Episode 55: It’s been a bit…

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Filmed on April 1, 2018

Podcast Stuff

  • 2018 Blanket MAL! There’s a thread up on Rav for photos and discussion, so please join us there as you work on blankets.
  • Quilt Along! It begins!
    • Time Frame: March 2018 – September 2018 – 6 months
    • Quilt size: smallest side 3 ft/36”/92 cm
    • Quilt top pattern: Half Square Triangles – The entire quilt does not have to be half square triangles, but half square triangles should be a feature. I created a Pinterest board with some cool ideas.
    • Quilting: No rules about the actual quilting! Long arm, machine, by hand, or tie quilting is all welcome.
    • Link HERE to Jaclyn/Brooklyn Knitfolk’s quilt along tutorials

 

Life Stuff

  • Daylight Saving Time – We’re hit that time of year where many states in the US change the clocks forward an hour to preserve daylight and it’s kicking my ass.
  • Rearranged the craft room… again
  • Stitches United – Mom and I went on the Sunday for some poking around and shopping. It still seems small to me for a Stitches event, but they did pad out the marketplace floor with more quilt displays, which were really cool to check out.

 

FOs

  • Color block weaving project – Assembled! Plain weave using a 12 dent heddle on my 10” cricket loom.
  • Dwarven Mittens by Ginger Monkey Knits – US 3/3.25 mm Nova Cubics – Plymouth Yarn Homestead Tweed

 

WIPs

  • Fabric Dye Experiment
    • Ended up having to rewash all the fabrics because when I went to soak the blue to re-dye, they bled like crazy. Ended up doing two hot-hot water baths in tubs and then rinsing in hot water in the sink until the water ran clear.
    • Re-dyed the blue plaid and the brown/purple flowers with grey wash
  • Winter Wall quilt from The Weekend Quilter- rows are assembled and trimmed, think this needs a border to finish off the top
  • Half square triangle quilt – squares pieced and cut to form half square triangles, trimmed uneven edges and dog ears, chain pieced rows
  • Tramontane Sweater by Amy Herzog – handspun and Classic Elite Yarns Mohawk Wool – Silver Reed LK 150 – finished sleeve
  • Granny Log Cabin blanket – I don’t have the crochet hook information for these scrap squares, but it’s all worsted weight acrylic scraps – Log Cabin garter stitch borders are on the Silver Reed LK150 with the dial set to 5
  • Scrap yarn pillow covers – Plain weave on the 10” cricket rigid heddle loom with a 12 dent reed – fingering weight yarns
  • Sample tablet weaving from the Card Weaving by Candace Crockett book – Northbound Knitting “Lichen”, scrap white yarn, Knit Picks Palette black
  • Intergalactic spinning kit from Classy Squid Fiber Co – finished spinning the galaxy batt singles

 

Swatches

  • Fingering held double vs plating
    • Second swatch because I didn’t write down the dial settings
  • Tuck stitch vs single color brioche
  • Cables instead of rib + cable edging
  • 3 stitch icord seam
  • 2 stitch icord seam

 

New Stuff

  • Destash black cotton fabric – approximately 9 yards
  • Brother Ameno KH 836E – used on ebay, currently working on getting it operational
  • Stitches United haul
  • Muddled Colors Studio – fingering weight merino in Halloween

 

Other Stuff

Stuff I’m Watching:

  • A Stitch in Time (BBC show about historical garment recreation)
  • Selling Houses with Sarah Beeny (BBC show about selling properties and home improvement)
  • Angela Clayton on YouTube – historical clothing and costume – She came up in my feed with her 18th Century Striped Redingote, which is AMAZING.
  • Talisa Tossell on YouTube – She talks about and demonstrates the properties of play slimes (the kind you make with glue), which I knew had become popular, but I didn’t know that it was popular enough to have Instagram fads and community
  • Meghan Tonjes on YouTube – She’s a singer that I’ve talked about on here before, but she’s really putting her energy back into her music right now and just put up a whole bunch of cover songs on her channel.
  • Rusty Lake – Rusty Lake is an independent video game company that has a series of escape-the-room surreal horror games. I started out playing some of their earlier games, but I wasn’t very good at them. They do have a YouTube channel with walkthroughs on their games, so I ended up watching a whole bunch of those.

Stuff I’m Listening To:

  • From a Certain Point of View anthology (audiobook)

Stuff I’m Reading:

  • Knitting Pattern Essentials: Adapting and Drafting Knitting Patterns for Great Knitwear by Sally Melville
  • Fanfic~~~
    • Reread the Jedi Shmi AU by MirandaTam
    • Reread Back From the Future: Episode VI The Clone Wars by Ariel -Sojourner – Luke and Vader time travel sometime during RotJ back to the Clone Wars
    • Heart of Kyber by esama – Jedi High Council forbids Anakin’s training – so Anakin makes his own.
      • Obi-Wan Kenobi doesn’t exist in this universe until Anakin steals a holocron from the Jedi Temple and builds an android to access the data
    • All That I Have Seen by Felilla
      • She died in the Temple, staring into the face of a man that she once looked up to, a man that she once thought to be a great Jedi.She awoke in the Temple, years before that event took place. Years before everything went wrong. And she decided to make it right.
      • This one is really interesting because it’s from the point of view of a Jedi that’s an original character and she’s a fantastic character.

 

 

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Episode 54: Dyeing and Shawl Shapes

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Filmed on Saturday March 3, 2018

Podcast Stuff

  • 2018 Blanket MAL! There’s a thread up on Rav for photos and discussion, so please join us there as you work on blankets.
  • Quilt Along! It begins!
    • Time Frame: March 2018 – September 2018 – 6 months
    • Quilt size: smallest side 3 ft/36”/92 cm
    • Quilt top pattern: Half Square Triangles – The entire quilt does not have to be half square triangles, but half square triangles should be a feature. I created a Pinterest board with some cool ideas.
    • Quilting: No rules about the actual quilting! Long arm, machine, by hand, or tie quilting is all welcome.
    • Link HERE to Jaclyn/Brooklyn Knitfolk’s quilt along tutorials

Life Stuff

  • Weather – It’s been weird. Alternating between super warm and seasonably cold. Yesterday we had a nor’easter, which usually results in pretty good snowfall, but it’s been too warm so it was just really heavy winds and rain.
  • Slow Down – I’ve mentioned it before on this podcast that I’m trying to slow down so as not to over-exert my hands. I’ve always been the type of person to overdo things, which is why I hurt my hands last year in the first place. So I’ve been making a conscious effort to just slow down a bit – with making, with work, wherever I can.
    • Spread out the crafting. Put feelers out into new types of craft or new aspects of crafts I already dabble in. I’m further developing an interest in weaving and sewing. I’m doing a lot of planning and exploring with machine knitting.
    • Read more. Write more. I’m always thinking to myself, I wish I did more reading. I grew up doing a lot of reading and writing. I’ve been doing a little more of both while trying to spread out the crafting a bit.
    • Sleep more. I’m tired of being tired all time.
      • Avoid using overhead lights after dinner
      • Read for 15-ish minutes before bed (book or Kindle)
      • Aim to be ready for bed at about 9 pm
        • Note: I do find myself waking up for a bit in the middle of the night, but it’s super easy for me to fall back asleep.

