I'm into quilting now.

One Block Wonder 

Testing some blocks

Owls and Stripes

The University was Closed

Every now and then, we get an ice storm where everyone is stuck at home. Today was such a day.

So I had plenty of time to spin, though one can only spin so much.

First things first. I took some pictures of the outside. It's so pretty!

This is the canopy of our patio. It's just rows and 

rows of these little icicles.

This was in our front yard. This is a case of where winter is ready to push 

fall out of the way. Though it was about 70 degrees a couple days ago. 

So maybe winter is trying to hurry both summer and fall away in one go.

This is both of the Kelp Forest roving. I'm going to let it sit

for one more week before I ply.

Shipwreck from SweetGeorgia Yarns I bought from Woolie Ewe.

It's 60% merino, 30% bamboo, 10% nylon. I think I'll make socks

with them for Joey, because I like him and stuff.

I finished one bobbin today. 

 Here is the other half. I'm about to start it probably 

in a week because...

I want to do this next!

I've spun so much though I've yet to actually use any. My yarn is quickly accumulating now that I'm also spinning. My plan is to get a floor loom someday and I'll weave out a huge tapestry with all this yarn. It'll be the most epic destashing project ever.

It started with good intentions

This blog was meant to be beautiful prose accompanied by stunning visuals, but let's be honest, I didn't get my degrees based on my writing style.

So here they are in some kind of order!

Some New Acquisitions

"Singing the Blues" from Broken Pattern

"Kelp Forest" from Broken Pattern

"Sea Foam" from KnittersGonnaKnitCOM

"Sun Flowers" from KnittersGonnaKnitCOM

Yellow Roving

3 oz of Buttercup roving from Ashland Bay Colonial Wool Top from Mohair and More.

I'm going to ply it with 3 oz of yellow roving I bought from White Rock Weaving Center. All I know is that it's wool with a higher micron count. But hopefully plying the two will even out the smoothness. (These things work out great in my head)

I want to do no thicker than fingering weight.

More Spinning

200 yards

200ish yards

200ish yards

Will combine with 4 oz. of white. Watermelon yarn

Yellow and Gray

I bought a yellow and gray mix from chimera on Etsy.

It looked like this:

I took the picture from her shop.

It ended like this:

The roving was really soft, though I had some trouble drafting it toward the end. Probably because I'm still learning.

I think I'll make socks.

I got 290ish yards out of it.

Spinning Yarn

I tried spinning with a drop spindle years and years ago. However, because I was relying on YouTube for all the instructions, the first attempt went badly and I gave up. About a week ago, I suddenly felt the urge to do it again. This time, I took a lesson at Woolie Ewe with Laurie and everything just kind of fell into place. Sometimes, you really just need someone to give immediate feedback and to break things down for you. Instructors... I will never doubt you again.

Because it was so fun, I fell into this cycle again. We'll call it the "Ukulele Incident". Years back I got an incredible urge to play the Ukulele. I wanted to play it so badly I was dreaming about it every night and talking about it every day. I ordered one off Amazon because I was looking for a bargain but could barely wait for it to come in in the meantime. So I borrowed a friend's daughter's ukulele, much to her chagrin, and played with a toy ukulele for a couple days. It was terrible because it was just a toy. Then I thought about driving to Mesquite to meet the delivery truck, and eventually gave in and bought on at Guitar Center. I ended up returning the one from Amazon.

It was a really nice ukulele.

What that told me was that I have no patience. If I want something, I'm going to go crazy until I get it. However, common sense is still part of the equation, and I eventually tired myself out of a four to five thousand dollar loom. 

But spinning wheels were a different situation.

I got one this Saturday. 

I went to White Rock Weaving Center and Anna helped me choose a wheel. She's the best! She helped me pick a table loom when I went through the loom phase.

I got this.

I love it so much! It's a Schacht Matchless, and as far as I know, it will be good for me for the rest of my spinning days as long as I don't body slam it.

Here are some I'm working on right now. The one in the center I have four oz of it. I think that will definitely be my first finished project. I don't actually know how to ply yet, but I've never let those kind of things get in the way.

I can't wait to start blending colors.

Drawing Class

I'm into lighthouses, boats and stuff.

I'm currently taking Drawing II with Barry Benton for Continuing Education because deep down inside, I'm 60 years old.

This is using the grid method.

Overshot Weaving

I started weaving!

Pattern is done with a pick up stick. It's actually going faster than I thought.

2013 is the Year of Colorwork

I say this every year, but this year I super mean it.

I'm going to bust into my stash of yarn. It's really going to happen this year.

I discovered color work! Stranded color work is actually a lot easier than I thought. Looks like practicing all those years finally paid off.

This will become a cowl.

And this will be a really long scarf.

This will be a good year.

My Etsy shop!

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!

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!

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

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!

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!

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!

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

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

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.