Drowning in Suburbia

Holy crap...it's WHAT month?

I had a realization tonight.

It's September.

That's the 9th month.

That means there's only 4 more months to go and then 2010 is DONE.

It also means that it's almost November.

Which means I've been out of a full-time-job for almost a year now.



Fuck.



Okay, enough of that... back to having my mind reel at the fact this year is almost over, again. And that about a year ago I was meeting up with some awesome friends. An event that really doesn't seem like it was THAT long ago. I bought my plane tickets for this year's get together and so far it's a go. Only thing that can stand in my way now is if I get a new job and they really have an issue with me already having a week planned. (Yeah, I don't see much hope for this one either, but I'm going to remain blissfully ignorant-optimistic)

But seriously... where the HELL did this year go? And where the hell did the Summer go? (Despite another heat wave hitting us this week, I swear this is only the second hot week we've had this year. I mean, for Frak's sake! It dipped down into the 70s last weekend!)

I'm trying to not dwell on the fact that I haven't really accomplished much except for losing my job within the last year.

Ok that's a lie... I relearned how to crochet and how to knit which has been a total blast.

But really, it's mind blowing to me just how fast time can go some times. August is GONE and here it is September already and I'm just having one of those serious "wow" moments.

I've been busy revamping my resume, and planning on revamping my portfolio site (oh god I hate websites. I hate them. HATE THEM.) Hopefully the change I'm planning on making to the site will make it so that it's easier to update. And hey... I'm ditching the Flash in favor of just a nice simple (stop laughing) Lightbox javascript setup for the galleries. This can't end well.

I am still working freelance. In fact, this weekend I'll probably be doing quite a bit, which is nice as it will help pay for the trip I previously mentioned.

So what else have I been doing?

Knitting.

A lot.

Of Socks.

Socks finished since I last posted:

and
Cable Rib Socks from This Book and Pomatomus from This Website respectively.

And new socks started:



New socks are part of a new disease: The Sock Knitters Anonymous "Sockdown" over at Ravelry. Which really is an excuse to knit along with a bunch of other people who understand the joy of hand-knit socks and making them...oh, and attempting to actually make a dent in the yarn stash but that's a fleeting objective as it still is multiplying faster than I can knit. (Don't look at me like that! The new yarn was actually won in a contest and the other skein I got for free recently when I purchased the yarn for some Christmas knitting. Yes you read that right, CHRISTMAS knitting. I am on top of my shit, dammit! I have to feel accomplished SOMEHOW and this is what's gonna happen!)

Aside from knitting I actually started crocheting the scorpions I planned to make for friends attending the trip (ok so the plan was to make them for everyone who was part of the Order of the Scorpions from last year but I'm going with the more reasonable thing of "those who will be there this year" and then I'll finish and mail off the others at another time. Yep. Totally gonna happen.... I already told you to stop laughing)

In my non-crafty adventures I've started watching old episodes of Doctor Who since I fell in love with the new series. Haven't gotten to Tennant's Who just yet...but Eccelston is a god in my book for now. Yes I'm late on the bandwagon. No I don't care.

I've also been writing with the group-of-friends (who seriously are not imaginary...shut up.) and prepping myself for this year's NaNoWriMo. I'm so ready (...you can't read if you are laughing! HA!)

Now if you'll excuse me I need to get back to not going to sleep until 2:30 in the morning and then wondering how the hell it is that I've become slightly nocturnal again when I wake up just before noon.

When a Hobby Becomes an Obsession

Ok... I'll admit it...

I'm an addict and I have a problem.

I am addicted to yarn and the wonderful wonderful things you can do to it.

I should have known that the "cute little animals" would reopen a door I had only peered through before. Crochet had never been one of those things I wanted to do, the amigurumi overcame that in a quick short evening of making an octopus... then a penguin... then a whale... then a dog... then yoda... and I'm finishing up the scarf of this adorable little monster who is sitting at my desk as I type this.

Oh, but it didn't stop there, no sir. You see... It also made me dig out my old knitting books and give a pair of fingerless gloves the old "second try". The first time I bought the book and tried it was about 5 years ago (roughly) and I got done with one of the elbow-length things that were in lime green and black and I was pretty happy with myself

Behold! The evil in question!

As you can see...it was *ahem* rough. There's a row in there where I mixed up my pattern, the seam is just hideous... and let's be honest - by the point I was done with one the whole "elbow length fingerless gloves in black and green" thing was just beyond my fashion sense (probably for the best.) So the book went into hiding, the glove-thing became a screen-cleaner for my laptop and that was it.

