Preparing a new backlog

It seems that I'm coming up with new project ideas faster than I can finish things. While my lenten moratorium on starting new projects has helped me get several things finished, I was worried that come Easter, I'd forget all the ideas for things I had that I couldn't start in on immediately.  The highlights so far:

Synaesthesia paintings.
- sometime around New Year's, there was the gradual realization that other people don't usually taste in color. My husband is completely fascinated by this, and has taken to quizzing me at most meals. I thought it would be fun to fix myself a few snacks and try to paint what they taste like.

Embroidery of this comic.
- it combines two of my favorite memes (making fun of Horatio's sunglasses, and odd variants of the Bayeaux Tapestry), and I really wish I'd thought of it myself.

Edmonton Eulers shirt
- I have no excuse for coming up with this except for sheer sleep deprivation, but I still think it's funny.

Skirt re-creation
- one of those 'no ill wind' situations, my favorite skirt got caught on a door handle and tore, which means that I now have no qualms about carefully taking it apart and using it to make a pattern to re-create the skirt in other fabrics. Seriously, it's a great skirt - comfortable, flattering style, even has pockets.

In news from the realm of paring down the current projects, I finished my first character amigurumi (which was also my Ravelympics project) because I totally needed a little plushie of Egon Spengler:

 

He's about 7 inches tall to the top of his hair, made out of some leftover acrylic yarn I had from my first Fourth Doctor scarf.  I embroidered the name badge by hand (and then metaphorically kicked myself for forgetting that my sewing machine will embroider letters), his hair is all done in French knots with another layer of French knots on top for extra height, and the glasses are handmade out of 18-gauge wire with 22-gauge for the bridge.  I'd been thinking about making myself some amigurumi Ghostbusters for a while, and had intended to start with Ray, but as I was working on my comic, I came up with a script that I just loved too much to not make Egon to go along with.  It's going to be my first honest-to-God storyline, too.  The first part starts with this comic. (I've been having some reliability issues with my hosting service lately, so the comic is also being mirrored on my LiveJournal until I change hosts.)

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Now Playing:
Man Man - Black Mission Goggles
(why does SignaTunes no longer work automatically on Blogger?)

Would you look at that f-ing snow?

I could've sworn I saw the snowplow go by a few hours ago...

Fortunately, with my Lent resolution to only work on finishing projects that I've already started (don't ask how many things I started on Pancake Tuesday...), a little enforced crafting time was not a bad thing.  I've already knocked a nice grey/black/white striped scarf off my Ravelry list (and into my Etsy shop, in all likelyhood), and I've really been going to town on my 'Ravelympics' (Ravelry Olympics) project.

I'm kind of keeping the Ravelympics project under wraps for a bit, because it was based in a comic idea and I don't want to spoil the comic - I plan on unveiling it when that particular strip goes live. I'm really enjoying it, though.  I'm more of a knitter than a crocheter, so it's a nice change of pace and a little bit of a challenge to myself, which was the point of the Ravelympics.  It's also nice to have a deadline to keep myself on target, or I think I would have already set it aside once I started to embroider the little accessory bits.

I've also got a few half-finished plushies I need to get finished up as well - besides wanting to put some up on Etsy, I also really want to submit something to Stuffed.  There's a couple of pincushions that just need to be stuffed and sewn shut, too. And two rooms I've started painting. And one room I'm in the middle of plastering the walls. And then there's the fabric that I just pinned to the moulding around the window for a bit until I had time to sew it into proper curtains...

Meanwhile, I've already got a list of five project ideas to start in on come Easter...better get back to clearing out some of this crafting backlog!

Simple Lace Headband/Sash

Needed a little something extra for my 'Knitting Fairy' costume, and I found about half a skein of Berroco Lumina left over from a crocheted headband I'd made for a friend, so I whipped up a quick lacy headband for myself. With more yarn, you could easily keep knitting to make a sash/hipbelt, but for this particular project, I was constricted by both supplies and time.

Yarn: Berroco Lumina (Berroco Sox Metallic or Louisa Harding Jasmine would work nicely as well - thin, smooth, and sparkly is the key here)
Needles size 5 (3.75 mm)

Setup:
Cast on 16
Knit two rows

Row 1: slip one as if to knit, (yarn over, knit 2 together) until 1 stitch remains, knit one.
Row 2: slip one as if to purl, knit to end.

Repeat these two rows until desired length. Knit two rows, and bind off.
Note: The finished piece will be a parallelogram, not a rectangle, so don't worry if your knitting seems to be leaning to one side as you work (it's supposed to).


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Now playing: Avenue Q Original Broadway Cast - Schadenfreude
via FoxyTunes

Look on my scarf, ye Mighty, and despair... (part 5)

I've re-started the scarf, this time in a mix of Wool-Ease and Signature (mostly because there was a KICK-ASS sale on it). I was originally going to make it about 3/4 the width the pattern calls for, because last time it seemed really wide, but in the better quality yarn, it's so much softer that it really does need to be that wide.

Just updated the laptop to Ubuntu, BTW - very very happy with it in general, but I haven't found a music player I really like for it yet. Just a matter of trial and error, I suppose. Grand scheme of things, I suppose it doesn't really matter, as the whole reason behind getting the laptop back up is so that I can watch TV and generally be sociable while I'm on the computer.

