Piggilicious

My Etsy shop!

2011-06-06T10:28:00.002-05:00

I opened up my Etsy shop finally!

Here is it!

Go look at it!

That, and I finally caved in and bought the game Bayonetta for the XBox 360. It is ridiculously fun!

I'm starting to feel a bit overwhelmed!

2010-11-03T20:46:00.002-05:00

I've finally decided that maybe I have too much yarn and other textile crafts.

So for now, I'm vowing not to buy anything until the end of the year! Whatever I want to make, I'll make from my own stash first!

And that is the news of the day.

Maomao's my Bubu!

2010-08-09T19:14:00.004-05:00

As much as I want to say that I'm above that "my pet is the cutest" craze, I'm not! My Maomao is so cute!

I accomplished a lot today! I got five (very substantial) pages done on my thesis, cooked a four course meal, cleaned the kitchen, and even made a candle.

I tried my hand again at stir-fried eggplants. Every time I make them, they end up soggy. However, when I was in China four or five years ago, one of my aunts told me that I had to dry it first. What she does is cut them and let them dry for eight+ hours under the sun. I never tried it, but kept it in mind. And today, I did try it! Of course I didn't have eight hours, but two or three under the TX sun worked fairly well. They were a lot less mushy when they finished sunning, and I substituted the pork with fried tofu. It turned out well! Joey doesn't like it, but then again, he doesn't like most of my Chinese dishes.

I also made hot and sour soup, catfish, and a milk-tea. And now I have leftovers for the rest of the week. Yea for accomplishments!

Other than that, summer is coming to an end. When June first started, I thought it was never going to be August, so I waited and lounged and lazed around the apartment and did nothing. Then August hit and I didn't do crap all that time! Oops!

But I did do this:

Aww! The squid and octopus are for Joey, and the rabbit was just an experiment so stuffed animals.

That and I just lost my husband to StarCraft II.

A new goal

2010-03-29T12:32:00.003-05:00

For the past couple years, Joey and I have been spending the winter holidays far away from home. While that has been fun, Seattle and Beijing were absolutely fantastic, I really want to spend it at home this time. Also, I want to go all out on decoration this year!

That's right, once December hits, I'm going to make sure no piece of our apartment is going to show underneath all the decoration! I want tinsel and ornaments everywhere! EVERYWHERE!

So I have to start collecting now.

This year, I'm going to celebrate Christmas until I'm blue in the face.

I just finished this!

2009-09-06T00:28:00.002-05:00

A Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past cross stitch towel! Yea!

I got back into cross stitch a week ago. Lauren found one of my old cross stitch kits that I misplaced over two years ago. I'm currently very into video game themed crafts. In fact, my next project is a line of head shots of Saint Seiya characters! It'll look quite nice when I finish it someday.

Humph!

2009-08-17T23:32:00.002-05:00

Pet peeve number 39:

"I'm taking Chinese at school, but only because they're not offering Japanese."

Grr!!

What the hell?? What's so bad about Chinese that it's considered a fall-back option for Japanese. It's two different but equal languages, people! For people who say that, do they realize that Kanji IS traditional Chinese? It's not like Chinese is some inferior version of Japanese. And also, for anyone who tells me any more Japanese equivalence of a Chinese word when I didn't ask for a translation are going to receive a butt-kicking from Joey.

Aaah!!!

I'm Chinese, but I hold no crazy thought that the language holds any superiority to any other language. It's just as easy and hard to learn as any other language. If you grow up with it, it's going to be easier to learn it.

So here's my thought of the day, for anyone who says:

"I'm taking X only because Y isn't offered."

should probably STFU. Because you know... it sounds rude.

//hops off soap-box

Good news, everyone!

2009-08-06T21:22:00.002-05:00

I just got a letter from Riversedge of UTPA that they are publishing my story in their December volume!

Yea! A legit journal publishing my story! I didn't even have to grovel to no vanity publishers.

The story was from fall of 2008 when I took a creative nonfiction class. We wrote lots of personal essays. It was like group therapy where I got graded for my feelings. Instead of a final paper, the professor told us to submit one of our papers in for publication so we'll "get used to process".

Yea! So far so good!

This totally makes up for the fact that I still haven't found a job yet. I've been looking all summer and no one's hiring me. I know I'm over-qualified for most of the jobs I've applied for, and that might be why they're not hiring me. Maybe they're afraid I'll leave right after training or something.

Oh well :(

As far as projects go, I recently got a top-whorl spindle to spin lace. I was so excited because the people in the Youtube videos made it look so easy. I've found out that they've all been lying to me. I'm spinning and spinning, but all my lace looks like worsted. I guess I'll have a nice cozy hat by winter. I'm still pretty excited about it though. Soon when I have more practice, I want to get all the pretty roving from Etsy.

Last thing! My parents got a puppy! A PUPPY!! She's too cute, her name is Birdie and she loves people. She's a Labradoodle mix and she's so small. Right now she's about Maomao's size but so innocent and clueless all the time. Cute little Birdie, she's still figuring out life.

Here's a picture!

She sleeps a lot!

Jalapeno 1, Dawn 0

2009-07-05T09:22:00.004-05:00

Yesterday Joey and I went to a friend's place for a BBQ. I decided that we should bring an appetizer. After all these years of going to parties, flipping through cookbooks, and just being aware of the world, the only appetizer I really knew how to make were Jalapeno stuffed peppers I learned from my knitting buddy.

We went out and bought the peppers, cream cheese, shredded cheese and turkey bacon. Upon coming home, I threw all the peppers in the sink to soak just like I learned. I worked with jalapenos earlier in the week and did not use any gloves, so I thought, "I don't need them now either!"

After cutting and seeding 23 large peppers, Joey and I stuffed them, skewered them, and put them in the oven. I then went upstairs to get ready for the BBQ.

I noticed a slight tingle in my left hand right away, but disregarded it as allergies or the hard water. However, the tingling soon turned serious and I thought my hand was going to burn right off. It was BURNING!!

BURNING!!!

BURNING!!!

I ran downstairs with my hand in the air screaming, my upper lip where I briefly brushed it with my hands was also burning, as were my right hand in certain spots. No amount of ice or running water could alleviate the pain. I then went upstairs to look for remedies online.

I pretty much poured the whole kitchen onto my hand after that. I tried: vinegar, lemon juice, milk, baking soda, rubbing alcohol, Vodka, sugar, salt, anything ... anything!! Everything worked, but only for about thirty seconds. The only thing that was consistent was just soaking it in ice water, but even then I suspect it was because my hand was numb from the cold rather than it curing anything.

My hand was ice cold, but I could barely stand to touch it. Any skin-to-skin contact felt like it was going to burn off.

Nonetheless, Joey and I still went to the party where I was confined to the kitchen with my hand in a bowl of water. I warned everyone there of the dangers of not using rubber, and they listened with eyes wide open. At her place, I tried... margarita, pina colada, and hot dogs. They didn't really help my hand either, but at least I was full.

I finally admitted defeat and left with Joey to go see his parents. There they gave me... lots of attention, Aleo, and drugs! Yea! I took two painkillers and soon had an excuse to say whatever came to mind. Even it what I said sounded crazy, I could blame it on the painkillers. I watched the everyone play Rockband and almost dozed off, but we had to come home to feed the cat.

All this time my hand never stopped burning, but certain things made it bearable. I slept with an icepack in my hand for about five hours before I could finally handle the pain without grimacing.

So 19 hours after seeding the peppers, my palm is still warm, but it certainly is bearable now. The bug bites, however, are another story. The worst thing about the whole ordeal was that it's hard to convince people how much my hand was burning because it didn't show up at all. It didn't look red at all, and anyone who touched it said it felt normal. It finally started heating up red, but I think that was because of the ice rather than the peppers.

SIGH!!

I hate summer.

Update

2009-05-20T17:22:00.004-05:00

I'm finally done with the semester. I finished the grades a couple days ago and entered them in with the professor, got all my own grades, and even finished cleaning the apartment! As of it I still do not have a job, but I think it'll be OK. I'm going to start looking seriously in June, but I believe I deserve a break for now!

About a month ago I went through a serious doily phase.

They are all double stranded with size 10 yarn. It was my fairly successful attempt to destash much of my doily yarn. It's worked pretty well so far. And I am finally convinced now that knitting takes much less yarn than crocheting. While I cannot vouch for the single knit = single crochet, but with the sizes of some of those doilies, I would've never gotten that much out of crocheting.

After the doilies, I decided to try my hand at hats!

