This week I...

... went to a Social Sketch meetup! I wasn't sure if everyone else would be drawing from memory, or if we were meant to be drawing other people in the pub (which I wouldn't be up for, they are not there for staring at), so I brought my little carved tree spirit to have something unobtrusive to draw. I was happy enough with some of the drawings, though handing around sketch pads at the end made me want to crawl into a hole. I wanted to look at other people's though, so it would have been unsporting not to though mine onto the pile, though I couldn't refrain from pointing out that I had only restarted drawing again three weeks ago, after five years of next to nothing.

I have a knee-jerk aversion to the word 'sketch'. When I was in fifth year, my art teacher told the class that from now on, nothing we did would be a 'sketch'. Sketches are rough, incomplete, not a full piece in themselves, and if that is the mindset with which you're approaching your work, you're not putting in the effort which will make you better. From now on, we would only draw. While I've drawn very irregularly since then, I've held onto that lesson. I draw roughly, lazily, badly, but I don't sketch.

... drew some other things with which I was varying degrees of happy! These were on the middle to upper end of the scale.

Reference was this illustration, but a decent-sized version in a book.

"It's what people do, isn't  it? Leave a note?"
Reference

Reference

 ... made Oreo truffles from this recipe! I can make tasty food, but I cannot make pretty food, and while looks aren't everything, I see something like this and feel shoddy by comparison. (I want nothing like I want to friendship-court that person.) On the plus side, they were delicious.

... took part in the Colour Dash! (More great photos here.) I had been under the impression that we'd be running through a constant barrage of paint dust, but I suppose in retrospect that would be terrible for people's breathing. There was a paint-throwing station at the 500m mark of each kilometre. (The figure I heard floating around as to the amount of paint was nine hundred tonnes, so perhaps my way was logistically impractical as well as unsafe.) It was only five kilometres, but I was trying to match pace with my far more athletic sister for the first two and a half, and even though she slowed down on my behalf my legs are feeling it today! The photos don't really convey the full extent of the colourful paintiness.

 ... finished another pair of Ailbhe gloves! This pair are in a DK yarn rather than aran, so the fabric isn't so stiff, with a seersucker stitch pattern.

... saw Dylan Moran at the Comedy Festival in the Iveagh Gardens! Life goal accomplished, though I'd still love to see him perform a full set. By the time the opening act had been on for a minute I was cringing inwardly and knotting my hands around each other in sympathetic embarrassment (Also, if your shtick or sense of humour revolves around making fun of people who aren't you, I don't trust you. If you think jokes about driving while high are a big lol, ha ha ha you might hit someone or injure them for life and that's so edgy), but by the time Dylan Moran had been on for a minute my face hurt from laughing. It was all new material as well, and really top-notch.

"The truth is, we are all going to die. We are all going to die. And people hate when you say that. Especially if you say it during sex."

... started my October birthday knitting! Will this be the year I'm finally organised for all of the gift-giving occasions in the latter quarter of the year? Hahaha no, Jen, that was a stupid question. But a girl can hope!

A productive week, all told!

FO: Doubly nerdy gloves

I had these in mind as a birthday present for my boyfriend (October birthday #3) for a while, but couldn't settle on which logo to go with. I'm not sure if going with 'both' makes it more ridiculous, or ridiculous-neutral.

I have no great love of intarsia in the round, but I couldn't see any other way of doing this other than knitting flat and then seaming up the sides (ew) or a whole lot of duplicated stitches at the end (jesus, ew). So it was the lesser of three evils, and I think it worked out!

I used Supreme Chunky Cotton by Wendy, as my boyfriend is allergic to wool (INCONSIDERATE), and cotton is a definite step up from acrylic. The chunkiness of the yarn meant that the intarsia was quite blocky, so I went over the yellow yarn to pick out the corners and smooth them out a bit when I had finished. 

 

Not the neatest, but I think it's a definite improvement.

I'll probably post the charts for the logos in a few days!

In other news, I have misplaced the llama hat I made before I could give it to its person. It's none of the places it makes sense for it to be, or any of the places I've checked so far that it wouldn't make sense for it to be, so it's looking increasingly likely it fell out of my bag somewhere. Saaaaad.

FO: Button triangle cowl hates button particle cowl

October birthdays are go! The first two were yesterday. My little brother loves his bobble hat, and my friend Steph's present did not get eaten by the post and arrived only a day late, so I can post it here!

This is the One Ball of Rasta Version of the Triangle Cowl. I rarely use the recommended yarn, but the Rasta really couldn't be beat for colours and softness. (Plus I've never used Malabrigo before!) I used a skein of Archangel.

