Kiss My Knits!

Another hat tonight, this one I call Funky Forest. The solid parts are more burgundy than the picture shows. Here’s a view of it on with more accurate colors.

It uses the Colinette Five Point in colorway Forest (hence the name) and is a variation of the hip-hop pope hat(tm Khaman) of several weeks ago. I didn’t have bulky yarn in a color I liked for the brim and crown, so I doubled a strand of worsted. It made the hat a little heavier than one strand of bulky, but it’s a little more visually interesting and is still acceptable weight. Also, I wanted to funkify it a little more, so I picked up a row of stitches (hard to explain briefly) to make the top ridge pop out more, and at the top I decreased to four stitches and then made a couple of rows of i-cord for a little stem.

This one’ll come to Simucon too. I have plenty of other projects I should be working on, but I just HAD to use some of the Colinette! I officially love it.

So I log into DR this morning and check to see who’s online, and notice a who’s who of Elanthia’s good and evil among the assortment of GMs. Then I look a little closer, and realize that seven of the GMs currently logged in are Vaschon in various bodies. Yep. Seven Vaschons. He wasn’t EVERY NPC online, but a significant portion of them.

I think we need a new system of measurement, somewhat akin to the Richter scale. The Vaschon scale. It would measure carnage.

“Wow, you see that army of darkness march past?” “Yep, looked like about a five on the Vaschon scale. Anything more than a four and I automatically wet myself.”

Kudos to one of the hardest working GMs in showbiz. Keep knockin’ ’em dead, Vaschon!

Well, I finished the baby snakes scarf. Note 13″ tall Groovy Girl for scale. The scarf is a straight garter stitch, but with double the number of stitches for the last few rows for a very small flirty ruffle.

So if I finished the scarf, why do I call it a draw? Because I got too smart for myself and tried to outthink the baby snakes. See, back when I first got my ball winder, I thought, “Hey, I’ll just rewind this stuff onto a nice center pull ball.” Big mistake. It was a case of thinking about a new toy and not looking closely enough at what the yarn was actually doing. What I wound up with (so to speak) was a hopeless tangle. The snakes just kept slithering around and out of my grasp. This is a yarn that is best kept on its original cardboard core, wrapped tightly in a rubber band when not in use.

I was able to use one of the balls, and about half of the second tangled one, and then said, “the hell with it” and decided the scarf was long enough. It was, like, one in the morning when I finished because I didn’t want to stop and have the yarn tangle in on itself again, and I was just too tired to mess with it.

I’m throwing the rest of the tangle out. It’s gorgeous, but there’s not enough for one garment and I do not have the patience to de-tangle it night after night.

You know, come to think of it, I do have a cool scarf for Simucon and did learn a lesson about novelty ribbon yarns, so I guess I actually won. Take that, baby snakes! Yeah!

I bought more yarn. Some of this and this. The Jamboree (that first one) has already arrived, and it is the most psychedelic, funkalicious stuff ever. It’s like knitting on LSD. Er… if I knew what that was like.

Aaaanyway.

I love this yarn, but I still have my original problem! I have so many projects I want to do by Simucon, but not enough time! What do you think people would most like to see (since I’m not getting too hung up on actually selling a lot of stuff)? Bags (won’t have time for too many), scarves, or hats?

Weddings is taking up more and more of my time this month, leaving me less for little stuff like, oh, I don’t know… LIVING! Durn lovesick people. Hmph.

Add to that that a niece wants a felted bag for her birthday in June, and I’m flailing. Those bags take time. You have to knit something the size of a sweater before you shrink it. Nonetheless, I soldier on, in DR and in life, trying to meet the needs of everyone else.

Entire world, I love you, but get off my back, already! Argh!

Okay, so one of the yarns that Tessima sent me in her care package is Mosaic FX. It’s really cool-looking, and would definitely make a dressy, glitzy scarf.