Not too bad! Now both Joey and I will be ready for this winter. I also made a matching scarf with my hat.

~~~

Life has been pretty decent so far. I bought Michael Fuller's book and will be continuing my classical Chinese over the summer by myself. I'll start by slowly translating Confucius's Analects and some of Mozi from the school library. These two have been translated enough by professionals that I can double check without bugging the professor to death.

Classical Chinese is crazy! But once you learn the rules, it's surprisingly easy to read. While there are a lot of ambiguous translations, the grammar is fairly straight forward once I churn through all the crazy participles.

And Maomao lost 3 pounds! She's so cute.

Quick Update!

2009-04-21T22:31:00.004-05:00

I fit everything in a fairly neat rectangle! I'm so proud. I live for making JPG rectangles.

I am now adequately equipped for the Texas winter. I have two pairs of warm socks and a neck warmer. Joey has one pair of wool socks. We're good to go!

So it's that time of the year again. It's when Joey and I tell each other of all the conventions that we want to go to, and then not go. A-con, yeah! But once June comes, we'll miss it for ... crepes or something. Fiber fest? Yeah! But we're going to dim sum instead, and then I have a dinner to go to after. Next year then!

I have an interview at the school tomorrow for a staff job. It pays pretty well and I'm quite excited. I'll be working with the same people from back in Enrollment services, except now they all moved to the Registrar's office!

Last of all, I like to celebrate finishing projects by making small doilies; around 12 rows for a crocheted doily, 40ish for a knit one.

Back to School

2009-03-24T13:43:00.006-05:00

Spring break! The usual happened.

1) Mom fed me too much
2) I got nothing done
3) I didn't find a spring break buddy

Oh well!

I did do one useful thing. I unraveled seven project last Friday. I went through my progress bucket and frogged everything I was never going to touch again. That included nearly everything except two scarves and a pair of socks. One of the scarves were saved only because I put too many beads on it. You're safe for now, scarf!

I want to tear apart all the stuff I haven't finished and start all over again! Some projects stayed in the bucket for so long that I completely forgot about them, and when I saw them again, all I could think of was.. "damn!"

That said, I had a great bundle of fun unraveling, especially now that I have a ball winder.

I did finish some stuff! I went through a doily phase a month ago and made four miniature doilies. They're so cute. Joey's reaction upon seeing them was: "they're multiplying!" I believe I'm sucking the masculinity out of the apartment, but he does have the garage for all his tools. I think his tool stash is starting to catch up to my yarn stash. Just how many drills does a guy need?!

I need at least two, because then I can have a set of single-pointed needles.

Here's the stuff I finished! Warning, there's lots of pictures. Here they are, never in any particular order:

The two doilies with the teacups actually brings me to another issue. That table looks like crap. Joey and I bought it for ten dollars at the Goodwill. It's painted in two colors. The top of the table is what I assume the natural wood color, and the legs are a hideous pastel yellow. It's a bit ... meh, but I still love the table. It's the most sturdy thing ever, I suspect there's lead in it, but I could be wrong. I bought a lot of stuff at Home Depot the other day to redo the table. I bought a sander, varnish thinner, and new taints! I hope it all goes well. It'll be my post Scarf Exchange project.

I want to finish all my obligatory projects so I can start stuff for myself again! I just wound up some silvery yarn in order to make this! I'm so excited. I think I can finish it just in time for the New Year's party!

~~~

As far as schooling goes, I'll say.. meh!

~~~

Crossfit Richardson is starting something fun on April 1st. We're doing a Fifty Day Challenge to get ready for the summer. There's not much detail yet, but one of the things we will do to accumulate twenty five miles of running during the whole thing. This is definitely relevant to my interests because I've been having zombie nightmares lately again. I can't run very fast, but if I can outlast the slow ones, or at least run faster than the slowest survivor, I think I'll be OK.

Ah! It's good to have goals!

~~~

And finally! I loved my wedding cake so much that I want to put it up again! For some reason, it's been jumping out at me for the past couple days when I'm on my Facebook account. I must be going through another pink phase.

And and and! Lauren and Brad are getting married... yea!
And and and... we're going to Austin in a couple weeks!
And and and! Mel's going to Louisiana in the summer! Yea for excuses to go to LA! Let's eat at least 10 pounds of crawfish!

I'm back on Ravelry!

2009-03-18T23:02:00.001-05:00

Yea! My account just got cleared and I'm back to full access. Now I can concentrate wholly on my Saoirse shawl and my scarf for the scarf exchange.

Yea!

(Still) Suspended from Ravelry

2009-03-16T17:20:00.004-05:00

When I discovered that Ravelry suspended my account on Saturday, I was pretty confused! I don't remember doing anything against the Term of Use. I investigated the best I could with only Google at my disposal. All that is mentioned were from people who were directly involved in the banning. Apparently the interaction between a group and the rest of Ravelry got out of hand and resulted in their accounts being banned. I'll refrain from commenting on that since I don't really know all the details from those events. I take my Internet facts with a grain of salt!

However, if that were the reason why so many people were banned, then why was I, Mel, and our friends banned also? I've never heard of the said group until yesterday. None of us are involved with any political groups on Ravelry nor do we post that much. Sooo... it has to be some kind of IP ban. But then I wonder, how did I get swept up? It must have been when I logged in from UTD, and someone associated with that group logged in at UTD? And that's where it started? I have no idea!

Oh well, no biggie I guess. I won't make a judgment until I get an official response from the team at Ravelry.

~~~ (Line breaks! Mel always has such ingenious ways to separate sections)

Crossfit was fun today! It was another Crossfit total day.

Back Squat: 155
Shoulder Press: 85
Deadlift: 155

28 more pounds and I can deadlift Joey! Ah goals, everyone should have at least one.

