2010

Another year, another decade. As some of you faithful readers know, I work in textbook publishing. Like the car industry, we operate in the future. I just held in my hand the pages of a book that I have been working on since calendar-year 2007, and was signed in calendar-year 2005. The book was 5 years in the making, and will be physically bound as of next week, in calendar-year 2010, but it's a copyright of 2011. There are several bound copyright '11s in my office right now, that we weren't legally allowed to ship out until yesterday. It gets very confusing, since professors are only just finishing their first semester with the 2010 copyright books, and we are already working on 2012 books. (And in some cases, beyond that, since first editions have a much longer lead time than revisions.)

This is a long-winded way of saying that I never have any idea what the actual year is, anymore, without checking a calendar or asking someone who preferably doesn't also work in publishing. In some ways, the new decade started for me three years ago, which makes all the "looking back" posts and articles a bit odd for me. (10 years ago I was a junior in high school!)

But the new year is the new year no matter when my brain is, and the new year is always a time for reflection and resolutions. This year, I'm not doing resolutions per se, but rather a "Zodiac Challenge" that as far as I know was concocted by my friend DigiKami. The idea of the challenge is to complete 13 projects over 28 day periods throughout the year, leaving us with a day off at the end of the year. I agreed to do this, got lazy and forgot to come up with challenges, except for a few vague ones, so when I got my reminder email this morning, I was scrambling a bit.

The challenges are meant to be projects, and if you don't finish your project within the allotted four weeks, you must put it down. If you finish early, you can go back to any previously unfinished projects. Obviously not all projects will take as long as others--one of mine is to sand and either repaint or stain a small dresser and my night stand, which should only take me a weekend, and another is to crochet my grandfather a blanket.

I'll be posting here with updates about my challenges. The first challenge will be a secret, though. It's something I need to do and would get in the way of starting any other projects, and I can't have someone reading on here what my challenge is for the 1st through the 28th.

One Last Present

The CephaloPod seems to have been a hit. It was oohed over when it was opened. It was in fact the second present opened in the Yankee Swap, and while no one took it away from the person who opened it, she never opted to trade for any of the other things in the swap.

The final gift I gave this holiday season was another scarf. This one, too, was hard to give up. It was made with Malabrigo Aquarella, a super bulky, thick and thin yarn. The color I used was "Coronilla," which ranges from coppery red through brown and into black. And of course, since it's Malabrigo, the color is delicious and the yarn is soft and buttery. I kept the scarf simple, to highlight the qualities of the yarn--it's just a garter stitch scarf, so it looks fabulously home-made with the thick and thin yarn.



This is not the best picture, as it comes out looking darker than it is in real life. I shall attempt to capture the scarf "in the wild," that is, around the neck of its recipient, my roommate. I've seen her wearing the scarf a couple of times already, so another success!

For those who care about such things, and aren't on Ravelry, here are the details:

Yarn: Malabrigo Aquarella, 3 skeins in Coronilla
Needles: Size 13 KnitPicks Options.

I used the new acrylic Zephyr tips. I am not a huge fan--they are a little bit grabbier than the original, nickel-plated tips. I haven't used the Harmony tips yet, but I did order the Harmony 9s so soon I should be able to have a full comparison of the various tips.

CephaloPod!

I promised more crafty-gifts, and lo and behold, I present to you, CephaloPod, the squid iPod Cozy!



CephaloPod is made from SquiPod iPod Cozy, in Caron Simply Soft Shadows, on size 8 double pointed needles. I got the buttons for 50 cents (total!) at Windsor Button after work today. I'm enamored. I want one for myself. I stupidly didn't decrease the amount of stitches in the pattern, even though I used worsted where the pattern called for sport, so he is really more camera-sized than iPod sized. Shhh. I'm throwing him into the Yankee Swap tomorrow, so we'll see how he goes over!

Mario Tree Topper, v 2

On Ravelry come the fall, talk inevitably turns to holiday knitting/crocheting. "What are you making for people for WHATEVER-HOLIDAY?" The posts are then replies with copious lists of "This for that person" or, "I don't knit for HOLIDAY because everyone around me are ungrateful jerks," or, "I'm lazy/not good enough/whatever." I'm usually in the lazy category, but suddenly I realized that I was nearly finished making my fourth gift of the season.

