Morgana and Morgause

Last night's costumes were certainly a success: 

Gosh... what awesome costumes. From the top left, Morgana, Morgana, Morgause, Morgause. The hours of hard work we had to go to were well rewarded. 

The halloween party was phenomenal. All of the costumes rocked- from Crazy Cat Lady to Black Widow, but I only got a couple of pictures. Well, I didn't get the pictures. Someone else did, though.

Look! It's a Druid boy! 

Morgana with the giant Domino that's my sister Rebbeca...

My sister in law dressed up as her husband. She looked just like him- freakishly so. 

What fun we had, all topped off with an episode of Merlin with my friends Rose (Morgause) and Atheena while the big people watched a horror movie. 

Hallowe'en

You may have noticed my slightly different header... hopefully it isn't too distracting in its spectacular Halloween-ness.

Though Halloween isn't actually until Wednesday (which is of course the scariest day of the week, made more so this year by it being the celebration of All Hallow's Eve), we are having our Halloween party tonight.

Our Halloween parties started a few years ago. My brother Nate felt sorry for our neighbors, who couldn't go trick-or-treating, so he started up a big fire in the back yard, carved five jack-o-lanterns in about twenty minutes, and got out an array of food including marshmallows and apple cider. We sat around the fire, burning our tongues on hot apple cider and catching marshmallow after marshmallow on fire.

We did that for a few years, the parties slowly getting more and more extravagant (I remember, the year before last we made cupcakes and decorated them to look like monsters, using sliced almonds for facial features... that was a lot of fun). Until last year, when it became, not so much a gathering to eat food and talk, but a party of people eating food and talking and wearing costumes. There were also a lot more people; still just the neighbors, but there were also a few guests; my sister's husband (who was just her boyfriend at that point), said sister's best friend, my oldest brother's wife and her daughter, etc. There were over a dozen things you didn't see on normal occasions: a couple hippies, a gypsy, a puppy, some Disney characters, and Darth Vader being among them.

Now I have to go and make some finishing touches to my costume (I'm one of the few people who actually knows what they're dressing up as)! Happy Halloween!

Ruffle Scarf

Ruffle Scarves seem very in right now- or maybe they aren't and there are just patterns left on Ravelry from when they were in and now they are most definitely out, to use Lemony Snicket's fashion vocabulary.

Even if they are out, I still like the way they look. However, with Christmas fast approaching (Less than two months! Good heavens) I didn't feel I had the time to knit one, not without risking an overload of guilt. But for some reason, crochet is placed in my mind as a craft used for creating circles and quick guilt-free projects. How can you feel guilty when what you're making will only take a day?

Actually my scarf took two days in all, but if I'd sat down and worked on it straight through without taking breaks, I could probably have finished it in just a few hours.

Is it not lovely? When my sister saw it, she said, "Did you make that?" and then a few hours later, she said, "You seriously made that?". These two comments lead me to believe that she was impressed. I would put a smiley face after that but sometimes I find emoticons beneath me. 

While I crocheted, I listened to a great deal of the book Coraline, by Neil Gaiman. I watched the movie Coraline a few years ago and was terrified by it, really really terrified, but despite this I picked the audiobook up from the library, because Neil Gaiman wrote an awesome Doctor Who episode and so I thought, 'surely his books are pretty good.' (He also wrote Stardust, the movie adaption of which is one of my favorite movies ever.) The book is read by the author, which is something one should always be wary of, but Gaiman does a surprisingly good job. Maybe it is the writing style, but something about the way he reads make the book seem very calming. I'll be doing a book review soon. 

There, this picture better shows off the twirly ruffles. 

Almost as soon as I finished this scarf and wore it for a few hours, I cast on for a new cowl. Which is really something I shouldn't do, but I struck a deal with myself: throughout November, I can only, only, only knit Christmas presents. (although I do have a sister whose birthday is in November and she has requested a hat, but that will be an exception.) This will ensure that November will be a terribly stressful month with no rewards (except for a novel and endless bragging rights, of course). Why do I do this to myself? 

Cabled Hat

Until last night, I had never knit a hat before. Or at least, I'd never finished a hat before. All that changed yesterday at about ten o'clock PM.

On Ravelry, I found a pattern for a very simple cabled hat that used bulky weight yarn and big needles. You can get the pattern for free here.

