scrubjayspeaks

ysabetwordsmith has been posting about making terrariums and did a step-by-step of creating one in a spice jar. I was very inspired by this, and I wanted to take advantage of it being moss season here. In the spirit of spreading the inspiration, here's my process post too.

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A light green crochet blanket, folded into a square on top of a stack of other blankets.

I (sort of) remembered to take a picture of the finished blanket. I would have sworn I took a shot of it all laid out when I blocked it, but...

I have a couple of significant disappointments regarding it, but those were more...brain issues, let's say, than objections to the pattern. The less said, the better. It's easy to work up once you get used to the alternating counts. I'm pleased with my skill level on it, insofar as I didn't have any wild miscounts and it turned out reasonably even in shape. It's soft and pretty, so I'm going to call it a win. I debated endlessly about fringe or no fringe, and I can't say if I'm satisfied with my choice or not.

Still, it's only the second time I've made a blanket at all, so not too shabby? In any case, it has been shipped off to its recipient, so I wash my hands of it.

Next up is going to be a patchwork quilt for myself. And maybe a plush toy--I have a crochet pattern book for adorable monsters that I want to try out at last.

Haha, oh no, I have just now realized that being on vacation from Lewisia means, you know, not having Lewisia stuff to mirror over here three times a week. Which! Whoops! Has been most of what I'm posting here.

Gaddammit, I tried to make a less-work and I made a more-work instead! Again! I am so bad at not doing things???

In other news, it's the last day of my day job vacation, and my stomach has chosen now to make vague and threatening gestures at me. *pokes belly* Why are you like this? Why are we all like this all the time?

I made the mistake yesterday of walking into a quilting store that opened in town a few months ago. They had about seven different patterns that consisted of whimsical mushrooms with one or more adorable small animals. So now I'm seriously thinking of going back on the weekend and buying a few hundred dollars worth of materials to make a patchwork quilt for the first time. I've always wanted to do that, though it's going to be all basic machine sewing and some hand sewing. I do not have fancy quilting equipment, which seems to be a thing?

If I ever announce I'm buying an embroidery machine, though, please, save me from myself. If I start making patches, there's going to be no coming back. It'll be pun-based clothing all the way down.

Snowflake Challenge promotional banner with image of ice covered tree branches and falling snowflakes on a blue background. Text: Snowflake Challenge January 1-31.

Challenge 13: In your own space, share a favorite memory about fandom: the first time you got into fandom, the last time a fanwork touched your heart, wild times with fellow fans (whether on-line or off-line), a lovely comment you’ve received or have left for someone.

I went to my first convention in 2003, which was Anime Expo L.A. I went almost every year for a decade. I no longer live so near to it and so haven't been since I moved in 2014. I would truly love to go back. I'm not even that actively engaged in anime fandom anymore, but it always felt like home all the same. My second year there, 2004, I cosplayed for the first time.

An anime character with short, curly hair, fox ears and tail, and a colorful outfit, kneeling on the floor and looking worried while holding a microphone.

(screencap via YuYuCaps)

I went as Koto, a fox youkai and the cheerfully bloodthirsty MC of the Dark Tournament in Yu Yu Hakusho. It was almost a closet cosplay, using a lot of premade clothing items. But I made the little neckline-and-tie thing and the mysteriously-unattached-to-anything coattails. And the ears and tail, of course. I still have the tail, too, oddly enough. I wasn't there to compete or anything, just to have a bit of fun as an obsessive fan of the series. When I went by the Funimation booth, though, they gave my a shiny Koto from the card game in appreciation.

I cosplayed four more times at that con--Rinku from YYH, B.T. and Macha from the .hack games and series, and No-Face from Spirited Away. They got more elaborate over the years and more thoroughly handmade. No-Face got a lot of requests for hugs, and Macha (who looks like this) was the most impressive overall. But nothing will ever quite compare to the fannish glee of cosplaying for the first time, dressed up as someone I loved from something that was the most thrilling thing I had in my head back then.

