Textileophile

 It's been a few weeks and I've been doing a lot of good stuff!  There's reading, cross stitching, some knitting and spinning. So, without further ado, I suppose I'll start where I left off last time. Pokemoning Progress! I finished page 2!  Woohoo! At this rate I'll be done.. uh, in awhile.  It's OK though.  No one is expecting me to finish this any time soon.  I keep thinking that I wished I worked on it more, but then again, I have a lot of fun things I've been doing and I like the idea of spreading my fixations around. I finished the first sock: The great fitting experiment is turning out to be a great success! I am well into the second sock, but Zac's on nights, so my knitting time is being usurped by youtube crafting. A few weeks ago I won a prize from one of my thread families.  It was a stuffed moogle! I immediately put her on my bookshelf next to the tonberry and Vivi: And then I ordered yarn for making a chocobo.  Had to be done.  H...

You all remember the last pair of socks I knit?  yes, yes?  It was the reknit of the pink and white from January.  I reknit them on double zero needles (that's 1.75 mm for the international folk). I finished them:   And they are lovely and soft and have a much better gauge than they did from the first knitting. But alas, they didn't fit that well.  WOMP WOMP.  I had a sinking feeling they wouldn't.  but! Do not fret!  I've gifted them to Hazel who wears size 7 shoe.  They fit her great! Win/win! I did start some new socks, for myself this time.  I decided to stick with the 00 needles, because the gauge really was good on the pink and white. They're just a touch tighter than the 0s were when I originally started knitting socks on 0s quite a few years ago. Anyway, all that to say, the great sock fitting experiment has continued.  This time the adjustments I made were two-fold.  I upped the stitch count from 64 to 68 stitches, and...

 It's only been about a week since I last posted, but boy howdy, do I have news! Well, I'll start from the beginning.  Two or three weeks ago, Zac ordered ceiling fans for the living room, office and bedrooms.  We spent the next week installing them.  It wasn't too difficult, the wiring in the house is brand new, and it was just a matter of getting them up there.  I helped, naturally, and it was a very productive week. Hazel's room was the penultimate one.  I sat on her carpet putting rubber grommets in the fan blades for attaching the metal bits while Zac was doing the wiring and installing the fan base.  I was admiring the pokemon, you know the first generation I stitched in 2021? Such an enormous amount of stitching, over 115 thousand little exes.  And so much fun to watch all the little monsters take shape. And then... I felt that familiar pull.  The one that makes me do nutty things like stitching entire pokemon generations.  When I...

 Well, shoot.  Another few weeks have gone by and uh, I'm afraid to say the reading train is still a chuggin'. There was some crafting though. I brought out my e-spinner, Ariel, for some continuation of this spin:       This is Merino bamboo, slippery as all get out, but not unenjoyable. I've been spinning on this while watching short things on youtube (things like catching up on a few knitting podcasts, watching Dansg08 play FFX using only 'attack')  Not actually very much progress, really, but if you work on something for 30-60 minutes every day-ish, you're likely to see progress. Last I talked, I was working on the redo socks from earlier this year.  I officially re-finished the first one, but I officially did not take a picture.  oop. The kids were on Spring break last week!  They mostly slept.  I had to pry them out of bed in the late afternoons to eat something before they crawled back to their dark hiding holes, only their faces a...

I, uh, feel weird posting again cause it's been a few weeks and I don't have very much at all craft-wise to show for it. I know I said I'd spin.  And I did.  A little bit. Well, now that looks like a lot a bit, but I have 3 more bobbins to fill and since this happened I have done fuck all on my wheel.  Shameful. And in fact, my drive band snapped when I was nearly done with this braid (this is 4 ounces of polwarth for the uninitiated/ forgetful among us).  I was able to reaffix the ends together with a bit of fire and gumption, but looking at it, well, it's yellowing.  And it's nearly 8 years old.  So, I did the thing and ordered a new one.  This isn't so strange. Wheels, like some other tools, have parts that are good for the life of it as long as you take care of them-- the wheel itself and all the wood and metal bits.  And then there are the parts that wear out like the drive band and the footman ties and the leather bits. All part of wheel upk...

So, you know how I said I'd be spinning a lot and there wouldn't be a lot to share.. Weeell, I lied.  and not only did I lie, I have things to share and I *haven't been sharing.*  Beyond shameful. I suppose I'll start where I left off last month.  No, I haven't really spun at all since then.  I watched The Good the Bad and the Ugly while spinning one day, fantastic movie, fantastic spinning.  And then I haven't spun at all since then. In fact, I've picked up my crochet hooks and have been doing a lot of nerdy things.  Things like replaying FFX and FFIX.  Things like, crocheting a Tonberry and finishing up the crochet part of my cardigan. Very little knitting has been happening, but I'm OK with that. So, on to the crafting: A Tonberry if you're uninitiated is a reoccurring nightmare in the final fantasy multi-verse.  He's a small, slow guy with a kitchen knife and is not afraid to stab you with his kitchen knife. XD I am going to go out on a limb ...

It's only been a few days, but I have some good things to chat about! I have a round up of finishes to talk about and a fancy new start.  Good things. First things first:   I finished my socks! These are nice.  I luff them. Secondly, I finished my final fantasy 9 epic cross stitch! This finish feels really good.  I love the way it turned out.  I am.. mmm.. a little unhappy with the subtle back-stitching I added, but it's not really my forte and it's fine.  I'm, well, I'm kind of proud of my work here.  It was a lot of it-- from the drawing of the pixel art and the converting it to a design to the stitching itself. The stitching was almost the least of it, cause I can cross stitch just about anything.  The title did get a bit long, but overall, it was an enjoyable cross stitch! I took a few hours in between finishing this and diverting my energies.  I had a big job to tackle, and it directly involved floss.  See, when I bought the 180ish ...