The pattern says to use size 13 needles but I didn't have those, so I just used size 15 and made the smallest size. However, last night at a quarter to midnight when I tried the hat on (I was on the last couple of rounds by then) I found that it was far too short. 

So, this morning I ripped all the decreases out and did another repeat of the pattern, and then finished it up. It's still a little bit short, but only by a few millimeters, and it's very comfortable. 

As I knit it, I wasn't actually thinking about it being my first hat and it wasn't intimidating at all, which was good. I just did what the pattern said and tried to avoid making any alterations to the pattern. I succeeded pretty well I think, and didn't make any mistakes but at the end I had 8 stitches instead of only 6. I can't see anything the would suggest I messed up. 

As this hat only took a total of 3 hours or so, I will definitely be looking at more bulky weight hat patterns. Maybe for the next one I'll even get the gauge right!

Cleanliness... At Last

For the last few weeks, my lair has been a complete mess. It's been so filled with knitting projects and tangled yarn that I could barely get to it. However, i have spent the last two hours cleaning it.

My lair is the space under my bunk bed. It has a desk, a bookshelf, and a massive throw pillow, and the ceiling is so low you pretty much have to be sitting down in order to not hit your head.

But it is the one part of my sister's and my room that is completely mine, and it is my job to keep it clean. I'm very bad at that part. But now, it's clean and hopefully will stay that way until it gets cold and i can actually hang out in there (it's way too stuffy in that cramped space to do so much as a lesson on geometry).

I didn't take any 'before' pictures, but I got plenty of 'after' pictures:

Here's my lair in its entirety. Isn't it amazing? So very cozy. 

My roll top desk, that used to be my sister's. It has a bunch of Shiner bottle caps super glued onto the side, but I don't mind. See all the little bunnies I made?

I made this Merlin paper airplane over a month ago, and it was just sitting on my desk waiting to be tacked to the wall. Its mission in life is now complete.

My reading nook, complete with Doctor Who and Harry Potter posters. 

This is my 'Nice Yarn' yarn drawer. It has all of the yarn that's not Red Heart or I Love This Yarn!, and all of my WIP's (works in progress, for non knitting readers). Don't look too closely at the picture; there are Christmas spoilers contained within it! 

Thicker than Thin

I am very, very, very good at spinning fingering-weight yarn. I thought that I was incapable of spinning anything else. Until a few weeks ago.

You may or may not remember my post Plant to Yarn, which described my previous attempt to spin cotton. This yarn was weak, thin, uneven, and had a tendency to snap if you tried to wind it into a ball.

I pretty much gave up spinning cotton after that. I was fed up with the stuff. However, the other week I had a new idea about it.

What if I spun thick cotton? Instead of drafting it out, what if I just split the roving and spun that?

It worked beautifully. A morning full of spinning cotton with ease.

Having a drop spindle this full of yarn would mean a few hundred yards if I were spinning fingering weight yarn, but with bulky it was equal to 31 yards I believe. 

As you can see there are a few places where it got a little bit thin; don't know how that happened. But for the most part, it was glorious bulky and oh so soft. However, with only 30 yards, I didn't know exactly what to do with it. 

Last night, I picked up a crochet hook and just started crocheting it. I was hoping for maybe enough to make a small cowl or something, but not quite. 

It's double crochet, a little more than a foot long, and five or six inches wide. I have no idea what to do with it. It is incredibly soft, so I want to do something with it, but don't know what. Ah well. If you have any suggestions, feel free to comment below. 

Washcloth of Death

This morning I got a feeling of not being able to finish any knitting projects ever. So I asked on Ravelry what people's favorite patterns to knit in a couple of hours were. I got tons of responses almost instantly, all of them tempting. But one of them was better than all the others, no question.

A quick and very easy Dalek washcloth. it took me about 3 hours, and it had enough complicatedness to keep it interesting for all three of those hours (except for the five rows of seed stitch at the beginning and end. That part was a little boring). 

Also, I learned a new technique- bobbles. Bobbles are absolutely necessary if you want to make a Dalek. I used them in the crocheted Dalek, but those were crocheted and I learned them ages ago. Knit bobbles, though, those were new to me. Well, not anymore! 

