Want

SHEEP PILLOW.

Knit Like A Man

This photo is from Life Magazine (obviously), but unfortunately I have no context for it.  It's an amazing image nonetheless.

My Googlefu is weak tonight, but a search for background info led me to this interesting history of knitting during WW2.

Sheds?

This is the coolest thing I have seen in a long time...

http://menssheds.ie/2010/10/16/welcome-to-the-irish-mens-sheds-associations-website/

Apparently this is A Thing...There was just a report on BBC America about it, and of course it caught my eye because one of the Irish Men's Sheds has spinning and weaving and restoring old fiber arts tools as their communal project.  I love the idea of men coming together to do something interesting and creative, if it's woodworking or singing as a choir or whatever they'd all like to do.

Of course, the BBC report was all "Ha ha, men together, I bet they're sharing FEELINGS or something stupid like that, ha ha", which was kind of annoying.  I bet they do.  And that is wonderful.

*insert rant about societal expectations regarding men's behavior, problems with established cultural norms, the idea of masculinity, etc etc etc*  ;)

Apparently the idea started in Australia and has spread throughout Ireland and the UK...I wish there were some more in the US--from a brief Googling, it doesn't look like there are too many.

But I love the idea of people coming together and being creative and bonding and all that happy shit.  :D

Ira Glass

I don't know if I can express how very true this amazing quote from Ira Glass is.

“Nobody tells people who are beginners, and I really wish somebody had told this to me, is that if you’re watching this video you’re somebody who wants to make videos, right? And all of us who do creative work like, you know, we get into it and we get into it because we have good taste. Do you know what I mean?

Like you want to make TV because you love TV. You know what I mean? Because there’s stuff that you just like love, OK? So you’ve got really good taste and you get into this thing that I don’t even know how to describe but it’s like there’s a gap. That for the first couple years that you’re making stuff, what you’re making isn’t so good, OK? It’s not that great. It’s really not that great. It’s trying to be good, it has ambition to be good, but it’s not quite that good.

But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, your taste is still killer and your taste is good enough that you can tell that what you’re making is kind of a disappointment to you, you know what I mean? Like you can tell that it’s still sort of crappy. A lot of people never get past that phase and a lot of people at that point quit.

And the thing I would just like say to you with all my heart is that most everybody I know who does interesting creative work, they went through a phase of years where they had really good taste and they could tell what they were making wasn’t as good as they wanted it to be. They knew it fell short, you know, and some of us can admit that to ourselves and some of us are a little less able to admit that to ourselves.

But we knew that it didn’t have the special thing that we wanted it to have and the thing what to do is… Everybody goes through that. And for you to go through it, if you’re going through it right now, if you’re just getting out of that phase or if you’re just starting off and you’re entering into that phase, you’ve got to know it’s totally normal and the most important possible thing you can do is do a lot of work.

Do a huge volume of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week or every month you know you’re going to finish one story. You know what I mean? Whatever it’s going to be. You create the deadline. It’s best if you have somebody who’s waiting for work from you, somebody who’s expecting work from you, even if it’s not somebody who pays you but that you’re in a situation where you have to try not to work. Because it’s only be actually going through a volume of work that you are actually going to catch up and close that gap. And the work you’re making will be as good as your ambitions.”

My Bad

So...

Neglected blog is neglected.  :/

It's not a case of blogfade, more a case of exciting things happening and plain old getting out of the habit of posting, but with the start of the new semester, the same old same old has returned and lots of yarny posts are on the way!

So what happened?  Finals, and then I went to Spain, bitchezz!  My very first archaeological dig!  :D

Pintia is an Iron Age necropolis near Valladolid.  The whole experience was beyond awesome, and though I am not completely decided that archaeology is going to be my thing, as a history geek, the fact that I was literally able to hold history in my hand was incredible.

One day, while I was doing the same old-same old, grubbing in the dirt and hoping that we might reach a good artifact layer at some point, this just appeared in a pile of earth at my feet:

A 2000 year old needle, as perfect as the day it was last used...I literally could have dusted it off and started stitching...well, if I could sew, that is!  ;)

One of the tombs we found contained ancient ceramic bobbins that would have been full of thread or yarn:

I think everyone else on the dig thought I was insane for geeking out so hard over some old yarny stuff.  I have to admit I was disappointed that there were no spindle whorls discovered this year.

I spent a lot of time this summer working on my long-term goal: Project Use Up All The Yarn as well, but somehow I managed hardly any spinning time...Too many projects to finish up!  How is it that I have any number of basically completed items just sitting in boxes waiting to have the ends woven in??