Until recently.

 Yes... my fashion sense of color has gotten so much better </sarcasm>

Insert attempt #2. Which... yes, I know, silly colors still, but shorter this time around and dare I say it... embellished with some ribbing. Oh my goodness! I've promised myself I'll finish this pair - may never wear them, but I WILL finish them. If for no other reason than to give myself a good workup to an actual pair of fingerless reading gloves I want to make that I bought some seriously beautiful yarn for.

Which... brings me to the next problem. The yarn.

Oh...the yarn. I LOVE the feel of good yarn when I'm working with it. Love it. I refuse to buy cheap scratchy stuff (the Yoda above was made with something hideously awful to work with but I struggled through it because the color was "just right" to me). I went into the local yarn shop that I found (it's less than a mile from where I work - I'm doomed.) and couldn't help but just touch everything. Just a little bit... Thankfully I only came home with three skeins of sock yarn.

...yep. Sock yarn.

For making socks.

This is as far as I am on my first attempt...and all I can say is, watching the self-patterning yarn well... self-pattern is seriously a giddy enjoyment. I've had a love affair with funny-colored socks for a long time now and the fact that I could make my own has just put me in a giddy mood.

Sadly my writing has suffered a bit from this madness, I'm sure I'll find a balance here soon.

Until then, I'm telling myself that the $100 worth of yarn I bought over the weekend (and already have projects planned for) will have to do me over until I get paid and pay some bills...

And then, oh yes... I plan to spoil myself with a nice binder to hold all my knitting/crochet tools, a nice set of knitting needles, and some Noro yarn... so I can make one of THESE bad boys

Yep. I'm addicted. But admitting you are is the first step of... something... yeah...

mmmm yarn.

New location, new life, new hobbies

Wow. That's about all I can say is wow. Life somewhere in March decided it wanted to smash its foot down on the accelerator despite me warning it there's a cop probably lurking around the next bend waiting to crack down on our joy ride.

I think it was my father's accident that kick started it. Before I knew what was going on after bringing him home and seeing he was all okay, I was agreeing to move in to a new home - for the first time. Been in my parent's house all my life. One house. Now I'm still in the process of moving all my stuff over to a new house where I'm living with my boyfriend, a friend of ours, and the friend's fiancee. So far it's been a little over a month and it's all good (mostly). But insane anyway.

So between moving and such, I haven't had a lot of motivation or time to really sit down and write. (Reading though! - taking place in the 1 book 1 twitter reading group right now)

However, the other day while in the craft store (picking up hot glue sticks for the boys to convert into hot glue bullets... *shakes head*) I found a book of amigurumi designs - little crochet animals. I had to buy it.

Now... I knit and crochet occasionally. So occasionally I usually forget the basics between projects. A quick refresher is usually all it takes to get me back into the swing of things, but aside from the odd scarf (and a pair of fingerless gloves I managed to make one of) I really haven't gotten too creative with anything. Though the promise of cute little animals seemed enough motivation to give it all another go.

So after buying $70 worth of yarn, hooks, needles, etc I was ready to go!

I figured I'd start easy with an octopus. It seemed pretty basic, and given that I didn't have any of the cute little plastic eyes yet I didn't want to dive in too crazy to begin with.

 

(I couldn't make him in purple like the book showed... just... no. *glares at Detroit*)

Well with that pretty successful, a few lessons were learned in right/wrong side of projects, how not to over stuff, how much tension I needed to keep throughout the project, etc... A random trip to another local craft store yielded the little safety eyes I needed... and so on came project number two - a penguin! (Honest, this wasn't done on purpose *eyes the hockey crowd* I just adore penguins...)



I think he came out pretty damn awesome, if I do say so myself. Again, more lessons learned (like how to get rid of the excess yarn at the end after I was done finishing off/sewing together).

Well now I'm just plain hooked (no pun intended there)... in the plans are a little whale for a Crochet Along that I found myself wanting to get into over at Ravelry, another pattern from the book - this time a doggie that I'll be modifying to look like a little weenie dog, and finally... several from the set of patterns I bought over the weekend that are all Star Wars characters. I think Yoda and the Ewok will come first.

Oh... and then there's THIS... but I think I need more practice before I can make myself a crochet Mr. Bubbles.