There were so many suggestions, I don't think I'll be doing any Christmas knitting until Monday- but who doesn't like to take the weekend off?

I've Done It Again

If you visit my blog frequently, you'll notice that it's been changed again. Hehehe. I know, I know, I shouldn't change it this frequently. But think about it: before, it looked like every single other blog in the Universe. Now, I've gone to brand new extremes: I went beyond Blogger's own selection of backgrounds and found something new. My background is from Hot Bliggity Blog, which has tons and tons and tons of free backgrounds which are all gorgeous. And my header, well, nobody could ever have a header like mine. I designed it myself, using Pic Monkey, a free photo editor.

Hope you like the new look! Cos it's gonna be around for a while...

Flower

When I can't sleep at night, I tend to read a book, or maybe knit. Occasionally I climb down from my bunk bed, get a drink of water, and try again.

Tonight, however, I was struck with the sudden urge to do something I haven't done in years (actually, it's probably only been weeks): Draw with crayons.

Crayons; the strange, waxy little confections that taste fabulous. Just kidding. I don't think I've ever actually eaten a crayon. But I do believe that they occasionally say non toxic on the box. Why would the manufacturers bother with that if the crayons didn't taste good?

So I got out a piece of paper and our big box of broken crayons and set to work. Half an hour later:

Hmmm... is it perhaps a plant that grows only in the rain forests of Monaco? (Are there any rain forests in Monaco?) Maybe it's from Raxacoricofallapatorius and will kill us all if we so much as sniff one of the many colored petals? 

All I know is that my artistic talent certainly blooms (no pun intended) at one in the morning. 

My Statistics!

I am in the depths of despair! Well, not really. I'm actually quite happy because I just watched an awesome episode of Merlin. Although, it was a very sad episode of Merlin so I shouldn't be happy exactly... but anyway.

For some reason, don't ask me why, Blogger has decided to erase all of my stats (my amazing stats that were showing off about 600 page views in one day, thank you very much). They have done stuff like this before; on my old blog, all of my gadgets disappeared.

I just wanted to let readers know that the reason there's a little number that is not even three digits under my page views gadget is that there has been a computer malfunction and I am most certainly not to blame.

In the mean time, you can help make up for it by viewing my blog even more than you already do! (refreshing the page and clicking on as many posts as possible helps. now might be a good time to reread some old posts?) Boost my self esteem by becoming a follower, if you aren't one already. Leave as many comments as you can, and then some. Thank you for your support in these desperate times of technological failure.

And I am more than a little bit disappointed in blogger. It's been doing so well the past few months. :'( I think I'll go and break the nanowrimo rules and write a few snippets of my novel.

EDIT: They are all back now. Hmm.... strange things are afoot. Magic must be involved somehow. Summon the guards.

P.S. Have I been watching too much Merlin?
P.P.S. Please still pay special attention to the paragraph involving you following my blog and leaving comments.

Whilst The Cat was Sleeping

Look at my little kitty... She looked so peaceful sleeping on the chair I just had to get the camera out. Unfortunately she woke up halfway through the photo shoot; at least she was still sleepy enough to stay still. 

 

Two picture-heavy posts in one day... I'm getting lazy. Either that or my photography skills are improving. Most likely it's the former. 

Goodies!

As I mentioned yesterday, my KnitPicks order arrived. I ordered mostly Christmas related stuff, but I did splurge on some lovely orangey red roving.

As it is orange, it was included in the halloween sale. Four bucks for 100 grams of roving. I couldn't resist. And I am very glad that I bought it. It adds a nice bit of brightness to my mom's and my stash of blue, purple, white, and brown roving. While those colors are all very nice they can get very, very, very, very, very boring.

I started spinning it right away.

I went crazy with the pictures. I took about ten other ones, but they aren't half as good as these. 

I'm so excited.... what will I knit out of this softness... 

Popularity in Patterns!

The Amelia Fingerless Gloves pattern I put up yesterday has added over 250 page views to my blog. I've now gotten over 500 page views just for October, which is more than I've gotten in any previous months. It is a record breaking day! 500 page views in a month may seem like a smidgen compared to more popular blogs, but considering I only have 8 followers and I'm only 13, I'm quite proud.

I suppose I'll just have to keep on adding more and more patterns! It's a good thing I like designing them...