FOs

  • Woven Sample Scarf – warped black and white with stripes on the ends (Cloudborn fingering weight in black and “Milk” from GnomeAcres Milk and Cookies skein set) – woven with approx 8” color blocks of Once Upon a Corgi yarns – twisted fringe

WIPs

  • Winter Wall quilt from The Weekend Quilter- started assembling the rows
  • Tramontane Sweater by Amy Herzog – handspun and Classic Elite Yarns Mohawk Wool
  • Color block weaving project – sewing the panels together

Dye Adventures

  • Dharma Trading Co Procion Dyes – for plant based materials, like cotton, linen
  • Bought primary colors and black
  • Fabric To Dye For: Create 72 Hand-Dyed Colors for Your Stash, 5 Fused Quilt Projects by Frieda Anderson
  • Overdyed cotton/cotton blend fabrics from my stash, many of them from my grandma that somehow made their way into my stash

WIP Round Up

  • Rice Fields by Elzbieta Torenc – Legacy Fiber Artz Hocus Pocus colorways and Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light for Black – Frog to use for my machine knit shawl shapes design project – 3 wedge shape shawl
  • Marled Magic Shawl by Stephen West – Scrap yarns – Frog to use for my machine knit shawl shapes design project – short row wedge semi-circle
  • Akiko by Regina Moessmer – Lion Brand Scarfie – Not sure what I’m doing with this yet, but having it on the needles is stressing me out, so what I’ll likely do (once I have some free time on the machine) is frog it and do a real simple drop shoulder pullover with rolled hems on the sleeves and neck, maybe an applied border and a split hem on the bottom. This is project was meant to be a simple, comfy sweater and it doesn’t need to wait on my hands to become that
  • Jyn Erso Vanilla Socks – Must Stash Yarns self striping – Leaving them for now, but I’m pretty sure once I cave into my brain and buy a CSM and practice, this will be frogged, washed, and machine knit. It’s just a vanilla sock and it’s not stressing me out, but I want to play with a CSM so much and I love self -striping vanilla socks, so it’s just a likely outcome once I shell out the dollars for the machine.
  • Dwarven Mittens by Ginger Monkey Knits – Plymouth Homestead Tweed – these only need thumbs, so I’m probably just going to make Gabby finish these for me next time she’s up here because it’ll take her 10 minutes
  • Granny Stripes by Lucy of Attic24 – I’m gonna let this one sit. I’m used to leaving crochet projects for ages. If it turns out I want to use these scraps for other things, I’ll just grab them.
  • memory blanket by Georgie Nicolson – I’m also going to let this one sit. I want the finished object, but just having the giant tote of minis in here is stressing me out, so I’m going to move the blanket and associated tools to a smaller bag to tuck away and take that tote of minis to do a Pinwheel Scrap Blanket by Mina Philipp, which I think can be easily adapted to the machine as a stockinette project instead of garter
  • Scrap Acrylic Granny Squares – I counted them up and I have enough of them to make a rectangle with a pleasing ratio, but it rectangle itself is not big enough. So, I’m going to get some practice in with my garter bars and do garter log cabin borders on these granny squares

Shawl Shapes Design

  • Asymmetrical Shawl – (like the Halloween one) maybe with a cable – Zealana Performa KIWI Lace
  • Half & Half Triangle Shawl – (triangular shawl made by seaming two pieces together)
    • Fresh From the Cauldron – Painting the Roses Red and Valyrian
    • Knitologie – Groovy
  • End to End Triangle Shawl
    • Fresh From the Cauldron – Radioactive & Knit Picks Palette Fingering Black (intarsia)
    • Tentatively – some brown Cascade Eco wool I have
  • Three Piece Shawl
    • JaggerSpun Zephyr Wool-Silk 2/18 – Blue for the 3 pieces and grey for the knit on border
    • Legacy Fiber Artz and Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light Black
  • Semi-Circle Wedge Shawl
    • Scrap fingering-ish weight held double for marling
    • ???

New Stuff

  • Strauch Jumbo Ball Winder
  • Card Weaving by Candace Crockett
  • Small weaving shuttle from WindhavenFiberTools
  • (coming) Card weaving cards from FolkTalesPI
  • Knitting Pattern Essentials (with Bonus Material): Adapting and Drafting Knitting Patterns for Great Knitwear by Sally Melville

Other Stuff

Stuff I’m Watching:

  • Black Panther
  • Frontier

Stuff I’m Listening To:

  • Relistened to Star Wars Clone Wars: Wild Space by Karen Miller narr by Jeff Gurner

Stuff I’m Reading:

  • The Last of the Jedi #5 – The Tangled Web by Jude Watson
  • Dreams from the Witch House short story collection
  • Fanfic~~~
    • Home We’ll Go by appalachian_fireflies
      • “I can’t, I don’t know how,” Remus stuttered as Molly dropped the infant into his arms, who immediately ceased crying and stared up at him with wide eyes.”Nonsense,” Molly said. “Be a dear and keep him from falling while I feed Ginny.”

        “Ba!” Ron giggled, and slapped Remus in the face.

        Molly is the emergency contact for the Order when those listed can no longer be reached. Remus’ life finds a different path.

      • Awesome look at Remus’ life after the Potters’ deaths, the Weasleys being amazing, and Molly’s intervention in Remus’ self-destruct spiral causes events to go differently.
    • Simple by I_Gave_You_Fair_Warning
      • Obi-Wan Kenobi saved Qui-Gon that day in the Theed Generator Complex—But it came at a terrible price.
      • Obi-Wan Kenobi used Force Healing on Qui-Gon, but he’s not a Healer and it was beyond his skill. He ended up causing himself irreparable brain damage while doing so. He can speak short sentences, dress himself, still commune with the force, can still perform physical tasks well, but his brain can’t always make the connections in complex ways. He can’t always make eye contact with you. He can’t always be around people who are feeling strong negative emotions because he no longer has the capacity to shield that part of his mind.
      • This is an incredible fic. It deals with Obi-Wan’s coping with his injury, Qui-Gon’s inability to accept the changes in his former apprentice, Anakin’s steadfast defence of a friend that people don’t understand, and how other characters in the Temple help Obi-Wan when he needs it.
      • WARNING: This fic has a sad ending. While changes happen to the Star Wars universe because of Obi-Wan’s injury, Palpatine’s plotting is still in place and similar events to the movies still unfold.
    • Who Are You? By I_Gave_You_Fair_Warning
      • Obi-Wan insists he knows what the hell is going on. The only problem is… none of it matches.And Anakin’s just as sure he’s wrong. Nope. More sure.
      • Amnesia-fic. Something happens to Obi-Wan and he loses his memories of growing up. He thinks he’s thirteen and he’s scared – of the Clone Wars, of Anakin, of what is happening to the Jedi. There’s a bittersweet ending to this fic, but it slots neatly into the established story-line, so it’s not really an AU.
    • Declarations by Nny11, White_Ithiliel
      • A series exploring Obi-Wan and Ahsoka’s relationship as Grandmaster and Grandpadawan.
      • Does what it says on the tin. Gen-fic. We don’t get to see much interaction in Jedi student-teacher lineages, so this is really nice. Ongoing.
    • A Brother Is Born For Adversity by tb_ll57
      • A series following Remus Lupin over four phases and relationships: spying on Fenrir Greyback and the werewolves in the first war against Voldemort’s forces; a chance reunion with Severus Snape in Paris five years after the war, where all is not as it seems; learning how to like each other again with Sirius after teaching Harry’s third year at Hogwarts; and back again to werewolves, this time with Bill Weasley hostage to Voldemort’s agenda. Features the origins of the Order of the Phoenix, hitting rock bottom repeatedly and still trudging into work the next day, ambigious mentoring from Albus Dumbledore, and learning to live with the monster inside.
      • The last part of this series is unfinished, but there’s a lot of great writing here to really get into.