~~~

I started the Saoirse shawl with Linares yarn, the peach-apricot color. It's so fun to knit with even though it kind of splits a lot. Also when I get around to the last fifty yards or so, the little ball goes completely crazy and I end up with a big knot. Thankfully the ladies at Woolie Ewe helped me with that problem. I can't wait until I finish it! It's going to look great!

~~~

Yea for spring break!

Oh no!

2009-03-14T23:22:00.000-05:00

I was suspended from the Ravelry site today, and after researching this terrible problem online, it seems a lot of other people got suspended also.

:(

Knitting is so yesterday!

2009-02-16T15:47:00.003-06:00

After nearly a year of nonstop knitting, I'm taking a short hiatus. As I am thinking about this, I am already almost finished with a crocheted doily!

I don't have any update pictures because I have been incredibly lazy about it. I finished one of Joey's socks and about to finish the other, but ... knitting! Bleh! I'm burned out!

I haven't finished too much stuff recently. Ever since I discovered Phantasy Star Universe, other hobbies kind of took a back seat. I think my true calling have always been mindless RPG grinding.

The last couple weeks were exciting and a bit stressful. Joey and I celebrated my birthday and our wedding anniversary last weekend. For the birthday, we went to an Asian-fusion buffet. Translation: sweet and sour stuff, some sushi, and pizza and chicken nuggets, just what you'd expect from a Chinese buffet in Texas! But at least it's not drenched in mayo.

Joey and I have stopped going to buffets since before our wedding. He can't control himself, so I have to suffer indirectly. So now we reserve buffets for special occasions that only comes once a year!

On Saturday we had CiCi's, another one of which we haven't had since my birthday last year.

Later that night we went to Medieval Times. For those of you who have never been there, it's a stadium type place where you can enjoy a dinner and a show and whole lot of screaming. The theme for this place was Middle Ages European jousting and such. It was ... noisy and messy as you're allowed one piece of napkin for your whole chicken leg and ribs. We got really nice seats right at the front and a memorabilia picture taken beforehand. We chose to do the costumes. I was a princess and Joey dressed as a dual-wielding barbarian nobleman. It would have been more convincing if not for his fair skin and obviously well-nourished physique. This king seems to be enjoying the booties of his pillage from the years past.

On Monday we went to Fogo de Chao, a fancy Brazilian meat buffet type. Waiters come out with huge hunks of meat for the customers, and you can chose which ones you want! It was very delicious, but as I'm not a big beef eater, I didn't get as much fun out of it as Joey did.

That's where the fun stopped. After four days of merrymaking, Joey got food poisoning. We're not sure how, especially because I haven't gotten sick at all despite eating the same things. But he's been ill since last Tuesday and have since driven us both crazy. His doctor finally gave him some antibiotics, and I haven't heard any groaning for the past hour or so. Either he's gotten better, or deaders.

Let's see... what else?

Classical Chinese is going great! It's not as hard as before now we're moving into prose. Translating phrases and short sentences were so difficult! Mainly because there's no distinct pronouns, and I can't figure out which it's suppose to be without more context clues. Even though that should hardly matter, but I need my pronouns in my sentences.

I'm also a little burned out on my Master's. My plan is... if I don't get a summer TA-ship, I'm going to find a full time job and finish my Masters slowly on the side. However, if I do finish up by August as I planned, then .. I might just go flip burgers for a few months until I feel like going back into academia ... I keed!

One thing I do regret though was not getting an accounting degree for my undergrad. If only I did, then I can be an FBI forensic accountant! All the ass-kicking without being in physical danger! If only I watched Law and Order earlier during my undergrad. Curses, World of Warcraft!

Picture intensive!

2009-01-21T14:05:00.003-06:00

I took a survey of my yarn a couple days ago. The result:

91 skeins of unused yarn
13 skeins of yarns in progress

Now of course, it's no where near enough for me to build a fort out of it, but I have at least enough for a draw bridge. This year I want to be a little more serious about destashing, so that means I'll end up making things I wouldn't before just to get rid of the extra yarn. At some point last year, I went crazy and bought too many cotton yarn for potential dishcloths. I admit freely though, I like to hang on to my stuff and use it by myself. I'm crazy ambitious like that, and possessive! It gives me a great sense of accomplishment to finish a skein all by myself.

With that said, here are some stuff I started using the leftover yarns. Well, not all of them are from leftover yarn, but I don't want to put stuff in any specific order now. Too lazy!

This is with Knit Picks Shadows, Spring Heather. The pattern is called "Gail" from here. It's the January knit-along on Ravelry. Someday, I'll finish it.

Knit Picks Essentials, Tumber. This is for Joey. He finally asked for a pair of socks. I think he asked before too, but I must have ignored him. Or... I already made a pair, and he didn't like them because they don't match. Poor Joey though, I made many people stuff already, but he hasn't gotten anything useful yet! One day, I'll finish them.

Knit Picks Essential, Golden. I originally made this with the Lion Brand Wool, but it was waaaay too heavy, so I started over with fingering weight. I'll definitely finish this one day.

Bernat Cotton Tots, Cream. Baby blanket! I'm becoming a fan of the box store cotton yarns. It's quite soft and very affordable. I think from now on, I'll use cotton for baby blankets. I like how wool drapes, but I don't like it on my skin. So I'll be the spokeswoman for all babies and use only cotton.

Knit Picks Shadow, Trails, discontinued. This is finished for Amelia! Complete with beads. The lesson I learned from this was not to use my ginormous head as a model. I kept on thinking the headband wasn't long enough, so I did what was only natural. I lengthened it and lengthened it until it was big enough for a belt. Oh well! At least I finished it.

A matching bracelet. Done also.

I Love This Cotton, pink. I love this yarn! I love it! Amee made me a hat with this yarn for Christmas. It was a wonderful hat, but again, my head was too big for the first version, so she had to redo it. Lesson learned! Cotton is not as stretchy as wool and not a desirable material for abnormally large noggins.

The blanket will have a very lacy brown border sewn on at the end.

Plymouth Encore Worsted, Green. For Lauren. The pattern is from Interweave Knits Winter 2008 issue. The pattern is a hoodie with pockets at the bottom of the scarf. I love it! When I finish it for Lauren, I might make one for myself too. Or ask Amee to make me one.... hehehehe!

Plymouth Encore Worsted, Brown. This is also for Joey. I love Joey and I love cables. It's a match made in heaven.

One day, I'll finish everything.

New Year Resolutions.. kind of...

2009-01-09T13:31:00.002-06:00

The secret to happiness in life is...

Lowering your standards!

Teeheehee!

Every year I tried to make and uphold new year resolutions, and they always disappear at some point. So this year, I'll make them more obtainable.

As far as crafts go, I have no goals. However, I will make a goal for yarn. I will only buy them either in the case of going to Crossfit sixteen times a month or to finish off at least five skeins. I'm donating most of my acrylic stuff.

Hmm... other than that, life is happy! We're going to Medieval Times for our one year anniversary. This time, I'm sneaking in hand sanitizer!

OM NOM NOM NOM NOM

2009-01-06T15:26:00.008-06:00

THIS BLOG HAS BEEN BLOG-JACKED!!!

Guest blogger Joseph "Boneface" Berglund reports:

"I can't believe I ate the whole thing!"

Lazy New Year's Post

2009-01-02T10:59:00.003-06:00

My feelings about the new year is meh, so here's a couple pictures of finished projects!

This year, I hope to finish at least 20 more projects. Oh, and finish up my Master's.

One more done!

2008-11-22T00:31:00.003-06:00

I mentioned this before... sometimes, it's just easier to let Maomao stay in the picture.

I made this as a knit-along on Ravelry, the hemlock doily.

I finished the butterfly!

2008-11-11T10:22:00.003-06:00

Woo-hoo!

Update

2008-11-07T10:36:00.002-06:00

Here's the updated version of the blue spiral doily. I reblocked it and gave it some shape, and now it looks much better!

November

2008-11-05T08:16:00.005-06:00

Outline for this entry:

Introduction
I. School
- evidence
- evidence
- evidence
II. Knitting
- pictures
- evidence
III. CrossFit
- evidence
- Mel
Conclusion

It's that time of the semester again! It's the time when I regret goofing around all semester long, and now everything is going to snowball until the end of December. At the end of December I will breath a sigh of relief at finishing my papers, and when January comes around, I still won't learn my lesson.

I have a pretty good idea of my papers for my classes now.

For Thought in Early China:

I will investigate the portrayal of the sage-kings in both informal and philosophical writings in early China. The sources I will be using are the Legend of the Warring States and the writings from Mengzi, Mozi, and Hanfeizi. The paper will be divided into two parts where the first will examine the role of the sage-kings in folklore and flood myths. The second part will investigate the purpose of the sage-kings in early Chinese philosophy, especially in context with funeral rituals, filial piety, and governing.

For Nuclear Age: (I will still have to talk to Dr. Channell for a bit)

I hope to examine family structure and values during the Cold War era. Family dynamics often change in times of crises. I will investigate both the prescriptive form of the family dynamics through propaganda circulating during the time; for example, TV shows, magazines, and newspapers.

~~~

I have also been looking into PHD possibilities. For a long time I thought for sure I was going to do something with modern Chinese history, but could never focus it on something. The lack of knowledge was hindering me more than I thought. But with the classes I took, I managed to narrow down the scope. I really hope to do something with Chinese historiography. I am interested in history, but I love the study of the process more. As one of my classmates said, "there's only so much you can do with pure history." It's just a series of events after all. So it's my duty to connect it in a meaningful way without sounding like an encyclopedia.

I found some articles while researching about historiography during the Communist regime. It looks very promising! Once I turn in my papers, I'll have to investigate.

~~~

Now onto fun stuff! Despite being really busy, I still can't give up my knitting.

The top one I finished yesterday, and the bottom one is just an updated picture of an older doily. The top one did not turn out the exact way I wanted it to, so I may reblock it this week.

I am in crazy-doily making mode, especially the knitting kind. The site Yarn Over is my new best friend. I'm going to do every pattern on it!

~~~

Mel! I want to ask you...

Is there any way for me to go to one CrossFit session with you in Seattle? Please let me know if it can be worked out with your gym somehow.

John from CrossFit Richardson and I have been talking about this. I'm there to represent our humble little division, and I have to kick some kind of ass.

In conclusion, even though I'm terribly busy, I still like to play. Yea! A+!

First knitted doily

2008-10-26T14:32:00.007-05:00

It took only two weeks to finish, and it's now my new favorite. I like it so much, that I want to make more knitted doilies.

And another one!

It's a banana doily because Joey put his bananas on it.

Joey asked me to make him a balaclava the other day, and I already have the yarn ready for it.

New Additions to the Family

2008-10-16T15:31:00.004-05:00

We gained two new additions to the family over the weekend; Joey's bike and a new mattress set. I don't have a picture of the mattress, but here's a picture of Joey and the bike.

We originally agreed not to get a bike until he turned forty, but that promise obviously did not hold. I feel better about it now. The idea of the huge trucks and SUV's that litter the streets worried me more than any potential irresponsibility. I can't wait until gas prices become so lucrative that more people will be forced to ride bikes and scooters. But that's another lost cause since gas prices are dropping.

I just finished grading over eighty freshmen exams this past week. Most of them were decent and showed some sort of attentive behavior in class. There were some, however, that made me worry a little. Did they really believe the stuff they were writing? Or were they just making up stuff to fill a page? I'm hoping for the latter, because if it were the former, then they must have spent the past eighteen years of their lives in a well.

So it's that time of the year again! No, not just hectic Christmas present making time, but also paper proposals and research! Even though I'm taking three classes this semester, I only have to do formal papers for two; the Nuclear Age class and Thought and Philosophy in Early China. I have a preliminary bibliography and a sketchy proposal for both. Once I research more, I will put up my proposal.

For projects, I haven't finished anything yet. I am so close to finishing up the Oriental Butterfly.

It's so close to being done, but I just can't bring myself to finish it. December might be my finishing up month then.

I have a suspicious feeling that I won't achieve all my grand plans for handmade crafts this year, but at least I tried. I'm too fickle in my craft making process, and that leads to a lot of happiness with not a lot of results. So that means I'll just have to start now for next year.

Bittersweet are the finished projects!

2008-10-06T15:49:00.007-05:00

I finished two projects the past week.

I'm not quite sure what to feel. During the last one percent of the stitches, I felt accomplished. However, once the last loose end was woven, the happiness I felt disappeared. I was left with a deranged form of postpartum depression.

