Eyes - Check!

Remember Me?

Well, well, well. We meet again, old friend.

I am talking, of course, about the Cuddlefish, who decided to hop into my knitting bag this morning and insists that I get his eyes down and cease this silly procrastinating, and who am I to argue? He's got a razor-sharp beak, and he knows how to use it.

So tonight, I'm finally finishing up this old project, or at least getting to the part where it's all coasting from here.

Henna OK!

Remember my freakout last post? Totally unfounded. As someone on the hennapage forums pointed out to me, "henna grows in the desert, is harvested in the desert, and sits is a warehouse in the desert until it gets to you. A few days in your mailbox won't hurt it."And right she was.

So I mixed up 100g of CCJ's Rajasthani henna, and let me tell you, it is NICE. I used only a pinch of sugar (it said I didn't have to use any, but I am nothing if not paranoid), and it is very stringy, but I think I'm going to go ahead and add a little more in anyways, to make it retain moisture a bit more. The unsealed paste, left on for maybe an hour or so, left a good B4 stain on the back of my hand (I drew a Murloc). I doodled on my palm as well, then almost immediately wiped it off because I had gone in without planning and the result, as happens, was not so great, but I'm getting about the same level of stain so I guess I'll have to live with that for a while.

In dog news, I'm starting to get a little concerned about Maggie. A few times now she's growled at Heed, once tonight, always around food, but while I know Heed doesn't really want to get to her food at all, I also don't want her to become food-aggressive at all, and don't really know what to do. So far we've yelled at her when she does it and sent her outside, where she can't do fun things like be pet and sit on the couch... but it does worry me. I've had Heed since the day he was born, so if it comes down to it, I know who we're keeping, but I'd really like them to be able to get along well enough to continue having them both.

Anyways, next weekend is my godson's 3rd birthday party, so even though I know I should be working on the Cuddlefish, I'm going to get started on a gift for him instead. No, he's not getting the Cuddlefish. Boy's too young to have a proper appreciation of cephalopods.

But he can get this really bitchin' humpback whale.

Variations on a Theme

So I've been working on the Cuddlefish's eyes, and it's been tricky.

First, I thought I would just, you know, do buttons or something. That looked like ass (so much so, that I didn't even sew them on, the ass was apparent from just holding the buttons to the unshaped head).

Then I thought, hey, what if I add in some short rows? Eh? Eh? Everybody loves short rows. So I sketched for a bit, got a W-shaped pupil going, made a chart, and got going on it. There were minor mistakes (such as knitting from the wrong end of the chart, and making M-shaped pupils instead), and I ended up redoing the knitting a total of 5 times, and the chart a total of 7.

So I start the 6th round of knitting using the 7th chart, and I'm following it, and it's going well, and then BAM. It hits me.

This eye? Is too shallow. It is an almond, and not a bulge. It's too symmetrical, and the W will be pointing to the butt-end of the mantle and not up to the sky, as actual cuttlefish eyes are oriented. Ergo, the sort-row eye has got to go.

So I started thinking, and I started sketching again, and I think I may have come up with something that will work. I'm going to be bringing back some of the color patterns from the mantle, but not in ways that you'll expect. It's going to work. It's going to be interesting.

It's going to be asymmetrical.

If you know me, you know that I have a really hard time with asymmetry. I'm not good at creating it, my gut naturally roils when I try, but dammit, this time I am going to do it. It's going to be awkward and counterintuitive the whole time, but as Dog is my witness* I will make this eye by monday!



* Seriously, Maggie. Time to step up.

(Minor) Cuddlefish Disaster

So. The Cuddlefish. Adding the mantle ridge in was a complete success - he is full of ridge-y goodness. I was full of arrogance at my mad knitting skillz, yo.

[picture]

So I began to do the same for the eye bulges - stick in some 0000's, snip snip, unravel.

[picture]

Oh what's that you say? I wasn't supposed to cut THAT thread?

[picture]

Well, what's the worst than can happen?

[picture]

[hint - it's not this, but this is what I got]

So, I lost about a half-inch of knitting on the top of the cuddlefish, which requires losing the bottom tentacle, and dis-attaching the mouth, in order to fix. On the upside, I do still have the mouth, and now the eyes? Should be cake! Plus I can now rip them with impunity, if they don't turn out right the first time.

[will be putting in the pics for these after I go gets food]

Fixing a Cuddlefish (cutting in)

Okay, people. It's go time on the Cuddlefish rehabilitation project. The top two tentacles (which were the wrong sizes) have been ripped back, and 0000 needles have been slipped into the stitches above and below where we are going to make our first incision. Let us first take stock of the patient.

