Stephanie Flynn at Rossiter Designs is giving away some really nice Celtic cross-stitch designs in January. They're all so beautiful I had an awful time deciding which one I'd like the most. I finally settled on the Celtic Sampler; I really love the knotwork.
If you'd like to enter as well the rules are posted here on Stephanie's blog.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Thursday, December 30, 2010
You say potato, I say YARN BOWL!
I was having my morning browse at Craftgossip and found this awesome fabric bowl. Of course, the first thing that sprang to my mind was, "Hey, that would make an awesome yarn bowl!" (The second was that it would make a cool washable bread basket for the dinner table.)
The tutorial by Jennifer is available at Sew, Mama, Sew! I'm going to whip out my fabric scraps and try it right away since I already have the sewing machine set up for ornament finishing. (Finishing is the wrong word for it. I'm never gonna be finished.) One of these would be really cute filled with pinecones for Christmas. Or gelt at Hanukkah. Easter eggs, Valentines candies, apples in the fall...I can see it now. I'm going to end up with about a hundred of these.
I also have a nifty idea for a variation: I'm going to get some little sew-on snaps and do snap-together corners instead of sewn. This will have a couple of advantages: they'll be easier to wash and iron and they'll be able to store flat; a particular advantage for the seasonal bowls I'm sure to make. I'll post pics (sort of, the Canon is still sickly) and let y'all know how the snaps turn out!
PS - I just realized since the pattern uses heavy interfacing I could foundation quilt or crazy quilt the top layer. Somebody stop me!
PPS - The snaps will also allow you to use the corners as a yarn guide without being tied to the bowl. Genius!
In the New Year: Trying this Again
I am unlocking the blog for two reasons. One, I want a place to stash my knitting and crocheting pictures and musings and this is a good place to do it. Two, I want my patterns to be available to the crocheting public.
Here's the deal. Comments are on, but they are being moderated. Abusive comments will be deleted with extreme prejudice and without response. I welcome reasoned debate and grammatical quibbling. If you find a mistake in a pattern please comment or email or both.
(Speaking of mistakes in patterns - there seems to be a mistake in the Kaleidoscope Beret. I'll find it and fix it as soon as I have a spare moment to pick up a hook.)
Thank you all for your support and have a very happy New Year!
Here's the deal. Comments are on, but they are being moderated. Abusive comments will be deleted with extreme prejudice and without response. I welcome reasoned debate and grammatical quibbling. If you find a mistake in a pattern please comment or email or both.
(Speaking of mistakes in patterns - there seems to be a mistake in the Kaleidoscope Beret. I'll find it and fix it as soon as I have a spare moment to pick up a hook.)
Thank you all for your support and have a very happy New Year!
Monday, June 14, 2010
Randomness
I just realized that I haven't even been keeping up with once a month posts. So here's my update, in no particular order.
1. Google analytics is really frelling annoying today. It's made Ravelry unusable and is probably going to make this post shorter than usual. I'm not even sure of what I need to do to make it stop. I did run malware/virus scans and nothing came up.
2. I'm back into the RP swing on Star Pirates. I really enjoy RPing with that crew. Collaborative writing is a kick in the pants, both in the sense of being a lot of fun, and in the sense that it gets me motivated to actually write (and even more importantly, edit).
3. I want to knit. This is inconvenient because I'm supposed to be putting a crochet blanket together for Leah's birthday (Saturday), I have a shawl half-finished (Converted Shipwreck), and I have a really cool idea for another shawl/throw. I think I need to work out a reward system with myself.
4. I have an essay sketched out on late Victorian action adventure movies. I promise It won't turn out to be a rant, I'm a better writer than that. (Okay, maybe a little rant. Just a skosh.)
5. I'm gonna shoot somebody at google analytics with a dirty sock gun. This isn't funny.
6. I will add links to this post once I get the google problem sorted out.
*wanders off grumbling*
ETA: I finally got google analytics sorted out. I ended up having to install NoScript. It makes things a tidge slower, but it's totally worth it.