Since I've finally got the camera working again properly, I'll try and show off some of the things I made 2 or even 3 years ago and just actually finished during vacation!  *hides face in shame*

;)

Dalek Chart

I don't really have the Mad Knitting Skillz for colorwork, though this would go great on a hat or for a pair of awesome geek mittens.  I think I might need to do it as a framed cross stitch though...Evil Black Dalek for the kitchen wall?  Yuss!

EXTERMINATE!

Patterns I Love

Kelley Freeman's Zombie Jesus amigurumi is GENIUS.

Get it at her Etsy shop.  Hell, buy ALL THE THINGS, cause her designs are awesome!  :D

YAY!

I am so excited that I just have to share...

Hyperbole and a Half is coming back!!!

And she drew us airplanes!

:D

My Name Is Elizabeth, And I Am A Geek

This is beyond awesome.

I am very fond of samplers anyway, but Superhero Samplers?  Full of win.

Wee Little Stitches also has more geek/contemporary cross stitch patterns available: The Big Bang Theory, Star Wars, the Justice League...AND FIREFLY!  :D

The Fiber Factor Contest

So Skacel Yarns is having the coolest contest EVAR.

All entrants receive the yarn, needles and supplies for each project free from Skacel, just for starters.  The winner of each round gets a $500 prize, and the Grand Prize is an all expenses paid trip to Germany to check out the Addi needle factory and prance around a yarn mill.  GERMAN YARN!  IN GERMANY!  :D

Guest judges include folks like Franklin Habit, Cat Bordhi, Lily Chin, Lucy Neatby, Ysolda Teague, Cookie A and basically almost any A List Knitwear Designer you could think of!

Check out the website here: The Fiber Factor.

Knitting Jools!

OMFGS, I cannot resist these!!

Go check out Maxsworld on Etsy: you know you need a skein of yarn necklace!  Love love love love love!! :D

I Need One Of These...Hell, I Need FOUR Of These!

Hand turned wooden top whorl drop spindles...Inlaid cherry, walnut, maple, cedar...BEAUTIFUL!!

My current favorites:

Apparently Mr. Kundert is no longer filling wholesale orders, but luckily we can still buy individual spindles from his website.  Go there now, and buy ALL THE THINGS before I do!  :D

Lipstick Chemistry

Many, many moons ago I worked as a cosmetician, but since then I have definitely fallen into a makeup rut. I like what I like, I do minimal makeup on a daily basis, and my Fancy Party Makeup has been the same for years.  But that doesn't stop me from BUYING ALL THE THINGS, because you know the advertising that tells me I will be rich, beautiful and admired if I wear Such And Such brand is all trufax.

This leads me to my makeup collection, which contains maybe 30+ lipsticks, at least half of which I bought, tried once, and realized the color was terrible or not what it appeared to be in the tube.  And throwing them all out just seemed like a giant waste of money.  Then I realized lipstick melts in your car on a hot day, so could I recycle all those icky lippies and make a color I would actually like?

I grabbed up all those old, weird colored lipsticks, as well as a couple that had been favorites and were now all used up except for bits down in the bottom of the tube.

I actually used an old dental pick I had lying around to pry the product from the tube, but something like a tiny spatula would have been much better for scraping out the very bottom of the lipstick case.  Some of the info I found online mentioned using a double boiler, but I am an impatient person, so after emptying all the lipstick out into a small jar...

I melted it in the microwave.

You don't want to boil it, or get it so hot that it burns or separates, so I just did short 15 second bursts, three times, and stirred it between each go-round.

It is really important (and I can't stress this enough) that once it is melted, put it into the container immediately.  And when I say 'immediately' I mean ZOMFGS HURRY HURRY HURRY!  The first one I did is still useable, but it is super-messy and lumpy.  Your new lipstick will pour right out of the jar easily, provided it is still very hot.

I ended up with this:

From a bunch of unwearable orangey-reds, a pink that looked like cotton candy (ugh), and some tans...AWESOME!  :D

I didn't do any real measurements, but here's the list of colors I used:

L'Oreal Timeless Tawny
Cover Girl Toasted Almond
Revlon Natural Cocoaberry
Revlon Blackberry
Revlon Smoky Violet
Revlon Mulled Wine
Clinique (unknown pink)

Google tells me you can also add a stick of lip balm to make a sheer color, or throw in one of those lipsticks with sparkle to jazz things up a bit...You could even go raid the bargain lipsticks at the drugstore and make your own custom colors!

Imma need more containers...  ;)