Oh how the time flies

My last post was in September, and in all honesty, not much has changed in my situation.  Still living with my boyfriend, still no job-my laptop died so it's yet another blessing that I'm with my boyfriend and can share his. Added bonus for the foresight of actually buying my iPad when I did.  I've started really practicing my poi spinning and have been making a video every day of my practice on youtube.  I have some good prospects, but only time will tell. On the needle end of things though-a lot has happened!

I have finished two baby blankets-I have a picture of the first here.  It was made by sewing granny squares together, the obnoxious rug underneath is really distracting but I didn't have many options. There's a princess doll for size comparison.  The second was a giant modified granny square, but I have yet to get a picture of it.

I finished three scarves, two for children one for adult-also have to get pictures of these.

We have some embroidery back from around September-though I've noticed I'm not enjoying it as much as my knitting or crochet, so I probably won't pursue it much farther.  The first is a fancy pentacle, and the second is a little Samhain badge.

Also, I'm finally finishing the bag I started back before I graduated! It's been over a year!! I'll have pictures up tomorrow, probably.  I'm also going to be starting a nice warm wool hat for my boyfriend (and might end up making one for me as well, eee!) I also plan on really getting into socks in the future, and have been contemplating learning to spin yarn.  There was a while where I really wanted to get into weaving, but setting up the warp seems really intimidating so I nixed that idea.  There's a lot more projects in the works for the future as well, see you around!

'Nother update

Well here's another breakdown of what's been happening. I lost the job I'd had because it was seasonal, however my supervisors gave me very little notice and I had no opportunity to look for work elsewhere.  The upside was that this month is the tenth anniversary of my father's passing, and my mother moving me to NC.  I decided the time was right to move back to RI to be with my family and back at the place I considered home.  As an added bonus, my boyfriend also lives in CT and it was going to be very nice to only live an hour away from him.  The horrific catch to all this is that finding a job has been a nightmare, and my family has gone batshit insane.  Luckily, my boyfriend has been amazing and has taken care of me while I struggle with finding work and adapting to living back up north again.

Now then, thats my personal news, in my needlecrafting portion of my life I started work on another crocheted blanket using granny squares, this time I'm making many tiny squares in two different but complimentary colors and I'll use single stitch to seam them together into a final whole when the tome comes.  The individual squares are very easy and fast to finish, but I didn't realize just how many you would have to make in order to make a queen size blanket! It's been a slow process but fun all the same.  Also I recently got supplies and I've started doing embroidery by hand, it's very meditative and I feel very feminine as I sew.  The first thing I made was a crowned cross for the boyfriend's sister in law, there's enough fabric with it that she can sew it into a little bag for a rosary or maybe some jewelry.  For myself I've started a nice little pentacle pattern, but my floss has had a mind of it's own roughly halfway through and I had to take a break before I set it on fire.  Here's a picture of the cross I made however, it's done entirely in back stitch which is very easy.  Unfortunately due to a small budget I used tracing paper with the pattern on it, and sewed through the paper into the fabric to transfer the design.  It worked really well, right up until I had to tear away the paper which messed up the majority of the stitches.  Oh well, learning process I suppose.  I'll ost a picture of it for you later.

Late, as always.

I promised pictures, so here they are! Not much else to really report on at the moment, I've graduated, moved twice and got a job-craaazy busy.

 My friend was a hand model for my gloves, yay!

 Some side by side comparisons of the scarves, mine is the blue, and my brother loved his gray!

And here's the blanket I made for my stepbrother, I still haven't shipped it to him yet, but that's because I'm a lazy sauce.

Busy Bee!

