What?! Oh updates!

I really want to say that I've been doing nothing much and being a slacker. I have been doing things and now I feel like I deserve to nap for the rest of the winter.

I don't know if there will ever be a christmas where I don't make something for someone.

This year was mostly hand warmers, and accidentally scarves. I didn't actually give those as gifts, but mostly made them on request. That is a lot of knitting! And I still didn't really get rid of my yarn and/or bought more. I really only want it gone so I can make more things with new yarn.

Lately though I've had the itch to have nothing at all to do with yarn. But it is very easy to work with and doesn't require me to clean. Just to know where all my little sticks and bits are.
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I did get to serve coffee to my sister today, something I wanted to do in my room for a while. Furniture will need rearranging and I need to find one of those little hex wrenches for ikea stuff. I got gifted two ikea end tables, and have no way of putting them together! I'm going to see about getting longer legs for one of them so it's at table height instead. It would be a matter of getting the wood and having someone drill holes. I could be especially po-dunk and just hammer blocks on the bottom...

maybe I'll see if the washer is done and if we have a hex wrench...

You can microwave socks, why not other fabric?

I am in the process of making hand warmers for people at work. Its flannel fabric with short grain brown rice in it. I also added a little wristlet made of some unused shoelaces so that they don't have to put them down, just let them go. You put them in the microwave for 30 seconds and they stay warm for quite a while. This pair has gone to my grandma who kept exclaiming how they were still warm so long after being out of the microwave and tossed around the table.

Prior to this I had made one out of a bandana so it can go around my neck/shoulders, filled with lots of rice. I microwave it for longer, but while sitting next to it on my desk I was struck with the idea for the hand ones. Its cheaper or the same price as those single use ones and at work we have a microwave in the cafe by the registers so people can just go over and rewarm them. They are also reasonably small enough so they could fit inside mittens or even on the palms of gloves. Its not usually my hand that gets cold in gloves, but my fingers. So that may not be as awesome, but that's also why I don't like gloves, they make my fingers colder not warmer.

Happy Halloween!

the part where we naw on your hat until its useless is just so we can use the yarn from it for something else later.

strangely the awesome idea I had for something to make and sell relating to yarn, means I have to go to the fabric store. cuz damn! it is hard to contain knitting needles, and sometimes crochet hooks, with yarn made fabrics. They just poke through the holes all over the place.

Emo-saurus

And that's the sort of day I'm having.

Made things today, drawing style.

I completed something!!! I am part of a sketch exchange on livejournal and almost everyone who has drawn my characters says how they didn't really understand the reference pictures and stuff.
So I finally made one of my characters a sort of page about them. A character page.
This is Case. I don't even know what he is. Sometimes people have characters that are based on just one animal, but I created these guys and THEN started using animal reference for them. So now I think of rat feet when I draw Case's feet, and I think of a kangaroo tail when I draw his tail (though slightly more flexy) I think of bull terrier ears when I draw the ears. I have no idea on the head and of course siamese cats for the points.

I decided he can turn into a lynx with wings, which I figured was a pretty awesome symbol for being the messenger. I mean who doesn't want to have your mail delivered by a silver lynx that is suddenly sitting on your kitchen table. Scare the crap out of you for pure hilarity.

While I was looking up owl wings I found this story, about wesley the owl and his person, and then I promptly cried all over. Then I went to work, and that was my day.

Item sneek peak and some rantiness

I'm starting to think that I should request closing shifts. I get so much done at home in the morning. So far I've used the telephone to deal with doctor stuff, I took most of the pictures for my scarf to go up on etsy. There is not a large market for knit and crochet stuff on there, but I'm really not sure what else I could do with the things I make.

Lots of other things need to be put in the works and I essentially have to make sure I have enough stuff continually lined up and going on so that the times when I dip down and don't want to function so well I can simply coast and take care of myself. Probably everyone doing their own business is laughing at me for making that statement, but I am well aware that all of them have times where they just want to say "fuck off" and sit in a corner and just make shit for themselves only. Lots of things that normally would be important to them, suddenly become whatever things, minimum operating procedure mode is enacted. If I set up in a style that allows me to do that, it won't be all apologetic when I need to detox from people and sit around processing all my latest info. It will happen, there is no use ignoring it, so I have some minor plans for that.

I am really warry of writing things down in a list format. Basically writing gets things out of my head, so if I make a list I now have "completed" all those things and tada never actually do them. Its not in my brain, therefore it is not immediately important. I do have a business notebook now though and use it like a journal to spew business things.

