Don't you hate when life gets the better of you? Last week was one of those weeks. It was the week before Spring Break, so I was scrambling to get some projects done for school, and to get one of my pieces ready for a show.

I got invited to be part of the Nina B. Marshall Memorial Women Faculty and Students Art Exhibition (how's that for a name?) and I framed my first framed drawing. I'll take pictures when the show opens and post them.

Anyway, I finished the Pink Camouflage Socks, and I have the pics to show for it.

I'm about two inches away from completing another pair, mindless stockinette in Knitpicks Felici, the putty colorway. I'm not usually a fan of self striping yarn, but I like this one. I'm going to wait to post the particulars until I have pictures to go with them.

However, in the interest of making up for the dearth of posting last week, I'm going to play a little catch-up here. I realized that I'd never actually posted any finished pictures of the Oak and Thorn Socks, so I'll start with those. Oak Ribbed Socks (Ravelry link) from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks.

I had a tiny bit of spinning inspiration there, for a moment. I spun up some roving I dyed ages ago, making a heavy worsted 2-ply that is destined to be some wrist warmers for Nick. Providing he promises not to lose one of them.

And some mystery wool I got a long time ago. I have no idea what this stuff is. Corriedale is my usual go-to fiber for spinning and dying. It's sturdy enough not to felt when being dyed, and it spins up soft. This is more coarse, scratchier than Corriedale, with a higher lanolin content. It's kind of greasy-feeling, but man were my hands soft. I was going to try to make legwarmers out of it, but I don't think there's enough.

And, just in case you might have thought that I don't take pictures of the cat-cats (which, if you think that, you might want to get checked out. Cause you're crazy.)

As promised, I come bearing pictures to prove the existence of knitting. First up, the baby socks.

Handspun baby nymph sky socks. I used this same yarn to make Brenda's Christmas handwarmers.

Baby cloud coriolis socks. From the same yarn I used to knit Hyacinth.

Baby socks are cat-cat approved. I must have taken twenty pictures with Finn trying to stick his nose inside the socks. Hilarious.

Okay, so on my screen at home, one can make out details. But here at school, I totally can't. So, trust me when I say it's a plain-jane navy sock, knit in 2x2 rib with a traditional heel gusset (k1, sl1, purl across on the way back) and a kitchenered toe. Boring. But he loves them.

Ooh, I knit these a while ago, but never blogged them. I wanted a pair of Bella-inspired arm-warmers in a sea green to match the twilight logo. Oh, yeah, I'm a dork.

I don't like how the cable wraps around, though, when my thumb is in the natural position. I knit the thumb gusset from the side, and I wish I'd moved it forward a bit. Enough to give these away and knit a new pair? Maybe. We'll see.

And the newest project around these parts, the Pink Camp Sky Sock. Since taking these pictures (on monday) I have finished the first one and am on to the second. It's a really quick knit, even considering I'm crazy for the pattern.

A better shot of the front increase gusset. I was going to use linen stitch for the front area, but the way that the yarn was knitting up, it ended up in stripes that didn't show the yarn or the stitch to it's advantage. So I used moss stitch, and got the effect I wanted.

Here you can see the awesome, hole-free heel and the only area that I was worried about. Before I'd finished the toe, I was worried that the heel was a little baggy, but that turned out not to be the case, once the sock was done. I know the Ravelry group has had a lot of problems getting the socks to fit, but I've found that this one fits as well as any other sock I've made.

Okay, off to update the Ravelry page and then go scrounge something to eat.

I've been knitting, for reals. I also have no proof that this is so. I took a bunch of pictures of recent stuff, meaning to process and upload them yesterday, but I forgot. Or rather, I got caught up in a bunch of other stuff and then had to go to Nikki's Oscar party before I got a chance to finish.

Nick's boring navy socks are done. In a Herculean effort, I knit nothing else until they were done, chanting Cat Bordhi's name softly to myself as a motivator. When those were finished (and whisked promptly away to reside on Nick's feet), I set about knitting the little practice projects in the New Pathways books. Cat (see how we're on a first name basis now?) has you knit two pairs of baby socks, one top down, one toe up, both with different gusset techniques, to get the hang of things.