Dorsal:


Ventral:


Beak:


Innards:



So now let us begin.



We have placed the needles three rows apart, so there is room for the new mantle ridge in the overall patterning. Begin by making two incisions in the middle of each row, to cut both yarns, and unravel each of the 3 rows to the ends. To make things easier on yourself, braid those loose ends.



You should now have a good-sized opening in the middle of your Cuddlefish. This is terrifying. You may wish to lay down. The wrong side of the mouth-pocket and beak are clearly visible.



This, right here where we are? This is an okay place to be. Unravelling 3 rows of fingering-weight stranded colorwork is no mean feat. Plus, it's late, and you're tired, so make a quick blog post and then go to bed.

Well what do you know?

By the time I called the apartment people at exactly 8:30 this morning (got to give them some time to settle in, after all), the lock on our door was fixed. As was the window, the mold, and the leaky faucet. Plus? They cleaned our kitchen.

"Catch more flies with honey" my ass.

In other news, the Cuddlefish, after languishing in sad obscurity for months, is being revived! I wasn't really pleased with his head shaping (i.e. he has none), but one of my students pointed out that hey, I can just go in and fix the areas that bug me, then graft it together again. Damn, why didn't I think of that one sooner? At any rate, we're moving this weekend, but I'm going to try a photo-heavy post of exactly how you insert head shaping into a currently flat cuddlefish, as soon as I have the time and a nice flat surface to work on. Bwahahaha!

Of Yarn and Harlots

I have seen the Yarn Harlot

And it was fantastic. The Cuddlefish is still incomplete - true to knitterly type, I thought that the space-time continuum would bend around me, allowing me to finish the fin (which needed to be re-done), the siphon (which just needs grafting, really) and all the remaining tentacles during the two-hour car ride from College Station to Spring. As it turns out, Twisted Yarns isn't that far from my parents' houses in Houston, which means I will definitely be going back if I can wheedle Sweetie into it next time we're in the area. I also got tips on locations for a few other yarn shops in Houston that are supposed to be a little more helpfull than Yarntopia. Don't get me wrong, I loves me some Yarntopia (I think they're the only Fleece Artist-having shop in texas?), but they do seem to be not as offering of assistance as many shops I've heard of. This, of course, makes me want to save up for a month or two (I will have that interim between when I'm paying off Galveston and when I start paying off my actual student loans) and hit every yarn shop between me and the coast. Must find friends to accompany me in this. Perhaps bribe Hastur with cross-stitch shops?

At any rate, I saw the Yarn Harlot. Sweetie and I left BCS around three, and since we were going to be traveling all day and I didn't want to be rude and break my fast while Stephanie was talking, I had food on the way over. This is the first time I've intentionally broken Ramadan, even though you're not supposed to fast while traveling anyway, so I'll be feeding someone some time this week to make up for it. Lucky for me college towns have no shortage of starving students.

So we arrived in Spring at around 5:00, found the school and settled down for a bit of a wait. We met two girls from Austin, one of whom reminded both Sweetie and myself of an old friend of ours; we (the Austin girls and myself) spied on other knitters to see what they were making; I got volunteered to go and ask about a few projects that looked especially interesting.

There was a lady working on the Print o' the Wave Stole from Victorian Lace Today, but I swear to you, she was using cobweb-weight yarn and what looked like size 0 or 1 needles. It was awesome. She didn't remember what brand the yarn was.

There was a girl around my age (which is 25-ish, if you wondered) wearing the Breakfast Hat. You know the one, with the eggs and the bacon and the peas? She was wearing bacon on her head! It was fabulous. We chatted together at the yarn shop later.

Then there was the girl in the Venezia pullover. When she walked in the room, fashionably less-early, you could hear all the murmurs spring up. She was gorgeous, the sweater was gorgeous, it looked just like the model, she looked just like a model, ohmygoodness, how long do you think it took to make, can you believe in this weather? So, yes. Instant street cred. Even Sweetie noticed. (as a side note, one of the Austin girls asked, and it took her five months to complete. Worth every minute. I hope she doesn't change size.)

And then, of course, was the Yarn Harlot.

