I have so many plans going on this weekend. It's going to be absolutely insane. But in a good way I guess, at least for the most part. I look forward to it.

One of the big exciting things that's going to happen will occur in approximately 12 hours (it's about 2:30 am), and that is my first ever trip to Knitter's Underground. I've heard many a tale of this land of milk and honey and yarn, and at dinner tonight celebrating a friend's birthday, another friend dropped that she was going Saturday (today-ish but I haven't gone to sleep yet and since the world CLEARLY revolves around me, Saturday is not today, it's still CLEARLY tomorrow) at around 2:30. My schedule instantly cleared. I'm sure there was some important stuff like cleaning my dorm room or doing some homework or reading or crocheting/cross stitching/crafting or socializing that I was going to do Saturday during the day, but now there magically isn't. Funny how these things happen. Anyway, I'm totally going to Knitter's Underground in 12 hours, and I'm super excited!

Progress report on my actual crafting:

- For Christmas last year, I crocheted all my friends something, usually a plushie of some kind. I still haven't finished EVERYONE, though I am really close. For one of my friends from camp, Vicky, I wanted to recreate the squid plush thing from the movie Coraline, because she loves the movie and the "I wanna hugga yo face" line became an inside joke with us. Originally I was going to just make an octopus to commemorate it, but then I found this pattern for how to actually crochet one, so a while ago I got the yarn and last night I just got the urge to start it, even though it's not next in line on my list of things to crochet (but I suck at doing things in order anyway). I can't find the giant button I got for the eye, but I'm sure once I finally clean my room, it'll turn up.

- I've decided to have another craft swap/viewing party of the 2009 Dorian Gray movie, the one with Ben Barnes as Dorian. I've been saying that from the trailer it looks like how the newest Sherlock Holmes movie was, which was nothing like the book at all, but so awesome and fun that you don't even care. Some of my friends who have seen it agree with the description, so I'm excited. Katie (my roommate, if I haven't mentioned that) rented it for me from her Netflix, and I'm eager to see it, but think it would be fun to do with a group, and I'm itching for another craft swap, so I figured I could combine the events, and decided next Friday is a good time, which means I need to make some stuff!

- On that note, one of Katie's friends, Rhiannon, has moved into my dorm building from her apartment, and so I've been getting to know her, and she's a big crafter (she's coming with me to Knitter's Underground tomorrow, er, later). She stole some camo print yarn and my knitting needles one night while hanging out and started making a scarf. She didn't like what she started with (she was inventing a cable stitch) so she made it into a square (more on that later) and started over. She's letting me have the scarf, so I decided to make her something in exchange for it so we could swap. I offered to make another blaster gun (see older posts) and she joyously accepted, so I'll be making another one of those in hot pink, green, and purple. I'm a little excited and almost started it tonight, but I really need to work on the whole "finish what you start" thing that I suck at so much, so I want to do Vicky's present first.

- I really love crocheting squares. I have a bunch that I've made and don't know what to do with, and I have books that add up to several hundred different square patterns, and many of them I want to try but don't want to make a whole blanket out of, so I've decided to make an afghan or a quilt or whatever you want to call it, that's made up of miscellaneous squares I just felt like making. Fun and functional! Rhiannon's camo cable knit square will be added to the collection of random squares for this project.

- I taught Ashley how to make granny squares, and she loves it! Yay!

- On to cross stitching! I mentioned the Pokemon sprite idea, and so far it's been going swimmingly. I started with Bulbasaur because A) it's the first Pokemon on the chart, and B) my coworker Ricky asked me to make him one. I finished the pattern and now I have to choose the colors to make it, but the first one I'm actually going to do is Blastoise, because a friend from camp told me he'd pay me for one, so guess which one I'm making first? I'm almost done drawing up the pattern, and I already chose the colors, so hopefully I'll be able to get started on it soon so I can get some cash!

- Speaking of commissions, I may or may not have another one. My brother's friend from work may or may not want me to make her a Cthulhu, and she may or may not pay for it. My brother had just been asking me about it and said he'd let me know the details, but hasn't yet. Granted it hasn't been very long since the initial proposal, but it's always good to know when money is coming in.