 

 

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Episode 53: Swatch Talk

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Filmed on Sunday February 11, 2018

Podcast Stuff

  • 2018 Blanket MAL! There’s a thread up on Rav for photos and discussion, so please join us there as you work on blankets.
  • Quilt Along! There’s been some interest in having a quilt along, so I wanted to throw some more ideas out there to get people thinking about it.
    • Time Frame: March 2018 – September 2018 – 6 months
    • Quilt size: smallest side 3 ft/36”/92 cm
    • Quilt top pattern: Half Square Triangles – The entire quilt does not have to be half square triangles, but half square triangles should be a feature. I created a Pinterest board with some cool ideas.
    • Quilting: No rules about the actual quilting! Long arm, machine, by hand, or tie quilting is all welcome.
    • Link HERE to Jacqueline/Brooklyn Knitfolk’s quilt along tutorials

 

Life Stuff

  • Work – Past couple of weeks have been crazy with system crashes and the phones being down
  • Weather – Ice and flurries. The flurries are nice, but the ice is crazy. Hopefully most of it will melt today so we’re not sliding around all over.

 

FOs

  • Laundry Tube Socks – Addi Express Pro – woolen spun mystery fleece – a little tight on my feet, so I probably won’t be making any other house socks or slippers for me on this until I can manage short rows without dropping stitches

 

WIPs

  • Weaving Project – Strip 6 with hand-dyed yarn by me for the warp and Once Upon a Corgi “Murderer Attempts to Murder Murderer” as the weft
  • Woven Sample Scarf – warped black and white with stripes on the ends (Cloudborn fingering weight in black and “Milk” from GnomeAcres Milk and Cookies skein set) – woven with approx 8” color blocks of Once Upon a Corgi yarns — mentioned Little Elephant Yarn
  • Handspun striped sweater – Silver Reed LK 150 – Tramontane by Amy Herzog using her custom fit site – Classic Elite Yarns Mohawk wool and my own handspun out of a corriedale/finn/rambouillet wool from Spinners Hill – finished the front piece
  • Free motion quilting practice squares using concepts from Quilting the Grid: Structured Free Motion with Christina Cameli on Craftsy
  • Winter Wall quilt from The Weekend Quilter- started assembling the strips
  • Cormo Sweater Spin – Ashford Kiwi 2 – worsted spin
  • Classy Squid Fiber Co – All the Mirrors of the World – Hitchhiker wheel – woolen spun (long draw)
  • Classy Squid Fiber Co – – Hitchhiker wheel – woolen spun (long draw and short forward draw)
  • Pillow covers – scrap weaving – trimmed and interfaced my double weaving experiment
  • Machine knit swatches –
    • Fingering weight on smallest gauge “R” – really nice gauge for fingering weight – might do a swatch in my Green Mountain Spinnery for my sweater plans for that yarn
    • Stripe swatch for the Slytherin scarf project – icord edges with the every other needle gauge – This doesn’t quite work as the row gauge for the edges and the center are different after blocking. What I think I’m going to do, which I saw on a machine knitting block post somewhere, is follow the stripe count in the pattern I found for the ribbed scarf and maybe add a few stitches to the cast on numbers and seam the edges together and block it flat.
    • Semi-circle shawl swatches – changed up what I was doing with the short rows, equal short rows on either end of the wedge instead of making them directional. First swatch is a little wonky, second swatch looks really good.

 

New Stuff

 

Other Stuff

Stuff I’m Watching:

Stuff I’m Listening To:

  • Maul: Lockdown by Joe Schreiber (audio) narr by Jonathan Davis

Stuff I’m Reading:

  • The Last of the Jedi #5 – The Tangled Web by Jude Watson
  • Dreams from the Witch House

 

 

 

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Episode 52: A Sampling of WIPs

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Filmed on Sunday, January 28th 2018

Podcast Stuff

  • 2018 Blanket MAL! There’s a thread up on Rav for photos and discussion, so please join us there as you work on blankets.
  • Quilt Along! There’s been some interest in having a quilt along, so I wanted to throw some more ideas out there to get people thinking about it.
    • Time Frame: March 2018 – September 2018 – 6 months
    • Quilt size: smallest side 3 ft/36”/92 cm
    • Quilt top pattern: Half Square Triangles – The entire quilt does not have to be half square triangles, but half square triangles should be a feature. I created a Pinterest board with some cool ideas.
    • Quilting: No rules about the actual quilting! Long arm, machine, by hand, or tie quilting is all welcome.
    • Link HERE to Jacqueline/Brooklyn Knitfolk’s quilt along tutorials
  • New Year Giveaway – Winner is… Post #19 MgoBlue – Paula from Indiana!

 

Life Stuff

  • New Bed! Full sized bed with a ridiculously fat mattress that’s hard as a rock and supremely comfortable. Ended up getting a great deal with a New Year’s sale and getting a friends and family discount because the sales guy was in the year below me in high school and we were both in band.

 

 

FOs

 

WIPs

  • Weaving Project – Finished strip 5 with hand-dyed yarn from the NYRF warp and Once Upon a Corgi “S.O.R.E.” as the weft – Started strip 6 with hand-dyed yarn by me for the warp and Once Upon a Corgi “Murderer Attempts to Murder Murderer” as the weft
  • Handspun striped sweater – Silver Reed LK 150 – Tramontane by Amy Herzog using her custom fit site – Classic Elite Yarns Mohawk wool and my own handspun out of a corriedale/finn/rambouillet wool from Spinners Hill
  • Free motion quilting practice squares using concepts from Quilting the Grid: Structured Free Motion with Christina Cameli on Craftsy
  • Winter Wall quilt from The Weekend Quilter- all pieces cut!
  • Mystery fleece spin – singles complete!
  • Aurrabesh Sampler from AdLeones on Etsy

 

New Stuff

  • Once Upon a Corgi Isaac DK “Narnia”
  • Once Upon a Corgi scraps for weaving samples for Gabby’s booth
  • Jo-Ann Fabrics clearance – stag heads, polka dots, Rebels fabric
  • The Quilted Ewe
    • Moda 5” Hope’s Journey 1830-1860 2 charm packs
    • Moda 2.5” Modern Background Ink, Compositions, and Spooky Delight