1. Google analytics is really frelling annoying today. It's made Ravelry unusable and is probably going to make this post shorter than usual. I'm not even sure of what I need to do to make it stop. I did run malware/virus scans and nothing came up.
2. I'm back into the RP swing on Star Pirates. I really enjoy RPing with that crew. Collaborative writing is a kick in the pants, both in the sense of being a lot of fun, and in the sense that it gets me motivated to actually write (and even more importantly, edit).
3. I want to knit. This is inconvenient because I'm supposed to be putting a crochet blanket together for Leah's birthday (Saturday), I have a shawl half-finished (Converted Shipwreck), and I have a really cool idea for another shawl/throw. I think I need to work out a reward system with myself.
4. I have an essay sketched out on late Victorian action adventure movies. I promise It won't turn out to be a rant, I'm a better writer than that. (Okay, maybe a little rant. Just a skosh.)
5. I'm gonna shoot somebody at google analytics with a dirty sock gun. This isn't funny.
6. I will add links to this post once I get the google problem sorted out.
*wanders off grumbling*
ETA: I finally got google analytics sorted out. I ended up having to install NoScript. It makes things a tidge slower, but it's totally worth it.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Dumbest Thing Said By a TV Sportscaster Today
NHL Network reporter to Teemu Selanne: So I suppose you're aware of all 600 goals you've scored.
No, dumbass, they were a complete surprise to him. In fact, they didn't tell him about it until after he scored the 600th one tonight so they wouldn't spoil the surprise party the other Ducks players had all planned for him. Oy vey.
Congrats, Teemu. Go drink your champagne.
(I'm contemplating making this a recurring theme, but 1) I don't want to be known as that crazy chick making fun of retired athletes and 2) it's too much like shooting fish in a barrel.)
No, dumbass, they were a complete surprise to him. In fact, they didn't tell him about it until after he scored the 600th one tonight so they wouldn't spoil the surprise party the other Ducks players had all planned for him. Oy vey.
Congrats, Teemu. Go drink your champagne.
(I'm contemplating making this a recurring theme, but 1) I don't want to be known as that crazy chick making fun of retired athletes and 2) it's too much like shooting fish in a barrel.)
Monday, March 8, 2010
WIPs (writing style)
I don't even want to talk about the stalled fiber projects I have hanging around. I do, however, want to get some of my thoughts about what I'm writing organized.
The horror story I wrote a couple of weeks ago is still sitting. I have character backgrounds in my head, and a rough idea of some story to go forward on. I don't think it's book-quality work, however I think it may be weird enough and engaging enough for a web serial. Watch this space for details. (My life is a funny thing. I was contacted last week by one of the people that I based a minor character on. He was even weirder than the story. Go figure.)
I don't write much fantasy anymore. Certainly not the sword and sorcery type that I loved when I was younger. I don't read much of it either unless it's mixed into a volume of short stories. It's possible that The Unschooled Wizard was the last fantasy book I read, unless you count Conan. Now that I think about it The Unschooled Wizard and Conan fit into the same subgenre of fantasy, a subgenre to which I would also add Jennifer Roberson's Sword Dancer series.
But the two fantasy stories I have bouncing around in my head don't fit into that category. One is a oddball combination of Shadowrun (post-awakening magical world without the anarchy) and coming-of-age that would probably fit best as a Young Adult novel, though I am trying to avoid angst in favor of more interesting conflicts. The other is...well, it's not fully formed yet, but it's a feminist take on the old prince marries girl stories. No, strike that -- not feminist, humanist. I want to write a fairy tale where the main characters have enough good sense to be disagreeable at times, and to fight the roles they're being forced into.
Romeo Falling is as it has been -- constantly in the back of my mind. It's a sort of incorporeal worry stone; I take it out and run it through my mind to distract myself from being worried or stressed. The title, which it has borne for almost ten years, has to go. It in no way describes what's happening. What's falling is Carly, the main character, and I don't know that she ever really hits bottom (though she repeatedly thinks she does). I dislike (due to overuse) the phrase "down the rabbit hole" and I'd rather think of freefall in space, though that metaphor for what's happening to Carly falls apart quickly. The most frustrating thing about that story, though, is that I have the entire thing outlined, which is usually the hard part for me. It's the writing that's proving problematic.
