Sunday 25 December 2011

Crazy Christmas countdown 2011

Not so crazy this year. Largely because I didn't try to knit many people anything anyways, and I fully discounted toothless for Sam on the basis that it is a well belated birthday present already and can remain so...... For ages.
How many years are in an age? Lots hopefully.

Sorry Sam. I have some time in January to do it. Or something.

Anyway, all I made was a snu for mum, and a jumper for Timo. And theoretically a scarf but thats not done yet.

Oops.

Still managed to be up tilll half one last two nights trying to finish.
New years resolution fail.

Whatever. At least its a pretty jumper. I failed to factor in his reeeeeeeediculously broad shoulders but still. It works (more or less) and I dont care (more).

Also failed on pay it forwards creative things. Whoops.
Ruddy school. Takes way too much time. Wanna knit more.


Tuesday 13 December 2011

Finally - a breather.

School is one day off finishing for Christmas. Oh wait. 2.
But the last ones just pantomimes.

Soo relieved its not even funny.

Knitting is not something I've had time for all term. Just so busy planning lessons, marking and simply making it through the days. I now get some time to put my feet up, drink tea, and knit.
Its awesome.

To celebrate, here is a Christmas tree scarf illusion thingy.
Just a chart to be fair, but so very  easily extended to a scarf that I'm calling it a scarf.
And when I manage to find my needles I will totally knit it up for my Dad.

My brain died with my final lesson.

Pattern:
Christmas Tree Illusion Scarf

Wednesday 26 October 2011

We still have all our fingers!

Really helpful informative title yes? No? Where's your sense of initiative? You really need it to read this blog and make sense of it. Especially this post but generally too.
Anyway. We still have our fingers. All of them. Which is, by the way, very useful when typing. And driving. And.....   Well in life as a whole.

um. point. point. definitely had one.


Scar!

We have got one Scar! He is on a pumpkin.
The observant among you may realise that a pumpkin is not a knitting or crochet project. You would be correct in this observation. However, I haven't done any knitting recently so I figured what the hell, and decided Scar in his awesomeness could be added to an increasingly crafty (as opposed to knitty) blog.
He's cool.
Knives got repeatedly and perilously close to fingers and thumbs.

Special mention goes to Anne Parkinson.
Cause she wanted it.
Also cause it was her idea, and she did a lot of the work.

Now we have to repeat the feat on Friday :D
Fun fun fun!

Sunday 16 October 2011

Michael Jackson seems to be popular. Who knew?

So the person who asked me to do the first Michael Jackson illusion got back to me like a week ago and asked me to do another one. I .... um.... ignored all that sensible lesson planning stuff I really should have been doing and made one today.
Its actually quite cool.
I like.
I know I would think that cause its my pattern, but basically its CoR's design, I just put it into a pattern format for her. And even that may be stretching the point. Its a photo that I've illusionated. Which is not a word but will be soon. Or should be.

My housemate is playing Tekken3. It keeps making inane comments. Like hai ya. And K.O. And Round Two. Fight.
It may possibly be driving me insane.
I'm not sure.
I'll keep you updated.

Cause I'm sure you are just dying to know.

Whatever.
Where was I?

Oh yeah.
So now I have 2 illusion patterns for Michael. And there is a third on the way. Its not that exciting I know, but it does keep me from dying of boredom planning how to teach year 7s pie charts. Which I gave up on cause I think they probably already know.

Tra La.

The pattern, you will be surprised to learn, is over on scribd, link on my illusion knit page. And the first MJ pattern is also available on ravelry downloads. Hilariously (to me if no one else) this got downloaded 11 times today. This is a new high. Previously my most downloaded pattern was Discworld Death of Rats. At 2 in a day.
Lol.
Just me?
Oh well. I can amuse myself at least.

He stopped playing Tekken. The voice has gone.
But I'm out of stuff for this post anyway.
And looking at it again, most of it was inane babble. It's a good thing I don't have to pay for this blog in any way really.

Or something.
Back to lesson plans. Bye!

Sunday 2 October 2011

Happy Lion Tea Cosy

IT's SO AWESOME!!!
It's a Happy Lion! That sits on TEA!

Unfortunately it's also Sophie's birthday present. And ... well.... Happy Lion is Sophie's thing. So I should give it to her. Especially as it actually fits her teapot so well.

