May 12, 2010
Tiny crocheted animals
This pig was the first complicated thing I tried. It's based on a pattern from Wire My Soul, though I'm constitutionally unable to simply follow a pattern. :D
This is the second time I've tried this elephant, and I think it's a very cute pattern by Lucy Ravenscar. I'll be making more of these, for sure:
And finally, here's my favourite thing of all: a freestyle bee that I designed myself. It's inspired by the previous/next bees on the KinokoFry web comic, but simplified and 3D. I can't even tell you how cute people are when they see this. They cannot resist picking it up, squeezing it and messing with the wings. Adorable.
And for educational purposes :D the base of the bee, where you can see the colours overlapping. Because amigurumi are made as spirals, there's always going to be a bit of a mess when swapping colours.
February 01, 2010
Comfortable to be labelled an atheist
Many of my friends are roleplayers/fantasy readers/speculative fiction aficionados. People who get intrigued with exploring other worlds, and I've been thinking about faiths in other worlds, particularly how weird it would be if there were one or more gods who, you know, existed. What if prayers were answered. We've all imagined worlds like that, right? Even something as simple as D&D forces you to examine how freakish it would be if the gods actually took sides.
And wouldn't atheism be an interesting choice in a world where there were gods who made a difference? It would require an active denial of reality. An ability to see the world and say, yes, but I have *faith* in my own beliefs; a faith which transcends logic and facts.
And then I make a coffee and I'm glad I live in the real world, where atheism is rational, because there are no sky wizards here.
May 16, 2008
bringing it home
This raises some interesting questions: Why? Why me? Where the hell did she get it? (Our neighbours? A nearby bacon tree?) Is she going to throw it up? Near me?
What was she thinking? (My best guess: CAN HAS PIG MEATZ NAO?)
LOLPRINTY macros will be looked upon with great favour and amusement.
May 08, 2008
Phase One: something lovely happens to me, often involving cuddles and acceptance. This phase is usually very tactile and detailed. Some vaguely nasty undertones, but nothing I don't ignore using dream logic.
e.g. I discover a new creature kind of like a cat and there are two of them and they depend on me for everything and I love cats so it's all good. Sure they drink blood, but that's not really a problem, right?
Phase Two: Weird interlude. Something odd but pleasant enough happens which takes me out of the situation of phase one. Also tactile, but not so overwhelmingly lovely.
e.g. Go on a tour of a garden of alien plants. In the meantime, arrange for the first delivery of live food to the cat things, and they tear it to pieces as expected. They're also growing really fast, but nothing to worry about, right?
Phase Three: Something ghastly happens. Usually quite vague on the physical details (thank christ) but also the start of the really evil subversion/blame thing that my brain does to me in this dream.
e.g. Cat things dismember their first human victim leaving the bits in my room. It's someone I love and they're doing it because they need to (not their fault) and they wouldn't hurt me (because they love me).
Phase Four: Attempt to solve the problem which goes Very Badly.
e.g. Decide to destroy the cat things, so I capture one of them in a big glass jar (for maximum pathos) but the other one escapes. The one in the jar starts starving to death. I realise that they're silicon based lifeforms and that more of them are evolving/transforming from ahem, my anime figurines. (Wtf brain, thx for that.)
Phase Five: Realise the real solution is to destroy someone or something I love, so I do. This is fucking unrelentingly grim, sometimes involving me crying the whole time.
e.g. I have to burn all my anime figures but for some reason I can't admit to anyone that I've worked out which thing of mine they're transforming from, so instead I have to box up everything I own and throw it on to a fire, with the help of the people who don't understand why people keep getting killed by the still-at-large cat thing and are grieving for their loss.
Phase Six: no real resolution, just more self-blame. Wake up. Have a great day!
I can remember three versions of this sequence in detail and suspect that there are more. I'm hoping that writing this down will help to exorcise it, or at least improve my chances of realising that it's all a dream while I'm in there. Wish me luck, dear reader.
April 08, 2008
I am making a pair with the same design for Emma-sensei, but hers have purple and black stripes and are long and hyperfunky.
While I was putting up photos, I thought I might also link to a photo of some woman holding Connor. He's very cute.
April 01, 2008
some kind of medal
Sigh. So this is all depressing and shit. Sigh. It represents (in a stark, map-is-the-territory sort of way) the past year and bit of my life.
And Xopher isn't well and I've started coughing today (damn you, Centrelink germs) so we're not going visit Dave and Fiona and Simon and Jimbo and Connor tonight, so *sadface*. No stitch and bitch for me. No presenting the scarf I made for Dave to him. Or the hat for Fiona. Or the gloves for Jimbo and Emma-sensei. No holding the baby while everyone else has dinner. *sob*.
My life is deeply tragical today. I might go watch some emo bands making dreadfully earnest and homoerotic declarations to cheer me up. Fauxmos! \o/
March 31, 2008
Finished another scarf, so I thought I'd show you. The last one was made of hand-painted mohair. The crocheting was therefore fairly boring, because the yarn itself was so interestingly textured and coloured. This one started out as a test of an old-fashioned stitch which can be made into three dimensional repeating bumps as you see here, using some old wool I had lying around. I decided I liked how it looked, so when I ran out of the green wool I added black to each end.
Yesterday I gave it to Simon for a belated Christmas present. He seemed quite pleased.
I've been doing quite a lot of crocheting lately, ably assisted by our little stitch and bitch group. It was originally something for Fiona and I to do on Tuesday nights while everyone else played RPGs, but Emma-sensei has also attended a session and it's fun -- unironic fun, even. For one thing, having crocheting to pay attention to takes some of the pressure off conversation, and for another, making things is neat.
I was going to make a big list of the tv and music that's making me happy lately, and then a contrasting list about medication and anxiety, but there's some links instead.