So yeah. Knitter's Underground. Very awesome. =)

Today was one of Penn State's football games, and Rhiannon had gone swimming so we left later than we thought we would and therefore got stuck in traffic for about half an hour. Once that broke up, it was smooth sailing up to the barn at the end of a long gravel driveway, which turned out to be the place we were searching for. I LOVED it! I've never seen so much yarn in my life! And it was all fantastic quality; none of the typical name brands to be seen! After much browsing, I ended up getting a skein of super soft lavender, green, and blue yarn that I was thinking I'd make another octopus out of (since I often just make octopi out of yarn that I like and need an excuse to use), and several skeins of sock yarn, which was on sale. Denise told me she'd teach me to knit socks, something I've failed at multiple times. I blame the fact that I'm a hands-on learner and no one has just sat me down, needles in hand, and shown me. Denise said she would sometime, so I grabbed some of the proper sized needles and look forward to that day, because I really want to learn to knit socks. ^-^ Also hats, but let's take this one step at a time.

Anyway, for my sock yarn, I got this cool brown with white speckles kind. I got three of the 50 g skeins, since it's one per sock. I'm going to use the last one to make a sort of ascot mini scarf thinger, because I think having it match would be really cute. I also got this dark greenish tealish with goldish brown, but they only had one skein, so I'm going to make another ascot mini scarf thing out of that, too. Overall it was a very successful day! I'm glad I got to go, and I look forward to going again (with more money) sometime and bringing more of the crew.

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

I've been looking up cross stitch patterns for a while now, pretty much since I picked up the craft, because I love patterns and sometimes have a hard time functioning without them. I especially like to look up nerdy cross stitch, i.e. video game characters and sci-fi and pop culture characters, because as I'm sure you figured out by now, I'm a super nerd. I found a lot of really awesome Pokemon cross stitches and was seeking patterns for a while last night. I realized that a lot of the cross stitches I saw looked like they were based on the game sprites. Then I realized, duh, the game sprites are made of fairly obvious pixels, and what is pixel art but cross stitching on a screen (heehee)! So I found a site with all the game sprites for red, blue, yellow, green, gold, and silver, and sure enough, they look mad easy to stitch, and now I have an array of patterns to choose from! This'll probably help with my Christmas present idea, because I can just ask for a person's favorite Pokemon and whip that up. Also, I want to have a vendor booth at Setsucon (the anime convention Penn State has every year) this year where I (and Abby and Dani and potentially Emma and Ginny said they'd help, too) sell crocheted stuff, and now I could make Pokemon sampler thingers too! So yeah, yay crafting!

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 much for my epic day of work.

Last night, about 2 hours into my Joann's shift, I had this pretty intense depressed breakdown cryfest. I won't bore you with the details, but needless to say I went home. I couldn't sleep anyway so I ended up getting about 2 1/2 hours of sleep before my pick up barista shift at 6:30 am. I got through that with flying colors. I was extremely hyper and having a great time. Then around 11:15, just before I started my normal shift, it's like I got hit by a bus. I felt so sick. So I went home from that job too, and have spent much of the day sleeping. I called off tonight too so I could keep up the resting.

I've been looking up cross stitching patterns a lot today for no real reason other than boredom. I found that someone beat me to a project I really wanted to do, which is bad because now I don't feel as creative, but is good because they made a pattern I can now use.

Isn't it amazing? As soon as I saw the episode I wanted that poster, and now I can cross stitch it! As I said, the maker gave the pattern, too. I am hereby following her blog. ^-^

While checking out her other work, I came across these lovely pieces, both nods to RuPaul's Drag Race, which is one of the greatest shows ever made ever.


I want to make them both very much. I showed them to my friends with whom I watch RuPaul, and Abby suggested I make a "Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve, and Talent" one. Turns out this blogger did already, too!


Love it. Love it so much.

I'm such a dork. And it's wonderful.

Tomorrow, Abby is coming over to bake with me. We're going to a Fourth of July barbecue on Sunday, and she's making epic caramel apple pie (or so she says it's epic, but it sounds really good) and I'm making cupcakes. Working at Joann's is ruining my life, by the way, because now I want to get into cake decorating. Grr...

I happen to oftentimes like covers of songs, especially covers that bridge genre gaps. But some things just should not be done in this world, and one of these things is apparently country covers of songs.

At Joann's we have our construction workers who put up the pegboard walls on which we stick our products. Some of them, the head included, I believe, like country music, so that's all they play for the better part of the night. After a good three nights I finally cracked and put on my headphones last night. Part of the reason I cracked is because I heard a country cover of Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing." I could barely hear it due to my proximity to the radio, but still it was horrible. I looked it up just now and the culprit is Mark Chesnutt. Apparently his cover reached number 1 in the country charts, and was in the top 20 of the Billboard Top 100. He even had the audacity to name the album upon which the cover appears as the first track, "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing." Can I please just projectile vomit all over creation? AND THEN I read this nonsense on an Amazon review: "Track one, "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing," is a great remake of the far inferior version done by Aerosmith." In fact, most of these reviewers are saying the like it better than Aerosmith's. HERESY I SAY! First I hear Jack Ingram's stupid cover of Hinder's "Lips of an Angel," and now this. Call me a romantic, but nothing says "emotional love song" to me like screaming into a microphone. Please stop softening my power ballads!