But it’s so slippery! I swear to you, knitting it by itself it is exactly like knitting baby snakes. Live, wriggling baby snakes that will crawl off of the end of your needle if you let them. And heaven help you if you try to re-wind it. Damn snake yarn! This is Tessima’s revenge for… something… that I must have done that I don’t remember. Whatever it is, I’m sorry! Take back the snakes!

So what do I do when I need a brief break from working on weddings, but still want to do something for DR?

Put in new rumors or visions. Bards and moon mages have a special place in my heart. Ya big hams.
Work on the master list of gems and plants and stuff that we GMs use. (Tyrathia, eat yer heart out)
Five-minute random rp events (something unexpected happens, but it won’t require five hours of player or GM time).
Round up the fun projects that I don’t have time to do and foist… er, see if my newer AGMs want a crack at them.
Work on rooms or messages for other big-time projects or areas that need a little extra help. (Plus then the GMs in charge of those projects owe me favors – bonus!)
Create or do quality control for unique items that will randomly go into treasure chests.
Design quest treasure.
Work on my little area that will someday go live. Someday, someday…

And last but definitely not least…

Play!

A GM’s work is never done – but often fun!

Those who know me know that I am an upbeat person, because frankly, nobody wants to hear me whine about my personal problems. Hey, we’ve ALL got problems, and I know my friends are all dealing with their own lives.

But I will say that sometimes, when your child is “different” than other kids, it can be really hard to focus on what you have instead of seeing what you don’t have. The contrast can be particularly harsh when you see them in a crowd of “normal” kids. There’s a reason that people say “I don’t care if it’s a boy or a girl, as long as it’s healthy.” Nothing else really matters besides that.

It’s been a little rough lately.

Umm… lighthearted, lighthearted, lemme see… Oh, I bought yarn yesterday. It was mispriced at 3.98 instead of the 5.98 it was supposed to be, and they let me have it anyway before they marked the rest of it up! I may pair it with some Trendsetter Coconut. I felt like I’d “won” somehow when I got the cheap yarn.

Hey, don’t judge me, it’s cheaper than crack.

I’m not sure at this point that I’m going to have enough inventory for a table at Simucon. I’m trying to decide whether to go for a half table, or just to put things up in the auction booth.

Too many projects, not enough time!

Okay, credit card bills are in danger of creeping back up after we got them down to zero, so I’m going cold turkey on the yarn.

Say a little prayer for me, folks, as I suffer through withdrawal, clutching my knitting needles.

So I finished my “I’m stalling” project, which was another bag. I did this to a) use up a skein in my stash, b) see what happens when you use a lighter weight than is called for, and c) put off working on that pink bag again.

I finished it up just before tonight’s DR wedding/party/free-for-all, and decided I’d pop it into the washing machine for a quick felt. So I did, and it felted to just about the size I wanted! But then I thought, well, I’ll just give it another couple of minutes to firm it up just a little more.

But then, as always happens, I gave my DR event my full attention and totally forgot about the bag in the washing machine. Which really shrank. It’s now a handbag in the literal sense, in that the body is just a bit bigger than my hand.

On the up side, I did learn that you can sub in a lighter wool, if you’re willing for it to be a little floppier and to felt down a little more. And as I’d hoped, the Araucania Nature Wool, which has a great variation in color within the skein, gave a nice effect. I think it looks kind of like blue tiger striping. It’s a little more subtle in person than in the picture. Hard to believe that this is the same pattern (more or less) as the Tessima.

I have two skeins of this yarn in blue-jean colors, and may knit it again, holding it double to see what the extra bulk does for the size. There’s enough of this blue left over to add in a nice, rich stripe or to do the handles with it. I’m considering these ‘mistakes’ to be exercises in learning about what the materials will do.

All in all, it’s not the effect I thought I’d get – but I’m still happy! I’ll add some kind of closure, and it’ll make a nice little kicky purse.

Tomorrow, I start on the pink bag again and do another DR wedding.