I'm really proud of that actually. The pattern I used was originally for a Loopy Lamb tea cosy for a 4-6 cup pot, but has become a Happy Lion tea cosy for a 2 cup pot. I took the advice of some particularly lovely ladies in the wool shop and decided to go with the pattern exactly, but reduce the size of needles and the weight of wool. I was somewhat shocked (but megaly delighted) it fitted, cause I knitted the thing at home-home, and then brought it back to Cov-home where the teapot was. To be perfectly honest, I was so happy about it that I waved it under Rob's nose for a while showing off about my own brilliance in knitting, which, since he's a nice guy, he a) took with good grace and b) complimented me on.

Yay!
And, and and and AND! It's a birthday present finished ON TIME!!!! Got that? On TIME!!! ON time!!!
BOOO YA!

Tuesday 13 September 2011

Numero Trois

Third Illsuion knit comission.
I'm actually enjoying them. Its a break from the work I am totally supposed to be doing right now.
Ooops.
Whatever.
The point is; other people giving me the ideas, and actually knitting the things (which is something I have NOT got time for) is really good, and I still get to do knit related things.
Happy.
Now sleep.
Sleep good.

Saturday 10 September 2011

Tory, her Gecko obsession, and the hat what I made.

It's a hat. With a gecko on it.
I made her a gecko from scratch a year ago, and she was very pleased. So, I wanted to find something else gecko related. And did. Obviously. I should get a better writing style really shouldn't I? Anywho, I found a chart someone had made for a crocheted gecko shawl. That seemed way too much like effort, but the geckos were pretty. So I also found a simple beanie-hat pattern, and inserted the prettiest gecko. Done.

                                                      Small issue. It may be too small.
Tory does have a hilariously small head though. Every Christmas the paper hats turn into necklaces instantly.

See here, in this here photo, here, Tory's hat is paper clipped to be smaller, and the teddy bears hat? That was one Ste made for Tory the year before.

Maybe. Maybe it will fit her.
It sure doesn't fit me.


It doesn't. I have achieved a hat that is too small for Tory. Congratulations. To me.
Facepalm
Picture to follow. I was so caught up in the fail that was hat sizing that I gave up and went away.

Toothless!

Toothless is cute.

Just thought we should start there before saying anything else. It's not up for discussion. He is cute.
For the chaplaincy ball we painted this image onto the wall, with a wingspan of about 5-6 feet. Afterwards, I got to take him home! So he's on my wall!
Thus I have a cute Toothless. That's me covered, but what about all those other poor people out there? They are Toothless-less, and this is sad. Particularly, my friend Sam, who has spent a lot of time trying to find a Toothless toy, and can't, because the only ones available are insufficiently cute.

Enter birthday presents.
I decided I would knit Sam up a Toothless toy, so searched ravelry for a pattern. Was slightly delighted that there was one. Largely because I really didn't feel like making my own pattern for it. Objects are kind of a far cry from charts in my eyes. I can make charts. Thats a relatively simple image editing process. Objects. No idea where to start.
So, in any case, I'm going to knit Sam a Toothless.

But there's still a larger problem. The pattern I found is not free. This is something I dislike on a low level basis. I'm willing to pay in this case because he's so complicated, but I still feel that there is a gap in the ravelry database for a free Toothless related pattern.
Enter illusion knits.

If you think about it Toothless is really quite an appropriate thing for an illusion knit. I mean - night furies are the one dragon that no-one had ever seen.... until Hiccup shot one. So they should be invisible from many angles. Illusion is perfect.

Thus; I have also made up an illusion chart for Toothless. In fact 4 illusion charts for Toothless. Cause he is cute, and therefore merits extra charts from extra angles. I have a vision in my head of a blanket of illusion knitted Toothlesses, and so the charts should hopefully fit together. Since I'm not sure how it works (and have decided to be selfish initially so that I have the FIRST TOOTHLESS ILLUSION BLANKET) its not going online till I have knitted it. Which is probably a better time to put things online in general, but. Well. I'm lazy, so ... I cut corners.

I feel this post needs a summary. So here is one.
Toothless is cute.

Monday 5 September 2011

Life, The Universe, and Other Mysteries.