- I will soon have more garb! I started and damn near finished my fencing doublet for SCA, using some extra fabric that Dani had. It's this nice blue fabric with reddish orange-ish brocade on it. It's really thick and durable and looks really nice, and in one night I mostly finished it. I can't wait until it's done! Ashley has been making her garb, a really nice bliaut (I can't find any particularly excellent pictures, but Google will give you an idea) in dark purple, and the Harry Potter club will be making a trip to the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire next Sunday, where we will prance about in our garb. We're both very excited. I want to at least finish the sleeve caps for my Venetian gown, because Dani is going on a trip and I don't think we'll be able to make the sleeves for it yet. I hope it's not too cold!

- I kind of want to get into making softies (abstract plushies). I think they're really cute and interesting. It'll be easier when I have a machine to sew on, but in the meantime I'm bolstering up my scrap fabric collection, since they're often made with random fabric, mostly with odd colors or patterns. I got some great cheap remnant fabric at Joann's the other day to add to the collection. I don't know what I want to make just yet, but I had some good finds and it was really cheap, so I'm glad I got it.

Sorry this post was super long. Heehee.

And now it's about 11 1/2 hours (about 3:00 am) until Knitter's Underground. SUPER EXCITING! =D

Progress Report: I literally just finished crocheting over the elastic thread I'm putting into my snood, meaning that minus fitting, which hopefully will go over swimmingly, I'm totally done with that. I'm also making progress by leaps and bounds in my dad's cross stitch project, so yay all around.

I just got back from a party a little while ago and I'm a little tipsy still but was determined to finish my snood so I did. Part of the reason I don't try to fit it now is that it's late and my roommate is sleeping, and part is because I'm still a little wonky and kind of want to go to bed. @.@

But I realized tonight that partially because of recent financial situations, I've been whoring out my crocheting talents. It started when a friend from Joann's agreed to pay me to make her a crocheted TARDIS (something I've done twice so I'm pretty skilled at it by now). Then another friend said he'd pay me to make him a pair of Cthulhu, one for him and one for his girlfriend. Again, I've made two so far so I'm pretty confident. Then yesterday I posted to my ex a crocheted Umbreon pattern from WolfDreamer's blog (see sidebar; I totally recommend her site!) and a friend commented that he'd pay me for a Snorlax plushie and I DOVE at the opportunity. I couldn't find a pattern but how hard can a Snorlax really be? I'm just going to make the pattern up.

The point is, I've been doing a lot of commission work and it makes me want to get my Etsy store back up and running so I can sell some more. I need the cash, heehee. Anyway I hope I can do all of this because A) I love making things for people, and B) money is nice.

Didn't quite make that "posting at least once a week" thing I wanted to do this month. Sowwy sowwy sowwy! I know some readers (friends of mine) have asked me to post, and this is mostly to appease them and because I want to keep up my habit of posting. I actually can't think of any craft I've finished all month, but DAMN have I started a lot!

First, a bit on the social life to explain why I've been busy. I was working JoAnn's for a while as I mentioned. The project finished a few weeks ago and I didn't get rehired to work during the day (blah blah other job blah can't give 100% blah blah "unreliable" because my meds were screwed up blah blah), but it turns out that might have been for the best because the daytime manager (the one who said all the blahs) apparently isn't so nice, from what my friends who did get rehired are telling me. I searched for another job for a while but most places are rehiring for the fall, and in the fall I get 17 hours a week at the HUB and don't have to worry about rent or groceries so money won't be as much of a problem, so I'm just going to stick with that.

Other reason I've been busy: I'm in a new relationship! Yay! I'm in another polyamorous relationship with my friends Dani and Ryan. We all hang out a lot and have been having loads of fun, and it's really nice to have significant others that aren't hours away like my most recent ex Christy was.

Now, on to the point of the blog, crafting.

Like I said, I haven't finished anything, minus an octopus I whipped together to help Drea with a craft swap she was doing, but I have a lot of stuff I started/progress I made, so I'm going to talk about that. First, I have my snood. A snood is basically a glorified hair net worn most generally in the Middle Ages/Renaissance. The reason I'm making one is because Dani and Ryan are both in the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), which is basically an organization dedicated to doing awesome stuff from that time. I've wanted to join for a while but didn't know many people in the know, but now I do so I'm getting more into it. Anyway, Dani is helping me sew garb (I'm almost done with my nice doublet, then we'll be starting on my Venetian-style dress and then my fencing doublet) and I wanted to make a snood to go with the fancy stuff. I'm using this one I found on Etsy, because I'm an Etsy addict. >.<>

I'm also almost done with my dad's super-belated Father's Day present. He and my brother visited me on the 4th of July so I told him about it, which means I can write about it here without ruining the surprise, heehee. I'm cross stitching him a Masonic emblem (since, as I'm sure you guessed, he's a Mason) and originally I was going to put it on a shirt but ultimately decided to put it on some fabric and frame it, so that's what I'm going to do. He was really excited for it, which of course made me feel all warm and tingly inside.