This was ... it. Weeks of hard work and anticipation dissipated right before my eyes. I no longer had something to look forward to each day. There would be no more updates, no more showings of each row to Joey. It is ... complete.

Joey doesn't really understand, and to be honest, I don't understand either. People speak of gratification upon completion, but all I saw was a piece that didn't live up to expectations. Of course this sounds so melodramatic, but every time I finish a big project, I go through a bit of a difficult stage until I find a new purpose.

And I have! I found out the perfect way to deal with this situation was to start new things, new projects. I have a filet centerpiece on the hooks for Grandma Berglund and a butterfly cross stitch kit ready to go for Aunt Maxine. On top of that, I have plenty of other kits and patterns I need to work on once I finish up Ladydurer's butterfly.

I'm prepared.

Happiness is a pair of socks

2008-10-02T13:10:00.005-05:00

I finished my pair of socks last night! I can't seem to find my camera though, so I'll have to update the picture later.

I was dubious when I first started knitting socks. I didn't see the point or the necessity for handmade socks even as a hobby. The yarns I first looked at seemed to be too warm for Texas. But I have a competitive nature, if someone out there is making something, I have to be able to make it too.

My first dozen attempts were horrendous. I tried nearly every method at least five times and unraveled each in frustration. However, I didn't give up and persevered. I managed one sock for Joey with only a guideline for toe-up sock and created my own pattern. Soon after that I made the sock a deformed twin. Joey's first pair of socks did not match and did not fit very comfortably. The yarn, while soft to the touch, did not breath very well and I never even wove in the ends. Nonetheless, I was proud and ready for a real pair.

I went to Woolie Ewe and looked around for affordable sock yarn. Most of the stuff they had were merino wool with a mix of nylon. The yarns were pretty but did not feel too comfortable to the touch. I certainly didn't want to spend so much money that's going to feel itchy afterward.

I soon found a little section with Panda products. I've seen the Panda Cotton before but never found it appealing. Experience from crocheting doilies tell me that cotton yarn was not a prime candidate for clothing. However, underneath the Panda Cotton was a new product I never saw before. Panda Soy was its name and softness was definitely its feel. It is a bamboo, soy, and nylon blend. I bought two skeins of Tibetan Red and started right away.

I love it! Even though it's not plied very tightly, the sheen and softness of the material won me over. Now that I have a pair of those socks on, they feel extra nice. They breath really well. Each skein comes in about 185 yards, and I needed
only one and a half to make my socks, which meant I only needed to buy one more to make another pair. I bought a yellow skein the other day in order to make myself a pair of red and yellow argyle socks.

In other news, Ladydurer has her own blog now!

Ramblings from a Deranged Mind

Some updates

2008-09-26T12:58:00.006-05:00

I crafted quite vigorously for the past week and am almost finished with one project!

This is for my friend Ladydurer. It's coming along very nicely, much faster than I expected. Hopefully I will get it done by the end of this year and frame it for her.

This is the second of the red sock I'm making. With the second one, I have a lot mistakes due to practice and memorization of the pattern.

Finally this is for the baby of mutual friends. It's made with Bernat baby cotton and very nice to knit with. I think because of the needle size (8), the tension is quite lose and almost stretchy, something not too common with cotton thread. But for now it's bouncy and soft.

Joey is a wiggly weight bar and other abnormalities

2008-09-25T12:57:00.008-05:00

A couple nights ago I tried to dead lift Joey. He sprawled on the floor after his workout and eventually asked me to help him up. I have been working out for the past month on various skills, and I finally had a chance to put them to use. I got behind him and placed my hands beneath his armpits and attempted to pull him up. I did not consult him about this beforehand, and both us were shocked when he slipped from my grasp. All the training of "push on your heels" and "don't use your waist" disappeared in my mind during the process, and I almost pulled my back.

The lesson of that night was: 180 plus pounds of wriggly flesh is much less complacent than a 45 pound bar.

A few days ago Joey and I attempted to watch In the Name of the King: a Dungeon Siege Story. Despite the impressive cast ensemble, the movie did not deliver its full potential. The computer generated graphics in the movie were seamless, and the costumes and setting were grand and impressive. As far as entertainment value is being graded, I enjoyed it despite the terrible acting.

Even though the plot line was trite, that did not deter my enjoyment. I don't mind predictable story lines as long as there is enough eye candy in terms of stunning fight scenes and over abundant fireworks. The acting and casting however, nearly killed the movie. Like most Middle Earth movies, the story is set in Medieval era Europe, most commonly England. Jason Statham had the accent, but his thuggish demeanor did not convince me of his royal lineage. Ray Loitta convinced me of his evil personage, but his Midwestern American accent ruined the credibility of the setting. I focused so much on the inconsistency of the accents that I did not even notice the plot holes that Joey pointed out later.

However, I'm not one to over dissect action movies, and this movie did try to over exert itself into some racy plot elements. The sexual tension between the battle maiden and the Moor (I can only assume due to historic context) general could develop into something larger, but the director did not press on it any further than one symbolic fencing scene. I also admit to be completely shocked when the antagonist killed the main character's young son. Most Hollywood movies have spared children from being killed unless it's in cases of specially sadistic movies, but I did not expect Dungeon Siege to fall in that category.

Plus, for a movie to have ninjas, Moors, and battle mages, I would have expected to see dragons and pirates, both of which were disappointingly absent.

Last of all, Joey is starting his own blog!

The Den of the Arch-Bear

I'm such a bully.

2008-09-20T00:54:00.003-05:00

I almost made a little girl cry today, or at least, I think I almost did.

I went over to a friend's place, and events led me to tease her youngest child a little too much. I jokingly told her that for everything the parents do wrong, their penalty was to give away their youngest child, and that's why Joey does not live with his parents anymore. At first she was incredulous and laughed, but for some reason, I couldn't quite stop myself from continuing what I thought was a funny joke. After all, I tease Joey all the time about selling him for my craft habit. Apparently at some point in life I lost my ability to differentiate the age and the gullibility discrepancy between young children and adults.

I continued in a serious manner, and her laughing eyes eventually turned to horror and worry. My friend slapped me on the arm and told me that if I made her child cry, I had to take her home. I stopped and told her I was joking. Almost instantaneously, she put back on her goofy smile.

I feel kind of duped. I noticed the troubled look in her eyes, but the immediate change of expression afterward makes me feel like I was tricked. Though of course, I didn't want to finish my teasing; I certainly do not want to deal with a crying child. There's got to be a special place in Hell for grownups who tease kids too much, and even though I'm not a believer, I've always been a firm practitioner of not testing the limits.

I do feel slightly guilty, and like a bully.

A Belated Update

2008-09-16T10:07:00.007-05:00

Let me get the pictures out of the way first!

Socks made with the most wonderful yarn I found. It's Panda Soy and it loves me!

Shawl for Jeff's mom. I'm not as disheartened as before, it's actually getting substantially larger!

And finally, my precious baby that I would easily trade Joey for on a desperate day.

The three I have been working on diligently without too many breaks in between. I am determined to finish something by the end of the year.

Onto more serious things!

I passed my language proficiency recently. I figured I would, but I didn't know how those mistakes were going to count against me. However, the test only grades according to "pass" or "fail", and I definitely did not do bad enough to fail.

My class of zealous interest right now is the Creative Nonfiction class. There are writing exercises every week, and our topics are usually self-centered due to the nature of the course. It's like an extensive class in academic blogging but without spams in my comment section. The final at the end of the semester is quite unorthodox. Instead of a large paper, we are to send one of our papers in for publication and show the evidence to the professor. This is an exercise to "get us used to rejection." I suspect there will be lots of sniveling at home after I receive my letter.

This class has inspired me to blog more, though I have yet to act on it. Perhaps I'll start posting short essays in order to strengthen my writing for class. Perhaps.

An Update on Nothing

2008-09-02T15:40:00.003-05:00

Now that I do not have a job with routine hours anymore, it's hard to find time to blog. Well, I take that back, it's now hard to blot out precious lounging time to blog.

It's nice to be back in the department as a full time student again, except this time I get paid for it. There's definitely something to be said about being around people who are just as divorced from reality as I am. Though I think I jumped the gun a little more and have completely alienated reality now that I have time for zombie movies again.

This semester is already coming off to a good start. I understand the readings and the subjects are quite enticing. The class I am unexpectedly looking forward to is the Creative Nonfiction class. We are to write quasi-reflective pieces that would in some way describe the human condition. I already have some ideas for my pieces, though I would definitely do some research on the genre before hand.

Once again, I'm taking a class with Dr. Farmer for a Chinese related class. The first book is already good! It's about flood myths and awesome bawdawesome. Once I'm finished, I'll have a more substantial summary. There is a girl that knits in class. I'm widely jealous yet still have too much shame to knit in such a small class. One day! One day I'll throw off these shackles of conformity and civility! And wear nothing but a burlap sack with argyle socks!

As far as crafting goes, I haven't finished anything in a long time. I started plenty of things though, but that's pretty normal. I've finally come back around to the cycle of cross stitch again. I really want to finish the Zelda cross stitch sometime this year, but I suspect it'll be harder as the semester progresses.