You've already seen one, Z's scarf. There's another present that I dare not post lest the recipient reads my blog (I don't think the recipient does, but you know), and I still have a tentacle to knit and eyes to sew on for another. But I did give M & E their Mario star tree topper!



At my holiday party, M requested a star for their tree, but bigger, hopefully by their holiday party, or at least by Christmas. No problem. On Saturday, I crocheted their star, which is probably twice as large as mine (I haven't measured them, but that'd be my guess). I actually was an hour late to the party because I was hurriedly seaming and stuffing the star while T played the new Super Mario on my Wii.



I used the same pattern and yarn and hook as last time, but I did make modifications for the size. After round 5, I repeated rounds 4 and 3 once each, for a total of 60 sc around. The points were therefore 12 sc at their bases instead of 6. I decreased for the points at the same rate as in the original (so decreasing on rows 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 12).

They are pretty pleased with it, as am I. Will have pictures of the other two presents for you shortly!

Breaking Radio Silence: More Knitting and Crocheting!

Hello, blog. Long time no see.

This year, I decided to save some money by knitting presents. I can't show you one of them yet, but I already gifted one of them to Z, who left to study viola de gamba at the Hague for three months this week. I actually finished the scarf (the bind off and weaving-in-of-ends) at her going away party, and then wrapped it around her neck.



I think it was a hit--she wore the scarf the rest of the party, and then left my apartment without the scarf she'd worn to my apartment in the first place.

Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in Velvet Grapes
Pattern: My So Called Scarf
Needles: Size 11s (I love my Options!)
Ravelry page
This was much quicker to knit than the last My So Called Scarf that I made. Since I, you know, actually worked on it.



While cruising the Atheist and Agnostic Crafter's boards on Ravelry, I saw someone was knitting a Flying Spaghetti Monster tree topper. I thought that was a pretty awesome idea, and then I had an even geekier idea: a Super Mario star tree topper! The only pattern I could find was a crochet pattern, and while I taught myself to crochet over the summer, I hadn't actually done anything past learn the basic stitches. But I decided the idea was too awesome to not at least try, and so I toddled off to Windsor Button after work one day this week.

Windsor Button is a fabulous store in downtown Boston--they have a wall of buttons, sewing supplies, random craft supplies, and of course, yarn. I haven't seen many yarn selections like the one at Windsor Button--craft stores like Joann's have a limited selection of yarn companies, and they tend to focus heavily on Red Heart, Lion Brand, Caron, and Patons. Local yarn stores might have Patons, but are unlikely to have the rest. Windsor Button has everything from Red Heart Super Saver on up to Malabrigo and Sea Silk. It's a fantastic store, and I love that they have a smattering of everything. And while I normally hate acrylic, I knew that Red Heart was going to be my best bet for the bright, bright yellow I'd need for the star. I very much appreciated that I could walk from my office to Windsor Button and get the yarn I needed, rather than having to get in a car and drive to a big box store.

Anyway, I wound up ripping the star out a lot, and re-crocheting it. At one point, I had all of the first star done, and all but three points on the second star done, and redid them both. I had some beginner's difficulties, but I learned a fair bit, including how to read my work some. And so, lo and behold, my first crochet project!



I know have to figure out how to attach him to the tree. And prevent all my friends from grabbing him and running around my apartment singing the invincibility music from Super Mario Bros games during our party next week.

Yarn: Red Heart Classic Solid in Yellow, Cascade 220 in black for the eyes.
Pattern: Super Mario Invisibility Star
Hook: Size 3.25 mm (D)
Ravelry link
The pattern calls for a size E hook, but I didn't have one and was too impatient to wait for another trip to the store to acquire one. I'm quite happy with the results, though!

Update: Here it is on the tree!

The Lonely Egg

You may have noticed that I talk about food a lot. I like to cook and eat. So do a lot of my friends. In fact, one of them likes to cook so much that he created a website to share recipes. The Lonely Egg just went into open beta today, and is pretty awesome, with even more potential for awesomeness down the road--I've been using it for a while now, and it's nice to have my recipes at hand anywhere I go.

So, if you like to cook, check it out. There's also a Google Group for the site, where you can make suggestions, give feedback, or report bugs.

Good News! Spring is Here...wait a second...

So it's now July 10th, and weather-wise, it's a beautiful May day. At least it's not raining.

The last of the strawberries are in the farmer's market, so I made Strawberry Shortcake Cookies, which I made for the 4th and were a huge success. I'm hoping they are just as delicious today as they were last week!