I don't know if the problem was enhanced by having lost my yarn needle with the largest eye, but this yarn was impractically thick.

I was inordinately proud of my solution!

Ta-daa!

The knitting part of this took about two or three hours all told, but the yarn being so thick, it does take a while to dry after blocking, in the order of days.  (I feel comments like this are increasingly useful with Christmas knitting approaching.) Seaming and sewing on the buttons were also a bit of hassle, as detailed above. I think it turned out well - it might be fun to make another and play with different stitch patterns.

Space oddity and lace gloves

My boyfriend's uncle had a new baby recently, so my boyfriend commissioned toys for him and the existing toddler.  The two(?)-year-old likes playing with machines and gadgets, and I couldn't find a nice robot pattern, so I made him a spaceship.

The pattern is Orbiting Oddity from Knitting Mochimochi.  I used DK yarn instead of worsted, and accordingly smaller needles, so I hope a discrepancy in size between the toys won't be a cause of contention. I think I should have used a more muted colour to stitch the eyes. The pattern used yellow, and I thought white might look less glowing and sinister.  Boy was I wrong. Still, the kid has to learn fear of aliens sometime.

The new baby is only a few weeks old, so doesn't have discernable interests yet. I'm taking the opportunity to make... something I'm quite excited about. Because I'm a child.

It's probably pretty obvious. But I don't want to say until it's finished for reasons of eeeeeh.

I made this gloves to sell at the craft fair, but I left them blocking on Friday night and they weren't dry by Sunday morning.

I bought a lot of Louisa Harding Willow Tweed on sale before Christmas, intending to make a tank top. Then I realised I wouldn't wear it. Now one skein of it is gloves! It knits very nicely, and I'll probably use the rest for similar projects. The pattern is taken from a stitchionary and plugged into my own glove pattern. (I have patterns and tutorials to write up, but I'm too busy being an unemployed wastrel and working through the 'To Read' pile that has been building over the course of my degree.) It took me a while to settle on one, but the yarn is so lovely and light that I couldn't but knit something lacy with it.

There were bees buzzing around while I was taking photos of the gloves. I thought they were aesthetically pleasing.

-

I turned twenty-two yesterday! It came with conflicting sentiments based on the facts that 1. I haven't been on any adventures or done anything noteworthy I'm never going to do anything I'm boring. 2. Literally my entire career is ahead of me I am ridiculously young.

When I walk around a house where everyone else is in bed or in their rooms, my heart still sometimes speeds up when I open a door to somewhere empty for fear that there will be something on the other side waiting to rip out my throat and/or eyes. But now in my imagination it's a person, rather than some manner of zombie or hatred-fueled ghoul or Lovecraftian monster. I believe that's what they call growing up.

Mars Bar Cake

One of my not-written-down-because-that-way-it-doesn't-count-if-I-break-it new year's resolutions was to update this at least once a fortnight.  It's a good exercise in writing.  I keep a diary, but that's more for the sake of memories and chronology, so if I'm busy an entry can be something like "Woke up late, lectures fine, lab report took forever, didn't get around to doing X" where X = the most pressing item on my to-do list.  For this, though, I know other people are reading it (stats are addictive), so articulation seems worthwhile, even if it's just talking about yarn.  I have been fierce busy and not had time to make things, but for the sake of an update, here is the recipe for Mars Bar Cake.

You will need:

• 3 King-size/ 5 snack-size Mars Bars
• 3 oz. margarine (not essential but it makes the chocolate melt a little smoother, and means things won't burn the second you turn your back)
• 1 tbsp Golden syrup (again, not essential)
• 3 big Mint Crisp Bars
• 1 big Dairy Milk Bar
• Rice Krispies

I don't know what the size of the Cadbury's bars I mean is termed.  Not the huge ones, but the ones usually only sold in Supermarkets, bigger than you'd get a new's agents of at the checkout.  You know the ones.

• Melt the Mars Bars, margarine, golden syrup and half of one Mint Crisp Bar in a saucepan.  It might seems like it's done for a while, with lumps taking a while to melt, but it'll be clear when it's done. It's very smooth.
• Stir in Rice Krispies until the consistency feels right.  (This is a very "sure, you know yourself" recipe, but it's hard to go wrong with it.)
• Pour into a square pan.
• Melt the Cadbury's chocolate in the microwave, pour over Krsipies.
• Leave in the fridge to set.
• Om nom nom.

And here is one I made yesterday for my dad's birthday!  It went down well.

Pirate turtle.

People are snazzy. I made this very adorable turtle for a friend last summer, then some other wonderful people made costumes for him. So my boyfriend got a pirate turtle for his birthday. (In October. I'm a bit behind.)