Let's see, other than that, life has been pretty much the same. I started working out at Crossfit Richardson after hearing Mel talk about it so much. While there are no physical results yet, I feel much more energetic and tons more talkative, much to Joey's dismay. But now that I have more energy, I feel like I can do everything with gusto. Like... bumming around... HARDCORE!

So.... lalala!

La-dee-dah!

2008-08-19T20:01:00.003-05:00

I am starting my new job this Thursday! It'll be my first meeting with the professor whom I'll be assisting. I'm quite excited and I hope I'll do well this semester.

I attended the first part of the orientation for new TA/RAs today, and there were a lot of people. I think altogether, there were about two hundred grad students, but I definitely look the smartest.... Joey will testify!

On Saturday we went to a Greek restaurant called Kostas, and it was absolutely great! The environment was classy, the service was fantastic, and the food was absolutely fabu. I can't believe we never went in before. The only thing I was a little disappointed with was its outside image. Even though it was nice and clean, there's really not that much to suggest it's a restaurant. In fact, for years I thought it was a garage... but without mechanics hanging outside.

I also went to Woolie Ewe on Saturday and I was completely overwhelmed, in the bestest of ways, by the great service. Sue, the owner, helped me out for nearly an hour and did not gripe at all about my cluelessness. She not only helped me revise the sweater pattern I had, but also helped me pick out the yarn. I ended up making the purchase on Monday instead because the yarn I was eying was being held for another lady.

Here's what I came home with! And of course, my quality control officer was the first to arrive with some... quality control.

It's a nice bamboo and wool blend that is soft to the touch yet very durable. Perfect for my Joey. He's already seen it and knows what it's for... anniversary present come this February. A while back we got a sweater for Joey from Burlington Coats Factory. It was the most worthwhile twelve dollars he spent, and he wore that sweater to death until it finally broke from his love. I'm hoping I could replace that trooper of a sweater with something handmade.

Last week of work!

2008-08-12T09:34:00.003-05:00

This is my last week of work at the Office of Enrollment in UTD. It's slowly sinking in, but... not quite.

Joey and I finally went to the store and bought patio stuff. We got two super size camping chairs and a little gas grill.

Guess which one is mine! We grilled a couple times during the week, and it was a lot of fun just sitting out there... until the bugs killed me. I'll wait a couple more months before sitting outside again.

So August 9th was our six month anniversary! We went to Home Depot and bought a fern together. :)

I'm going to try super hard to keep this baby alive... but I'd be lying if I said I had done any research.

Carol also gave us some cat grass. It's a mixture of barley, wheat, and oat. Her cats really like them, so I hope Maomao will like it too! But hopefully not enough to hurl it up every where in the apartment.

Here's a picture. The top left has already sprouted a little.

Finally I move on to my knitting!

The top one is my Ravelympics entry. It's coming along quite well! I had quite a hard start up with it due to not reading instructions. (Instructions are for tooooooools!) But I persevered and conquered at the end. Every now and then I worry about not having enough yarn for it, but damn it if I were ever caught measuring gauge... or even reading instructions!

The second one is more progress on the flutter scarf. I made a booboo a while back and just went on with it, hoping that no one would ever notice. But Mom made a comment about my quality control team (me and myself and me). Even though I hold to the philosophy of "all problem can be fixed by ignoring it", I eventually broke down and unraveled back to the bad part. Because even though I say it's for myself, I might gift it at the end, and I'd hate for someone to talk about the mistakes later.

On Friday I went over to Burleson to watch the Olympics opening ceremony with mom, and I brought a gift along for her. I worked on it all week! It was my ambitious "one dishcloth a day" plan, and I managed! Along with the washcloths, I also added a pretty soap and other toiletries.

The soap actually smells pretty strong, but I got used to it after a while. I have two more of that brand and am planning to use one at some point. Unfortunately, Joey doesn't like them, so I'll have to think about it carefully. While I like to use new bath products, I also like to be hugged and being close to my husband. Hmmm! Dilemmas!

Correction!

2008-08-05T10:22:00.001-05:00

From yesterday's post... there is no Chinese word that means "kill" and "cop a feel" at the same time. I was wrong. But now I'm really confused... because I distinctively saw the word "kill" and even tripled checked the dictionary.

Hmm! Mystery abound!

He's here!

2008-08-04T08:41:00.005-05:00

First of all, my biggest excitement from last week was when Camus arrived.

For a long time, I wrestled with the idea of getting anime figurines. I was a fangirl but have never crossed the line of actually collecting merchandise. But then I thought, who the hell cares! So on July 21st, I made the purchase on Ebay from a store in Hong Kong and was quite pleased.

He's Aquarius Camus from an old series called Saint Seiya and we plan to run away together.

Onto other stuff now! I took my language proficiency last Wednesday, and I have to admit, I haven't used my brain that much all summer. I had to translate two excerpts from Chinese to English. It was fairly easy since the language was modern and in simplified Chinese. Thank goodness I didn't have to translate hexagrams!

The first piece was an excerpt from a short story written about an event in 1917. Unfortunately, I was not aware of the naming conventions of years, and my best guess for the year was 1955.... doh! I was wondering why there were still rickshaws after the Revolution. The way they said the year was.. "in the sixth year of Ming Guo." Apparently Ming Guo (the start of new... or rather, Nationalist China) starts dating their years from 1900. So in order to get the equivlance in Gregorian calender, you have to add 11 to the number and then to 1900. I know now!

The other piece was a scholarly essay on Lu Xun's "Biography of Q." There was one word in there that could mean two things... "kill" or "cop a feel". Since the essay was so somber throughout, I went with the former since I never read the original. It turned out that the "Biography" was a satirical piece, thus it was the latter meaning... Doh! I know now!

Other than that, I think I did fine. I was able to translate everything and convey all the messages, which was the main goal of the practice. They can't be expecting something perfect because I only had two hours for each.

I am very excited about this upcoming semester. I'm going to be a Teaching Assistant with the department, and that will not only speed up my progress, but also give me invaluable experience in my field. I can't wait!

I do actually have lots of updates this time! Let me start by showing off the FINISHED stuff.

Two dishcloths and a baby blanket! I found out that one of my mom's friends in Burleson is having a baby in October, so I wrapped up this one for her. But I haven't forgotten Alyssa! I already started another one for her, and it'll definitely be done before the end of the year.

The dishcloths, well, Joann's and Michael's were having a sale on their Sugar 'n Cream stock, so that's all I have to say.

Here's some updates on the unfinished stuff:

I have quite a bit to say about the last one. It's a flutter scarf! Ever since I got the goldish yarn from the scarf exchange, I've been dreaming of a ruffle scarf, and now it has finally come true!

On Saturday afternoon at 4:30 PM, 20 minutes before we left for a movie date, I bought the pattern. It was a glorious moment and I casted on the same night. I will now proceed to make seven... one for each day of the week!

Yarn Galore!

2008-07-28T09:29:00.005-05:00

Before I start with anything else, let me say...

Good news everyone! Quackers is almost fully grown.

Tonight will be the "release" night when Joey and I send him off at the apartment fountain where the bunnies and the dogs will... ignore him and what not.

This Wednesday will be my language proficiency test for my Master's. It will consist of four hours of translating in a small room with just me and my dictionary. I really hope they didn't choose something that's in archaic Chinese. I told them I could handle either simplified or traditional Chinese, but if it's written in ancient dialect, I'm screwed! But other test takers have said that the excerpts were always relevant to their field, and I have made it clear that my field was post-Qing dynasty. So hopefully the chosen material will be... understandable!

I came to an uncomfortable yet inevitable conclusion yesterday... I have too much yarn.

It's finally gotten to a point where the amount of yarn I have is overwhelming me. I am also no longer excited every time I look at my stash because ... it's just so damn huge! There's only two more things I want come September, but until then, I'll start destashing by working on my queue.

So here are some updates!

Well, I guess it's just one thing. It's my first attempt at socks! I tried it leg first before, but after looking at Mel's project, I was intrigued by the toe up method. I have to admit, it's a million times easier! I already started on the second sock, albeit with a different pattern, but Joey doesn't mind if his socks don't match.

Here are the new yarns I got over the weekend!

I bought this for my friend's daughter's scarf. She bought the same thing but in alternating colors for the other daughter. I'm so happy that the brand is carrying cotton yarn now! They are a lot smoother and softer than the Sugar 'n Cream brand, so it'll be more suitable for a light garment such as a scarf. The beads are so cute also!

The goldish yarn is actually from the scarf exchange. It's so soft! I've been really interested in a ruffle scarf lately, and the image of a gold ruffle scarf look the best in my head!

This! I have no idea what to do with this yet, but it was so pretty that I had to get it. At Woolie Ewe, there's a small section by the knitting tables with these caked up lace weight yarn, and it looks so delicious there. It's about 630 yards, so I think I can make a substantial shawl from it as long as it's not overly huge.