Those are the main things I've been making progress with, really. I really need to get my butt in gear because I made a list of everything I want to make for other people/requests I've gotten, and there's a lot! I made a list of it all and the relative order in which I want to do it all, so that'll be helpful.

So apparently, as I learned from a sort of lunch date I had today, sometimes "I have a friend I want you to meet; I think you'll like him" really means "I have a friend I want you to meet; I think you'll like him" and not "I have a friend I want to hook you up with." Oh well. At least I looked pretty today! ^-^

Anyway, as the title implies, this is a blog to write about the stuff I've finished recently. Let's go in order of completion!

First we have my green and black beanie I made during Scion (which is my LARP - Live Action Role Play - game) a few weeks ago.

Cute, no? I was bored and beanies are easy to make, and I have a shirt that's black with striped sleeves that are almost the exact same green and black as the hat, so I thought they'd make a nice combination. I had wanted to do more stripes but didn't plan for them properly (meaning I didn't count my rows right so I didn't know when to change colors), but oh well. I still think it looks nice. Special thanks to my two friends Abby and Erin, who were also at Scion, for wearing the hat to see if it would fit my head, since my hair was in liberty spikes (oh Jack...lol).

Next!

This is an example of the granny squares I've been making for Cait's baby blanket. So cute! I love this yarn! It's a little hard to see the rainbow speckles in the yarn in this picture, but I think if you look for them you can see them. I really should start taking these pictures with my good camera. I currently have 21 squares, and I want 150 for the blanket (10 across, 15 rows down), so I still have a ways to go, but I keep getting distracted by other projects!

That's a really blown-out picture, but it's of my cross stitching endeavors, finally finished! The chick came first and technically should be the first thing posted in this blog entry since I finished it weeks ago.

No flash this time, heehee. I did the dark brown back stitching in the wrong color considering I'd just been going with the few basic colors Meredith had given me to start me out, but I think it looks pretty good!

And there's my birthstone angel fairy thing! I wasn't entirely positive on the backstitching colors again. I think I got it though. I'm really proud of how this turned out, even though it took me forever (I had posted a bit back that all I had to do was the backstitching for the dress, which I didn't do until last night).

As for work, it's been going well. I'm probably going to be dropping my second summer session class to free up some time for me so I can relax for a bit since in spite of being very fun, this summer has been very stressful too. I'll keep my jobs and we'll see where the school year takes me.

Last entry I posted that I wasn't going to sleep between jobs. Turns out this was a very dumb idea. I took off the subsequent night because I was too tired to function. I'm worried for later in this week when I start picking up shifts and my non-fabric store job, but we'll see what happens when we get there. But really, despite the hours, I like my job at Joann's.

This past Friday and Saturday was double discount weekend for Joann's employees, so instead of the usual 15% off, I got 30%. I didn't have much money to spend so I couldn't get the cheap-o sewing machine I'm considering getting, nor could I get all the craft books I want, but I did get a cross stitch kit with a pretty angel on it (and it comes with everything you need), some more aida (the fabric you cross stitch on), and I decided to have a little fun. I've always wanted to try embroidery, so I figured, hey, I have a discount, I should get some embroidery stuff! So I got the hoop and a small cheap book on some basic stitches, figuring I could use my cross stitch needles, aida, and embroidery floss to get me started. I haven't started yet because I got so wrapped up in finishing up some crafts last night, as well as teaching Sarah how to make granny squares because she wants to make an afghan like mine, heehee, that I didn't have time to get started, but I hope to soon.

Also last night I decided to make another square for my star afghan. I almost finished it but was getting tired (it was like 3 in the morning, heehee) so I put it down. I have pictures of the squares by request, heehee, so we can make the decision about whether to have it be inverted on the reversed side or just keep it black squares with green stars. Here ya go!