 

Other Stuff

Stuff I’m Watching:

  • The Birch
  • The Greatest Showman
  • The Crown – season 2
  • Rebels

Stuff I’m Listening To:

Stuff I’m Reading:

  • The Last of the Jedi #4 – Death on Naboo by Jude Watson
  • The Last of the Jedi #5 – The Tangled Web by Jude Watson
  • Dreams from the Witch House
  • Masquerade by Harpalyce
    • A redeemed Vader strives to reconcile his past actions while trying to save Luke from the Emperor’s grasp, and helping the Rebel Alliance… And struggles to simply survive. Post-RotJ AU.
    • While the second Death Star is destroyed, Sidious escapes with Luke in custody, who is drugged into compliance and receptive to mind control, and Vader is captured by a faction of rebels, detoxed, prosthetics repaired/improved, healed as much as possible, and let free to make his own choices.
  • Fic Catch Up
    • I Guess I’ll Know When I Get There by Eisoj5
      • AU where the Rogue One crew is integrated into the original trilogy and Bodhi Rook and Luke Skywalker fall in love. The latest chapter has gotten to the end of The Empire Strikes Back and we’re on the cusp of Luke telling Bodhi that he learned that Darth Vader is Anakin Skywalker and it’s so good.
    • Witness Me series by SLWalker
      • AU where Darth Maul is captured instead of escaping and Obi-Wan and Maul’s tumultuous, strange understanding and developing romantic feelings. The latest pieces of this series are in the Clone Wars now with Maul being assigned the leader of elite commandos called the Blackbirds and it’s pretty fantastic.
    • For the Right Price by ShaeTiann
      • AU where in order to save Qui-Gon from dying in TPM, Obi-Wan uses the Dark Side and is cast out from the Temple. Self-exploration/learning the universe story, now with Obi-Wan uncovering more of what’s going on behind the scenes than he had expected and now with sarcastic droid friend, Deesix!
    • The Dangers of Foresight by DAsObiQuiet
      • After his death, Darth Vader is thrown back in time to make better choices and has to deal with growing up all over again. We’re getting into some major plotting against Sidious now and the longer Anakin tries to hide who he is, the more people find out that he’s a time travelling former-Sith, which is super exciting.

 

 

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Episode 51: 2018

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Podcast Stuff

  • Blanket MAL 2017 – It’s over!
    • Prize winners–
      • $10 Ravelry Pattern from RoMillet – post 378 – filipamc – Filipa
      • Prize Package 1: A Hundred Ravens Yarn Poppers, Araucanía Huasco yarn, and DPN holder – post 76 – AuntyNanaNz – Megan
      • Prize Package 2: Handmade blanket project duffle and Once Upon a Corgi Series of Unfortunate Events minis – post 563 – mariberu35 – Maribel
  • 2018 Blanket MAL! There was a lot of encouragement and progress made in the Rav group and I think we should keep it going! There’s a thread up on Rav for photos and discussion, so please join us there as you work on blankets. There are no plans for prizes at this point this year, but I think we can all use a little encouragement for those long projects.
  • Quilt Along! There’s been some interest in having a quilt along, so I wanted to throw some more ideas out there to get people thinking about it.
    • Time Frame: March 2018 – September 2018 – 6 months
    • Quilt size: smallest side 3 ft/36”/92 cm
    • Quilt top pattern: Half Square Triangles – The entire quilt does not have to be half square triangles, but half square triangles should be a feature. I created a Pinterest board with some cool ideas.
    • Quilting: No rules about the actual quilting! Long arm, machine, by hand, or tie quilting is all welcome.
    • Link HERE to Jacqueline/Brooklyn Knitfolk’s quilt along tutorials
  • New Year Giveaway – I’ll open up a thread in the Ravelry group with the prompt, what do you want to accomplish is 2018? Resolutions? Trips planned? Projects planned?

 

Life Stuff

  • Christmas – Good Christmas. Gabby, Jake, and the pups came up for the day and we all had a good time.
  • New Year’s – We had a lazy New Year’s this year. My parents put out a sort of buffet that we like to do so that we can just graze instead of sitting down to a meal, but we didn’t have anyone over or anything. I fell asleep and only woke up for midnight because the fireworks down the street sent the pups into a frenzy.
  • Declutter/Organization – I’ve been itching to reorganize and declutter for the past couple weeks, which has been interesting for a couple of reasons.
    • 1 – I paid off my student loans, which has opened up a huge chunk of my paychecks and means I can seriously look at potential job searches and/or make serious considerations into moving out of my parents’ house
    • 2 – Because of my hand injuries, I’ve really had to look at how I craft, what I craft, what I can remove from my crafting, and what I potentially want to add to my crafting
    • There’s also been a trend of living simply, living slowly, and minimalism in the knitting community, so I went looking for some other sources outside of this community to see what other perspectives are out there. Lots of videos about the KonMari method (from the Life Changing Magic of Tidying by Marie Kondo)

 

FOs

  • Sewing machine extension table – I’ve been sort of on and off looking for an extension table for my sewing machine since getting into quilting, but I haven’t been able to find any ready-made ones. I would have had to pay over $100 to have one custom made for my machine, but there were plenty of DIY tutorials on Pinterest for inexpensive ones. The foam tutorials looked like the route to go, since I’m pretty sure that I’ll save up and invest in a quilting-oriented sewing machine (wider neck, comes with an extension table, etc) in the next few years. I used precut 15”x17” pieces of 2” foam, 1” foam, and a couple pieces of foam poster board that measured about ¼” thick to get to the 3 ½” height of my sewing machine. I also found a cut of vinyl in the remnants section of Joann’s for less than $3, so I’ve covered the foam platform so that fabric will slide right over. There’s also some overlap onto the bed of my machine that I secure with masking tape so that the edge of the extension table and my machine bed don’t create a speedbump.

 

WIPs

  • Weaving Project – Finished strip 4 with Sincere Sheep Tenacious 100% SW Merino in the “Up and Down Button” colorway and some very old handspun by me, started strip 5 with hand-dyed yarn from the NYRF warp and Once Upon a Corgi S.O.R.E. as the weft
  • Dwarven Mittens by Ginger Monkey Knits – Plymouth Homestead Tweed in grey – US 3/3.25 mm needles
  • Halloween Squares Quilt – “Finished” WIP
  • Halloween Candy Stripe Quilt – assembled, pending border ideas
  • Quick strip quilt – assembled, pending border ideas – Video I watched for this is HERE
  • Handspun striped sweater – Silver Reed LK 150 – Tramontane by Amy Herzog using her custom fit site – Classic Elite Yarns Mohawk wool and my own handspun out of a corriedale/finn/rambouillet wool from Spinners Hill
  • Free motion quilting practice squares using concepts from Quilting the Grid: Structured Free Motion with Christina Cameli on Craftsy
  • Swatches for future projects on the knitting machine

 