Funny non sequitur: I was knitting one of the little socks in watercolor and my friend Mary leaned over and asked me, "Is there something I should know?" After reassuring her that I wasn't pregnant, I finished the baby practice socks and cast on for an actual grown up pair.

I'm using the Master Number pattern, just to see how it'll work for me. On the New Pathways Ravelry group, there seems to be a lot of people for whom the Master Numbers don't work. So far, though, they seem to work for me. I'm also trying out a new sock yarn: Bernat Sox (in the pink camouflage colorway, cunningly named 42416). It's kind of striping, kind of pooling, but I find that I don't mind it so much. Weird, I know.

I'd go on, but I think it's best to wait for some visuals, otherwise it's not going to make so very much sense. I'll try to process those pictures tomorrow.

Two posts in less than three days? Madness, I say!

So, I'm still sick. I was hoping that it would be just a twenty-four hour kind of bug, but I'm still malingering. I'm not achy anymore, but I'm still living in fear of choking to death every time I swallow. Which, incidentally, is still quite painful. Blech.

So, since I just had a lovely, long post about my knitting, I thought I'd post a couple of art-related things. First up, a bit of illustrative fluff.

Irulan, from Frank Herbert's Dune series.

Some random girlies that I drew and threw a quick gradient over.

Katie again, my poor sweet albino vampire librarian.

The next couple are from school. They're a couple of studies from a series about organic versus technological and what responsibility we owe to species we change or create. Not that I'm saying that stem cell research is evil, or that genetically engineered plants are bad for us, or that researching artificial intelligence will lead to the creation of a Technocore. Rather, I just mean to say that we, as a species, need to take responsibility for what we do.

Hm. I have a sketch of a pomegranate with a circuit board in the middle, but I guess I forgot to upload it. Oh, well. It'll keep until the next time.

And as for the title, you know who you are. You're turn to post now.

I've made some progress on the site. At least, I have the main page looking how I want it. The archive stuff and comment pages are going to have to wait until I have another free day. One, hopefully, wherein I don't feel crappy.

Oh, yes, I'm sick. My first fully free day off since school started (not counting that one snow-day, it wasn't planned) and I'm ill. It's not a huge deal, just a sore, swollen throat and a general feeling of malaise. Blech.

To stop me feeling sorry for myself, I'm moving on to some long anticipated pictures of the infamous and mysterious Clessidras. I've discovered a couple of issues, but I'll use my pics to illustrate them. Pun definitely intended.

From the front. Aren't they delicious? I think I could have gone down a needle size. They were a bit loose, and the toes don't look particularly stable.

From the back. I can't get enough of this delicious cable.

A lovely detail shot. Okay, here's where it gets a bit troublesome.

I have small calves. This is particularly evident in the slight puckering of the stockinette gussets on the side of the leg there.

It's even worse on this shot.

I ended up wearing them for half a day before I got sick of them falling down in a beautiful, wine colored pool around my ankles. I looked like the sick lovechild of Flashdance and Mikhail Baryshnikov. I think if I had gone down a needle size or two, it would have helped. As it is, I just sewed in sone back elastic at the bottom of the ribbing and it was fine. Also on a critical but unrelated-to-the-falling-down-thing note, I think the heel was a little too deep for me. unless I pull them up very tight, my heel looks pointy. Not too noticeable in shoes, but vexing nonetheless.

And now, the surprise project, that none of the Hot Tang knitters have seen, since I've knit it entirely in the time when Hot Tang hasn't been meeting. Behold, my self-designed Peri Cardi!

Isn't it cute? But wait, there's more. Um, forgive the lighting and general frumpiness of the shoot. It was late and I was tired.

And in my pajamas.

I'm not a big fan of the poof at the top of the ribbing in back, but since this is an acrylic (very soft, and $2 a skein at Goodwill) there's not much I can do.

I love hoods on my cardigans, which is funny, because I never wear them up. Even when it's cold, or raining. I just love the look and feel of them at my back.

What's that? Why yes, I do indeed have elephants on my jammies.

