Everyday Goddess

Celtic Medallion - The Second Ring

And I decided to some of the outlining as I go, so I finished up the very middle:

You can see the before shot of the middle here: Celtic Medallion - Just The Middle.

Celtic Medallion - Just the Middle

Someday, someday, it will be this:

And Then There was Knitting. Badly.

I guess I was stitch-inspired by my little cross-stitch dragonfly project, because I picked up my almost completed Shrug This (free pattern at link) and finished it off. For my teddy bear, apparently.

 

You know, it occurs to me that perhaps my hatred of swatching is why my knitting is not as prolific as I might wish. I'd realized when I completed the sleeves on this thing that it was not the right size, which is why I'd put it down. And then I just decided to tear through the bottom to see just how bad it was. It's this bad:

Hey, maybe I actually love swatching so much that this is actually just a full-sized project swatch.

I mean, I do know that I need to check gauge, but there's a part of me that can't get past the fact that I'm using the exact needle size (10 1/2) and yarn size (Aran) that the pattern indicates, so how off could it possibly be? Well... apparently it's supposed to be 12 stitches = 4" in stockinette. And mine is 12 (13?) stitches = 3" in stockinette. Oy vey.

I do like the pattern, and I've got tons of this yarn that a friend gave me, so I think I'm going to leave this one done and whip up another with size 11 needles.

And I'm totally not knitting up a swatch first. How bad could it be?

UPDATE: Yeah, the 11s didn't feel right, so I did pull out a ruler, and I'm going up to 13s. Sigh.

Cross Stitching Dragonfly Daydreams

My friend Marlisa has a home full of beautiful cross-stitch. When I visited her recently I was charmed by it all. I even took a gander at my wedding gift to her, which was a cross-stitch I'd done and had professionally framed. I remembered how much I enjoyed doing counted cross stitch for years and years.

When I stopped stitching I was just at the point where I was beginning to create my own designs. In film school there basically wasn't time for anything besides school stuff, and then when I got to L.A. I got interested in knitting. So I've been doing that for a while now, and I enjoy it, but seeing all the wonderful stitcheries at Marlisa's...

Well, I came home and pulled out a little counted cross stitch kit I'd bought on a whim at some point: Daydreams By Debbie Mumm. Here's how mine came out:

 

The kit whips up quite quickly and comes with an ingenious little frame:

 

I haven't figured out where I'm going to put it yet, but it's been a nice diversion when I needed to relax. Like most things unrelated to my career, I won't be able to do it uber regularly, but the good thing about cross stitch is that I find it easier to do than knitting while I watch TV - If you lose your place while you're watching, you can quickly find it again. Some people can see their knitting that way, but I've never been able to.

So I went and ordered another cross-stitch that's a larger, long-term project so I won't feel able to plow through it: Celtic Medallion

I've decided to really focus on my sketching and story boarding through the end of the year, but this will give me something non-career related to do as well. I thought the mandala aspect of it would be good for thinking.

I am going to need to rig up a thread sorter before I start if it doesn't come with something. Ah, it's all coming back...

My Weekend of Yarn and Art

Well, OK. The Unwind Anniversary Event was actually on Thursday, but it feels like it was part of the weekend at large, say.

I've realized, too, that rather than blog in this space about things that I go to, it seems to make more sense to me to use Flickr for that. Rather than Flickr and then I'm republishing the pics here with similar discussion. So I've updated my Unwind Anniversary Event Flickr pics with some commentary.

Basically, I had a great time meeting cool knitting peeps and coveting much yarny goodness. Here's what I came home with:

It is a bit more than I planned. (My friend Melise just noticed I made a second purchase!) I feel good about it, though, because it's not overboard, and I'd been wanting the red thread socks for ages. Although I think I'm going to try the other sock pattern first because I'm so loving the Apple Hill colorway from Lorna's Laces. Can you tell I'm all about the Lorna's Laces???