The most notable one of which currently (aside from
" Why did I not go to bed at a sane time considering when I have to get up? "
 -which is admittedly also a very current issue, and has been for some time tonight. Um. This morning, and Last night. Stupid computer. Keeping me up. ... Or something) is :
" Why do people come asking me for help with illusion patterns? "
In particular, I've had another commission from a fellow Raveler. Which in turn has led actually to the solution of the other mystery mentioned. I just completed the chart for them. I should probably actually ask for payment in return really. The first guy actually offered. New mystery to add to the list:
" Why did I not accept? "
I mean. Its not exactly like paid work in that I actually enjoy the effort involved, but it does take time, and I should have recognised that. I could have just given the money to charity if I felt guilty about it.
I'm an utter idiot. Maybe sleep will improve my idiocy quota.
Maybe not.


*edit* yep. I'm an idiot. Failed to mention the project is an illusion chart for the superman logo. link is, as ever, over on the illusion knit page.

Friday 2 September 2011

WANTED: UNDEAD OR ALIVE

So. I finished the Barbossa charts. Spectacularly this actually did happen legitimately AFTER the other things I said I would do, and a selection of other things that I did in a sensible way.
I know. Shocking.
Anyway.
Point is that they are finished, on scribd, and all is well in the universe. I am even ambivalent towards any and all Steves at this stage in time.
(Thats the sign of a good day by the way)
Tra La.

I have nothing to say in this post. I wonder why I bothered to write it?
Meh. Whatever.

Friday 19 August 2011

Explorations into the world of Crocheting

I have now been knitting for just over two years. Time to try something new me thinks.
Crochet.

That scary thing.
I'm not totally sure why I'm so scared of crochet hooks, given that knitting needles are sharper and therefore make a much more viable weapon (not that I've thought about this much...), but there we go. I'm much less convinced that wool will obey me when I'm wielding a hook rather than a needle.
That said, time to venture into this strange new world. (cue Disney music).

This is actually because I am now starting to think about birthday and Christmas presents to cover the next 4 months, and too many of the really cute small things are crocheted. In particular there is a really really cute little black mage that I want to make. A year ago I would have run from the idea, and in fact did - hence Tory's gecko, but now. Now I am going to give it a go.

Is this what growth is?
Am I growing up?
Somehow I doubt it....

Wednesday 17 August 2011

comissioned illusion

Stranger things have happened than someone offering work. But this, for me, is a first. Someone on ravelry contacted me recently to ask me to do a particular illusion pattern for them (Robert Pattinson/Edward Cullen). Lol. Random.
I'm working on it though. It's actually really not that hard a process for me, turning an image into an illusion pattern, but it does take a little while. On which note, I'll go do something about it, and continue the blog post later.

And I'm back (like a week later). I've made up three versions of the illusion. There's a medium and super huge version of Edward Cullen, and a medium Robert Pattinson. At some stage, when the guy is relatively happy with the patterns, I will put them onto ravelry, but for the moment at least they are uniquely his. Well. I guess they should be mine, but I really can't be bothered to knit that big of an illusion of a person and/or character I have no interest in, as I have a queue of things I do want to knit. So I won't. But I do think the patterns will work. In fact the super huge one should be pretty good, if a pain in the donkey to knit.

It's been fun though. I really enjoy making the patterns, and still find it funny that I was asked. Funny in a good way. In a whoa!-I-have-a-skill-that's-in-demand-when-on-earth-did-that-happen way. You know?
No?
Me either.
Me and words - we fail.

Wednesday 3 August 2011

Better late than never

I finally finished it! Woo!
Only 8 months late, or as some friends of mine optimistically put it, 4 months early. Unfortunately she knew it was coming, not what it was, but that it was, so its definitely in the late rather than early category. Which is a shame. I often do things like this. Good examples are my dad's jumper, and my brother's birthday present. Actually, that was quite special of me. 2 months it was finished, wrapped, parcelled, addressed, and sitting on my desk rather than being sent so it would arrive, oh I don't know, maybe on or near his birthday.
Another friend's parents tried to give my parents a Christmas card one year (for sake of argument rather than memory lets say 2008), by getting Emma to give it to me, and then me passing it on. That also took a ridiculously long time, to whit 11 months. Therefore, in November 2009 I managed to finally pass on the card, thinking "Yay, it will be early and not obvious at all that I fail really badly at delivering stuff!". Brilliantly, my equally absent-minded mother opened the card and was delighted, and it was left to my dad to point out that a) I was incompetent,  b) my mum was slightly blind, and c) that it was the end of November, so a little bit late to be wishing us all the best for 2009.....
It's probably a good job he noticed though. Otherwise, if he also was so absent-minded, we would as a family fail completely in life, rather than sporadically as we do now.