Yeah, so, totally forgot to do any updates about this for a couple weeks. I have been working on it, I swear. Not a ton, but yes. Partly because I've messed up a knuckle on my left hand and I've been trying to give it some time to recover (I...suspect this might not be something it recovers from, but we're going to stick our head in the sand about that for the moment.) Also because I did a bunch of sewing instead the last couple weekends, including embroidering some shirts.

The light green blanket laid out with the skein of yarn and the crochet hook. It is now five full iterations of the repeating diamond motif.

But here it is. Starting the sixth set of berries now, and still just starting in on the second skein. I wish the pattern said how many rows total for the basic blanket (it doesn't, as far as I saw). Then I could calculate how many rows I need to get done in, say, a week to be done by any particular date. It's a lot easier to hit a target I can see.

Also, since I'm using them as an excuse, here are the two embroidery designs I added to some shirts.

A close-up of the sleeve of a pale pink shirt. Just above the edge of the sleeve, there is an embroidered rose in a light to dark pink gradient, framed by a few green leaves.

The hem area of a light green shirt, where a collection of fern-like designs and short grass have been added in various shades of brighter green embroidery thread.

These are some of the polo shirts I've been converting into henleys. The pink one had a company logo on the sleeve that I wanted to cover up. I added some little stem and bud flowers to each button as well, using the same set of colors. The green one didn't have anything to cover up; I just really wanted to do it. I'm not wildly happy with how that one turned out--I wish I had a wider selection of colors to choose from, for a start. But it's acceptable.

I've got another one in the queue that I'm thinking of adding mushrooms to via either applique or felting. Uh. Provided I can get some decent felt/roving to work with, mind you.

Oof. I didn't get much time on the blanket this week. I far prefer to spend a good chunk of time at once and get several rows done, rather than just putting in a few stitches here and there, because it's so much easier to keep track of where I am in the pattern that way. But that's not really compatible with my workweek.

The light green blanket in progress, now showing three completed lines of diamond shapes. The skein of yarn attached to it is down to just a small handful.

Still, I've finished three sets of berries and am on to the fourth. And I didn't, miracle of miracles, have to rip out any of my progress after all. Not because there isn't something off about it. No, this definitely doesn't match what's described in the pattern. That talks about alternating lines of five and four berries. If I did that, I would have a huge bare patch on one side of the blanket, where both lines fell far short of filling it. What I've actually got are five berries in each row, alternating between right and left alignment.

This should not be. But it works. So I officially Do Not Care.

I'm also, as you can see, nearly done with the first skein of yarn. It's hard to imagine that four will be sufficient, but I also have to keep reminding myself that it's a baby blanket. It's not going to be huge. Calm down. *shrug* It'll be something, in any case. Just gotta roll with it.

At some point, I'll take pictures that better show the color of the yarn. The lighting in the room I'm taking these photos is comically terrible. That's a light blue spread the project is resting on--not so you could tell by looking, of course. But it's convenient and I'm lazy, so.

Behold! The Sekrit Blanket (First Iteration)!

My bff since high school (who had better not be reading this, it is a surprise, go away) is going to have a babby, a nibling for me to spoil. The first stage of which is to begin constructing many soft things suitable for tiny humans. Starting with a small, relatively simple blanket! Which I'm going to post progress on, because if you're not blogging something, is it even really happening? *g*

This is why I took a trip to the Fancy Yarn Store out by the coast. After much debate and advice from the staff, I settled on Berroco Remix in New Leaf. This is a 100% recycled yarn, which is nice in and of itself. I picked it, though, because it had a soft hand to it without seeming overly delicate. It's washable and a mix of materials that should have a decent life on them. It was also a price that I felt was reasonable for this particular project. I looked at some truly lovely yarns that were much more expensive (and which I am almost certainly going to buy eventually) but I wasn't sufficiently confident in my abilities to do justice to something like that. Next time, for a fancier pattern, though--yes.