Oh, one more knitting related thing. I got a copy of Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters. Just looking through it, I'm so impressed. I don't care if you like the book or not, you have to admit it's pretty revolutionary. I mean, nobody's come up with this in such a cohesive way before. Sure, there might be a couple patterns here and there that experimented with some different ways of making heels or whatnot, but Cat has done an amazing job of collating everything and putting it in an easy and accessible format. I just hope I have the patience to finish Nick's pain 2x2 navy socks before I'm tempted to cast on a pair from the book.

Well, I'm back at school. Today was the first day of spring classes and I'm killing time until my friend gets here (we're going to the glass factory to look at possible wedding centerpieces for her; was planning a wedding this stressful for me?).

It's funny, being back. All my classes are up on the fourth floor, where the 2D area is. It's weird being up there again, after almost three quarters of a year not being there. I find that ass much as I claim not to miss the attitude (pretentious and fine art-centric) I do miss the actual studio time up there.

I've managed to not have Gee again, though, so that's another plus. I have instructors that know me (with the exception of my watercolor teacher; she's new), and who are all cool (according to Mary, who had Hannah last semester). I'm hoping that I can keep my A-earning momentum this go-around, but I'm not anticipating it to be difficult at all.

The makeup thing is panning out, I got a new Mary Kay brush set and some more eyeshadow, which I really like. And, since I've been washing my face every day for almost a month now, I'm pleased with how smooth and soft my skin is. I keep breaking out along my chest and shoulders though, so I'm going to have to see what I can do about that.

As an aside, I really hate the super-thin Mac keyboards in the computer lab. I'm trying to get better with my touch-typing and this keyboard is just this much smaller than my regular keyboard measurements, and it keeps fucking me up.

On a knitting front, I'm still slogging away on the Clessidra socks. I'm nearly done with the calf decreases and then I've got four more inches of knitting even, then the heel. I love love love the socks, but I'm not so fond of the knitting them forever. I want to make the Spiral Boot Socks by Veronik Avery, though, so I must not be put off of knee socks forever. Pictures shall be forthcoming. Really.

New Year's always strikes me as a time of potential. There's a whole new year out there without any record if fucking up. Of course, I know I will, but it never seems to matter when I'm standing outside watching my breath fog and freeze in the cold darkness of the first few minutes of the new year.

I don't really believe in making resolutions. I generally break them and then feel terribly guilty over the whole affair. Instead, I've compiled a list of things I'd like to do, or change, without the impetus of having to do them.

1. Blog more. I'd like to blog two or three times a week this coming year. It always seems like a giant ordeal to blog something, though. I have to download pictures from the camera, convert them from .raw to .png, resize and edit them, upload them to Flickr, and then write the entry. Usually, I just sigh and read my blogroll again. To prevent this, I'd like to take a day, like Sunday evening, and do all that. Not blog or anything, but just get stuff ready for the coming week of blogging. Maybe it'll help.

2. Change the layout. Blame Eponine for this one. I don't like using pre-made layouts anyway, and this one was supposed to be a stopgap until I managed to make one for myself. I also hate that this one isn't wide enough to deal with the width of Flickr's standard horizontal picture width. So, a new one is in the offing, even as we speak.

3. Draw every day. Even if it's just sketching a girl's face or two. I miss doing it, and I'm afraid that after a semester with no drawing classes, I've backslid.

4. Get my art-site up and running; I need a digital portfolio. And I've paid for all that stuff, so it's dumb to waste it.

5. Knit every day. I have been knitting, of course, but I haven't really been documenting it, and I hate that. I'm halfway through a pair of Clessidra knee-socks and I have. no. pictures. Must remedy that.

6. Wash my face every night. I don't know if it's because my mom's accident happened before I really needed to start washing my face, or if it's because I've always been lax about bedtime rituals (sometimes I forget to brush my teeth, don't hate me!) but I almost never do this. I have been, for about ten days, though, and I can really see a difference. My skin is softer and less prone to get spots (I think; it's still a bit early to tell). Concurrent with this goal is the next one:

6a. Wear makeup every day. If I don't, it's to easy for me to justify not washing my face. "I didn't wear makeup, I don't really have to..." And, makeup makes me feel pretty and special, and I kind of love experimenting, so. Makeup every day.