On another note, my KnitPicks order came this morning! I absolutely love everything that came in that wonderful cardboard box that literally had my name all over it. I'll post pictures of everything non-Christmas related later.

Thank you for all the page views!

Amelia Fingerless Gloves Pattern

Here is the pattern, as promised! The gloves are knit in the round on double pointed needles, though you could knit them using whatever method you like (magic loop etc). They fit a 7 inch wrist.

What you need:

100-150 yards of worsted weight yarn (Possibly more or less, I used 1 skein of Hobby Lobby I Love This Yarn, 355 yards, and have quite a lot leftover)

US size 4 DPNs (I used a set of four)

Abbreviations: 

CO: Cast on

K: Knit

K2tog: knit two together

P: Purl

Rnd: round

YO: Yarn Over

Gloves:

(Make two)

CO 36 stitches and divide over three needles. Join in the round, being careful not to twist.

Work 17 rnds in a 2x2 rib stitch 

K 4 rnds (On this rnd, I knit 18 stitches onto one needle and 18 stitches onto the next so I was only using 2 needles)

Turn work (you are now working the thumb hole) 

Work 15 rows of stockinette stitch 

Join in the rnd again and knit 4 ends

P 1 rnd

*K2tog, YO, K1, repeat from * for the rest of the rnd

K 1 rnd

*K1, K2tog, YO, repeat from * for the rest of the rnd

P 1 rnd

Bind off and weave in ends. Block if you wish. I didn't block mine because I used 100% acrylic yarn

Please let me know if there are any mistakes in the pattern and I will fix them. Do not copy or sell this pattern; it is for personal use only. Thank you. 

Amelia Fingerless Gloves

Last Saturday night, I took my size 4 dpns and a ball of yarn up to my bed instead of a book. I do this quite often, actually, because nighttime is a great time to work on Christmas presents because nobody else is up to see what you are doing. 

However, last Saturday I was not working on something for somebody else but on a pair of fingerless gloves for myself. I'd been working on a pair of fingerless gloves (also for myself) that afternoon and had failed utterly, so I was a bit frustrated with fingerless gloves. But I also wanted a new pair of fingerless gloves, so I tried again.

I somehow managed to cast on a perfect amount of stitches without checking my gauge first (I rarely check my gauge). I did about one inch of the cuff and then went to sleep. The next day, I finished the first glove. 

I must have been working on some other project on Monday, or I was just doing geometry all afternoon, because I didn't cast on for the second glove until Monday night. I finished it Tuesday night, and wore my brand new perfectly fitted fingerless gloves all day Wednesday. 

They were very straightforward- a few inches of ribbing for the cuff, stockinette for the hand, and an edging of zig-zag eyelets that you can't see very well. I worked them in the round but for several rows worked them flat so as to create the thumb whole. I was going to add a thumb later on but decided I liked them better without them. 

I'm going to write up the pattern in the next day or two. I'm calling them Amelia Fingerless Gloves in tribute to Amy Pond's magnificent departure from Doctor Who last week, although the gloves themselves have nothing to do with Amy. 

Seasons Changing

In tribute to fall being here, I have changed the background of my blog to match the season (unless you live in Australia). I've also decided to change the background every three months, and so when people see my blog they don't see cheery orange and purple flowers when there's a blizzard out. (not that there are ever blizzards in Texas.)

So look forward to a snowy and Christmas-y background on December 21st! Although, I may begin to decorate my blog for the holidays before the official change is made.

And if you miss the beautiful background from before, worry not, for it will be back in March!

The Mark of Athena

Last spring, I did reviews of The Lost Hero and  The Son of Neptune, the first two books in the Percy Jackson spin-off series, The Heroes of Olympus. I loved The Son of Neptune- Riordan's writing seemed to be better, the story was more interesting than some of the others, and the individual characters were better developed and more likable. After that, my expectations for The Mark of Athena, the third book in the series, were high. 

I was disappointed, though not overly so. The writing definitely wasn't as good as in The Son of Neptune; it seems Rick Riordan has gone back to his old standards. Perhaps he was trying to balance too many characters. (Though I can't exactly point fingers. My own books all have far too many main characters for a reader to keep track of.)