Speaking of patterns: I'm using the Diamond Berry Stitch Blanket from Daisy Farm Crafts. I liked the textural element of the berries, which works well with a solid color yarn. It was also sufficiently interesting to be worth making without being overwhelming. I've. Uh. Technically only made a blanket once before. (Rainbow granny squares, very cute, totally fucked up the border, so now it has an unintended ruffle edge.) If you don't know this about me, fair warning: my technique for learning any skill is to attempt something totally beyond my level and just bulldoze ahead, fueled by spite and obstinance.

Anyway! Onward to the current progress pics!

A light green strip of crochet, attached to the skein of yan and with a white plastic crochet hook in it. The pattern has alternating diamonds of small puffy stitches along the length.

A close-up of the crochet, showing a faintly visible diamond of nine berry stitches.

I've gotten through the first set of diamonds and am on to the second set. This was the critical point, which would determine if I was going to have to frog back the whole damn thing. Because something wasn't...quite...right? According to the pattern, it should be alternating lines of five and four diamond clusters. Either I'm nuts or there's something off with the pattern. Because I have a large blank section at the right side of the first row. It's not centered. And if I only did four diamonds in the next line, it would be even more off-center.

As it turns out, I can do five in all lines and it will just alternate between right- and left-aligned sets. Which is fine! It's just not what is described or depicted in the pattern, and I don't know why the mismatch has happened. I didn't get clever and change anything about the pattern and I'm just doing the basic size, not one of the expanded ones.

This always seems to happen, and I don't know enough to diagnose the cause. I'm just glad it's going to be balanced and I won't have to start over. *hands*

I still have several crochet baby blankets from when I was born, made by family friends. The idea that I get to be that person now fills me with joy. Maybe something I make will be that beloved soft thing someone holds onto all their life. I've always just used cheap supplies, half-assing my way through projects because they're just for me. And I never crochet as often as I want to because, well, what am I going to do with all that stuff once I make it. Making for someone else, though? *chef kiss* (RIP my bff's closet space, I guess. :D)

Because I am greedy, I am not satisfied with four days off instead of three, even though four days still felt like an extravagantly long time off.

One thing I did over the weekend was start crocheting again. I have a...we're gonna be optimistic and call it a throw blanket, which has been in slow progress for, uh, maybe a couple years. (At one point, I ripped out all the work I had done on it. Possibly for the purpose of choosing a pattern that had a hope in hell of actually amounting to a blanket with the quantity of yarn I had available. I don't really remember, because again, this was a couple years ago now.) I am now on the last skein of yarn I have for it, so whatever I get from now to the end is what it will be.

I do not, realistically, care about this blanket a great deal. But it is good practice to get back into crocheting. I am going to make a blanket I will very much care about, just as soon as I can go to the Fancy Yarn Store and obtain proper materials. Because in addition to having only small amounts of yarn, since I mostly do small projects, I have only garbage yarn. Since I'm much more invested, normally, in the process of making the thing than in the thing being, you know, fancy.

My lifestyle now requires fancy yarn. I am going to investigate washable wool. This cannot possibly go awry. *teakettle noises*

Yeah, see, even the time off is a lot less fun when I'm so aware of weird inconveniences and routine disruptions waiting just around the bend for me. I've been slowly coming down off the agitation all that caused. I'm definitely more anxious and keyed up than I would have been after a normal week of work, to say nothing of after (what should have been) just two days. Still, I got another big project finished this week, and that's pretty cool.