My camera has decided that using the auto flash is just too hard and it refuses. It is technically a pretty old camera, and I should consider getting a new one. I also can't figure out how to get it to to a timed shot otherwise I would have the damn scarf already posted. People seem to love things when someone is wearing them. blarg. I should research stuff like that and paste it into my notebook.

I think the chicken beads I made were a failure, but I might put them up anyhow. I have to see how many categories I get on etsy and how to arrange things. I need a yarn, atc, and clay category at the very least. I might put up a misfit or bin button and put discounted fails in there. No not everyone will think they're failures but its a quality and outcome issue. It is not what I was going for and...well mostly I don't want to have to make any more of them.

Crappy cafe post

Been doodling at a coffee place and then wondered if there was a blogger app. There is. I drew this and some other stuff.

Glazed hens (sounds like a good name for a dessert)

First is the chain I made for my purse. It does roll off the shoulder more than I would like, but its more something to get use to than a real problem.

Then I decided to make some hens out of clay and bake them. I wanted to try to make it look like they were glazed in a regular kiln and I think I mostly succeeded. I still want to color in their crowns and beak...maybe. I'll have to see how that goes.

I did nothing, nothing at all.

Tada! I even crammed all my crap in it already. That is the second strap I created for it because the first 4 in 1 chain I made looked wrong. I am much more in favor of this style chain. I also now have blisters. Yay losing all my callouses after years of not doing this.

This purse is basically everything I can do craft wise, outside of cut and glue paper. I knitted the outside, crocheted the sides together, sewed the inside part by hand, put a small zipper pocket inside as well as a zipper on the top, and I made the chain strap myself. PLUS it was all out of materials I already had in my room. (I also draw, and attempt watercolors. I don't do windows...or dishes.)

My last purse cost 30 dollars. It was pretty cute, but not really durable. The knitting on this might get seriously crappy, but this purse will not fall apart. So best 30 dollars I never spent.

Did some little doodles, they can be seen over at my tumblr

have to figure out how to get my twitter on the sidebar...I'm sure thats doable...right?

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everything was photographed with my ipod. cause my camera batteries are charging. joy.

Knit purses like a vague something or other.

Okay so um maybe we're going for a post a day? Until I screw up and forget. ha ha.

anyhow I was going to make this into a scarf for a friend who really liked the pattern, but now I think I'm going to be lazy and selfish.

This was taking a LONG time to knit because I don't know much about knitting. I'm starting to understand more but I have no idea how the edges of this became as they are...my mind boggles and then stares blankly. So I would have to follow the pattern every single step of the way. Which sucks for me cause I normally like to watch movies and stuff while I knit. I'm not a zen knitting, I'm a finished product person.

So a while back I had the idea of turning the whole thing into a purse with the outside being the knit and then some funky fabric on the inside. Only then I lost the knitting somewhere and well generally was lazy.

Cleaned the crap out of everything. Now I have too much yarn and I bound off the knitting (improperly for the pattern) and I found a quarter flat of that orange fabric. Everything else in the background is clean laundry that hasn't made it to the magic world of "away" yet.

In other worlds around my room I have rings, and if it weren't knit I would make myself a chainmaille strap for it and be awesome. However the rings would super snag on the knitting all the time even if I closed them really well. So that is out. I may ask my brother for some of the leather from his motorcycle seat...as delayed payment. I don't need much of it. Then I might have to figure out rivets or something. I am unsure about where this part is going.

BUT the best thing is I totally got this little wallet thing a while back that also has a leaf pattern! Now I will be awesomely matchy.

Things again

I'm going to say most of the time I don't know what I'm doing. This is little exception.
I wonder how many images I can upload to blogger before it gets angry with me. Hopefully a lot.

I think I just have to accept that I make artwork that people need to understand like they understand blues music.

I like skull faces and sad faces and making drawings and putting random words with them that would probably depress most people. But it makes me happy, in a pleasant calm way. I changed the way the blog looks to this fishbones thing. Its pretty nifty.

Might get this place going again. Its part of the plan.

The words should have said "Imagine if I could just sleep life away" instead of how it reads here, but my brain had skipped town. It still sort of works.

I kind of want to make the rats saying all sorts of things like "F you, this is my purse. A-hole." I should go make a lunch for work though. boo.

blah blah blah -blah -blah ...blah.

[rats were drawn in a sketch book w/ ball point pen and then cut out and glued to the paper. The card is 4.5x6.5in. The saying is written straight on the card. I may do more to this later with ink or paint.]