She was smart, she was funny, and even Sweetie not only had a good time; he said that she was funnier than most stand-up comedians (which sounds bad, now that I think about it, but he listens to a lot of stand-up comedians, so that's high praise indeed from a non-knitter. He was even telling some of her jokes at work this morning, and wants to borrow my copies of her books. He already likes tatting and macrame. I may have to casually leave some needles and a how-to book in his cubicle). I know whenever I've read blogs in the past talking about listening to Yarn Harlot I've been frustrated by their lack of detail (and sound recordings, to be honest), but it really is so much fun and audience participation that I know I couldn't do it justice. I knit through a lot of it, as did much of the audience, but it was just the fin. Just garter stitch. Hardly knitting at all, and I often had to stop and double over laughing, or clap, or wave the Cuddlefish around in the air (if you've heard her speak, you know what I'm talking about). It really is an experience, and I highly recommend it.

After the talk, at Twisted Yarns, I picked up a mere two balls of yarn, one jojoland Harmony in yellows and oranges that'll make a nice, bright lace scarf, and one earthy red Hempathy for fixing a co-worker's sweater (I'll need to call this yarn shop and have them mail me a few balls of queensland Kathmandu; they had colors I can't usually get, and I do need to get on those baby sweaters before the kids are born). We stood in line for only a little while, having got there early, and the Venezia girl was right behind us. Turns out she'll be moving to Aggieland soon!

When we got up to see Stephanie, she signed both my copy of her book, and my Idea Book, which if you'll recall was also signed by Amy Singer and Jillian Moreno. It's got good mojo. Sweetie asked her if she could recommend a good Canadian beer, which she did, and which I'm going to try and find for him while he's gone fishing next weekend. I showed her my Cuddlefish, explaining how I'd somehow thought he'd be done in time even though that was obviously impossible, and she laughed and took a picture. When I explained that he was in fact going to be as anatomically correct a cuttlefish as I could manage, she told me, "you're crazy, which is not to say I don't like you a great deal, but you're a complete lunatic."

So I'm really hoping she happens to link to me. I'm going to post the patterns tonight for the Anya scarf, and link to finished photos of Galveston, just in case. I'd post Emma, but my sister never has gotten around to getting pictures of herself in it, and I made her promise to be the model. Seeing Emma this last weekend reminded me how much I really love that scarf; I may have to get working on one for myself.

In non-harlot-y news, and speaking of last weekend, after taking LittlestBrother to the museum to see Lucy (which was sold out when we got there, so we went to the regular exhibits, and will go again sometime soon; they had awesome "I love Lucy" shirts in the gift shop), I stayed the night (Sweetie went home) and my dad, LittlestBrother and I went and saw PrimaryBrother in Austin. What this boiled down to was about four hours of driving time where it was me and my dad talking, which led to the dreaded "what are you planning to do with your life" conversation. I told my dad my plans, which are cautious but optimistic, and mentioned as a side note that it would be amazing to start a woollen mill in Texas. He was actually interested in why this was, so I explained as best I could.

There's a lot of sheep and goats in Texas. Texas is the biggest producer of Mohair in the US, and we make a lot of wool as well. Much of this is in the Hill Country, as in Austin, where Sweetie and I would one day like to live. So far as my (admittedly internet-based) powers of research can find, there are no operational woollen mills in Texas. Ergo, folks have to ship wool out of state to get it processed, which is expensive and takes a long time. If there were a mill right in the middle of Texas hill country, I figure, people would have a shorter turn-around time for processing, could even drop it off in person to save shipping entirely, and the mill would have good business, what with all the sheep and goats. You could do it in a small space, like a barn, and it doesn't take a lot of people to run a mini mill, two or three can (and have) done so successfully. Plus, of course, I already know a lot of the venues for advertising, such as the wool festivals, and magazines, and Hastur knows a dyer in Houston who's been thinking of getting into yarn anyway, and I could design patterns for our yarns, which is a good draw, and if you put solar panels on the roof you'd have most of the energy you need, etc etc.

My dad thought about this for a while (I may have surprised him with how much information I'd spewed at him all at once; this has been known to happen on occassion) and said that in a year, his friend Hussain would have paid off a loan my dad had taken to help him start a business, and if I'd run all the numbers by then and it looked like a good business idea, he'd get the loan and we'd get some land and try this out. He recommended I try to find used equipment, and talk to other mill owners.