New Stuff

  • Addi Express Professional circular knitting machine
    • Did some swatches on the machine to get a feel for it
    • Bought some Patons Classic Wool Bulky to try making a pair of mittens
  • Hand Knits by Machine by Susan Guagliumi
  • More Hand-Manipulated Stitches for Machine Knitters by Susan Guagliumi

 

Other Stuff

Stuff I’m Listening To:

  • Outbound Flight by Timothy Zahn narr by Jonathan Davis
  • The Drowning Girl by Caitlin R. Kiernan narr by Suzy Jackson
  • Been catching up on my audio podcasts over the past couple of days, mostly Mabel, Wolf 359, and the Magnus Archives

Stuff I’m Reading:

  • The Last of the Jedi #3 – Underworld by Jude Watson
  • The Last of the Jedi #4 – Death on Naboo by Jude Watson
  • Of a Linear Circle by flamethrower – catch up
  • Reprise by elfpen – reread
  • How We Throw Our Shadows Down by anonymous (for fic collection challenge, I think) — Draco has finally found the perfect, rare piece to complete his collection. The only problem is that the item belongs to Harry Potter, the last wizard on earth Draco wants to ask another favour from.
  • Things Worth Knowing by anonymous (again, for a fic collection challenge, I think) — After the Battle, Harry thinks he’s left Hogwarts for good, but Minerva insists that all students return for an Eighth Year if they wish to sit for NEWTs in the spring, and Harry needs those NEWTs to go into the Aurors. Draco’s just grateful not to be in Azkaban. Or the Manor. He’s hoping he can steer clear of Potter this year and grapple with his own problems. Unfortunately for him, Potter appears to be one of those problems. And that’s not even addressing the fact that Potter’s got serious issues of his own, which Draco realises as he’s forced to share an Eighth Year dormitory room and several classes with the Gryffindor Git. If only they can make it through the year without killing each other, it should be all right, shouldn’t it?

 

 

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Episode 50: Back At It

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Filmed on Tuesday, December 19th

Podcast Stuff

  • Blanket MAL 2017 – Make along throughout 2017 for making blankets. Check out the thread on Ravelry for details!

Life Stuff

  • Office Move – OK with the new building now that I’ve been there a few times and I’ve found my spots to take breaks and eat lunch. Still a little stressed about parking because it’s monthly and the payment system from work was just set up, so I need to check with the parking folks next week when I need to pick up the January window card. Bleh.
  • Hands – Good news! My EMG came back negative, so there’s no nerve damage in my hands. I still have to rest them a lot, but I’ve been given the green light to do a little knitting. My hands do get tired easily, so I’m making myself listen to my body and when I need to put the knitting down so that I don’t hurt myself again.

FOs

  • St. Nicholas needle felt from Going Gnome kit
  • Alpaca Obsession – natural black – part of my alpaca shawl spin project
  • Simple shawl design for knitting machine – Asymmetrical shawl – Blue Ridge Yarns Kaleidescope in the Halloween colors and some Plymouth Galway Worsted in Black

WIPs

  • Mystery Fleece Spin – Hitchhiker wheel
  • Weaving Project – Finished strip 3 with hand dyed yarn by me and Once Upon a Corgi “Frosted Cranberries”, started strip 4 with Sincere Sheep Tenacious 100% SW Merino in the “Up and Down Button” colorway and some very old handspun by me
  • Dwarven Mittens by Ginger Monkey Knits – Plymouth Homestead Tweed in grey – US 3/3.25 mm needles
  • Granny Stripe Blanket (NEW) with fingering scraps held double with black – size G/4.25 mm

Other Stuff

Stuff I’m Watching:

  • Star Wars: The Last Jedi – no spoilers, I enjoyed myself in the theater, I think some things could be more polished and some of the writing is not my favourite, but it’s an okay movie. I do need to see it again in order to really dig into it. If you want to tell me what you thought of it, please comment below but no spoilers so that we don’t accidentally spoil anyone else. If you want a spoilery chat about it, send me a PM on Rav or Instagram and we’ll chat there.
  • Star Wars: Rebels season 4 – Finally remembered to buy the new season of Rebels and I’ve started in on that. I love that show.
  • The Midnight Quilt Show – a 15-ish minute quilting show on YouTube put on by Craftsy. It’s a funny show with some great simple-to-make-impressive-looking-quilts and Angela Walters is a fantastic host.

Stuff I’m Listening To:

  • Outbound Flight by Timothy Zahn narr by Jonathan Davis
  • Iron Fist (Netflix with the descriptive audio turned on)
  • The Defenders (Netflix with the description audio turned on)
  • The Drowning Girl by Caitlin R. Kiernan narr by Suzy Jackson

Stuff I’m Reading:

  • The Last of the Jedi: Dark Warning by Jude Watson
  • And the Next by ienablu – Jyn looks to the disappearing horizon and thinks, The Force is with me, I am one with the Force. The Force is with me, I am one with the Force. The Force is strong with me, I am –Jyn wakes up in her Wobani prison cell, panting and a scream dying in her throat.
  • Here Comes Another One by croatoanmary – Teenage Sirius Black in Cornwall in the UK texts the wrong number and connects with Canadian teen Remus Lupin. It’s super cute and hilarious.
  • Leo Inter Serpentes by Aeternum – Finally got around to catching up with Year 6 of this fic — it’s one of those Harry-gets-sorted-into-Slytherin fics where Snape ends up adopting him. It’s one of the first ones I’d read and kind of started me down the obsession with reading all those types of fics.

 

 

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Episode 49: Holidays

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Filmed on Saturday, December 2, 2017

Podcast Stuff

  • Blanket MAL 2017 – Make along throughout 2017 for making blankets. Check out the thread on Ravelry for details!

 

Life Stuff

  • Christmas Bazaars and Craft Fairs – Went to a ton of them a few weekends ago. There were so many going on the same day that my mom and I went to 4 craft shows and drove past a fifth in just my small town and a bit of the next town over. It was amazing. Most of them were church basements, but the coolest one is one we went to on a whim after I saw something come up online. In Bristol, CT, there’s a Carousel Museum that has space that can be rented out for events, so this Christmas Craft Fair rented out the museum for the weekend and it was super cool. There were tables right in among the exhibits on the first floor and there’s a big mostly empty room upstairs where a bunch of vendors were located. It was just such a surreal, whimsical thing.
  • Friendsgiving – Got together with some friends for a Thanksgiving dinner which was great.
  • Thanksgiving – Great, as always. We didn’t do an intentional theme this year, just tweaked a few of the vegetables’ recipes. It only ended up being four of us for dinner itself and then Gabby and her boyfriend and the dogs came over for pie.