Lewisia: 3 new pieces written, and I'm getting better about getting these written sometime earlier than 8pm Saturday night

Gratitude journaling: 35 new entries

Tumblr queue: 35 posts added

Day job: 14 hours, which, uhhh, was more weird than pleasant, I have to say

Crafting: assembled all Pokemon card frames and hung them--pictures under the cut below

Gardening: dug holes for new tree and the ones meant to go around it

Other: jury duty, the weirdest experience of the year thus far

( Photos of framed Pokemon cards under the cut )

Crafting day! I had some clothing to repair, so I was getting into my crafting supplies anyway. But also,

ysabetwordsmith had recently posted a step-by-step of making a crystal window hanging. I really liked the idea--I always have a bunch of crystals and sticks and other doodads strung in my windows anyway. One of the office windows was mostly devoid of decoration. And in doing my cleaning over the last couple months, I went through and reorganized my various jewelry-making supplies, so I knew just how many shiny bits and bobs I had sitting around unused.

Over the last few years, I've made a trip to the beach for my birthday. There's a nice, low-traffic stretch that I love. I...am very much not going this year. Beaches have either been shut down, swamped with people desperate to get outside, or somehow both at the same time. It just didn't seem like a good gamble. Which is tragic, because the tides have been wild lately and it's storming, which are basically my ideal beach conditions. I didn't realize it would make me as sad to miss out on this as it has.

All of which is to say, I made a window hanging out of driftwood, shells, and dry seaweed I've collected over the years, plus some beads, crystals, and charms.

( Progress photos under the cut )

I am no longer a real human. I have vibrated myself into the next dimension. I can taste sounds.

Lewisia: 3 new pieces written

Gratitude journaling: 35 new entries

Tumblr queue: 25 posts added, still skipping weekends

Day job: 54.5 hours, jesus fuck

Crafting: carving jack-o-lanterns!

A jack-o-lantern with angry eyes and long spikey teeth, lit with a string of lights inside.

Two more jack-o-lanterns, one very small and round with a nervous sort of face, the other large with a goofy and friendly face, both lit.

Three pie tins on a tiered rack, each full of drying pumpkin seeds and labeled with a variety name on paper.

Gardening: picking pumpkins--there are still more green ones still developing, but we're also predicted to have our first frost of the season this week, so who knows how much longer they'll survive; laid out seeds to save for next year

Reading: finished Sandman #5 (goddamn, A Game of You makes me sad), on to #6

Other: got echo done, confirmed ballot has been accepted

Oh, fuck me sideways... Y'all, I have...I have done this to myself. So I got an appointment reminder email, which I thought was from my rheumatologist, but it was the wrong date. I was all prepared to call them about it. Then I realized it was the wrong office number, the wrong phone number. Because it's a reminder about the cardiologist appointment for an echo and to be fitted with a temporary heart monitor!

Fuck!

This is what my week now looks like: Tuesday after work, follow-up appointment at the vet for the dogs. Wednesday after work, telephone appointment with the rheumatologist. Thursday after work, haul ass down to the cardiologist office. Friday, full shift of overtime.

*hyperventilates*

Who let me DO this? How has this terrible event occurred? Who authorized this transaction?

Okay, okay, don't panic. This is fine. This is manageable. I'm not double booked. I am technically physically capable of getting to the appointments on time, so long as I move quickly.

Here. Uh. Here's the embroidery I did over the weekend to fix the moth-eaten spots on my denim vest.

A closeup of the front of a denim vest. A small design of white flowers and leaves has been embroidered just next to the buttonholes.

I haven't done much embroidery ever (I also can't find any of the hoops I'm sure I own), so I'm extra pleased with how it turned out. I've got some more clothing repair/modification ideas, assuming I survive to see my next day off work...

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On A Trail of Breadcrumbs

Making Terrariums in Jars

Sekrit Blanket #1 complete

Today's Keyboard Smash

Fandom Snowflake 2022: Challenge #13

WIP - Sekrit Blanket #1

WIP - Sekrit Blanket #1

WIP - Sekrit Blanket #1

Today's Keyboard Smash

Done This Week

Driftwood Window Hanging

Done This Week

Today's Keyboard Smash

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