Here are both of the squares together. Next we have the squares on their own (no flash in these pictures so the color is weird).

Again, it's been over a week. I'm following a tutorial blog that updates multiple times a day. There's plenty of material to update on, but I don't know how the writer finds the time to find the stuff/write! Heehee.

Technically I started an entry Thursday I think, but I haven't had the time to finish it, so I'm starting from scratch.

First, work. I went through my orientation/paperwork/training Thursday afternoon into early evening. The people I'm working with are pretty cool and I'd like to think I'm going to make fast friends. Despite the unholy hours, the work doesn't seem very hard, and that's good. I'm going to be leaving for my first shift in about half an hour so I'll be there early. I'm waiting for my dinner to cool so I figured it was a good time to write, heehee.

As for projects, I made a list of everything I have that I'm working on right now, and everything I still want/have to make. I'll probably post it up here so y'all can see what I'm up to.

Speaking of what I'm up to, a few days ago I finished my cross stitch fairy minus the backstitching. I started that and just have the dress to finish backstitching, but I haven't done that yet, heehee. I put it off a little so I could work on the baby blanket, which has come to a complete halt, done a K turn, and gone in a different direction. I started to re-do what I had done (which was almost a whole skein of yarn; pulling it out killed me) because the stitches were too tight (who suggests a D hook for an afghan? Jeeze!) and I wanted to use a bigger hook to make them looser. As I reworked the yarn, I thought about how much money it would cost, based on how many rows a skein got me vs. how many rows I needed to do. The answer was more than I was willing to spend on yarn for one project at the moment, so instead I'm going to make small granny squares and stitch them together into a blanket so it can have a rectangle shape, but be smaller and take up less yarn. Perhaps another time, alphabet afghan...I managed to get a good number of squares done this weekend because I went to Washington D.C. (for the first time. SO FUN!) to visit my friend and I had time on trains and the like (and when I got out of the Holocaust museum an hour earlier than my friends and was sitting around in the lobby with nothing to do...glad I brought my hook and yarn!). So yeah, that's that.

Oh no! I have failed you, blog! I've gone over a week without posting! ;_; Well I haven't been doing much craft-wise because my free time is spent looking for a second job or trying to figure out Dreamweaver for my online class. As for what I'm crafting, I'm STILL working on that dang cross stitch! It's almost done though. I really want to finish it soon. I didn't realized when I signed up for cross stitch that it would take so dang long!

Anyway, a little about my life right now. This past weekend I went home to Jersey to visit Devon and go to her prom. SO MUCH FUN! Busting out our poi and hitting on waiters (including copping a feel. Cody was only 27...but was taken. Darn!) and general antics. That was Friday night. I stayed up all night that night talking to Devon's 13 year old brother about all kinds of stuff, mostly Jim Morrison and music and government and religion and all that good deep stuff. Saturday was spent at Devon's teacher's daughter's (lol) first birthday party, which was the most well thought-out kid's party I'd ever been to (as Devon said, this is what happens when two graphic designers get married, lol). Devon and her friend Steph did face painting, and I assisted, which means I sat there and entertained the kids (and got painted on like you wouldn't believe!). Sunday we went to the beach at Atlantic City in the morning. Devon and I did some shopping while Steph and her other friend Shannon tanned. There was this one store called "It's Sugar" that was an epic candy store (9 inch tall Gummi Bears. Just sayin'.). I bought a Blow Pops lunchbox that I intend to use as a purse a la Seth-Green-as-James-St.-James-in-Party-Monster (only his was black with a Jolly Roger on it. Do want!). I don't feel like taking a picture, so I'll show you one from the Internet.

Cute, non? Very club kid. I love it. And while looking for pictures, I discovered that OMG THEY MAKE ONE FOR JUNIOR MINTS! IT'S GREEN WITH STARS!

I must own this! GREEN AND STARS! What more could I want? ^-^

Anyway, on the ride back home from south to north Jersey (where I live when not in school, and where I had parked my car) I tried and failed to teach Devon how to crochet. But I had my yarn so I decided to whip her up a beanie because I could, and because it was a three hour drive. I managed to finish in about an hour, which is a personal best. It was light pink with three thin black stripes (pink and black are Devon's signature/raver colors, just as mine are green and black). I'd show a picture but I didn't take one.