 

FOs

  • Classic Squid Fiber Co samples – Turtle Made Turkish Spindle
  • Basic Hat and Mittens 2 Needles (mittens) by Patons – Silver Reed LK 150 – hand dyed cormo, worsted weight
  • Snowflake Hat by Patons , Silver Reed LK 150 – handdyed cormo, Foxhill Farms natural brown cormo

 

WIPs

  • Mystery Fleece Spin – Hitchhiker wheel
  • Destash Pumpkin spin – Turtle Made Turkish Spindle
  • Leftovers from carding practice – Turtle Made Turkish Spindle
  • Alpaca Obsession – natural black – part of my alpaca shawl spin project
  • Halloween Strip Quilts
    • Strip Squares – Squares sashed together, pending borders
  • Simple shawl design for knitting machine – Asymmetrical shawl – Blue Ridge Yarns Kaleidescope in the Halloween colors and some Plymouth Galway Worsted in Black

 

New Stuff

  • Black Friday weekend sale at JoAnn Fabrics – an absurd amount of fat quarters, remnants, and ½ yard cuts
  • Little wooden house ornament from the CT Woodcarvers Guild

 

Other Stuff

Stuff I’m Listening To:

  • The Millenium Falcon by James Luceno narr by Marc Thompson
  • Outbound Flight by Timothy Zahn narr by Jonathan Davis
  • Homecoming – A psychological thriller from Gimlet Media, starring Catherine Keener, Oscar Isaac, and David Schwimmer.
  • Eos10 – The stories of two maladjusted doctors and their medical team aboard an intergalactic travel hub on the edges of deep space — along with a deposed prince who’s claimed the foodcourt kitchen as his new throne.
  • Iron Fist (Netflix with the descriptive audio turned on)

Stuff I’m Reading:

  • Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by John Tiffany & Jack Thorne

 

 

 

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Episode 48: Stressed and Spinning

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Filmed on Sunday, November 12, 2017

Podcast Stuff

  • Blanket MAL 2017 – Make along throughout 2017 for making blankets. Check out the thread on Ravelry for details! Also, please see last episode for Q3 prize winners! I haven’t heard from either of the physical prize winners yet. If I don’t hear from you by the next episode, I’ll be redrawing prizes.
    • Prize Redraw for Q3
    • Haldecraft Handdyed and Notions Kit – post 359 Angeiship – Andrea
    • Dyenamixx Yarns and mini-skeins – post 251 kathy345 – Kathy

Life Stuff

  • Phone – No voicemail, all problems. Ended up having to reset my phone and I’m still working out the kinks on setting everything back up.
  • Hands – Improving! Less twinging with hand sewing type things and I can spin again!
  • Work – We’re coming up on the office move, which is super stressful. Trying to get my physical environment sorted and ready to move and trying to arrange parking. Parking is 95% sorted, but I won’t feel relaxed about it until I actually have the parking pass in my hands.
  • New England Fiber Fest – I attended NEFF on Sunday, Nov 5th. I love this fiber festival – it’s probably my favourite of the ones that we attend. It’s a great selection of things and it’s super chill.

WIPs

  • Mystery Fleece Spin – Hitchhiker wheel
  • Cormo Sweater Spin – Ashford Kiwi 2
  • Alpaca Spin – elm drop spindle
  • Classic Squid Fiber Co samples – Turtle Made Turkish Spindle
  • Destash Pumpkin spin – Turtle Made Turkish Spindle
  • Weaving project – 3rd rectangle
  • Basic Hat and Mittens 2 Needles by Patons – Silver Reed LK 150 – hand dyed cormo, worsted weight
  • Halloween Strip Quilts
    • Candy Stripe quilt
    • Strip Squares

New Stuff

  • New England Fiber Festival Haul
    • Classy Squid Fiber Co
      • “The Raven King” batt – Corrie/Polypay fleece, black alpaca, mulberry silk, angelina sparkle
      • “All the Mirrors of the World” batt – BFL, mohair, muga silk, tussah noil, firestar, carbonized bamboo, angelina
      • Shetland braid – “Blue Wood”
    • Skirted Fleece Mill – 8 oz braid merino/tussah silk “Watermelon”
    • A Hundred Ravens – Aesir base (sport 100% merino) “I Am Fire I Am Death”
    • Going Gnome – St. Nicholas kit
    • Lanart – Gallant Goat

 

Other Stuff

Stuff I’m Listening To:

  • The Last Command (The Thrawn Trilogy Bk3) by Timothy Zahn narr by Marc Thompson
  • The Millenium Falcon by James Luceno narr by Marc Thompson

Stuff I’m Reading:

  • By Baker Street Station, I Sat Down and Wept by Deco
    • Petunia Dursley has trouble: she’s lost her family, she’s going crazy, she can do magic (but not always), her suitors are a mixed bag (operative word) & people keep trying to take her children away from her. They should be very afraid. (Not only a) Double Severitus. WARNING: Not what you expected.
    • I honestly haven’t run into very many Petunia-centric fanfics and this one is a really good one. She’s still very Petunia – nosy, opinionated, and shrewd – but this is a Petunia that realized very early on in her marriage that she was not happy, Vernon is a terrible person, and Harry Potter is the only person left alive from her extended family. This Petunia was admittedly extremely jealous of her sister and the world she got to be a part of, but even as she hates Lily, she still loved her.
    • This Petunia is an incredibly strong character and is admirably headstrong and stubborn and sensible through an incredible series of strange happenings and dealing with ridiculous people.
    • Also, sensible, stubborn Petunia Dursley dealing with the wizarding world directly is a gem. Seriously. Her common sense and her personal understanding of human nature is brilliant when up against such figures as Albus Dumbledore, Dobby the House Elf, and Sirius Black.

 

 

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Episode 47: Rhinebeck 2017

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Filmed on Sunday, Oct 29, 2017

Podcast Stuff

  • Blanket MAL 2017 – Make along throughout 2017 for making blankets. Check out the thread on Ravelry for details! Also, please see last episode for Q3 prize winners! I haven’t heard from either of the physical prize winners yet. If I don’t hear from you by the next episode, I’ll be redrawing prizes.
  • New England Fiber Fest – NEFF is Saturday and Sunday Nov 4-5! Gabby from Once Upon a Corgi Handmade will be vending and my mom will be debuting her yarns in person in the OUaC booth! I will be there on Sunday to attend the festival and probably help out in the booth, so if you’re there feel free to say hello to any of us!

 

Life Stuff

  • Hands – Orthopedic doc suspects carpal tunnel syndrome, like many of you have theorized, so we’re working on that.
  • Rhinebeck – I’ll do a bit of a recap during New Stuff while I show you the haul.

