What's that coming over the hill?

I haven't really worked on anything recently, since last week was lousy with schoolwork and I was away this past weekend, but I have two new ideas brewing, codenames Heartbeat and Laïka.*

Since I have nothing crafty to show you, here's a photo from my weekend near Shawinigan:



The sky is much bluer there, as you can see.

*I don't normally codename anything, least of all my casual artwork, but in this case it helps me remember what the idea actually is.

It's Friday night, my back still hurts...

...but I spent a couple of hours last night knitting my blanket and watching Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel on Youtube. I have to admit that as much as I love my Anne Shirley, knitting while watching really helps. It's not the most action-packed movie I've ever seen. There's a good ten minutes of Anne and Diana chasing a cow through the a field. Sure, it's accompanied by some rousing fiddled cow-chasin' music, but still, TEN MINUTES.

Anyway, I think I may attempt a pair of socks tonight. I've reading up on the Magic Loop method and I'm intrigued.

And then there's this:



Sometimes the sunset makes the view from my bedroom window pretty decent.

Decreased mobility (in a literal sense, of course)

I've been laid up for the last two days with a put-out back, but thanks to my wireless internet I can still do most of the schoolwork I need to, and I actually have more time, so who's to say this isn't a blessing, really? Aside from the fact that I have a hard time putting on underwear and sitting down to pee, everything's peachy.

Anyway, my point is that I foresee a large spike in the amount of time spent knitting in the near future. I'm still working on that garter stitch dog blanket, so luckily I can work while watching Youtube clips of Whose Line is it Anyway and not worry about messing up the pattern.

I was looking through this book called Not Your Mother's Knitting or somesuch (I don't actually have it on hand), and found a nice little pattern for cabled slipper-socks. Boy, I can't wait until I can afford nice yarn.


footnote: I fully realize that saying "laid up" makes me sound like I time-traveled here from the amazing year 1935.

Increased mobility

I was reading up on sea glass this afternoon, because I have literally bagfuls of the stuff and I really don't know what to do with it. Someone somewhere was showing decorative stuff they made, and I remembered this mobile I'd seen in a craft book I have, made out of coat hangers, wire, and paper. I figured I could modify it. Unfortunately, my wire cutters couldn't get through the coat hanger wire, but I have some thick silver stuff that worked pretty well. I took only pieces that are porcelain/opaque. I don't really have anywhere to hang it, which is why I took this photo in my bathroom:



I'm pleased. I have to say that I'm not really a fan of wire wrapping sea glass, as I find it can look a too New-Age-shop-ish or overly cute, and it tends to conceal the natural jaggedness of the glass (if the piece is rough to begin with), but because my wire wrapping skills are minimal, I think it turned out okay. I particularly like the piece in the middle; it gives it a nice toothy, pointy look and severely reduces the twee. I think I'm going to make another one out of brass wire and porcelain.

I have plans to do something with the really big pieces I have, the ones that still kind of look like garbage because they're not completely smooth or are still shaped like a bottle or whatever. I also have plans for three necklaces, one with the Fire King semi-opaque green stuff, one with porcelain pieces that still has designs/paint on them, and one with milk glass, but I really don't want to wire wrap, so I'm going to wait until I have the time and extra cash to play with bezels and soldering. I'll take pictures of my collection sometime.

I also whipped up some jewelry with beads that i got in my Christmas stocking:



My camera is tough to figure out. I can't seem to get it to focus properly on closer shots like the one above, even when I put it on the special close-up setting. And when I can get it to focus, the colour tends to get really red and bright when I don't use the flash. I tried to retake this photo but like I said, it wouldn't focus, so, yeah, big ol' flash spot.

Now to clean like I meant to do three hours ago.

Blanket update

Remember the blanket I'm making for the SPCA? I finally picked it up a week or so ago and I've made some decent progress*:



That's after (almost) three skeins of bright orange acrylic. I've got to say, it's extremely soft, squishy, and comfortable-seeming.

This weekend I kind of learned how to knit British-style (or "the right way", as my grandmother would say). I'm very slow, my tension is too tight, and I still prefer continental, but learning must count for something, right?

*cat included for scale