Finally!

I joined the Ravelympics yesterday with Team Woolie Ewe. This sounds so fun, I'll finally feel obligated to finish something in a set amount of time. Cast on is August 8th during the opening ceremony and I have to finish before the closing ceremony.

The project I chose is a pretty shawl intended for Jeff's mom. She baked our groom's cake for our wedding and I feel that I never thanked her properly. So now I have my chance!

The yarn I'm planning to use is this:

Maybe I'll wind it up tonight...

I got good stuff!

2008-07-23T19:58:00.003-05:00

Here's what I just got today from my scarf exchange buddy, Annadownya, from Ravelry.

It's all so awesome!

She got me so much stuff! The Mario pen just slays me, I poked it all night long.

The scarf really is impressive, especially with the beads. It's a color I've been drooling over but haven't decided what to do with it yet, in fact, I have a skein of it myself! Now that I have this scarf, I might make some accessories to go with it. This will be a really nice not winter scarf, which in TX... is almost all year long!

Crime shows galore!

2008-07-21T08:53:00.008-05:00

So I watched Numb3rs aaaaaaaaaall weekend. It's a crime busting show, and our interesting main character this time is a mathematician. Charles Epps uses math to solve crime for his FBI brother.

It's a pretty fun show. I was a bit skeptical, and my concerns were echoed in the show through other characters who were not mathematicians. For instance, the main problem that comes up for Charlie is that he's too logical, and that he's not taking humanism into consideration.

Watching Charlie Epps reminds me of Joey and some members of his family ... in a good way, because I'm obviously still watching the show!

I hope syndicated television will never run out of crime shows... I'd actually have to resort to reading and the outside to pass time.

Other than that, I don't really remember doing anything else this weekend. I cooked quite a bit and knitted a lot, but didn't do anything significant, so here are the updates!

All of them are going great. I'm especially excited about the knitted doily! It's my first attempt at it and it's just so fun!

And finally, our newest addition to the family...

His name is Quackers. I brought him home from Hobby Lobby on Friday, and he's been growing since. He's very cute and Joey and I love him very much. Maomao... not so much, but we love her too.

Seven more days and we'll be able to release him to the wild.

Boy Bands Galore!

2008-07-14T09:22:00.011-05:00

Seven gory movies later, I'm finally zombied out. So let's turn a 180 and move on to....

Asian boy bands!

I stumbled upon a Japanese boy band named Arashi last Thursday and am now infatuated with their catchy tunes and mediocre dancing. They're so embarrassing to watch, but I can't help it! Their songs are just so.. catchy! Their Chinese counter part is called F4. Literally, they're counter parts of each other! Both groups acted in the same TV drama, but just in different languages.

The dramas were based off a Shojo manga with a reverse harem... one girl and four guys, and they have high school romances and live happy lives.

I can't talk about too much anymore, or I'd lose my street cred.

I got a new haircut!

It's so short now! The hairdresser did a fantastic job, and I'm really satisfied with it. It's now so easy to take care of after showers, and brushing is a lot faster now. I might grow it out just a little longer, but not by much.

And finally... here is the biggest news over the weekend....

My yarn came in! With every order of yarn from Knit Picks, they'll give you a free Maomao. I got quite a bunch this time, my yarn mountain is getting a bit higher now. I gave Amee one of the hanks from the Seaview sampler, but everything else is mine!

Mine mine mine!

I don't have that many updates as far as projects go. I'm still working on the same things, but none of them were really picture worthy. I can't spread out the shawls for pictures lest I lose my stitches again. Sometimes it helps to be extra paranoid.

Now that I have my yarn, I can show my top 5 queue list!

All the yarn I need for those projects are in the pile of yarn shown above. Ravelry's Woolie Ewe group is thinking about participating in the Ravelypmics where you have the duration of the real Olympics to complete a new project. I think I'll join!

Zombies Galore!

2008-07-09T08:05:00.009-05:00

So I watched the 1978 version of "Dawn of the Dead" a couple nights ago, and I wasn't scared at all! That could only mean two things...

1) The movie was just too hokey
or 2) I'm getting braver

I'll opt for the latter! It's better for my self-esteem and my continuous efforts for post-zombie-pocalyptic preparations. I already know what to do in the event I get bitten, but just in case I manage to come out of it unharmed, I need to be prepared.

I don't have a lot of updates this time because... I messed up on lots of things! I made a huge booboo on the blue shawl, so big I couldn't fix it, so I started over. But on the plus side, I tried it on and it was really cute! So now I changed my mind about shawls and will definitely make myself a couple in the future.

I must be going through a zombie phase, because I also sat down to watch "Zombie Strippers." As the name would imply, it's safe to assume that the movie was campy and horrendous... which it was! I was not disappointed. The main star was Jenna Jameson, so that pretty sets up the feel of the movie pretty well. It was like Planet Terror, but with even more stripping!

I was quite shocked to see Roeper of Ebert and Roeper reviewing it. Now I don't feel as sheepish for watching it.

The only two updates I have are these:

I'm really enjoying knitting with smaller needles and thinner yarn! I always worried that the lace weight yarn would break with all my pulling and yanking, but it has been quite a trooper. I bought the plastic needles from Hobby Lobby, and they are working fantastic. I hate the clicky clacky of the metal needles, they grate on my ears. I have yet to try wooden ones, but have ordered some from Knit Picks to try out.

The doily... eh... I don't want to give up on it, but it hurts me so much. I accidentally added two double crochets to every set of seven, so there's about, a million extra DC's. As a result, it's ruffling a little, but I'll just have to block it with extra vigor. On the bright side, I did finish off a skein of doily yarn.

I went to Joann's Fabrics yesterday by myself, and it was Joeyless and peaceful. I refrained from buying a loud yarn... an interweave type of black and white doily yarn. It was only fifty cents, but I convinced myself that in reality, I'd never use it.

I finally managed to find some size nine needles there too! It has been so elusive, every store I went to were always missing size nine needles, but Joann's was the only place that was fully stocked.

Joann's actually impressed me quite a bit. It was neat and so clean in there. This particular store was a lot smaller than the normal box stores, and their inventory was quite nice! There's a good variety of wool blends that were soft and plushy. But as mentioned before, I'm most happy with their stock of needles, in that they actually have everything in stock.

Someday... I'll pick up sewing!

Whee!

2008-06-30T09:52:00.006-05:00

It's Monday morning and I'm unusually giddy!

I ... I... I want lots of yarn! So much that I can pile it up and perch myself at the top. And if anyone tries to make me do something I don't want to, like mopping, I can hurl knitting needles at them from the pile.

Sometimes when Maomao sleeps on top of my stash, I get really jealous because it just looks so... hedonistic! So carefree, and she's completely oblivious to her conventional bed that was so lovingly cleaned and placed under the window for her. I tried it by sleeping on top of clean (and warm) laundry and it was bliss, but Joey, aka, The Man, always tells me to fold it up.

:(

I'm working on a blue shawl right now, and it's coming along fantastically! I'm almost afraid to say this, but I haven't messed up too seriously yet! Hopefully I won't get too cocky.

This pretty yellow shawl is for my Grandma in Shanghai! Of course, the pattern actually called for lace weight so it'd look delicate, but Mom suggested that Grandma would appreciate something warmer... so ta-da! The yarn used is the Lion Wool, color Goldenrod.

When Joey and I went to Woolie Ewe the other week, he asked about the swift and the baller... so... after some deductive reasoning, it has to be for me! (You won't ever outshine me, Maomao!) It has to be! Joey doesn't need no swifts for Warmachine, and as far as I can see, he has shown no interest in yarning. It's fun to be presumptuous.

The following yarn has been a dilemma for a while...

I bought it from Knit Picks for a couple reasons ... 1) it was cheap! and 2) I wanted to see what type of quality the site provides. Of course it's hard to tell from just two skeins, but I was satisfied.

However... now that I have it, I have no idea what to do with it. It's not a color that I would wear... and it's too thin to be really useful, and now I have over 800 yards of it! Ah!

Amelia came to the rescue though! She suggested accessories such as headbands and belts to accent an otherwise conservative outfit.

She's so smart!

Ack! I'm doing it again!

2008-06-25T14:10:00.007-05:00

Once again I'm going through the phase of starting way too many projects! I got really side tracked and started things whenever something catches my fancy.

Before I go too far... here's some of the finished stuff!

I made this baby blanket for one of Joey's friends. It went through many changes before I finally settled on the crochet pattern. It started out with granny squares, then knitted diamonds, then round loom knit. All those were pretty but extremely boring. Not that this design was any more fun, but it was fast and I liked the colors!

I just finished this one today! It's a secret holiday present for the end of the year... yeah!

This is one of the two "Small Red Doilies" from freepatterns.com. It's quite pretty when it's blocked. The doilies called for 450 yards of yarn, so 225 for each. It doesn't really seem to be that much, but it's hard to tell when it's all in loops!

