Back to School

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!

One more done!

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.

Update

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

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

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.

Crime shows galore!

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.

Zombies Galore!

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!

Ack! I'm doing it again!

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!

Lalala!

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!

I lied!

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....

I finished two projects!

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.

Some updates

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.

One more post for the day!

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

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.

Past Projects

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.