Anyway. It's done. I can now guilt free return to all the other weird and wonderful things I have plans for. And chart Barbossa. And do mathPGCE related things. And, well. Generally pay a bit more attention to my life.
Bit far-fetched perhaps, but worth a try.

Tuesday 26 July 2011

Captain Jack Sparrow if you please

Tum tee Tum.
Another pattern uploaded. Another thing I really really shouldn't have done at this point in time. Oops.
But it's cool, and I am getting way better at making these charts. (Ok, so I haven't actually tried it out yet, but still. it looks just the same as the ones I'm using for another project, so I'm pretty darn confident of its effectiveness)
Plus, Sparrow is cool.

Coming soon will be Jack Sparrow's mutinous first mate Barbossa, in both living and undead forms. After I finish Emma's birthday present. After.
Right.
When pigs fly.

-Jack Sparrow isn't it.
-Captain Jack Sparrow if you please sir.
-I don't see your ship, Captain.
-I'm in the market, as it were.

Sunday 24 July 2011

Warthogs are cute. Also tasty.

So. That whole thing where I promised not to start any more knitting patterns? I have decided that that does not specifically forbid the making of new charts. Even though it probably should.
Oh well.
It's not like its a big pattern. I mean. One Warthog. Not a major project.
I love these guys. They're awesome. When we were staying in Zimbabwe our hotel used them as lawnmowers. And then to show the appreciation they felt towards their fuzzy employees, they the served them up for dinner in the hotel restaurant. Pumba steaks are awesome.
Sorry Mr Warthog!
Anyways. The chart is over on scribd, link on colour work page. I will probably get it onto ravelry at some stage, but for the moment it's here.

Thursday 21 July 2011

Knitted Promises ...... well that was foolish wasn't it.

So you know that thing I was doing from the start of the year? That pay-it-forwards creative thing? Forgot about it?
Me too.
Ooops.

I have done one of them. I made Stefs things... which I honestly WILL send off one of these days (note to self - ask Stef for her newest address) but I have not managed the other ones. For Jenni and Emma. Neither of whose birthdays I have caught up with.
Jenni's was only February! Give me a break.
Emma's was December.
Ooops.

On which note though - I DID manage to finally catch up to Emma T's birthday, and presented her with Tardis socks. Happily, although these were two months late (eek.... thats actually really good going for me at the moment..........) they do have the ultimate advantage over other birthday socks. Not looks - cause honestly they are some of the ugliest things I have knitted (even including the hat) apart from the Tardis motif - but their ability to time travel.





Emma has now happily utilised this function. Following the instructions enclosed in the present, she travelled backwards through time to the night *before* her birthday, rewrapped the socks, and returned to the current time. Thus creating a paradox where she now has received the socks perfectly on time, which for the current purposes one of the Tardis socks was containing, while the other is still available for time travelling purposes. This makes perfect sense.
 (see multiple episodes of Dr Who to find the, for lack of a better word, logic, behind this)

Back to the point and purpose of this post though.
I hereby solemnly swear that I will finish Emma's birthday present before knitting anything else.
Promise.
Cross my heart.

Not hoping to die though. Just so's you know.

Friday 8 July 2011

Knitting for Birthdays..... Or thereabouts

I'm doing pretty well on the birthday knit ideas recently. I have knit some socks (sock. will finish the other one one of these days) for Emma T, some for Matt (well, I bought the wool anyway), a shawl (sort of) and an elephant (this afternoon honest) for Rae, and a Harry Potter related item (well..... actually I ended up frogging the thing but I will restart any day now) for Emma G. Oh and my brother carefully defined what he wants for his birthday too.

The problem - as may have already made itself obvious is my timing, and general inability to ever actually finish the damn things. So far, the only one that isn't late yet (You're not late till you're late) is Matt's socks. Rae's is only 3 days late so far, but EmmaT's Bday was in mid May, and well the less said about EmmaG's actual birthday the better since it was way back in December. Oops.

Maybe I should get the hell off blogger and start knitting.

Yup. Probably best.