The bottom doily does have an unfinished sibling, which is here...

This is a baby blanket for a family friend. I'll knit the body, and then crochet a border. It'll be very pretty. The lady is actually only about two months into her pregnancy, but it's never too early to start!

Socks! I finally managed to pawn off fingerless gloves onto someone else to make, and then I get bammed with socks. It's not as bad as I thought. I'm not using any patterns in particular, but just trying to make a very simple sock. At first I just knitted the leg, but I'm putting a three by three rib in it. That turned out to be tedious, so it's slowly expanding to a 9x9 rib. Teehee! They're for Joey if they fit him, otherwise... we'll have an reenactment of Cinderella's seesters at home.

I do have two other works in progress! One of them is a Zelda themed towel and a shawl for my grandmother. However, neither are in any photoable stage, so I haven't taken pictures. Though the socks aren't that ready either, but I was so proud of my round knits!

Some pointless updates

2008-06-13T11:04:00.005-05:00

First of all, I have to complement myself on my successful pork chops last night. All it included was just pork chops and a ready made packet of sauce from the Asian supermarket, but it turned out great! Yea for one more incredibly easy yet delicious dish!

Here are some of the Perler bead stuff I made in the past week. They're extremely easy and quick to make and make my fridge so colorful! I might do a set of coasters with them. I'll probably melt them down and then glue them to wooden squares. We'll see!

Ever since I finished the scarf for the Ravelry Scarf Exchange, I've been absolutely enthralled with scarf patterns. There are so many possibilities! I started three last week and was convinced I was going to work on them all. However, I worked on one so much that I forgot the patterns for the other two, and since reading knitting patterns is still a bit of a chore, I'll just work on one at a time. At least I tried!

Excuse our ridiculously happy comforter. It's summer and the starfish comforter is the most comfortable by far! We have another one that actually matches the shams and the bed skirt, but apparently Domestication's idea of a "Queen" was actually full, so it looks really goofy and insufficient on our Queen size bed.

I'm currently having a lot of trouble finishing things because I have just way too many projects all at once. Starting next week, I'll have to start some kind of rotation so somethings could finally get done.

Another A-con missed......

2008-06-02T10:23:00.006-05:00

Ever since 2000, I vowed to go to the Anime convention in Dallas. Each year something comes up and prevents me from attending. The reasons are always lame, but I have not come to the point of admitting self-sabotage. This year, the reason was ... we did too many fun things already in May.

So in celebration of not having gone this year, here's a picture of what could have happened:

We had so much fun cosplaying! Yea!! .............. :(

On a happier note though, because I was moping, Joey took me to Woolie Ewe! The yarn embargo was lifted half a month ago, and I could get lots of nice things until the end of the year. Here's some of the loot:

Well, the green variegated was from Hobby Lobby. I realized that all the projects I've made so far, I've never really made anything for myself, so I got that one for a potential scarf ... for all the cold winters we have.... -__-;;

I started a scarf with the brown one, and Joey unraveled it when I wasn't looking because he wasn't satisfied with the stitches. "It's for your own good" he said... Well, I admit, it was good for me because now I have something more satisfying as a result. But returning to an unraveled scarf was quit shocking, especially when it's done by something you trust. Ahh!

There's not that many updates this time.. mainly because I haven't done that much! I worked on a lot of things, but none of them for too long. But maybe by the end of this week I will...

Lalala!

2008-05-14T08:18:00.008-05:00

So it feels pretty nice to not have homework for the past week... nice... but also a little weird. I'm so used to feeling guilty crafting near a deadline that I can't really handle all this carefree feeling! But it's OK, I'm going to take my language proficiency for my Master's soon, so that'll weigh nice and heavy on my mind.

Joey and I have started watching Deadwood. We're kind of behind on all that TV stuff ... oh well! It's pretty typical of HBO; saucy, apathetic, and gratuitous boobies and violence. It was a little hard to get into at first, especially since we just watched OZ, another HBO show, but we're starting to get into it! Now that Al the Gem Saloon owner finally have some formidable competition, I can rest a little easier.

Now... onto the updates!

For finished stuff, I have this lovely green doily I made for my sister-in-law. It wasn't a pleasant journey though, I messed up a number of times during the process. But I did have a lot of fun blocking it. That's definitely a new experience! I thought I could just get away with putting around twenty pins at the most, but every time I think I'm done, I look and find another spot that needs "rounding." Maomao roosted on it for quite a while on Saturday, though unfortunately no baby doilies hatched.

This next one I am still working on diligently, my darling precious. I had to start working on the castle lest everything over there unravels. I did the fold and fold to find the center, but still managed to get everything shifted to the right. Oh well!

The nice thing about SNES screen shots is that pixel art is done in repeating motifs. It's not all fancy shmancy like the CG stuff, just repetitious motifs! This comes in handy because I don't have to consult the chart too often.

I am still laboring over the "Between Meals Centerpiece." I finally finished half of it, at least according to the number of rows. I've been warned though that the real challenge comes in the last quarter. I used a smaller hook than asked for, and it's still going to turn out huge! I'm not quite sure what to do with it when it's done. Unless someone can find a good home for it, I'll keep it for myself. Actually! I have a classmate getting married in early June, and she said her colors were dusty rose and all those Victorian colors. Maybe... just maybe if I can finish it, I'll give it to her.

The picture looks a bit bad, but I keep on forgetting to take it home from work to get a real picture. But I believe that it's significantly bigger than last time!

This final one is one of many solutions to my biggest problem: leftover size 10 thread.

None of my doilies use up a skein neatly, not even close! I hate to just throw it away when I can do something with it... I flipped through my patterns trying to find something useful as I don't want too many doilies. I found these potholder patterns I've been holding onto! Since the size 10 are really too thin for dishcloths, I'll go for the next best thing. Decorative pot holders!

Huzzah!!

2008-05-07T10:33:00.003-05:00

The semester is over!

I just turned in my last paper and am free! I didn't sign up for any classes for the summer so that I could have plenty of time catching up on doing nothing.

It's time to go double speed on all my neglected project!

I lied!

2008-05-05T08:19:00.007-05:00

So I said I would be good and do homework without playing or crafting, but in reality, I've been doing both! Extensively! Though of course I still spent quite a bit of time on research and papers.

anyways! Onto stuff that's more fun!

I've started three new major projects... things... Perler Bead art, a crochet doily, and a cross stitch!

These are those little plastic beads that you iron together to form awesomeness. I've been having lots of fun with them until Joey decided to "help." Big clumsy fingers and small beads do not mix! In fact, he just destroyed the one-up mushroom by helping. So now the kit is safely tucked away where he can't find them anymore until I get the time to do it again.

I'm planning to make them into magnets, though after a search on Etsy for other perler bead art, I've had more inspiration. People have made key chains, pen holders, and general awesomeness with them.

This is for Mom! After the completion of the other two huge doilies, I went through a long funk, thinking... I'll never make another doily again! Well, after finding out that I still have much to learn about knitting, I came back to crochet! Nothing better in life than avoiding a challenge (har har)

A lot of people on Ravelry have made this, and so has Ladydurer! So I'm totally up for the challenge.

And last and definitely the best! This is my darling precious for the year. The image is from the title screen of "The Legend of Zelda: a Link to the Past." The third installment of the Zelda series, though this time for the Snes! This resulted from aimless wandering around on the internet a while back, and I stumbled upon this site:

Sprite Stitch

There's so many indescribably neat things on there! It's been so long since I've been gaming Snes games. There's still a bit of shame attached that I traded my Snes for a Playstation, but I'm getting over it.

This is getting to be a lot of fun! Though I've calculated that.. if I were to manage at least 100 stitches per day, I will be able to finish it in a year and a third..... eh....

D'oh!

2008-04-16T14:37:00.012-05:00

It seems that I have to take a short hiatus from all my fun stuff, I just have too much on my plate right now with school and work. I'm not too worried about my papers as I'm making good progress on them, at least in ways of research. My last paper for the semester is due on May 7th, and after that I'm going to play until I drop!

I'm quite excited about one of my papers, actually. The paper I will be writing for the Women in Traditional China is coming along quite smoothly, and if everything goes well, I might expand it to my Master Thesis. The era I'm going to be examining is a little before my field of interest, but I believe that with ample research and a level head, I can expand the topic to modern day past 1949. I guess this kind of fits in my craft blog! I'm certainly putting in a lot of time and love into it.

Here's my thesis, the era I will write about is from Pre-Han period to the Tang dynasty:

"In this paper I intend to examine the depiction of jealous behavior in women in biographies from ancient and medieval China. The narratives selected are not retold simply for entertainment; instead, they serve as cautionary tales for the consequences of jealousy within the harem. The depiction of these 'petty' and 'vicious' women portrayed the dynamics of the inner court negatively, but the modern reader should keep in mind that many of these stories were written by men with agendas. Much like etiquette books such as the Book of Filial Piety for Women and the Leinu Zhuan, these stories serve as prescriptions rather than descriptions."