I'm super excited. I've already contacted the guys from Wooly Knob up in Indiana, and they told me to give them a call and they'd chat with me about starting a mill with two people and what it's really like. The thing I'm most concerned about (aside from financial feasibility, of course) is recycling the water from scouring. I found an equipment manufacturer (www.minimills.net) whose scouring machine recycles 40% of the water used, which is great, but I wonder if there are other ways that could be better than that. Austin is right over the Edwards Aquifer, and water is a Big Fucking Deal in that area. You can't use too much, and you definitely don't want to be contaminating the aquifer. I read about a mill that was able to recycle 90% of its wastewater as lanolin and various forms of organic fertilizer (the pesticides being caught up with the lanolin, which the cosmetic companies then de-poison-ify), so I know it can be done. All in all I know I've got a lot more research to do, but luckily I have a whole year in which to plan both a mill and a wedding.

And with that, I guess I'd better get back to my day job.

Chugging Along

on the cuddlefish. The head is done, the mouth/beak is done, the siphon is done. I just need to pick up stitches around the mantle for the fin, and do the tentacles. I think I can have it done in time for Yarn Harlot. Expect photos (actual photos!) on Monday.

I live! Promise.

Sorry it's been so dead around here, folks, I've been so busy knitting (and frogging and knitting and frogging and knitting again) that I completely forgot to blog about it. Plus, I've been finishing up a couple of small side projects for/with friends. For example, Hastur and I are working on a cross-stitch for a contest in some magazine she subscribes to - I forget the one, but the prize is a cubic fuck-ton of hand-dyed silk threads by her absolute favorite dyer, dinky dyes. Something about their five-year anniversary, I believe ;) We designed it together, and she's stitching it up this week. I hope it makes it into the finals.

In other news, HarlotWatch continues! I have reserved three seats at the event, either for myself, Sweetie, and Hastur (who I am trying to convince to come with me), or myself, Hastur, and Meagan (if I can convince them to do a girl's day out). I'll be taking my littlest brother to see Lucy at the Houston Museum of Natural Science that weekend, so it should be good times all around.

In knitting news, not much is going on. I've tried two or three different types of cuddlefish eye-bulges before settling on the final version (you'll never guess how it works. I'm so excited), so now all I've got to do is actually finish the damn thing! Luckily, I've decided to start the mouth shaping just after the apex of the eye-bulge, so I'm ready for that now. It's good times. I'm so eager to show off the Cuddlefish, I don't know if I'll be able to keep him out of photographs so I can submit him to Knitty, or if I should just give in, post him everywhere, and submit him to MagKnits. Knitty seems to have a higher readership, and be a better stepping-stone to eventual author-dom, so I will resist the urge (like anyone's here for the photographs anyway, right?).

Anyway, that's all for now. I ordered some Mama Llama merino lace yarn, and it's time to start obsessively checking the mailbox, on the off-chance that the postal service was three hours late today. Sweetie says my belief in the six-o'-clock mail pixies is silly, but I think knitters know better than that. If you truly believe, then the yarn will come.

It looks like the internet

is back up, for now. Sorry for the delay.

So I got a raise. How cool is that, right? I'm almost making as much now as I would have at the pathology lab, and I'm not cutting into dead things. A $0.50 difference per hour is definitely worth it for that, and I'm hoping it will help ease the blow to my dad when I tell him that I like my job and will not be looking for another one (in this city, at least) any time soon, even if it means he doesn't give me the car, which is what I'm betting on.

At any rate, knitting is going well. I started a pair of socks with some Louet Gems dyed by Cherry Tree Hill (beautiful gem tones), top-down picot-hemmed Jaywalkers with twined-knit heels (which takes forever, in case you were wondering, but makes a wonderful, thick, elastic fabric. Remind me to borrow Hastur's camera and post a tutorial on it), and guess what? I ran foul of the usual complaint with Jaywalkers: Too small. I can get them over my heels, but with major effort, so they're going to be undergoing some major surgery when I can bear to look at them again. I'm going to rip back to where I picked up for the gusset, snip the final row of cuff before I started the heel, provisionally cast on over the instep, and do plain stockinette down to the toes. Then I can pick up around the ankle, knit up a cuff with what's left, and yay! Socks. Just not socks right now.

Right now it's all Cuddlefish, all the time! I finally figured out what pattern I want to use on the head (staggered diamonds, the simplest thing ever, with lice patterns on bottom), so I've attached the siphon and started working in earnest. It should definitely be done by the time Yarn Harlot comes to Houston.

Internet at home currently dead

I'm working on the Cuddlefish, I'm working on some socks, and Hastur has got me designing some cross-stitch with her (who'd've thunk?). Also, got in some lovely fiber from the Painted Sheep. Sweetie's making beer tonight!