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Now playing: Depeche Mode - Never Let Me Down Again (2006 Remastered)
via FoxyTunes

Spring Cleaning

Managed to get some projects finished this week - finally. Got mom's socks all done, got a few store samples ready to go, and I think I could make a granny square in my sleep now. I've been trying to go through my Ravelry notebook and get some old projects a bit farther along, as well as getting photos on everything.

The big thing has been getting good photos of all the projects I've done for work, since my boss gave me permission to start a store Ravelry group. Turns out I've made a lot more of the displays than I realized. Ended up getting her to finally sign up for Ravelry, as well.

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Now playing: Modest Mouse - Bury Me With It
via FoxyTunes

Good on you, Ann Norling!

Well, the handwarmer pattern is almost ready to go forth into the wide world and bring pack some spare change. I had a friend do a test-knit, and she pointed out a few things I'd kind of skimmed over (like the dimensions of the different sizes...oh, details), so I just need to fix those and get my little hand up to be added to the list to sell patterns through Ravelry.

The Top-Down Raglan class at work got me in the mood to start back in on the cardigan I put on hold to finish the Christmas knitting. I really prefer the Woolworks free fill-in-the-blank pattern I'm using to the Ann Norling pattern the class is doing, though. I made the kids' version as a store display, and there were a few bits where I really had to re-read the pattern a couple of times to make sure I was doing what I was supposed to. Not a bad pattern, just oddly phrased in places. Most of her patterns are like that - there's just something a little odd. Like the one we have where the picture has the camera datestamp on it. My boss is convinced that Ann Norling is just printing these patterns out at home and assembling everything on her dining room table. You know what? If she is, more power to her. I just wish my dining room table was clear enough to pull off something like that.

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Now playing: Peter, Paul and Mary - 500 Miles
via FoxyTunes

Novels and Knitting

Well, NaNoWriMo is going fairly well so far.  It helps that this year I had a setting planned out.  I'd actually started to write a story in this setting several years ago, but I'd been writing it all longhand between classes, and and some point the envelope I was keeping my pages in kind of vanished somewhere and is still probably floating around campus.  I still had all my setting and character notes, though, so I'm using them to start over from scratch.  

I'm also coming along well on getting some stock together for the craft show next weekend.  I have high hopes of actually selling some of my paintings, and I've got some jewelry pieces I'm pretty proud of, too.  I'm thinking that I'm going to change my policy and go ahead and put stuff that I'm working on to sell in my Ravelry notebook.  After all, most of them are original patterns, I could be selling the patterns through Ravelry, or be getting some attention focused on my Etsy store.  which reminds me, I need to get to work finishing up my tags and business cards for next weekend.  I'm pretty excited about the whole thing - every now and then I need a little validation that my college degree is somwhat useful.

Updates all around

Well, I just finished going through my Ravelry notebook and taking some fresh pictures to update my projects in progress. The big one to update is the hat I'm working on - it's an original design, and I'm really very pleased with how it's turning out. Took a little while to get the hang of the shaping in double-knitting, but it looks pretty good, and I think I've explained it nicely in the pattern. I'm actually pleased enough that I think people might be willing to pay money for it.

The felted satchel for Tiwaz is coming along nicely as well - I'd hoped to have it done for our aniversary, but I don't think I'll quite have it done by then. Definitely before Thanksgiving, though. Now that we have a washer and drier, I have a bit of a backlog of things that need felting anyway - best to just set aside a day for it.

And, of course, we're heading dangerously into NaNoWriMo time again. I'm thinking this year I'll actually prepare a bit, try working up some character profiles and such. I've got two pages of a comic that I drew as part of an art project, and I'm thinking that might be a good jumping off point for me this year - I essentially drew a trailer, no plot really involved, just a hook. I don't even think there was any dialog, just character introductions. I've got my author page all updated, though, and I just need to grab this year's badges and fix my sidebar links.

You get what you pay for...

So I found out today that GameTap is offering Psychonauts as a free download. My first thought was 'great! I almost paid $15 for the XBox version'. My second thought, about an hour into the game, was 'oh yeah...I really hated trying to play the demo on the PC'. I just can't find a comfortable button layout to play this game using the keyboard, I really need to get it in a version I can play with a controller. Oh well, something to add to my Wists.

I've been doing good on non-jewelry items for Etsy as well, got a few notecard sets lined up, and a few scarves and hats are ready for their close-ups. If time allows this week, I'm thinking of maybe putting a pattern up in pdf format - although Ravelry added a function to sell patterns through them. I'm going to have to do a little research into their shopping mechanism to see which way I want to go with that.

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Now playing: Vampire Weekend - Oxford Comma
via FoxyTunes

Changing my policy?

My original policy on Ravelry was that I wouldn't post any projects that were finished before I joined, and I wouldn't post anything that was going to be for etsy. I'm starting to reconsider that second part of the policy, though. It seems like at the moment, about two thirds of my projects are being made with the hope of selling them, and while I certainly wouldn't post every single individual item that I'm making on there, I am giving consideration to posting the prototypes for the patterns that I plan to sell on etsy.

I'm just not sure if I'm comfortable with the minor self-promotion involved. Maybe I should just stick with the free patterns, and hope that people will follow the links on here to buy the other patterns.

Maybe I should look up some designers on Ravelry and see what they've done with works/listings

Got my invite!

Woo-hoo! I got my Ravelry invite last night, and I'm busily adding all my in-progress projects. I just wish it worked with Photobucket instead of Flickr, since I already have a bunch of stuff on my Photobucket account to use with Craftster.