The seven demigods who are now part of this new prophecy (well, maybe not so new... it was introduced at the end of the original Percy Jackson series) are aboard the Argo II. Six of the seven are couples- Jason and Piper, Percy and Annabeth, Frank and Hazel, which leaves the seventh demigod, Leo, slightly left out. This isn't a matter that is skipped over in the book. It comes up multiple times. 

The book takes the demigods to bizarre places like Fort Sumter, an aquarium holding mythological sea monsters, and of course, Rome. Most of the time, the demigods are not fighting whatever enemy happens to be at their door all together, but instead go out in groups of two or three demigods to defeat various monsters and evil gods. Which is why it's very helpful that it is narrated by four of the seven; Annabeth, Percy, Piper, and Leo. 

The book ends rather suddenly and without much of a resolution. A clever way to sell millions of copies of The House of Hades next fall. 

I did enjoy this book once the plot started to move, but, as I said, the plot didn't exactly stop on the last page so it wasn't an altogether satisfying book. ★★★☆☆

Feltation

Felting is basically a fancy word for shrinking your knit products, whether you do it on purpose or by terrible accident.

The other day I picked up a skein of yarn that I had spun. It was a single that was plied with sparkly plastic thread. And I wondered, what would happen to the thread if I felted a piece of fabric knitted from this yarn?

It was only about twenty yards. It knit up into a piece about 6x7"

Then I did a load of laundry and threw this in with it. It came out like this:

A little bit felted, but not super felted. Mostly just like very fuzzy knitting. I wasn't entirely satisfied- so I did another load of laundry. When that was done, my square of knitting looked like this:

Now that's more like it. Too small and too freeform to be made into anything, but definitely felted. I would consider it a job well done. By the washing machine. 

I'm looking forward to felting something that ends up bigger than an iPhone (it's not even big enough to make an iPhone case), but that will come another time. Maybe after Christmas. (Along with the socks, sweater, three lace shawls, and two scarves I'm knitting after Christmas) 

Speaking of Christmas, I'm proud to say that I have finished TWO of my many Christmas presents in store. And only a little more than two months left... I better get cracking. However, I am about halfway done with a number of other Christmas projects, so I'm not entirely behind. 

Happy Birthday, Tom!

No, I'm not wishing a happy birthday to one of those celebrities whose names are Tom like Tom Hardy, Tom Hiddleston, or Lord Voldemort. (Though for all I know it is one of their birthdays, in which case, happy birthday) It's actually my brother's birthday. He isn't quite so famous, and he actually goes by Thomas mostly. But he is known as Tom to some people.

Anyway, Happy birthday, Thomas. Even though we celebrated your birthday yesterday and I wished you a happy birthday then. And if you ever read this, it will probably be in about six months when you can barely even remember this birthday for anticipation of the next. The big 21- just one more year to go!

Puppy Update

As I mentioned in my post a couple days ago,  we were fostering a puppy for a few days. I'm happy to say that he has been returned to his rightful owners.

While we were taking care of him, he went through many names: Hector, Zeus, Marc, Finn, and Plato being among them. But his real name is Andy, and he responded to it quite well when he called him by it. My mom and dad drove him to the owners' house and they were overjoyed to see him again.

Apparently they have a massive back yard and another dog, who Andy absolutely loves. And, unlike with Homer, this dog loves Andy back.

Obviously we will all miss Andy very much, but I'm sure he's happier now.

Winter Winds

Right now it's 54° outside.  Perfect October weather. Perhaps I'm not remembering correctly, but it doesn't feel like Texas weather often grants us the need to wear sweaters in early October. It's been a bizarre change in temperature; yesterday it was in the 80s and we had the AC on. The night before last I couldn't sleep in my bed because it was so hot. Last night I was shivering under my blanket.

It does make for a nice change.

Last night I made an order from Knit Picks. They are having a one-week Halloween sale- black and orange yarns are on sale up to 25% off. I needed some more black yarn for a project anyway, and it was a dollar off, so I put two skeins in the cart. And then added a bunch more stuff to my cart. I love yarn shopping, even online. It was all Christmas yarn... almost. I, on a whim, bought 3.5 ounces of Wool of the Andes Roving that was orange so it was on sale. I'm super excited about that. Since my and my mom sort of share our stash of wool roving, we have a lot of cool colors. Actually, only cool colors. Mom does not like warm colors. I, however, am more open and so was very excited about orange roving.