Saturday 11 June 2011

Just the thing to add to my To-Do list

A new style of knitting came up in my emails the other day - entrelac. To clarify - not a new New style of knitting, just one I hadn't seen before. The other would be way cooler, and totally justify me ditching other responsibilities to pursue it.
But - still new to me, and the email showed a whole host of interesting patterns and projects to do with it. So, I looked carefully at my To-Do list, considered the logic of the situation carefully, all the demands on my time at present. And came to the logical, sensible, considered, responsible, loyal to my degree decision that I could not possibly start learning a new style of knitting which I would want to play with quite a lot.

And then thought: To the vilest pits of hell with logical conclusions.

Hence sitting here, knitting an entrelac scarf in front of the Canadian Grand Prix qualifying, completely ignoring my final exam revision, the projects I was supposed to finish right at the beginning of May (sorry TinniE - I will get there eventually promise!), and the interview preparation for Monday.

Meh.

All is well, Life is good, and there's narry a Steve in sight.

Thursday 2 June 2011

Rincewind Revised

At least something has been.

So I decided to knit up the luggage illusion from the chart yesterday, and immediately regretted sticking the old version online before having knitted it.
It sucks basically. It is just about possible to see the luggage, if you really want to see it. I know that this is often true of illusions, but more than normal.
So I have now revised the luggage and Rincewind charts, and well... they look far more promising. I've left the old ones available, but largely for comparison. I'll knit up these new charts when I get a second, but that won't be till later.

Damnit. I've run out of blogstuff to do.
I really must go revise ANT now.

Wednesday 1 June 2011

Rincewind up

Cause obviously this is far more important than the exam I have looming.

I finished of Rincewind illusion earlier, and decided that he would do well as a scarf end. But one end of the scarf having something awesome on it and nothing else would be a bit lonely really. So I tried for a little while to make a chart for WIZZARD; Rincewind's most famous title in case you don't know. I failed. I mean, it could look like the words if you squinted and stuff, but compared to the guy that made the POLICE BOX chart it was just a bit awful. So I abandoned that. But still Rincewind would be lonely!
Then inspiration! (potentially way too strong a word, but let me have it) Who could accompany Rincewind but his faithful retainer, the Luggage! Ok, so again retainers just not the right word, but I can't be bothered with subtleties of the English language right at this moment.

So yeah - my Rincewind illusion now has an additional Luggage illusion, which can helpfully finish the second end of the scarf. TADA! I have finally designed something that could theoretically be classed as clothing!

As per -  its on the Illusion knit page

Tuesday 31 May 2011

Getting ahead of myself

It's still exam time. Warwick has a really hideously long exam time. Half my friends at other unis not only went back later than us, but have also finished. Which is really awesome for them and all, but jealous!
On the other hand, those that now have nothing left and so have almost-graduated.... EEeeeeK! They now have to pretend to be adults! Anything more scary?
Well. Probably, but this will do for the moment.

In any case, this stupid long revision time (and the fact that I tried using my finger as a chopping board and that hasn't healed yet) mean that I have done nowt all in the way of knitting recently. But since I am insane in this particular department (and many others that I won't add here) I have been continuing with the illusion patterns. I still haven't even made it to the fuzzy/not-fuzzy elephants to find out if they're fuzzy or not in Great A'tuin. On Great A'tuin. Definitely not in. Quite clearly standing on his back. Not sure what I was thinking of there. Made it sound like the Great Old Turtle In The Sky had starting eating elephants (fuzzy or not) for breakfast.
Demonstrating the madness oh so well today huh?

Um. point. I had a point.

Oh! yeah. that I get ahead of myself.

It's not that interesting, but again its exam time and knitting is Not-maths, so I guess I'll tell you anyhow. I've been happily looking for other things to illusionate, and particularly looking for stuff to illusionate that would lend itself to other colours - largely cause I'm out of double knit black. So this lead me towards the Matrix. Obviously needs green right? Or blue if you're a purist who doesn't acknowledge the sequels. Minor issue that it really should be green and black, but whatever.
Neo Matrix Illusion knit pattern is the result of all this rambling, and revision-evading.
Again the pattern link is over in the illusion knit page.

I've also got a couple of discworld things to put online shortly. They're not that great, I mean I haven't tried them (gasp if shocked here.... no one? me either) so they could still potentially turn out amazingly, but the lack of detail was semi-deliberate. These ones - Nac Mac Feegle and Rincewind - are actually in dimensions that could easily turn into scarfs. They could in fact be something other than a panel of time consuming knitting! Success!
And coincidentally, clearly a present lined up for my discworld happy mother! Woot!