The main gist for the paper is to to examine the representation of jealousy in medieval Chinese literature. Those stories certainly make for raunchy tales, but taken in larger social context, they are much more significant than simply the realm of entertainment.

Because I only have about a month to two for this paper, I can only do so much in ways of research. Hopefully though, like I said, I would have to the chance to expand it later in my life. When I first thought of the idea, I was conflicted because the topic seemed irrelevant, trivial, and even a bit frivolous. As the question constantly proposed by a history professor last year... "So? Why does this matter? Who cares?" These questions are difficult to answer as I still have not seen a consistent answer to "Why study history?" These questions become more difficult to answer especially when I'm faced with a family of engineers and businessmen who live in the now. Though truth be told, if I were living in worse conditions, I certainly wouldn't have chosen the BA path. But since I'm spoiled, I can!

On a lighter note, Joey and I have quite a bit planned for the summer! We're going to the Scaraborough Faire and then Mudbug Madness in Louisiana in May. Which brings me to my next project:

To eat my weight worth of craw fish!!! NOM NOM NOM!

We're also planning for the annual anime convention, but as of now that's still not set in stone. Every year I declare that I'll go, but every year we flake out. Not this one though!! Not this one!

I also have quite a few projects I need to finish; crochet, knitting, and some cross stitch. The Ravelry scarf exchange is going to start soon, so after my papers, I'll definitely have to start that! On top of that, I have some video games I want to finish! I started a XBox 360 game; Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom. It's a really pretty game and a lot of fun! However, the graphics are a bit frightening, so Joey has to supervise the sessions so I can actually progress in the game. It's the first time I had to turn off the "blood" setting because it was just so unsettling. That said, I still want to give Ninja Gaiden II a whirl when I get the chance.

So for now I bid Adieu! to my crafty life! I shall see you again after May 7th when we'll indulge in passionate... passion!

Bleh!

2008-04-04T11:19:00.003-05:00

I'm sick of crocheting! I totally burnt myself out with those doilies. I think I'll just finish the projects I've started and move on to something else completely different.

My cycle is usually crochet-video games-cross stitch. However, I'm not quite ready to be so invested in video games, yet I'm not ready to cross stitch either. So I picked up knitting! I'm really enjoying making dishcloths, it's so fun and different, and the product is softer than the crocheted dishcloths! I'm not sure why, maybe I'm extra oily when I'm knitting or something.. ew!

I found that having a row counter is helping in ways I can't even begin to explain. I'm not messing up as much as before, and my first row after cast on are looking a lot better. Yea! I want to make dishcloths for everyone! I like them because they're so simple. I'm not quite ready for changing colors yet mainly because I hate weaving in ends. I didn't enjoy it in crochet, and I doubt I'll like it in knitting.

Joey's having a War Machine night tonight with the boys, so the girls get to go out and window shop until we're satisfied! We're going to get crepes and then look at all the plate shops and look for cute tea sets and such.

A classmate is getting married in May, and I wanted to get her something special because she's really stressed. On top of getting married, she's also moving to a house! Yikes! Just for her, I might venture to make one last doily; a medium red one to match a golden teacup I'm going to get her. It's really pretty, and once I buy it tonight, I'll post it up. (Just for you Mel! It's really cute and classy at the same time!)

I finished two projects!

2008-04-01T08:50:00.006-05:00

Yeah! They're finished!

So because I crochet at work, a coworker has been inspired to restart her hobby again. She printed out the "Between Meals" centerpiece from Annie's Attic. I was going to make one too! At some point.....

Joey expressed interest yesterday to a black dragon filet crochet piece. I'll make the wall hanging and put it in our bedroom, where it will look awesome yet match nothing. I did pull out the dragon candle again, (after much chagrin) and now it's laying peacefully on my blue Mantilla doily.. hehe! One day when Joey gets his room of the house, he can convert it into a dungeon for all I care.

New Goals!!

2008-03-21T09:58:00.004-05:00

For the remainder of this year, I have planned new goals to follow:

Short term:

1) Start at least 3 projects each month
2) Finish 2 of 3 projects each month
3) Finish 30 projects by the end of the year
4) Queue up 200 projects in Ravelry (hehehehehehe)

Long term:

1) Finish off all the yarn in the cubby hole

Big goal!

1) Finish two third of my goals by the end of the year!

Some updates

2008-03-19T10:20:00.007-05:00

The start of a baby blanket for Joey's friends. I got the Hobby Lobby yarn for this, and it's so soft! The yarn's soft enough to actually inspire me to make something for myself!

Another update on the filet rose.... it's my precious

This is for Grandma in China. I'm working on the outside pineapples right now. It's pretty easy, just really really tedious.

Update on the Filet Rose

2008-03-11T12:18:00.001-05:00

I am working steadily on this and it's looking bigger and better!

One more post for the day!

2008-03-04T09:34:00.003-06:00

Here's some others that I have finished over the last year.

I originally starched this into a hat. I had such ambitious plans for it too. I even bought ribbons and fake flowers. But then I gave up and flattened it again.

I finished this in two days! It's actually pretty small, and I hadn't expected it. I hate measuring or reading ahead. I'm going to be using a lot of varigated pink from now on since Amee gave me two skeins, yea!

This is the first project I've ever finished! My awesome scarf which is actually too holey for winters, yet too warm for summers. But I love it and it loves me.

I finished this for Amelia. I used size 3 yarn on it and it turned out humongous!

Current Projects

2008-03-04T09:24:00.004-06:00

This one is for Amee! It looks pretty typical now, but it'll look awesome! When I started it, it was so easy, especially because I didn't read ahead in the directions like I was suppose to. I think around round 15ish is when it's going to be crazy hard! Something about... "repeat this hard pattern 127 times....."

These were inspired by Mel! She told me about dishcloths and I got all excited and bought lots of Sugar and Cream yarn. It was really hard to get used to the thick yarn after making doilies so much, but still very enjoyable. Mom looked at them and told me they're too pretty for hard labor. I'm beginning to agree.......

This is for Joey's Mom. I've made one before with different colors for Amelia. This is taking forever though, I can't seem to get the momentum going. I think it's because I've made this before that I have no motivation. Oh well! It is really pretty though, so I'll have to work hard.

This is for Lauren. I had to tear it apart the first time because I rushed way too much. So this time I'm taking it slow and steady.

This is for Amelia's mom! It's a little hard to tell right now what it is since it's on a cream towel. I didn't think my cunning plan the whole way through while taking pictures. It's my first attempt at filet crochet, and so far it's a lot of fun! Hopefully I can finish this within the month and actually give it to her.

Supplies

2008-03-04T09:15:00.004-06:00

Here is my current stash. I believe I have a plan for almost every skein. I promised Joey that I will not be getting any new colors until I finish everything I have currently. So that means I can restock when I run out of colors, but just not get new colors.

Past Projects

2008-02-25T13:57:00.016-06:00

This was the FIRST doily I've ever made. It was for my mom for Mother's Day. I thought it was such a special pattern, but then I discovered that everyone and their dog has made this doily at some point.

This is my second darling! It's the second doily I've every made, and I was so proud of it. I love it and it loves me, but for the moment, it's at Amee's house... missing me.

I made this for my mom. I used size 3 yarn and a pretty big sized hook, but for some reason, it turned out so tiny! I really do like the pattern, so I might remake another one with size 10 yarn next time. Maomao helped me make it (by shedding profusely on it), that's why she's also in the picture.

This is my new hobby! Painting Warmachine models was a tad too taxing on my eyes, so I went with something bigger. I've always (and still do) loved giant robots. For this reason I have chosen to ignore all of laws of physics and common sense. There's no convincing me at this point anymore. This is Wing Zero from Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz.

I finished this on the cruise on our honeymoon. There's a bunch of mistakes in it and as a result, it was a bit warpy even after ironing. But that was fixed when I got home and starched the hell out of it.

This was also for my mom! I got her a Victorian ceramic doll for Christmas, and this doily was meant to match. It's a little lopsided, but it contains all of my love.

This was a baby blanket for my stepdad's side of the family. It was nice and fluffy until I washed it, and then it got kind of flimsy and not shiny. I wasn't very reluctant to let go of it, plus, Joey is too big for it anyways.

This was originally for Lauren, and then Aunt Maxine, and then my mother-in-law. By the time I finished, I was too reluctant to part with my beautiful magnolia doily.

The pattern is from Coats and Clark.

Mission Post

2008-02-19T10:33:00.004-06:00

This blog is going to track my projects! Joey told me that if I am able to finish 500 projects, he'll buy me a really nice present! I'm hoping for a house or... another cruise!

The requirements for these projects are:

1) Takes longer than 2 hours to make
2) No outside help

But otherwise, there's not real limit to what they have to be like! So anything from losing weight to getting Neopoints to crafts count.

Unfortunately, homework or stuffing my face with chips do not count as projects.

So far I have about twelve projects done! When I get the chance, I'll have to put up pictures.