Needles & Nilbogs

 Well, it’s been a while. I’ll spare you the excuses, except for the fact that I’ve done a lot of writing (college essays and fanfic) and some crochet, and that’s about it lately. So here’s the Christmas presents, and I’ll talk about the writing soon. (read: I’m doing a few things tonight and scheduling them for various days over the next few weeks, while I attempt to get back into at least saying Something on a semi-regular basis.) I made Mom a rainbow scarf for Christmas, and finished it on December 27, instead of several months later, which happens unfortunately often. This is it in the sink, all scrunched up. An early process picture of the rainbow scarf; it’s broomstick lace, 30 stitches across with an H hook (it’s some red heart yarn that isn’t unforgettable but seems pretty similar. I have a Thing for single ply rainbow ombrés.) and worked around my 1 inch ruler in groups of 3.  More of the scarf blocking The scarf all laid out on towels; it’s Long.  Close up of it...

Ironically for a blog that’s on my college applications, writing college applications has mostly kept me from blogging lately. Totally coincidentally, I only have a couple of photos but they’re of something really cool!  For Halloween, I wanted to make something I could use for cosplay, and I chose the PreservationAux survey group from the Murderbot Diaries books.  The jacket is a gray long-sleeved tshirt that I cut open and sewed a zipper into, then embroidered, and the rest of the outfit is just stuff I had, except for the “feed interface” which I bought at the local ren faire.  Me in the costume Progress shots Gratuitous project and pumpkin picture. You can probably guess which pumpkin I did, and it’s not the dog.  Mirror selfie of the jacket right after I finished it. 

 Continuing on from the past two posts, this is the final part of a 3 part series dealing with textiles and traditions in fantasy worlds.  Today, I’m going to give a few examples of textiles in RPG worlds that I’ve built, but first I want to briefly talk about working these into a game. Working worldbuilding into an rpg plot is a complex subject and requires a lot more effort than I can give right now to cover comprehensively, but specifically for textiles, one thing I do is to describe what clothes people are wearing. This is especially useful if clothes denote something special in society, but even if they don’t, “light brown linen robes” and “neon yellow polyester raincoat” come from two very different cultures and textile traditions, and imply two very different levels of technology. Beyond clothing, consider dropping in household items — a “woven rug with geometric patterns” can give a good setting to a scene and reinforce bits of culture, or a tablecloth could be made ...

 Chag Sameach Purim! Happy Purim! I’ve had a very busy and exciting week, and I have plenty of hamantaschen as well. And some cool photos from a trip to Monterey. Purim is a Jewish holiday that celebrates that the evil Persian vizier Haman, adviser to Xerxes I (aka Ahasuerus), didn’t kill all the Jews because of the brave actions of the clever Jewish Queen Esther. We celebrate by dressing up and bringing food to others, among other things. So my family made A Whole Lot of Hamantaschen, the traditional cookie. It’s a butter cookie shaped like a triangle and filled with jam, chocolate, poppy seeds, etc.  Plenty of hamantaschen Ours are regular butter dough, filled with strawberry or apricot jam; chocolate dough, filled with chocolate chips; cheesecake filling in regular dough, drizzled with chocolate; and regular dough, filled with Nutella or chocolate chips and drizzled with chocolate. We made … probably too many, so I’m bringing them around today to all my friends. (Sorry, Rus...

 Happy new year! I just have a quick post today because things have hit the ground running this year. I made all but one of my Christmas presents this year, so I thought I’d post some of the photos today, now that they’ve all been opened. Some of these have my construction notes, none of these have proper patterns. There are a few other gifts I made for the family, but I’m not posting them (one’s personal, and one I forgot about pictures until after it was mailed). A scarf for my grandfather (Lion Brand Homespun, N hook, just 18dc across until the yarn ran out) An amigurumi spaceship (inspired by/intended to be the millennium falcon, but messed up with engine placement). Boring gray yarn, an H hook, and worked in parts so the edges were fairly crisp and even.  The edge of one of the embroidered towels I did. All of the towels used DMC pearl cotton, worked pretty haphazardly.  One of the pair of fingerless gloves I made my sister. It’s variegated yarn, with an H hook, and ...

 Happy holidays! I am refraining from pictures of ungiven gifts until next week, but I do have a pattern to share, finally!  This is a very simple pattern (US crochet terms) for fingerless mitts in bulky yarn, although I’ve made them in plenty of other yarn weights and they turn out beautifully. If your hands are a much different size from mine, or you want to use different size yarn, your width should be just barely enough to wrap around the thickest part of your palm (where your thumb attaches) plus 2 stitches for the join, and your length should be enough to go from a little ways down your wrist to just past your finger joints. I tend to cut the last row out of mine because I don’t like being restricted in my fingers even the tiniest bit. These are basically a rectangle of double crochet with a hole in it, although I’ve done patterned ones before (cables are a lovely addition to ones worked in a smooth worsted weight yarn). For smaller yarns, I tend to use a hook of an appr...

 This is a PSA. If you are a crafter and stressed about holiday deadlines, leave this around and maybe people will stop bugging you. If you are not a crafter and you're reading this because you're reading my blog -- laugh, then take heed for the future. If you're not a crafter, you didn't come to my blog, and you're reading this because someone left this around -- you might be in need of this guide on a more immediate basis. I'm writing this for that third group, the brave souls sharing a house or deep friendship with a crafter during this holiday season (and my family, who are all in that group).  What is Holiday Crafting? Holiday crafting (this is just my definition) is crafting done under at least one of these conditions: a) it takes place during the holiday season and/or b) it is intended as a gift or decoration from the holiday season. Usually, this also refers to gifts made on a deadline during the holiday season. It can be any craft, and in any stage of c...

Happy Chanukah! Happy Advent! I had a Chanukah gaming thing that I was going to do, but I didn’t finish it in time, so I’ll either post it next week or next year. Instead, I’m going to share my writing project. I seem to get these ideas every year, so I write them down.  Meet… the Yarn-, Math-, RPG-, and Book-Related Christmas carols (not all of these may be present, this is just a few things)! Some of these people have probably seen before; heard before, more likely, actually because I was singing in the shower when I came up with several of these. And not all of these are complete or good parodies. I write them when I think of them.  O Crochet Tree (O Tannebaum) Oh crochet tree, oh crochet tree, how lovely are your stitches. You stand so soft and cuddly, you are so warm and snuggly. Oh crochet tree, oh crochet tree, how lovely are your stitches.  We wish you a merry knit-mas (we wish you a merry Christmas) We wish you a merry knit-mas, we wish you a merry knit-mas, we w...