The other cool thing I did this weekend was the 9th Anniversary show at Wax Poetic. Which I will not be directing you to a Flickr set because I swear every picture I took is crap. I've just realized that in low light when the flash is blowing everything out I can adjust the exposure to compensate for the flash... except when I do that I'm learning that the image in the view screen on the camera does not match the actual picture when I import. The actually picture is much darker.

So anyway, all the pics I took suck except for this one of the new Raskoe mural:

 

It was a fun night, too, because I was there with some friends - besides my friends at the salon - so we hung out and talked and that was cool. All in all it's been really great to do some fun things in the middle of a very busy January. It's nice that my work and my play have been so rewarding so far this month.

Ravelry Peeps!

Full Unwind Anniversary Party story to come; pics up on Flickr.

Me with Jess and Casey from the most awesome online social networking site: Ravelry!

This is the problem with scarves.

Dork!

Celeste, me, and Zandria at BlogHer '08 about to head off for the Nintendo cruise!

Also the moment I decided I'm done with bangs. No matter how much I curl them under I get wings. I hate bang wings!

I've fallen in love with a pattern named Jeanie, and I want to knit it in Smooshy.

You have to understand. My most favoritist things in knitting are cables and drop stitches. I *love* cables and drop stitches. And my favoritist fiber is Merino wool.

Now go look at this pattern that has descended from heaven down unto Knitty, named: Jeanie.

My. Knitting. Heaven.

And it looks challenging, too. Oh, I must knit it! I must knit it!

I tried to use stash yarn; I really did.  But I can already tell that it's not going to cut it. It's too stringy and unpleasant in my hands. A shawl is a big project, requiring yarn that calls you to it day after day.

That's it, I thought. I'm just going to buy the yarn the pattern calls for: Smooshy from Dream in Color. It's only three skeins.

Holy crap, it's over $20/skein. Eek!

I guess I'm going to power on with my stash yarn, or find a cheaper substitute after the holidays.  Sigh.

I don't want to leave my house, and I don't want to sleep.

Seriously.

Between the Tivo just bursting with shows, and the new computer, and the urge to write, and the urge to read, and the urge to clean, AND...

I just got my membership email from Ravelry!!!

Last night I filled in my bio and uploaded some information about my knitting library and my stash - but with the WIPs!  And the FOs!  And the pictures!

WIP = work in progress; FO = finished objects.

And Ravelry uses Flickr, so Flickr it is. I am desperate to get up pictures!!!

Yeah, I've got a hot Saturday night planned, baby.

Waiting on the Ravelry. And waiting. And waiting.

Seriously.  People be blogging about it, and I be waiting.  Painfully waiting.

Are you a knitter?  Have you heard about Ravelry?

Ravelry is a place for knitters, crocheters, designers, spinners, and dyers to keep track of their yarn, tools and pattern information, and look to others for ideas and inspiration.

The content here is all user- driven; we as a community make the site what it is. The Yarn Harlot wrote recently about Representing, showing the world the power of our community, and I believe that on this site we can really show the strength of our numbers and the depth of our creativity.

So what can you personally do on Ravelry? You can talk about your own projects, integrate that information into your personal website and contribute to someone else's project a world away.

If you are not a blogger, we give you a great way to share and show off your projects, participate in -alongs, and socialize with other crafters. If you are a blogger than Ravelry is the perfect complement to your online journal; it provides structure and organization. All of your information is easy to enter and easy to find. You will not need to update your own FO album again- it is all here on Ravelry!

But.  It's still in beta, and you have to sign up and get into the queue.  And then with the waiting.

At least you can look up where you are in line:

Found you!

• You signed up on July 19, 2007
• You are #18881 on the list.
• 8948 people are ahead of you in line.
• 8808 people are behind you in line.
• 35% of the list has been invited so far

Sigh.

But hey, blogger peeps, just keep on posting about how awesome it is.  WE DON'T MIND.

;)