Warning: Extreme Geekness in this Post!

Whew! What a busy week! Actually, the beginning of the week wasn't so busy at all because I was attacked by the flu, and rendered unable to do anything for a few days. Now, you'd think I should have been concentrating on catching up on all my missed schoolwork once I started feeling better. HOWEVER, knitters have other priorities. Specifically, today was our long-anticipated post-Christmas party and gift exchange with my gaming group! My first project that I hinted at in my previous post can be seen below, fully completed.


It's a cute lil' d4 dice bag. The only snag I ran into was crocheting the sides together a little too tightly, so the sides didn't look quite as pristinely flat as I was hoping. Also, freehand embroidery isn't my strong point, so it's a small miracle that the numbers look as good as they do.

The second isn't knitting at all. I learned to crochet, just so I could make this. It's from the pattern Magnetic Crochet Katamari although mine doesn't look quite as awesome as the one in the picture. Canada doesn't seem to have the right sort of magnets, and I didn't have quite enough time (it's a long story involving size G and E crochet hooks, Zellers, and me almost buying a mop) so there aren't quite as many nubbins on mine as are called for in the pattern. Perhaps I shall order some magnets online and tackle this pattern again sometime. I also had issues with my yarn being different weights too, because I was unobservant.....

But enough of that, onto the picture!


I didn't expect the pattern to be so big, but it's a really great size to grab and throw around. Even though the magnets in the nubs are pretty small, they're strong enough to grab fairly sizable metal objects if they catch them at the right angle.

The gift exchange and party in general were a success, and well worth the large amounts of time we spent preparing. I made a pinata too, which turned out to be very durable (although we were punching it, not hitting it with a stick) and the random assortment of candy and toys we'd picked out to go inside seemed to work out well. We also had our gift exchange in a D&D game type format, which is enjoyed more by some people than by others, but it was unique in that we made our 'dungeon tiles' out of gingerbread. Everyone got to decorate a 'tile' at the beginning of the party, which were then used for the game later on. The premise was that each room was 'disintegrating' after the group passed through (i.e. we ate them, hehehe). Lots of great gifts were given, fun times were had, delicious food was eaten, guitar hero was played. Nothing more you can ask for in a party.

Also, the socks I'm making for my sister (for Christmas...retroactively) are almost done, and should be ready for a photo shoot of the FO soon! What, homework you say? Well, I suppose I have to do that too......but it's so much more fun to be knitting in denial!

xkcd strikes again

Some of you may or may not know that one of my most favourite webcomics is xkcd. I thought today's comic to be especially hilarious. Check it out:


In other news, my camera is having issues, so you'll have to wait for pictures of the latest knitting projects. Christmas knitting was all done in a whirlwind, and therefore didn't really get properly documented. Ah well, that's how things go sometimes. I will tell you though, that I'm working on a super exciting little project for a post-Christmas gift exchange I'm attending next week. I got tired of the ridiculous prices Fabricland charges for zippers (and I didn't really have transportation to get there either, so it was kind of a moot point in the first place) so I picked up a pair of pants at Value Village, one of those pairs that has a bunch of little zippered pockets on the legs. You know the kind I mean. I'm going to rip those out, and use them for my projects, AND have material left over for other crafting projects, all the while saving lots of money. Everyone wins! Except for Fabricland. They can stay over in Loserland, till they either lower their zipper prices or move their store closer to my house.

Zaboomafoo!

Wow, I still have blog readers! Awesome!

Things in craft land have been pretty slow, because grad school is a surprising amount of work, and I got really sick in there for a while, and was basically floored for an entire week (could have been flu, tonsil infection, or maybe even mono.....regardless, it was highly unpleasant) and had to catch up on all my homework after that....ick. But, crafting has not come to a complete halt. For instance, I finally got around to finishing the Dark Saber scarf, of Arcness' design, and it will be mailed out to him without too much further delay.


The yarn is good ol' Cascade 220, and I knit it from side to side on a giant pair of circular needles (10cm I think?) and it was a challenge. Nevertheless, it turned out pretty well I think. I won't venture an estimate on the time it took to complete since I worked on it pretty sporadically.

The infamous socks are STILL in progress. They're like the project that never ends. Maybe one day they will be finished.

I also have two craft swaps in progress (both of which I'm behind in.....yikes!) but I'm pretty much done making my crafts for those, and I'm quite pleased with how everything came out! I'll be taking pictures tomorrow before I send those packages off, and once my swap partners receive, you guys will get to see the goodies as well!




In the meantime, I want to share with you the awesome crafts I received from my fantastic swap partner Maimun, in the Star Trek swap! Everything she made me was perfect and awesome, and she themed it like an away-mission. The first was this totally cool duct tape bag:

Next, she made me this awesome travel mug:

And a beautiful bracelet:

And lastly, some wicked stitch markers (which I have been desperately needing):
So hurrah! I hope that Maimun likes what I made for her as much as I like what she made for me.

The other craft swap I have in progress is the Retro Video Game swap. Keep watching the blog, cause once that one arrives I'll have pictures up for all of you to see!

I'm still alive!

Just a quick note to let you all know that yes I'm still here and yes, I've been crafting, but life has been a bit crazy. I'll try to post some pictures for you soon. In the meantime, I'll just say that I love my new place (I can see the mountains from my street!) and though school is pretty intense, I love the classes. Also, plans are in the works for the first official Langley Pie Party, so if you live nearby, you should come!