there) of the new year is a companion piece to the Chameleon Mittens. I give you the Chameleon Hat.

Modeled by the ever talented Brennan

It knitted up very quickly. Although I had a mild issue with my gauge and hat to take a bit of the hat apart in order to make it deeper. The hat took a little more than one hank of Wisdom Yarns - Poems, color 473. I plan on giving the hat to my friend Upside Dan. I hope the hat fits him fine. I think it will because it fits Brennan just fine and Brennan has a big head.

Brennan is wondering when I'll finish the Raccoon Hat I promised him

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Felting

I've always admired Dadaya's felted and embroidered mittens. Although, I have no idea if they were knitted then felted or felted straight from wool batt. After finding an excellent tutorial on felting from batt I thought I'd give it a go. A friend let me know that I could easily find wool batt at the local farmer's market. (I conveniently live less than a block from it, but I usually spend the morning avoiding the crowd). So I bought a half a pound of the wool batt and got going.
Scooter is "helping" me by sitting on the batt.

I followed the instructions and made a resist out of foam. Then I put four layers of batt above and below it.
Ready to Felt

After two hours of struggling and making a giant lake in the kitchen, I had these.
Felted

I spent another hour felting them a bit better. Unfortunately they were a bit thin in places and a little tight around the wrists.
Thin Mitts

On my second attempt I made the resist bigger and used six layers of batt in order to rid myself of the pesky holes. The result is what I like to call the Oven Mitts.
Oven Mitts

Not quite as cute as the first pair.

I have decided to see if I can get a better result by knitting some mittens, then felting them. So today I bought some wool at the farmers market.
Corriedale Wool

I got the wool from the same vendor I got the batt from. Yolo Wool Mill. I hope this attempt goes a bit better.
Scooter hopes the felting goes well too.

Friday, January 1, 2010

New Year

A New Year and a New Decade.
This past year has been much quieter than the previous year in terms of traveling. But I still did quite a bit. Here's a bit of reflection.

Five cool things that happened in 2009

Our house hosted 15 shows. Over the course of these shows we had around 48 bands come to play (although some played more than one show). Here's a little sampling of who played in no particular order: unkuT:Hunks, Love Songs, Paleo, Woman Year, Ribbons, Nat Lefkoff, BOATS!, Sterling Riot, and many others.
Sterling Riot

Brennan (my housemate) and I started drawing our daily comics on April 22nd. We've both been successfully keeping up with drawing a comic day thus far.
I do a three panel comic every day.

I participated in my first art show called Cretures of the 4est and empierrrr. I displayed 10 of my paintings. And within a month had sold 9 of them.
My Mushroom Paintings. Gauche on wood.

The Shack inhabitance (my housemates and honorary housemates) made wine for the second year in a row from the grape vine that is growing in our backyard.
All the grapes from our vine

I got to see James Kochalka perform live. He is perhaps best known for his daily comic that he has been keeping for over 10 years. American Elf.
We are Dragonpunching. (Kochalka is second from the left)

I do have a few goals for 2010.

1. Keep this blog updated.
2. Make a portfolio site for my work.
3. Have a daily comic site up.
4. Publish and sell some knitting patterns.
5. Learn how to spin wool.
6. Graduate. Find a job/ internship/ something to pay the bills.

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