Another A-con missed......

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!

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!!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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.