 

FOs

  • 2017 Western CT Yarn Crawl Sweater Blank – Machine Knitting Sweater Basics by Renée Callahan – variety of DK weight yarns from the 2017 Western CT Yarn Crawl – see the project page on Ravelry for the full list
  • Grey Button Down shirt – Simplicity 1544AA
  • Tiny pumpkin from kit from A Stitch in Time, Bethel, CT

 

WIPs

  • Swatches in fingering weight and with small shawl shapes for possible future designs on the knitting machine

 

New Stuff

 

Other Stuff

Stuff I’m Watching

  • Stranger Things season 2
  • Beyond Stranger Things
  • Podcast catch up

Stuff I’m Reading:

  • A Thousand Words by Ailee17
    • Harry never could have predicted how much his life would change after making a surprising discovery at the Dursley household the summer before Second Year. The young wizard returns to school looking for answers, and ends up finding a whole lot more. Snape/Harry mentor fic. No slash.
    • Summer before second year – Harry finds an old photo of his mum while Petunia is scrapbooking and steals it to keep with him, and it’s the only photo to escape Vernon, who finds the magical photo album and tears the pictures. The photo was a photo of the Evans family when the girls were young, but after that encounter with Vernon, the photo changes in the frame to one of young Lily and young Severus, so Harry starts his year searching for a way to repair the photos that Vernon destroyed and find out more about his mum from a very reluctant Professor Snape. Lots of awkward detentions where Harry tentatively tries to engage Snape in stories about Lily and Snape grudgingly going along with it as Harry keeps incurring detentions with him without even trying.
  • The Belonging You Seek by WiliQueen
    • A chance discovery gives Luke and Leia a glimpse into who Anakin was, and leads them to more than they ever expected. More questions, more answers… and more family.
    • I love Ahsoka, I love Force shenanigans, and I love Luke and Leia’s different reactions to learning who Anakin Skywalker was.
  • Guardianship by The Slytherin Writer
    • After some startling revelations come to light, it’s decided that Harry can longer stay at Number Four, Privet Drive. The only other option is for him to become the ward and responsibility of potions master, Severus Snape. Follow Harry into his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, as Voldemort returns and Harry needs his friends more than ever.
    • Post GOF – Dumbledore sends Snape to check on Harry after a report from Mrs. Figg, Snape says NOPE and becomes Harry’s guardian. Both are surprised to find that they can clean that slate and live together tolerably, but they decide to keep it on the downlow and not tell anyone, so a lot of the tension in this fic is Harry navigating this new familial relationship and reconciling it with his friendships and whether to tell them the whole story
  • Rage by puppy-on-crack
    • Harry has had a shit life. His parents were dead, he had nearly died multiple times, he is always in the news and one of his friends hates him at the drop of a hat. To make it worse now he has to face down a dragon in the Triwizard tournament. He is done. Harry is pissed and he is going to make sure that they all know it. He is taking his stand right now. Snape/omc no other pairing
    • Starts during the first task of the Triwizard tournament and Harry prematurely hits that anger he starts exhibiting in OotP and just says screw you people for forcing me to participate in this horrible competition and trying to rule my life! This leads Harry to start rebelling against Dumbledore and taking steps to take control of his life.
  • Closing In by Morning Elegance
    • What if Lupin had been unable to teach Harry the Patronus charm, and the job had instead fallen to Snape? How would their relationship have grown as Snape came to care for Harry and discovered the secrets of his home life? Alt 3rd year, Snape mentor/guardianship, slight Dursley neglect/abuse.
    • Pretty self explanatory, but Harry ends up counter balancing Snape and Lupin in an interesting way as he tries to survive third year and learn more about his parents when they were all at school together
  • Improbable Foundations by Imagination94
    • The war has ended and now 12 students return to Hogwarts to finish their education as 8th Years. Severus, having survived Nagini’s bite, will also be returning. Now free from his former masters, he hopes to redeem himself in his new role and repair broken relationships. But the children of the war are damaged, none more so than Harry, and healing will take some time. SS/HP mentor.
    • Snape ends up as the Head of House for the mixed house 8th years and tries to get these traumatized child soldiers the help they need as they finish up their education to take their NEWTs. Featuring an unhealthy attachment between the Golden Trio and PTSD.
  • Aftermath Of Dementors by carabc03
    • After Harry saves Dudley from the Dementors, Dudley suddenly realizes that maybe magic isn’t so bad. This leads to some questions, and to some revelations that lead to Harry being saved from the Dursleys.(Or the one where Dudley is actually a decent human who was just brainwashed by his parents into certain beliefs, and Vernon Dursley is a monster)

      Set in early Order Of The Phoenix, before the actual plot kicks in.

    • Dudley’s realizations are brilliant in this fic and he actually takes steps to get Harry removed from the house for his safety
  • who’s going to be on the plate? By TheElusiveBadger
    • Lily Evans spots extra plates at the dining table, sees her boyfriend bring a dog to meet her parents, and smells roast beef cooking throughout the house, then promptly remembers three things. One, that Vernon Dursley is a louse, a bore, and a prat, but he and James should never be allowed near each other again. Two, that James is way too attached to man’s best friend, and three, that James is a vegetarian, so all her mother’s excellent cooking skills are wasted on him. She’d thought nothing could go wrong the day she introduced her boyfriend of a couple of months to her parents, but, as always, the universe contradicts her.
    • Hilariousness ensues.
  • I’ll welcome you home by InsanityIsFreedom
    • Young Severus Snape is left to fend for himself every summer. He’s used to the empty house and spends most of his time brewing Potions. But one day he comes across Petunia Evans and everything changed…
    • Featuring the growing friendship and romantic relationship between Severus and Petunia, who both feel like they don’t fit into the corners that they’re families and peers have pushed them into. Sad story, not a happy ending.
  • The Trial of Darth Vader by The_Librarian
    • Following the battle of Endor, the Alliance to Restore the Republic took a single prisoner from the attack on the Death Star. Sequestered aboard a lone ship with a skeleton crew, that prisoner sits and waits for what fate will bring him, his very existence kept a closely guarded secret. Desperately trying to work out what to do with him, the Rebel leaders send a lone analyst to speak with him, to take a record of his side of the story. They want to be able to judge him when the time is right. But who exactly is it they would be judging? And why exactly did he help destroy the galaxy – and then help save it?AU, following on from an alternate ending for Return of the Jedi.
    • Mostly focused on the guy the Alliance picked to chronicle Vader’s history and crimes. Ambivalent ending, but a really interesting look into how the Alliance would have had to handle taking a prisoner like Darth Vader after the destruction of the second Death Star.

 

 

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Episode 46: Regularly Scheduled Programming

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Filmed on Sunday, October 15, 2017

Podcast Stuff

  • Blanket MAL 2017 – Make along throughout 2017 for making blankets. Check out the thread on Ravelry for details! I’ll be checking in with a personal project round up later in the podcast.
    • 3Q Prizes
    • Ravelry Pattern up to $10 from HollyDav – Post 95 – KittyFrancois (Cati)
    • Haldecraft Handdyed and Notions Kit – Post 373 – filipamc (Filipa)
    • Dyenamixx Yarns and mini-skeins – Post 16 – RoMillet (Rosalee)
  • Rhinebeck – Aiming to be at both pre-Rhinebeck events, Needles Up and Indie Untangled, and I will definitely be at the podcaster meetup on the Saturday of Rhinebeck. I’ll be there the whole weekend so if you want to say hi and you see me, say hi. I might be flustered and not entirely able to pay attention because high-volume social situations tend to eat my energy, but I’m always happy to meet any of you.