Anyways - enjoy the patterns. Bet you someone else gets through with one before I do :)

Monday 23 May 2011

Procrastiknits

Really short post coming up. List of current procrastination knitting projects.
ETs bday present (only 10 days late so far)
Brothers bday present (technically done, but not counted till I remember to post it)
off shoulder jumper
Great A'tuin illusion
Illusionating Rincewind
Illusionating Nac Mac Feegle
Illusionating Neo
Matts bday present

List of exams to do
Algebraic Number Theory
Combinatorial Optimisation

Oh, and an interview I ought to prepare for.... meh.
Knittings just more fun.

Saturday 21 May 2011

Bloody Stupid Johnson's Bloody Stupid Hat

Actually thats a really mean title. I thought it was a fun hat really. And really quick - only took about 2 days.

Not a long or particularly interesting story this... but its revision term so therefore it is upgraded to more-interesting-than-maths. Not a big upgrade in status I have to admit.
Liz saw me knitting in the chaplaincy and mentioned a hat she wanted someone to knit. It was the bloody stupid Johnson hat. (shock horror - you'd never have guessed that right!) I said I'd give it a go.

Ta Da!
A hat was created.


hum. the tada would work better if I had remembered to take a photo Before giving it to Liz.
Ah well. I'll ask her to send me one, and put it up when she does. Or I'll take a camera tonight and hope she wears it. Or something. Falalalala they're only bees.

Tuesday 3 May 2011

Tis the Season to Procrastinate, fa la la la la, la la la la!

Ring out the bells: Exam Season is HERE!!!
Joy.

Just so much joy.

Have you ever noticed that when you need to revise you end up spending at least as much time procrastinating as revising? Ok, in my case its more like double the time procrastinating as revising, but you get my point. Its boring. And in addition to needing to do all this work theres the sense of massive guilt you get whenever you are not doing work. Oh you gotta love a good old revision revision revision EXAM!!!!!!!!!! season.

Oh wait. You don't.

Anyway. Rant done. My point is that I have been doing loads of knitting recently, but at the same time feeling really guilty about it. Hence even though I'm spending more time than usual knitting, I can't get into any big projects. I think it seems like too much of a challenge, and just looks like too much time. So instead, all the little things I was going to knit for friends as listed in last post are getting done - which honest to goodness is a great thing, specially since I've only just noticed its May, and that means a new round of birthdays. Why can't I ever keep track of my life?

Back to the point, what I really want to be playing with in the knitting department is more illusion knits. I really really enjoyed doing the Death of Rats, and actually I made my own rose illusion too. I didn't bother to share that with anyone cause there's lots of that sort of pattern about on Ravelry, but it was just fun to do it from scratch myself. So I decided. I've made the pattern for another discworld illusion knit now, and will get around to the actual knitting of it later. Well. Actually. I think I'll start it off now... and just feel really guilty whenever I knit more than 5 ridges at a time. That could work.

The patterns over at scribd again, but here's the original picture I was working from. I'm not so confident with this one as with DoR, cause this one has a lot more detail and is far less line drawn. I think I've got good definition on Great A'tuin and the disc - but the elephants look a little on the fuzzy side on the chart. It's impressive how much you lose just from going over to greyscale; using only three colours makes things just a bit difficult to see.

It may work out perfectly. Thats the hope anyways.

Tuesday 26 April 2011

What goes around comes around. And what goes around was weird to start with.

In January my friend Jenni posted a pay it forwards craft thingy. Basically the first five people to yell got her to make them something, and they in return made something for five people. Not that surprisingly I signed up, and even less shockingly I haven't yet actually done a damn thing about it. But we are shoulder deep into revision time for final exams at Warwick uni, so what better time could there be to procrastinate with totally random knitting projects?


On that line of thought, I bring exciting news (to a certain kind of mind its exciting) about one of my Christmas present knits.
Apparently, Mrs Darlick has acquired a boyfriend.

