(Still, I really do not like those carpets - they are blue-grey and well over 10 years old, so you can imagine why! I want them replaced!)

I’m still knitting and still not finishing projects, though to be fair I did actually finish the Combat Boot socks. And I did finish a pair of red bamboo fingerless gloves for my oldest son that my middle son now wears instead.

(They are a modified Fetching, ok, heavily modified Fetching, but rather cute on a boy all the same)

So I am finishing projects, just not any major ones. The lace shawl is still sitting in my knitting purse, with a bit done here and there, and the wool Moderne Log Cabin blanket I’m working on get some love once in a while too. I’m finding myself missing knitting socks, which is crazy, considering how sick of socks I was when I finished the Combat Boot socks. Yet I find myself looking over at my yarn and missing knitting socks, so I may just pull out one of the balls I have saved and hunt down my size 1’s and cast on yet. For what or whom, I have no idea. Maybe I’ll just make it up as I go along, and not finish them for another two years. At least I have made headway on David’s Sweater. Slowly inching along on the last sleeve. Very slowly.)

You’d think I’d have gotten more stuff done in the better part of a year, and really, I have… just not much knitting. What did get done?

(Deep breath…)

In the middle of last year I closed the shop down, and will probably keep the online version of it closed. I’ve found that as much as I love knitters, I really do not enjoy retail. I enjoy wholesale work, so if a yarn shop wanted to sell a few hanks here or there, I’d be thrilled to bits to dye yarn again (and fiber, yum, fiber), but until that day, I’m just going to dye for myself and family.

Over the summer of 2009 I went back to school, and began work on a certificate in Game Art. Digital 3D art type stuff. I had been making decent headway on that when my husband deployed to one of the giant sandboxes over in the Middle East late last year. The kids and I saw Avatar in December, but keeping up with the kids and the house did a number on my free time and, consequently, my mental state - I got next to no homework done, and ended up hitting an emotional rock bottom around January. Things are better now, but it’s taken a heck of a lot to climb back up.

My sister came for Valentine’s Day and my 27th Birthday in late February, and we had entirely too much fun shopping for shoes… and then we all got REALLY sick for a few days… and then we dyed yarn, and then she went home. It was an awesome visit, as not awesome as it sounds put like that.  I ended up sick for most of February anyway, so bleh. Nothing like running a fever on your Birthday! But we had pretty yarn to show for it, though I didn’t take pictures before it left here for Texas. However, she took a few pictures when she got home, and one is up on Ravelry. This one is called Sasha:

It’s the Lil Squish sock yarn base done in pink and purple,  with a nifty little technique I loved to use to get my semi-solids. It’s even prettier in person. If I hadn’t made it just for her, I’d so have kept it. (And stared at it for months, since we all know I don’t actually knit that often, as much as I do love it.) It’s being made into very pretty gloves as we speak and I’m just dying to see how she pulls it off. She says she adores the yarn - color and base - so I am a happy camper as is. <3

The rest of what I’ve been doing has been artsy, but not of the yarn variety. It’s been 3D art. Most of it can be seen over on Deviant Art. In February I ‘created’ an image called ‘Saving Grace’ for a contest a dA group I am a member of was running, and surprisingly it took second place out of 30+ images.  It’s not a bad image, really, even if I’m not fond of angels.

You can see a larger version over on Deviant Art by clicking the image over there.

As far as ‘real’ 3D art goes, actual 3D modelling things from scratch, not just putting things others have made together and lighting them and making them look pretty… I don’t have much to show for myself. I’m slowly getting there. Best thing I’ve done so far would be this:

Yeah, I AM that much of a nerd. It’s actually a really simple model, just made of pre-made primitive (cube, sphere, pyramid, torus, etc) shapes put together. Like a kid playing with blocks, just digitally.  Still, it’s how many full 3D models begin, so I’m not knocking myself for it ‘only’ being made of primitives - and I do know that I kinda went above and beyond what they assignment called for. But if I can, why not? Isn’t that what excellence is?  Isn’t that how you grow and improve, by pushing your limits? It’s worked out alright for me so far.  ;)

Anyway. I’m thinking about redoing the theme of the site again, or at least adjusting the navigation links at the top there. Those are a few years overdue for it anyway. But one day at a time, one thing at a time. Right now, I really need to go clean the kitchen and get laundry going while the kids are watching a movie, now that their homework is done. Hopefully, not that this is more of a personal blog and not so much a business one, I’ll be around more often, but we’ll see - a lot depends on homework. However,  if things work out and I do get to write here more and read blogs more often, I’ll need to update that blogroll. Any good suggestions?

/love

By some miracle that one lonely sock is not so lonely now.

This was before I ripped out the heel the first time and started over. I actually have a heel (HA, spelled that hell at first!) and a quarter inch of leg now.

(Please ignore the obvious lack of sun and time with the razor, por favor?)

A close up of the patterning and cuff of the first one, since this is *gasp* a pattern I made up on the fly came up with myself and figured it might be fun to show an awful picture of a ribbing pattern done with black yarn.

I’m seriously thinking about writing this pattern down in followable format. I’m just not sure how to handle the whole different sizes thing. Ok, not entirely true. I know fractions and decimals, and I ‘get’ how gauge works. I’m just not sure what other sizes to write it for. Of course, sock knitters seem to be pretty bright people in general, and most adapt patterns. Or so it seems on Ravelry. At the same time, I’m a bit wary of becoming even the most casual of pattern writers/designers.

(A strong reluctance to hear “OMGZORZ ur paturn suxzorz i dun noe wut k2tog meenz!!1!” might have something to do with it. Can you tell I play online games much? I know most knitters are quite a bit more intelligent than the previous statement, but Murphy and I are almost on a first name basis at this point, so knowing my luck… /grin)

In other knitterly news, I finally swatched Lil Squish Cotton on larger-than-size-US1 needles. US3 to be exact. What a difference!! I went from having my doubts about a yarn I loved in the hank to debating knitting socks for myself in it.It even has this subtle shimmery thing going on that you can’t really see here. /love

And at around 7 sts to an inch before any blocking and what not on US3’s… well. We’ll just say that it knits up a lot faster than some of the other socks I’ve been working on.

(Evil size 1’s. But oh, how I love you all the same.)

I’ve not touched the sweater. I’m not sure when I will. It’s too hot to work on it right now. So The Big Project is The Shawl right now.

It’s not nearly as neglected as it looks there. It just stays in the Namaste Zuma bag (now named The Purple Bag) for safe keeping and so I can carry it with me.

(Leaving the house without my knitting… I think not. I do more knitting in public than I do at home, and feel naked without it besides. Go figure.)

Proof that it is infact NOT neglected:

Last known status:

And as of this week:

That is infact the back of my computer chair, and despite being fully spread out on a 60″ circular needle, it is still very bunched together. I’m on the second pattern repeat of Section 3. I’m really liking this section; after a round or two, I didn’t have to carry the pattern with me anymore. It’s easier to just read the knitting than count. <3

(Ok, I have to do that since I rotated the pattern for the past two sections a few stitches each section. I’m not OCD, just very visually oriented. No, really. )

Anyway, so that’s where the knitting is. I also knocked out a few inches on Kul’s socks recently, but still need to take pics of those. And I really need to dye yarn. AARG. I am such a bad yarnie. ): Here’s to hoping I get actual work done this weekend.