7. Do more tea reviews. I liked them, and it gave me an excuse to buy different teas, so I want to do that some more.

8. Figure out what I'd like to do with my life. I know this sounds huge, and it kind of is, but I only have a year of school left, and I need to make some decisions. I've felt for a long time that it would be a toss-up between art (freelance illustration) and yarn (owning my own store, eventually) and I need to flip that proverbial coin. I don't feel like there's enough room in my life to do both professionally, and I need to figure out which I want to do. The other will, of course, remain a hobby, and there's no rule, even in my head, that says I can't change my mind down the road, but I feel like I need some direction in my career-life.

9. Make some hot cocoa. Like, right now. My poor widdle fingers are freezing!

And, so as not to leave this post image-less, here's a picture of the cats' Christmas present to me: suffering me to put ribbons on them and then letting me take five or six pictures before they freaked right out.

ps: I got all A's this semester. Cumulative GPA: 3.43, semester GPA: 3.916. If I keep this up, I could graduate cum laude. Far cry from graduating 140th out of 200 in high school, eh?

My birthday! I'm twenty seven today. Or, technically, yesterday, since I'm posting this at god-awful o'clock. I'm currently trying to rid my stupid website email of a crap-ton of unwanted emails so I can have my server space back.

It's funny, though. I don't feel twenty-seven. Mostly, I still fell like I'm a lot younger than that. Although, looking back at how I was when I was eighteen, or twenty-one, I'm a lot more confident and happy. It doesn't bother me at all, it's just funny.

The semester's almost over, for which I'm extremely grateful. Three finals in one day? Not something I recommend. I'm just trying to finish up the stuff for enameling class and I'll be done.

In honor of my birthday, I present a piece of art I made for no reason in particular, but just because I wanted to. When is the last time that happened? This is Katie, a character from the LARP I used to play. (Used to! Ha! Eat it, Camarilla!) She the 2387540945th albino vampire character out there, but she may be the only albino librarian vampire. Possibly. Not gonna bet on that one.

I had high ambitions of updating the blog every day in December. But about the only time I sit down in front of the computer is during my computer art class. The computers in that lab are set up to reject anything with a field and a "submit" button. So I can type all I want, but when I try to submit it, it's all "screw off."

So I'm trying to make up for it now. Today's Eye Candy Friday is brought to you by family Thanksgivings. This adorable little guy is Brenda's nephew. I'm not really comfortable with posting his name here, but homg, those cheeks! I couldn't resist.

So. Knitting. I'm currently making a pair of Clessidras in a cranberry heather yarn. They're lovely. I'm on the ankle decreases of the first sock. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures, or time to actually knit them. The end of the semester is pretty freaking nigh, and I have less than no time. In fact, I need to finish this up so I can go into the metals lab and get some shit done.

I'm also working on a commissioned hat, black with red skulls, to match a friend's favorite scarf. Again, no actual pictures, but I'll make sure I get at least one before I hand it over.

Planned projects? More than I can count. Finish Clessidra, make some leg warmers from my gray handspun, actually make that purple cloche I've had planned for freaking ever, start that periwinkle sweater, black handwarmers (I seem to have terminally misplaced my other ones), striped handwarmers, blue and brown striped socks.... The list goes on and on.

And, because one baby picture is certainly not enough, I'll leave you with this one, with his mama in the background.

Eye-Candy Friday, that's what.

Yesterday was the annual ArtsWalk, which is a yearly celebration of the arts in downtown Muncie. There are a disproportionate number of galleries and people involved in the arts here in Muncie. It's weird.

The BSU Fine Arts Club had made arrangements to have an area where members could set up gypsy booths and blankets to sell their artwork. So my friend Mary and I grab some of our stuff and set up on the sidewalk in front of the Chase building, which has tinted glass windows. Later on, our friend Candace comes and sets out some stuff on our blanket.

I ended up selling a bunch of my enameled jewelry and making about sixty bucks. Needless to say, I bought dinner.

(Why yes, yes I am wearing the Chocolate Twist. How kind of you to notice.)