I'm not dead yet!

See, now this is what I meant when I said I knew I wasn't going to post anything. I've been so wrapped up with Ravelry and Facebook and, I don't know, life, that I haven't put anything up here. At all!

New news from life: I have started taking lessons at my son's martial arts school; a whole bunch of us go together, and it's very fun and kind of physically grueling. I think today's been the first day this week that I haven't been sore or stiff. But it's so empowering when I do the moves correctly - it makes me feel like I'm a ninja or something. A white belt ninja. Woo hoo!

The Boy is kicking second grade's ASS. He's getting good grades, and his behavior is remarkably awesome! He's also really getting into classic, old-school Nintendo - and I am in favor of that! He's an extremely fun, smart, funny, awesome kid, and I couldn't be more proud of him.

In August, I opened a shop on Etsy; The Crafty Hamster. I sell hand-dyed yarn and other stuff. That's the best way to describe it; "other stuff". right now it's coffee cup holders and knitted bags, but who knows what I'll make for it? It's had a slow start, but I'm certain that I will pick up my mojo as I go.

I'm still with Z, still in love, it's a good good thing. We're working out a timeframe as to when we can get a house together. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a financial setback when I lost a lot of hours at work, but I'm feeling hopeful about it. I have polished my resume and am going to present it like a crazy offering to all of the temp agencies in the area.

So not much has changed over the course of a year, really. Still making stuff and loving people. Life is good.

Hum. Been a while since I posted.

So take a look at all the yarn I've dyed recently.



This is everything except the five balls that are being used in other projects. Everything that's in a skein will eventually be sold, once I get my act (and my Etsy) together. If you click the photo, it'll take you to the Flickr page, where I've put notes on everything, so you can find out what I named these. I'm a big ol' dork. :) EDIT: It's part of FO Fridays!

In other news: lots of work lately, despite some of my stores being cut back to once a cycle. There's still a lot of big projects going on regardless, so it's the same amount of work, just in one long visit instead of several shorter ones. I'm not sure what this is supposed to achieve.

WATCHMEN TONIGHT!!!! It should be full of awesome and great.

Adventures in crafting. Again.

I made my own hand-dyed yarn yesterday. For the first time ever. I know, I'm awesome.

I used Fisherman's Wool for my base, and Kool-Aid for the dye. Grape and Cherry, if you care. :) It still smells a little fruity-sweet. When we laid it out and dyed it, the Kid and I made alternating bands of red and purple, but we muddled it a bit when we put it in the microwave to heat it. It still came out beautifully, though. Look!


My hands are still purply-red. But I don't really care... it was a lot of fun, and I officially have started looking for different colors of Kool-Aid to try it again. (There only seems to be Grape, Cherry, and Lemonade available in the local supermarkets. Sad, I know.) I have most of the skein of Fisherman's Wool left...

This lil' ball will end up being at least part of a hat. I keep picking it up and petting it and smelling it. Hi, I'm weird. :) I hope to do a semi-solid purple to pair it with so it doesn't have to be a teensy lil' hat.

A purge of the old stuff

And I don't mean bulimia. *laugh* No, I just went and deleted my old MySpace and LiveJournal accounts. Yes, all of them. Even the craft journal and the kid's stuff. I wasn't using the sites for anything, after all, and that's just from a different era in my life. I'm moving on.

That, and I've actually started, for the first time in my life, regularly exercising. Every day. For forty minutes. Go me. It's been a full week and I haven't wanted to quit or anything, even when my mother walked in on me doing a hilarious yoga pose. It was pretty funny. Oh man. :)

Haven't been writing much lately, not much story material has been , erm, materializing lately. Getting some knitting done, though, and have made progress on socks and a cute doll and some bag projects. Woo!

I'll have to add the new stuff to my ravelry later, but for now, I procrastinate.

And here's a new photo, just to have an image in the post. Yay, content!

Z does the *best* evil eyebrows ever.

I'm so damn crafty

So, I was going through my son's dresser, cleaning out the too-small shirts to make room for new winter stuff, and I came across a lotta buncha (okay, three) Otakon tee shirts that I bought for him in the years that he was too young to go. They're cute, and he likes them, but he can't wear them and, for instance, breathe at the same time, so I got busy.

I made them into pillows.

I cut around the graphics on the shirts, resulting in four good-sized pictures (one had front and back images, the others were backs-only.), dragged out the sewing machine, and by the time he was back from his dad's place, he had two new cuddle cushions.

Check 'em out!