I haven't written a post without a specific topic in a while- it reminds me of my old blog (which was practically all posts of utter randomness).

Foster Puppy

Yesterday, my dad's secretary from work called and asked if we could foster a puppy for a few weeks while she tried to fin the owner or get it into a good animal shelter. The puppy had followed her home while she was on a walk and she can't look after it.

She brought him by last night and he immediately began to run around our house joyously.

Pepper

He, who we call Pepper, loves to jump up on your lap at any given chance- whether you invite him or not. We're guessing that he does have owners and that they will be calling any day now because he is one of the sweetest dogs I've ever seen. He knows how to sit and sort of how to stay. At the moment he is playing tug war with my skirt. I'm winning. 

But of course, he'll never compare to our darling Homer:

Homer is very jealous and slightly terrified of Pepper, but he'll get used to a new dog soon. Maybe. 

Going To Nanoland

Almost exactly a year ago, I was scrambling to finish a novel that was then untitled. It is still untitled and unedited, though the file is (and has been for a year and a half) saved as simply 'booky.' This was the first novel I ever finished, and it was exactly 72,749 words. I'm still very proud of it, even if it is lacking in a few places. I've certainly gained confidence in my writing. I recall one scene that took place in a police station and I neglected to describe anything for fear of "getting something wrong".

I was in a rush to get it done in October because November is National Novel Writing Month, aka Nanowrimo. Nanowrimo is the month where you write a 50,000 word minimum novel in exactly thirty days. I finished my first novel with hours to spare and the next morning started another one.

I got to 50,000, but I wasn't nearly finished with the novel. Two months later, a few days before the start of February, I hit the end of my 83000 word novel. I am proud of this novel.

I wrote the sequel in June (Camp Nanowrimo) , and while I was definitely pleased with it the novel barely hit 50000 before I wrote 'the end' with relief.

When I finished that, I was like, I'm done, no Nanowrimo this November. I won't be able to manage, it's too exhausting, too much trouble, and I don't have a novel to write anyway.

Haha. I don't think I can stay away from a novel. Just a few days into July, I began a novella, which I'm still working on; and will transform into a novel this November. Thankfully I have nothing to finish before November this year. Wish me luck...

Baby Rabbit

Since about April probably, I've wanted to make these Tiny Baby Bunnies. If I may, I would like to say that the title is inaccurate. You cannot have baby bunnies, because bunnies are too widely known as baby rabbits, so saying baby bunny is like saying baby baby rabbit. It's like when people say 'baby kitten' or 'baby chick'.

Anyway. I tried to make one of these before I had acquired either Double Pointed Needles or the skill required to use them. I used colored pencils with both ends sharpened and worsted weight yarn and know knowledge of double pointed needles. (You may remember that I did use this method to make a hat for a certain duck-like monkey a while ago.) It ended up absolutely hideous and not at all bunny-like. I don't really understand what went wrong... I think I twisted it, knit it in the wrong order, did some interesting purl stitches, and ended up with a mess. I also tried to knit one with toothpicks and crochet thread. That didn't work out too well either.

However, now that I own DPNs and, almost-slightly-not really- more importantly, know how to use them, I have successfully knitted a Tiny Baby Bunny with an incorrect title.

He's so sweet. Although he is a little bug-eyed. 

Instead of fingering weight yarn, I used worsted weight, so mine is the size of a regular marshmallow, rather than the size of a mini-marshmallow. I also used US size 4 DPNs. 

I'm calling him Damian. Damian the Turquoise Bunny. 

I Have Made A Dragon

Due to my newfound love of Merlin, I decided the other day that I needed a dragon. I'm planning on carving a dragon out of balsa wood with the help of my dad, but I am a very impatient person and couldn't wait to get to a store. So I made a dragon out of clay instead.  (I'm still planning on carving one, too. One cannot own too many statues of dragons)

I call him Rory. I made him out of Sculpey clay, a mix of purple and black, and he is about two inches high. 

His wings are a little bit breakable, and so is his tail, and the horns on his head, and his whole head in general, and his feet. But so long as I don't drop him and don't touch him very often, I'm sure he'll last a while, at least until I can carve one out of wood. 

P.S. Sorry for not blogging for... has it really been over a week? September really slipped by... I promise to do better this month!