 

Life Stuff

  • Hands – Slight improvement after this past run of meds, but still getting pain, so next step is the specialist referral, which I will hear more about tomorrow.
  • Work – Finally seen the new building where the office will be moving to, but the parking situation is looking not great. There’s nothing definite, so it’s pretty stressful.
  • Fun
    • PA Ren Faire – Went down to PA to visit with some friends in their new place and go to the PA Ren Faire, which was fun. The drive down was smooth sailing, which was really nice. The visit was great. The drive home was a little bit teeth grinding because I was driving up along the edge of a tropical storm, which meant that there were traffic accidents in the most inconvenient places. I’m finally starting to get comfortable with the drive to and from PA these days. I wasn’t stressed about the drive before setting out in either direction, so that was good.
    • Halloween Party – Went to my friends’ Halloween party last night, where there was good food and a Stranger Things marathon. It’s always good to hang out with that group. And then of course, I crashed on The Gabbers’ couch because she lives 15 minutes away.

 

FOs

  • Gift Quilt!

 

WIPs

  • 2017 Western CT Yarn Crawl Sweater Blank – Machine Knitting Sweater Basics by Renée Callahan – variety of DK weight yarns from the 2017 Western CT Yarn Crawl – see the project page on Ravelry for the full list
  • Block Weaving – 1st strip scrap yarns (complete), 2nd strip Ella Rae Lace Merino and old handspun (complete), 3rd strip handdyed leftovers and Once Upon a Corgi “Frosted Cranberry” (WIP)
  • Halloween Quilt – Strip Your Stash by Nancy Smith – strip quilt, jelly rolls, fat quarters, scraps (cotton)
  • Winter Wall Quilt – The Weekend Quilter – scrap clothing and cotton
  • Grey Button Down shirt – Simplicity 1544AA

 

Crafting Goals

  • Quilting – I have so much fabric and so many quilt ideas that I stall out when making quilts. I think this is the area where I want to have more WIPs, since WIPs in quilting can be very different than WIPs in other crafts. I want to be finishing quilt tops, at the moment, which is the top layer of the quilt with the focus on piecing and patterning. I feel like right now I want to be focused on that and not so much on the actual process of quilting, since the quilting itself is not my primary focus while I build my quilting skills. Right now I want to work on piecing and playing with color, but I get hung up on the work needed to finish the entire quilt.
  • Weird Toys – I used to occasionally make weird little art dolls and recently as part of my hand-convalescence, I’ve spent a lot of time browsing etsy and Instagram, stumbling upon art doll and fabric sculpture artists. They sparked that part of my brain again and I’m making a concerted effort to squash that part of my brain that shouts that I’m wasting my time when I make things like that. It’s been a crazy dream of mine for years to be able to do the kind of art dolls that I’ve seen online. I’m going to do a bit of a slideshow here to show you what I’m talking about and their online presence will be linked in the show notes. I have some supplies coming and I’m doing research into fabric doll shapes and techniques to start myself off.

 

Other Stuff

Stuff I’m Playing:

  • Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes – ally code 235-686-528

Stuff I’m Listening To:

  • Dark Force Rising (The Thrawn Trilogy Bk2) by Timothy Zahn narr by Marc Thompson
  • The Last Command (The Thrawn Trilogy Bk3) by Timothy Zahn narr by Mac Thompson
  • Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg narr by Pete Cross
  • Honestly Ben by Bill Konigsberg narr by Dan Bittner
  • P!nk – Beautiful Trauma

Stuff I’m Reading:

  • Cartographer’s Craft by copperbadge
    • In the summer after Harry’s sixth year, Harry and Remus uncover a section of the Marauder’s Map which has been hidden for the past twenty years, releasing a carbon copy of sixteen-year-old Sirius Black from its depths. As they prepare for the impending war, Sirius must find a place for himself in this new world, Harry must find a way to destroy Voldemort, and Remus must face his own past while trying to build a tenuous future with Tonks.
  • The Guiltless and The Poor of God by kilara25
    • Sixth year AU, written pre HBP. When Harry appears at the Welcoming Feast wearing a glamor only Snape notices, Snape decides to find out what the glamor is hiding. His investigation leads to a number of shocking revelations about both Harry and himself.
      • A really good version of Snape who has tried to keep himself in the habit of looking out for abuse amongst his students and one that kicks himself when he realizes that his animosity for James Potter blinds him to what has been happening to Harry
    • After Snape’s visit to Surrey, Harry writes him a thank you letter that triggers an extended correspondence between the two of them. Sequel to The Guiltless.
      • This sequel is more extensive than the original fic and it focuses on the developing mentor relationship between Harry and Snape, with some bonus Luna! Harry and Luna really get on well in this fic and Snape’s increasing frustration and concern with Harry’s ability to get into the worst situations is really well done.
  • Blood by The_Lord_of_Chaos
    • Harry learns that Professor Snape is his bio dad, and if that were all he had to deal with, he’d be all right, but he’s got werewolves, escaped convicts, a stubborn Dark Lord, and his own inner demons to deal with. Starts third year. Rating mostly for violence. Harry’s gay but no relationships. Story deals with mental health, bigotry and child abuse. See more notes inside.
      • This one is still ongoing and I’m really looking forward to how this fic continues. There’s 25 chapters now and it’s a really interesting alternate universe.
      • Snape and Lily went out for a bit at 15 and were not particularly careful when having sex, so Lily found out she was pregnant. She magically halts the pregnancy so little bean Harry is in stasis until she decides to have the baby and when Harry’s 13, he gets a pre-arranged letter from Lily and James about this. Sirius Black was murdered by Fenrir Greyback after Voldie’s fall, so this version of Prisoner of Azkaban features Greyback’s escape and lots of werewolf times in the HP universe.
      • I really love this fic – Harry having to deal with Dursley trauma after being kicked out, trying to sort out whether he should tell Snape that they’re family, and a lot of really great friendship between the trio. They’re all very supportive of each other in this fic, which I love, and a surprising amount of friendly interaction between the trio and other children at the school. There’s also some really great Weasley family stuff because of the events that happen in this version of the third year and the consequences of those events.
  • Series by GreenGecko
    • Resonance – Year six and Harry needs rescuing by Dumbledore and Snape. The resulting understanding between Harry and Snape is critical to destroying Voldemort and leads to an offer of adoption. Covers year seven and Auror training.
    • Revolution – Harry continues his Auror training and begins a journey of mastering his unusual and growing powers. Harry, with the help of his adoptive father, is finally making his own way, but fate and prophecy are never completely absent.
    • Resolution – Harry enters his second year as an Auror Apprentice. Snape’s wedding looms, and Harry’s odd new powers mature, creating mayhem, perilous temptations, and opportunities to gain real wisdom.
      • This is a great series. Firstly, Snape and Harry developing a mentoring relationship and a familial relationship as Harry nears adulthood is really amazing and rare.
      • Secondly, the escalation of the madness in Harry’s and Snape’s lives is so very well paced. There’s slow build evil and sudden evil and lots of small, everyday problems that seem like they’re huge problems to Harry because he’s becoming an adult.
      • Thirdly, there are some amazing original characters in this fic, in particular Candide, who’s a wizarding world accountant and a lovely woman who Snape is baffled to find enjoys his company, and Lily’s extended Muggle family (cousins? second-cousins?) that Harry stumbles across while trying to solve a mystery.
      • I’m still working my way through the last one because these are long, but they are absolutely worth digging into. There’s Voldemort shenanigans, magical weirdness, de-aging, dimensional weirdness, and more!

 

 

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