I think someones sanity may have cracked, the problem is I can't tell if its mine, or Timo and Aicha's. Oh well. another rung knit.








by the way - I only had 3 takers in January. 2 random knitted things remain for the taking

Wednesday 30 March 2011

Illusion of DEATH!!! (for rats)

So mother's day is coming up. Great starting line for a blog post with DEATH!!! in the title right? Well. I like it. There is even a point, and more shockingly a connection. Which you never know I might get to, but first a side-ramble to explain the rambly nature of this post. It is in honour of my mothers manner of speech, in turn in honour of mother's day.
My mum speaks in a kind of random walk. She'll start a sentence, and then there'll be a 50-50 chance that the next word will arrive at a sensible time or that a gap will appear. This process is then repeated until either the sentence finishes or more likely she forgets what she was trying to say and stops. Then shortly afterwards, chances being regardless of any response from those around her, there will be another random event: this one with options of silence, response that follows the conversation, or another sentence starting with the word also, and then being about something that is just not connected. On the surface anyway. Apparently to her it all makes perfect sense, but some of the conversation she's having wasn't necessarily shared with the rest of us.
Bah.
So in that vain, also I've knitted a Death of Rats illusion.

I've decided I like illusion knitting, except for the minor issue that it involves a LOT of stitch counting, which removes it from the mindless category of knitting. I haven't done much of it (till now), only about a third of a Dr Who pattern I got off Ravelry, and the rose thing I gave my Rev mortal this term. I wanted to do something different, preferably something I made up for myself.
I found a site that gave a tutorial of how to make up your own illusion knit patterns, and decided that Death of Rats (from Terry Pratchett's Discworld for those unfortunate enough not to instantly know) would be awesome.
It took a surprisingly long time to make up the pattern, but I was so pleased with it, that I just had to start the knitting of it instantly, interrupting the five or so other knitting projects I have on the go. Woops. I really have a short attention span when it comes to knitting - everything is too cool, and I want to knit it all NOW!

So anyhow - using the tutorial I turned this:

into this:


into this:





Cool huh?



btw: the connection between DEATH!!! and mother's day that I left out a while ago is that my mum keeps stealing bits of my knitting to show off to others - she apparently thinks its something special. I disagree, and though I do really enjoy knitting it all, its kinda weird when she steals stuff just to wave it in peoples faces. Thus I thought for mother's day I'd give her something knitted, allowing her to show it off if she really wants to, and saving the rest of my knitting from being stolen. She also really likes Discworld, so I though the Death of Rats would be cool, and I just like the whole illusion thing.
See. It all makes sense.
Honest.

Ok, it doesn't, but I don't care very much. :)

Wednesday 16 March 2011

Angels fly because they take themselves lightly

At Rev(elation Rock Gospel Choir, but just way too much of a mouthful there so just Rev) we have angels and mortals. In fact I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before in this blog, cause last time I made Emma a little penguin for her final present. So this term we all had new angels and mortals, and my angel this term Rocked!


So the first week I got some amazing chocolate flowers and a card with pretty pictures of knitted flowers on:
then the next week was the day after Valentines, and I got given some jammy dodgers and chocolate heart things, and most awesomely again two knitted hearts:
I think this one is my favourite knitted thing my awesome angel sent me :) She left a note on the card saying she thought I'd appreciate it. She knows me so well.


I also got brownies one week with this picture
Which I fully admit made me think that Joey was my angel for a little while. Him and his puns. Ah revy times and tea (TeaRiffic!)


The whole thing actually made me feel kind of guilty, cause what I gave my mortal was kinda random, and crazed. I was kind of making it up as I went along, giving her whatever seemed like a good idea at the time, which, well. Lets just say thats somewhat similar to the line of 'rational' thinking that got me doing a mathematics degree at Warwick in the first place. I mean, it works out OK, but really by chance rather than any wonder of planning. 
But last night for her final presents I gave her a pink knitted elephant, and a rose illusion thing, both of which I thought about in advance and everything.

Also, last night I found out who my angel was; Jors! It turns out that since she didn't have a clue of what to do for me, she Facebooked me, and found this blog! Gotta love the way the world goes round really :D




Thursday 24 February 2011

a goal achieved

I am in my final year of a Warwick mathematics degree. Its awesome - entirely because of non-maths related things, and the fact that this is now the FINAL year of maths. But this week I managed to achieve one of the goals I've had for a little while now. Don't worry - it has nothing to do with maths, I have no maths goals at all. Other than, you know, passing my degree..... oh and teaching maths......

