Needles & Nilbogs

 We are BACK!!  I acquired blackberries this morning -- maybe half a pound, max -- and decided since they're (frankly) not great for eating, they're perfect for dyeing. So I started figuring out container acquisition, which led me to spend some time poking around the backs of dining halls, digging through recycling bins for any useful containers. An hour, five dining halls, one dorm, and two bruises later, I had a giant  jam jar and empty can of ketchup that wasn't going to cut my hand open.  The supplies  [id: supplies laid out on a desk, including a giant can and giant jar, a mug, a bowl of blackberries, various fibers, a measuring cup, and salt] Beginning the process! [ID: the same supplies as before, arranged on a blue towel and without the fiber, which is being mordanted] The ketchup can was my mordant container: seven cups of hot water to a large amount of salt, which helps with colorfastness for berry dyes/stains according to various internet sources...

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. 

 Happy Thursday! I swear I’m not dead, yet. Just busy. Anyways, it’s almost Homecoming (actually, today is day 4 of hoco spirit week) and I’d like to share a thing I wrote. It is a gaming thing. I have been alluding to it on and off since June.  It’s about homecoming. Specifically, it’s a game about having fun with your friends at homecoming and then realizing there’s an eldritch being at the dance as well. And then figuring out what to do about it. It’s not meant to be a scary game, it’s supposed to be pretty light and cozy.  Anyways, it’s called Rock This Dance and there’s a PDF that looks all pretty and a gdoc in case the pdf doesn’t work. Let me know what you think!  (Technically this was beta read. If you call throwing a pdf at a friend who then skims it beta read. Point is, comments very much welcome and encouraged.)

Ugh, club day. Too much being a smiley person for me, thanks. It was not helped by the fact that I was running on like no sleep. (I stayed up to make triboards for two clubs, which might have been a bit overly ambitious.) Anyways, that’s why I didn’t post yesterday. So tonight I used family movie night as an excuse to project all my complex emotions about club day onto some characters from a story I’m writing. I don’t know whether I’ve ever talked about this on the internet before, but I guess this snippet I’m really happy with is a good start.  The bare minimum context is that it’s about a bunch of high school theater kids, about half of whom are magical in some way; this includes the main character, eleventh grader and threadmage María Soledad “Solí” Armijo Riveras, and her banshee girlfriend Elia Graydaughter. Everyone involved is queer and magical and just trying to get through high school, and they have shenanigans and friendship and stuff.  (CW: mentions of transphobia, ...

 Today was the second day of school and I have opinions but mostly trip photos. And some from senior sunrise this morning, and a super amazing thing one of my best friends sent me for my birthday.  (Blogger turns photos sideways for some reason but) The City Spies, as drawn and painted by one of my besties!!! Isn’t it gorgeous? It’s a scene from book 1, and if it wasn’t late I’d find the exact page reference, but it’s amazing and gorgeous.  Drone on a model coaster  Beach sunset, seen through trees CA museum!  Went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, saw lots of kelp Asilomar at high tide — just as cool as at low tide More Asilomar  Beach sunset again! Meet Lilac Lavender, the purple tardigrade plush I got from the aquarium  Steinbeck museum had to have Steinbeck somewhere… CA museum again, this time the quilt Senior sunrise, spindle sunrise… take your pick! Birthday cake! Lilac in a tree at the campground Coals at night  More senior sunrise, without th...

 I will have a photodump from the trip we went on next week, once I’ve had a bit to process, and I’ll talk about some fun yarn stuff and game stuff soon (it’s been a while, I know, I’ve had a weird summer), but this week is all about poetry, specifically a whole bunch of poem snippets I wrote over the last few days. (Thursday’s note: This was supposed to go out yesterday, to make up for absolutely nothing last week and in celebration of my birthday, but the beach happened so I didn’t write.) This is mostly a loose celebration, in an odd way, that it’s my birthday and as such I can do whatever I want here (still true even when it isn’t my birthday. Let me have my moment of oddity though), so I’m posting poetry.  Something There is something very poetic about all this — late afternoon sun in my eyes hair and skirt flowing, swirling in the wind  strings streaming from my hands while I weave  Weaving I am  Weaving a poem As I am knotting this bracelet Because There ...

 I’m thinking about halloween already. I know it’s kind of early, but I wanted to do something really detailed this year. I’m going to try to be one of the characters from a book series I like, the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. And given that weapons are a no for this, it has to be one of the humans, which means I need a feed interface.  Interfaces clip into the ear, and they can look like anything. I made one with pull tabs from soda cans and some thread, plus the clips off of a pair of clip-on dangly earrings. Yes, I should have been spinning. Yes, I promised myself I’d only spin this month. No, I haven’t been spinning.  On my right ear, showing where to put the clips (it’s not exact) and what the shape looks like Lying on my bedspread The process was pretty simple, although this is definitely a multi-craftual, complicated project. I’m not sure how well I can explain, but I’ll do my best.   To do something similar, you’ll need three of the pull tabs (the thing...

Happy first week of the Tour de Fleece, annual spinning adventure! This is my first year doing it, and my goal is just to spin every day.  I’ve already completed one skein and have another ready to ply, and while they’re not large skeins, they’re something. I’m a little behind on picture taking and on Ravelry (this week has been A Lot with a couple of things so I haven’t had as much of a chance to do that stuff) but here’s pictures! The white is the first completed skein and the honey-colored one is about to get plied.  Plying ball, ready to go! Winding the plying ball Finished! (Terrible lighting here) The official color name for this is Golden Hibiscus, but I think it’s more of a honey yellow. Photo from the spinners guild meeting, where I was the youngest person there by 20-30 years, as usual.  Day 1’s progress. Only day I’ve managed progress shots so far. 

I think I’ve mentioned this almost everywhere I exist on the internet, but forgive me one more bit of crowing. My crochet work made the state fair! I’m entered in the Student Showcase of the California State Fair (July 15–July 31, if you’re in the area and want to see it), with the Forget-Me-Not Table Topper. This project ( Ravelry link ) has actually been a really long time in the making.  Framed and ready for drop-off! A few technical details before I talk about the story: it’s basically a granny square where I replaced some of the sides with filet for a while. If you want to do something similar, you need to leave edge clusters at each side so that the increase pattern can be maintained, and then there’s a setup row of all mesh before you can work the pattern. It’s basically working the opposite of the granny stitches; dc in each ch-space, and chain over each cluster (use the same number of chains as the number of stitches in the cluster, and be aware that this means it will be ...