I seem to be on a lot of hiatus' lately! The reasoning this time is because in a week from now I'm going to finally be graduating from college! I've lost my other glove so I have to wait until I find it again to take a picture for you. I'm currently working on two different super secret Xmas projects so no details until after the gifts are given.  I'll take pictures before I wrap so once they make it to their future owners you can see what I've made.  I can't say enough how much I love Caron Simply Soft yarn! It's about three dollars for 5 ounces, but it really is delightfully soft and it feels just SO good to work with and touch. You do have to be a little careful because sometimes the yarn does unwind while you're working but if you pay attention it's not a big problem.  I'm planning on learning how to do embroidery soon! I particularly like the romance of doing whitework-though I am definitely biased towards patterns rather than outlines. I'm not sure why but just outlines of random pictures doesn't look that good to me-it really needs to be filled in to look nice in my eyes.  I'm so lazy about my Ravelry account-maybe I'll get more active with it later on, after I've graduated.  I'm also hoping to learn how to quilt-it seems a pretty straightforward skill and yet there are subtle techniques I probably need to learn rather than just guessing.  That's all for right now, but I'll try to keep up a little better!

About that Summer...

I know I've been away since May, sorry about that! With the change over of my spring classes to my summer classes, a new work schedule, moving, and blazing heat-I just didn't get around to working on much involving needles! However, all that has changed now that we're getting back around to cooler weather. Back around May I had started the process of knitting the pieces to make a bag for my yarn and supplies-well I didn't really do ANYTHING on it since this month! To date, I have four pieces of the bag completed. The bottom, both sides, and the front panel. I've already cast on for the back panel, but I haven't begun the straps. Speaking of, I'm still debating how to attach them! I'll probably just use the bag I'm modeling it off of for reference when the time comes to sew all these pieces together.

But the biggest development? I've finally discovered the charm of crochet! My best friend's mother showed me how to do her version of a granny square and I've been quite literally hooked! In the past week I've gone through three skeins of yarn-one for a blanket I started for myself (as well as a practice piece to learn how) and two more as a surprise present for somebody. Crochet really does go quite fast, and once you find your rhythm you don't even notice how much you've done until you look over and the skein has deflated!

Overall I think it bodes pretty ill for my knitting needles, since knitting really does take more time, and a bit more care. If you drop your needles out of the loops for a knitting project you're in trouble, but for crochet? It's only one loop, you just pop the hook back in and keep going. I'll take pictures of the finished projects and post them up here for you to see. I'll try to be better about keeping everyone posted! Ta for now.

Another day in the life

I got some really good advice and some hands on help this past couple of weeks, and I've finally gotten the hang of crochet. I can't wait to start making things, and hopefully, eventually, making money. I needs money, yes.  I've been having a hard time thinking up blog posts lately (especially being consistent with an updating schedule!) I figure I'll get the hang of it eventually, but I do, sort of, have an excuse. I finally finished finals for this semester as of this morning! And my new larping schedule was INSANE this month as I had somewhere to go every-single-weekend. That and I was determined to learn how to play River Flows in You by Yiruma on the piano. Which I have!

On a more solemn note:

Amendment one got passed in NC, and it's an absolute travesty. This isn't about gay rights, this is about the definition of the word marriage, and who gets to define it. That, and saying that only marriage in this Christian sense counts.

Whatever your personal religious beliefs, it is NOT YOUR PLACE to force them on others, or to make them law. Saying Pagans can't perform marriage services for gays because gay marriage is illegal, is like saying Christians MUST perform marriage services for the LGBT community regardless of their personal beliefs. This amendment is a restriction of my religious freedoms.  And regardless of your beliefs about gay marriage, claiming ONLY marriage is legal is absolutely disgusting-a straight civil union is now no longer recognized. The thought of amendment one makes me feel physically sick to my stomach, and I no longer desire to live and work in NC and pay my taxes to this state.  It was a failure of our legislative process that such a bigoted, hateful, and discriminatory amendment ever came to pass-a revocation of rights should have been shredded the first time it was seen.

Don't like my opinions? Tough.

I am straight but never narrow. A rainbow friend. And always, a safe place friend.

Wow

So a quick update on my knotty little life: the bag is coming along slowly, but it's still fun. I've met loads of new people who love to crochet so I'm getting advice from them so I might enjoy it more. Nifty fact, crochet creates objects more quickly than knitting, but it uses more yarn! I didn't know that.

On a Witchy Note:I went to the Beltane Brouhaha this weekend, as hosted by the North Carolina Piedmont Church of Wicca and it was amazing. I made a lot of great friends, called the western Quarter during TWO different rituals, and was initiated. I feel renewed, and it's amazing.