Anyway, more about life at Joann's. The work is progressing well in my opinion, though we got the obligatory "you guys need to pick up the pace" speech last night that was bound to happen eventually. It's the construction crew's last night (which means hopefully no more country after tonight!), which means we need to hurry and clear out some areas so they can put up the last walls. But I think we're doing well. The people are awesome and I'm having fun, in spite of the hours, which really aren't even that bad. Tonight is going to be hard though, because I'm picking up an extra shift at my other job for a girl who's going on vacation, so I will be working from 9:00 pm to 5:30 am, then 6:30 am to 11:00 am, then 11:30 am to 3:00 pm. Then it's back to work at 9:00 pm. This is what next Tuesday and Thursday will be like too. Not gonna be fun...

In the crafting world, I've started another little cross stitch of a star and moon with faces on them that's in the book I got the fairy angel thinger from. It's pretty cute and much easier, though cross stitching with white thread on white aida (fabric) is not the best idea I ever had. I'm trying to focus on making sure the back is nice on this one since I didn't even bother trying with the last two, because I have yet another project I want to do. I want to cross stitch onto a kitchen towel to hang on my and Sarah's oven door the phrase: "As long as no one dies, I call it a success." This is our new philosophy on cooking that we came up with the other night. I want to stitch this in pretty flowery font, possibly pink, and maybe with flowers and little food things on it to make it extra pretty. But I want to not have an ugly back to the towel so I'm practicing now.

Tonight was night 2 at Joann's Fabric; I got back about half an hour ago. My next job starts in 3 1/2 hours so I'm just going to stay up and sleep afterwards. That means I have time to post!

I'm having fun with my job. Even though planograms suck (they're these dumb chart things we use to set up the hooks and shelves the merchandise is on), the people I work with are really great and we make it fun. The hours aren't even so bad. I got 8 1/2 hours of sleep yesterday on accident (I was supposed to sleep from 6:30 to 10 but slept until 12:40, my shift at my other job starting at 1 (oops. Wasn't late though!), then an hour nap turned into a 2 1/2 hour nap) so I got through tonight okay. My perception of time is totally shot, though, and when my hours at my first job start picking up soon I'm sure I'll find this job irritating, but for now it's fun. I really hope I get rehired after the three week project we're working on is done.

As for my crafting, I did the rough math for how much yarn I'd need to complete the blanket I'm making for Cait's "baby shower," which has been cancelled because flying this late in her pregnancy might not be a good idea, so I'll be mailing it to her. I calculated needing about 13 skeins of yarn (not that it's a big blanket, these are just 2 oz skeins). Turns out Joann's had exactly 13 skeins of it left, all on clearance, as I believe I mentioned. Score for me! I felt kind of like a jerk getting all the yarn, but hey, it's a gift and I want it done! I've been fascinating my coworkers with my crocheting (I crank out a granny square for this blanket in about 10-15 minutes, which is how long our breaks are), and they've asked a million questions, which I always love answering. Surprisingly most of them don't know that much about crafting, not that that's a problem. But they all seem to be interested in what I do, which makes me happy because I love spreading the crafting love.

Speaking of crafting love, I also bought a crochet magazine tonight because it had this awesome pattern for these big pretty star pillows. I want to make black and green ones to go with my black and green star afghan. I'm thinking of reapproaching the afghan, too. The squares I'm making are squares with stars in the middle. On one side of the afghan I have black squares with green stars, and the other side, green squares with black stars. So far I have I think three of each square, with two of each kind stitched together and ready to go. But I'm not too crazy about the side that's green with black stars because it's hard to tell that the shape is a star, so I'm thinking of ditching the reverse-side idea and staying with just black squares with green stars. Thoughts?

Crap. Crap crap crap. I have a new hobby.

The cross stitch chick is almost done, yay! But I decided to take a break and look up some patterns and the like. I found the first sampler I want to make, pattern here.

Isn't that fantastic? ^-^

I also found a blog that has cross stitch patterns for the cast of Firefly, link here.

Yeah, this is not a good thing to be starting, not when I have work and summer classes and a list of crocheted things to do! Woe is me! Heehee.

My older brother needs to have a baby so I can be an aunt. This of course requires finding a girlfriend and getting married. But still, it needs to happen. I could have my own baby, but I too am presently single, plus I'm still not sure I want to have kids, which is philosophizing for another night, but I know I want to know someone who has kids. Why? Because I, of course, want to crochet baby things. ^-^

I worked on my schoolwork a little and rewarded myself with some pattern browsing, and came across this alphabet baby afghan pattern (it's free!). As my friend Ginny would put it, it made my ovaries explode with happiness. It's so cute! And I want to make it! It's so simple, but nice, too. Sadly, there are not many babies in my life, and it would be a little silly of me to make it for myself. So someone has to have a baby!

I also found these adorable monster-themed bibs on Etsy (I'm kind of an addict...). I like the Cthulhu and the vampire one the most. Again, someone needs to have a baby...and a good sense of humor, lol.

Anyway, on to projects I can actually do now.

I've decided on my next mini project for the craft swap. It's going to be one of these bunnies with hoodies, pattern found on Etsy again. But of course (saying that a lot in this entry...hmm...), I decided to kick it up a notch. I'm making the hoodie in all black and depending on how up for it I feel, I might give it an emover. Meredith suggested I also embroider a skull on the hoodie. I kind of suck at embroidery but I'm going to give it a shot. So yeah, emo hoodie bunny. Again, I might end up making one for myself. ^-^;