the thing itself and not the myth

So, how awesome were the Olympics? I mean, really. I didn’t get to watch a lot of it because a) the coverage in the States is truly awful and b) in the middle of it all I went to 15 movies, but still. Pretty great. And as an American living close to Canada, I was most pleased with the results. USA with the record number of medals? Canada with the record number of golds? The USA forcing the hockey game to OT to make Canada fight for the win? Basically, so far as I am concerned, that’s pretty much the best way it could go. Well done, everyone.

I am a sucker for the whole thing, though. I blame the fact that I had bronchitis for the entire Lillehammer games, and thus am fairly sure that I watched every minute of coverage.

Of course, the most important thing about the Olympics is that they are a pretty fantastic opportunity to get some crafting done. To that end, I participated in the Ravelympics again, and I will tell you all about it after the jump. (BTW, I just changed the RSS to full posts, so a) we’ll see how it handles the jump and b) sorry if there’s feed barf. These things happen.) (more…)

In a fit of insanity I decided to make a Max costume for Halloween. (I started it before I saw the film, so it’s lucky that I turned out to be totally obsessed with it.)

Pictures of the hoodie, crown, & scepter, plus more than you ever wanted to know about how I made them, after the jump (or by clicking “view original post” on Facebook.) (more…)

We had a baby shower today, which was pretty exciting, partially because I have had my contribution wrapped up in my living room for nearly two months. (The baby herself has been around for nearly three!)

It’s also exciting because it means I can finally show you guys some more of the crafting that I did this summer. What, you want me to blog things chronologically? It’s never going to happen.

After the jump, baby knitted & crocheted things of cuteness. (more…)

Also, over the weekend I altered a tshirt. It was a very simple alteration, and there’s a lot of tutorials on the web, but apparently I am incapable of doing anything crafty without documenting it. Four pictures, after the jump. (more…)

Something I found irritating:

Something I crocheted:

Something I was given at work:

Something I went to see:

I hope you all had a groovy weekend. I feel like I was wicked busy and didn’t actually get anything done. I spent all of Saturday on the bus running two errands on opposite sides of the county. Yay. I passed a RickRollin’ Scientology protest while transferring buses downtown.

There was also an Anonymous there offering free hugs, but I failed to get a good picture. Woe.

The second errand was the more interesting of the two, as it was a trip to get the supplies to turn this:

into this:

I think I will name it Edith. The laptop is named Adrienne. Edith isn’t after anyone, but it seems to fit. A few more shots of the process live on my Flickr under the tag laptop case.

Finally, I got into the office this morning and found this, the most perfect tshirt, on my desk, a gift from a coworker.

Speaking of socks, I bound off two pairs this weekend (Gred & Forge & Toe-up Embossed Leaves.) All praise Grumperina’s stretchy bind-off, which I found vastly simpler than EZ’s sewn bind-off, and so neat and stretchy! I am going to weave in ends at knitting tonight, and then maybe there will be pictures later this week. Maybe.

I’ve been carrying reusable grocery bags for a while now, which I like a lot, but I wasn’t such a fan of advertising for the grocery stores I got them from.

Last month I stopped at the craft supply and picked up some fabric paint, then asked folks over at the ephemeral blog to talk me out of writing Al Gore facts on my bags.

They failed to do so. The results live after the jump; may it be on their souls. (more…)

Last week’s everyday photo prompt was “inside the fridge”, which worked out well for me because it was organics week.

&

The only thing missing is cheese. And the freezer door, which holds ice for my bum wrist. And coffee, of course.

Also last week I had an off-site meeting in the International District. I am wicked jealous of people who work at that Center — they’re a block from Uwajimaya. On the way to the meeting I scoped out the windows at Kinokuniya Books. I am a little afraid to go past it during business hours, especially since they have stuff like this awesome Totoro hoodie in the window.

(Also, I read the reviews on Yelp. DVDs! Other Studio Ghibli miscellanea! Japanese knitting & crochet books! Seriously, I don’t think I should be allowed in this store.)

This weekend has been eaten by the Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. A friend won a pair of party passes, so I got one, which I think is hilarious. Obviously, I have not gone to any of the parties.

I also went to Spamalot.

[Sir Photo-not-appearing-in-this-blog]

And in the little time I was at home, I was doing mad crafting. Click through the jump for projects include Hooray for me gloves (round 3), sweatshirt pillow number one, and Ron’s Animal Crackers Hat.

(more…)

…I don’t have pictures for this stuff yet, but I can’t resist posting. Pictures will come later this week.

So! This weekend I finished Samus! Huzzah! I have been working on it since January (!!!) but the bulk of that was the tedium of the cable. The stockinette & finishing flew by, and the finished cardigan is so cozy!

Sunday night I reknitted Ron’s Animal Crackers hat (from the third Harry Potter movie). I had wanted to make it for some time, and then I had a skein of green leftover from the Irish Hiking Scarf. Perfect! The first time it knitted up beautifully, but a bit too small, so I frogged it and added another repeat, and now it is awesome.

Then I took the leftover dark red and cast on Rose’s Wristwarmers (from the “Doomsday” episode of “Doctor Who”). If I have enough yarn & they turn out well and everything, I will have a sweet little winter set, with the bonus that it’ll be fannish without being obviously so.

If I wasn’t hoarding all my vacation for silly little things like trips to England, I would be sorely tempted to take some time off to plow through some crafts. I have a big crochet project I’m working on, plus I need to add the buttons to the three sweatshirt pillows, plus I want to redecorate/finish decorating my bedroom, including riffing on this crocheted headboard idea & getting some prints off of Etsy, plus I need to generally reorganize so I can spread out a t-shirt quilt (which includes taking a trip to Ikea to get shelving for my craft area), and then I saw this on ikeahacker and thought it would be super fun to do that with the shelves, as the ones I’m planning to get are not exactly beautiful.

*falls over*

Speaking of England, that’s where I was a year ago, so if you feel like looking at pictures, you can look at those. Click through to the Flickr set.

In blog news, I installed the plugin for threaded comments, which appears to be working quite well. I also (a while back) installed the one for comment reply notification, but as far as I can tell it’s not working. Woe.

Peace out.

This morning has been so exciting already! At my coffee shop, they draw once a month for free coffee cards, and I got to do the drawing today! And then at the bus stop, there was a fight! Just a little fight — lots of posturing, a few punches, and one dude falling down. And then a lot more posturing. And then one dude got on the bus. How anticlimactic.

Here, have some pictures!

The everyday photos community prompt this week is books. Most of mine are still in Spokane, so I took a shot of my current stack of library books. The top one is a week overdue. Oops. And before you ask, it’s the only one I’ve read so far (except for Charmed Knits, which I have already bought my own copy of, so I guess I should return that one.)

Last night I made progress on crafts. From this weekend, the base of the Reduction Tote:

As of last night I finished the bag itself and the top edging, so now I have the straps and the pocket left to do. I was too tired to make sense of the pocket instructions, so I finished off this terribly nerdy project:

Yes. An iPod case embroidered to resembled the Tardis. I blame the fact that I couldn’t use my computer on Sunday. It warped my brain. I *am* ridiculously pleased with it, though.

Tonight I am going to try to go to Shaun of the Dead at Rainier Square. (It’s a crazy building — one of my college professors described it as an architect’s pencil stabbed in the heart of downtown Seattle.) I would invite y’all to join me, but I don’t think anyone who reads this is local.