And that brings me to the work that I'm avoiding now by writing this blog post.I have never written a hard science fiction story. Correction, "Cold Dawn" is clearly hard SF, even if it happens to be 40K style. Cyberpunk has been more my thing, and borderline SF/fantasy. Psychers appeal to me, as do netrunners. I haven't the faintest idea how to write an alien. As of this story I'm trying anyway. What's more, I'm throwing the whole book of hard SF issues into it: FTL travel, colonization of other planets by humans, first contact, wars...you name it, it wants to be there. The work in this one will be the research. I have to decide which rules to bend to make it plausible, I have to map out alien psychologies. On top of all that -- wait for it -- I have three groups of characters I want to follow. It's a Game Master's nightmare and I'm doing it to myself. (Though it can't possibly be as bad as having a character set on a suicide for which an entire audience wants to lynch you because they blame the GM. At least I hope it won't be that bad.) Oh, and I need a linguist, because I sure as hell am not going to be able to make up convincing alien names. Maybe I'll just make 'em all speak Portuguese.
Okay, enough avoidance. My brain has wandered off to a planet that Terra has colonized for farming, and my fingers are cold from typing in front of a draft. I'll write if I find work...or if I find a plausible story in this drek.
Cheers,
M
The horror story I wrote a couple of weeks ago is still sitting. I have character backgrounds in my head, and a rough idea of some story to go forward on. I don't think it's book-quality work, however I think it may be weird enough and engaging enough for a web serial. Watch this space for details. (My life is a funny thing. I was contacted last week by one of the people that I based a minor character on. He was even weirder than the story. Go figure.)
I don't write much fantasy anymore. Certainly not the sword and sorcery type that I loved when I was younger. I don't read much of it either unless it's mixed into a volume of short stories. It's possible that The Unschooled Wizard was the last fantasy book I read, unless you count Conan. Now that I think about it The Unschooled Wizard and Conan fit into the same subgenre of fantasy, a subgenre to which I would also add Jennifer Roberson's Sword Dancer series.
But the two fantasy stories I have bouncing around in my head don't fit into that category. One is a oddball combination of Shadowrun (post-awakening magical world without the anarchy) and coming-of-age that would probably fit best as a Young Adult novel, though I am trying to avoid angst in favor of more interesting conflicts. The other is...well, it's not fully formed yet, but it's a feminist take on the old prince marries girl stories. No, strike that -- not feminist, humanist. I want to write a fairy tale where the main characters have enough good sense to be disagreeable at times, and to fight the roles they're being forced into.
Romeo Falling is as it has been -- constantly in the back of my mind. It's a sort of incorporeal worry stone; I take it out and run it through my mind to distract myself from being worried or stressed. The title, which it has borne for almost ten years, has to go. It in no way describes what's happening. What's falling is Carly, the main character, and I don't know that she ever really hits bottom (though she repeatedly thinks she does). I dislike (due to overuse) the phrase "down the rabbit hole" and I'd rather think of freefall in space, though that metaphor for what's happening to Carly falls apart quickly. The most frustrating thing about that story, though, is that I have the entire thing outlined, which is usually the hard part for me. It's the writing that's proving problematic.
And that brings me to the work that I'm avoiding now by writing this blog post.
Okay, enough avoidance. My brain has wandered off to a planet that Terra has colonized for farming, and my fingers are cold from typing in front of a draft. I'll write if I find work...or if I find a plausible story in this drek.
Cheers,
M
Monday, February 15, 2010
Quote of the Day
Almost anything carried to its logical extreme becomes depressing, if not carcinogenic.
~Ursula K. LeGuin in the introduction to The Left Hand of Darkness
~Ursula K. LeGuin in the introduction to The Left Hand of Darkness
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