Anyway.
So one of my lecturers this term is Colin Rourke. He's kind of got a reputation for being illegible, but he's now teaching knot theory which involves vast amounts of drawing. On blackboards. And... he's kind of making up the course as he goes along and has not really worked through much of it before lectures cause to him its all easy and/or trivial. Example being when he proved that the 3sphere unravels in 5space by saying -"just look at it. It's obvious!" I don't know about you but I can not see stuff in 5 dimensions. 4 hurts my head enough. But Rourke likes trying to draw 5 dimensional things on blackboards. Head explosion is  a regular event in knot theory.
Oops. I've drifted too close to maths here.
Anyway. 
The point of all this is that on Tuesday he was trying to draw something involving a markov move, a bad arc, a braid and other such rubbish that noone ever anywhere is really interested in if they are absolutely honest. He drew it. Stared at it. Rubbed out bits. Stared at it. "oh dear".
About 5 minutes later while he was still staring I started knitting. 
He ended the lecture still trying to draw that thing. I finished it with an extra inch of knitting on my new jumper.
Happy days. :)

Friday 28 January 2011

One True Scarf

There have been many scarves across the years. Year. There's been the rainbow scarves, the lacy scarves (scarf), the scarf that turned into a cape for a flying weasel; no really. There's been all kinds of weird patterns, some of which I even managed to finish and everything.
But now there is, the one, the only, the one true scarf.

So, Ste's birthday was only nearly a month ago; which is pretty good going for me. So I've knitted him a scarf with the Japanese character for true on it.


Was slightly concerned about that one - I didn't know whether it was actually a real character until I actually gave the thing to him, so I spent about a week knitting the scarf without knowing whether or not I had already ruined it. I hadn't  - yayness!

Now on to the next fail at birthday knitting :)

Sunday 23 January 2011

Nothing to do with Knitting

Fate hath conspired against me.
As it has wont to do.


I really hate fate.


Subjects I really shouldn't share cause I won't want to when I'm sober: my faith, my lovelife, my friends lovelives, how much I hate/love respective members of the set of my friends, how much I hate that I use mathematical language, my life.

And; hey look. I'm just sober enough.
I hate my life.

Friday 21 January 2011

I didn't know it was a real hat!


So. Steve asked me to knit this hat. Its a really ugly hat. It has ugly ear flaps in bright red, an ugly shape in bright orange, and a really ugly crown in bright yellow. Its ugly. Really really ugly.


So I was knitting it anyways, making it considerably less ugly by changing to a pattern that had real shape, and better ear flaps, and stuff... And then Suzz explained that if we watched firefly it would all make sense. Darnit. It is a real hat. I didn't know it was a real hat. I didn't! It not my fault!
However cause I am an idiot and am really really pedantic about all this knitting melarky, I have just spent a long time unraveling the red portion of the hat that I was knitting in order to do it right. More ugly. But right.

Bleh.
Firefly costume people should get more taste. Or I need to recognize when something is actually a geek thing, .... or something.

and here is the finished article. bleh.

Sunday 9 January 2011

The Mattinator

So Matt Brennan is one of my close friends at uni. He's a second year mathmo, and is the publicity officer of Focus, president of Photo Soc, and all round computer wizz. For example, last year at the end of term my computer totally died - due to lack of memory as it turns out - and within 6 hours Matt and Ste had totally revived it. Incredible - cause I couldn't actually turn the damn thing on.
Anyway. Tonight in the pub Jenni mentioned something about a program that would really help with knitting complicated repeating patterns - say 8 rows or something - that you use a row counter for. Her idea was that if you had a computer it ought to be possible to have something that highlights the relevant row of the pattern - specially as me and Jenni both get most if not all patterns off Ravelry.
So, Matt, the awesome, the Mattinator, got out his laptop in the middle of the pub, and started spewing code in such a way that he has created such a program. Its awesome. Try it sometime.
http://onehundredandfiftythree.co.uk/knit/
This is totally and completely Matt's hard work, but it is going to be so useful I can't quite resist sharing it. Thanks Matt!

Its really awesome having pet computer geniuses.
ps. Not a derogatory term, but a term of AWEsomeness.

Saturday 1 January 2011

New Years Resolution of the Knitting Variety

OK. This would be a more interesting post if I actually had more than 2 resolutions.
  1. Start my Christmas knitting in November, and not say 2 and a half weeks before Christmas. 
  2. Listen to Suzie more - or - actually finish the projects I cast on
    1. Dr Who illusion
    2. Lacy scarf
    3. Socks
    4. Ema's Bday pressie
    5. Rob's Bday pressie
I guess that would also be a good resolution
   
    3.  Finish birthday knits Before their birthdays

So basically - be more sensible, and manage time better. 
Never gonna happen. 
:(