verbminx's blog

Notes on November 2007's best free knitting patterns

I did this, and people like it, and I'm doing more, but I need to skip November and December (these take forever to write, I haven't had time to tackle them, and last year is kind of too long ago now). However, I already went through a week or two of November info, so here it is. Knitting patterns only, and it doesn't cover the whole month.

All of this stuff was posted to Knitting Pattern Central in November 2007; then I went through it, weeded out patterns I thought were on the cheesy or incomprehensible side, and wrote descriptions for what was left.

Sweaters

Easy Stripes Knit Jacket: Please ignore the absolutely blinding self-striping yarn (unless you like it, I guess -- it is cheerful) and concentrate on the shape of the jacket. You can make this in any plain wool yarn that knits up at 5.5 stitches per inch at its recommended needle sizes. (Though, keep in mind that the sweater itself is actually knit at 19 stitches per 4 inches; it's the yarn that has a recommended gauge of 22 stitches per 4 inches.)

Fitted Knit Jacket: Knit in a bulky weight yarn, this jacket continues the trend of large, deconstructed collars that were so popular in knitting patterns this past year.

Leaves Jacket: Really more of a cardigan. This pattern, with its leafy, trailing vines, is only available in one size. Unlike some similar freebies, the size is a relatively generous one (about an XL).

Red Summer Top: Light, lacy cables. I am not ordinarily a fan of this kind of square short tunic top, but it has been in fashion this past year.

Saddle Shoulder Pullover: From Unicorn Books. I think almost every man I know owns some version of this sweater. The ribbing on the side helps with the fit.

Seamless Baby Kimono: Available in versions for both regular and bulky yarns! Cute. Australian terms, but in this case that mostly just means metric.

Shawl Collar Short Sleeve Pullover: Something like a vest alternative, a very textured piece that's a bit more refined than the "Red Summer Top" above, though they are similar in shape.

Snowflower Cardie: Cardigan in two possible lengths with Norwegian motifs.

Southwestern Ornament Jacket: Again, more of a cardigan, with colorful panels on a solid ground. Fair Isle and some interesting cables.

White Cable Knit Sweater: A classic and feminine high-necked Aran design.

Headwear

Horseshoe Hat: Cables decrease in size as they climb this classic cap. (Ordinarily, I like to see cables that flow out of ribbing if the two are combined, but I cannot tell if that's the case in this hat without making it... the photos don't show enough.)

Jingle Bell Taos Hat: For babies, kids, and brave or carefree adults. A loose cap made with this stripey yarn becomes a jingling crown when judiciously stitched and embellished.

Oregon Rose Cloche: Picot edging and an interesting embellishment idea make this one extra-cute. Try different colors for spring!

R2-D2 Beanie: Should this be under "Whimsies"? Maybe. It's a beanie that looks like the dome of R2-D2's head, for all your favorite Star Wars fans (and for a very lazy costume, when necessary). Complete with protruding spokes. You need this.

Scarves and Shawls

Criss Cross: Basic scarf with interlaced panels, a motif that's been popular for the last couple of years.

Dragon Scales Shawl: Simple diamond lace. Try this after you've done a lace scarf.

Holding Hands, Feeding Ducks Scarf: "Simple and sweet, like holding hands and feeding ducks." Easy star-stitch scarf in a mottled yarn. Don't knit this one too tightly or use a yarn that's intensely colorful: you wouldn't want to distract from its quiet beauty.

Osiris Scarf: Lovely and intricate cabled scarf with a very high-end look.

Pink Ribbon Hat: Features the "pink ribbon" design related to breast cancer awareness. The designer, Carissa, suggests that you could represent many causes by changing the color. (And I suggest that, if you're adept at stranded knitting, you could change the colors of just the ribbons, or the ribbons and the small cables between the panels, for a two-color look. If not trying it in two colors, you might want to skip the suggestion that you use a rainbow variegated yarn: the cable design will not show up well in a variegated yarn with intense colors.)

Bags

Ballonnett: French for "Little Balloon" (I assume), this is a small, round, drawstring handbag with a ton of vintage charm and many possible uses.

Candy Striper: Glittery, stripey, happy candy-cane goodness, by Vickie Howell. Not just for winter, if you like to wear red and white like I do.

Socks

Pulsations Socks: Lacy ankle socks. The recommended yarn adds a fashionable jolt of color.

Sideways Socks: This design uses self-striping yarn and a provisional cast-on to create stripes that run up and down the leg. After the body has been knit, the sock is grafted into a tube and a toe is added to one end.

Whimsies

Baby Santa Suit: UK terms. This is terribly kitschy, but also cute, and I can imagine that some people will want one for their wee moppet.

Baked With Love washcloth: A shadow pattern of baking supplies. Make this one in light colors, so the motif will stand out.

Knitted Baby Set: A hat, blanket, and sweater. Hearts and dots and multiple pom-poms, for maximum adorability.

Loom-Knit Snowflakes: Well, why not? You can use these in ornaments, embellishments, jewelry, etc.

Poison Coffee Cozy: Yarr! Don't be stealin' me brew, ya scurvy dog! It's a skull-and-crossbone motif drink cozy knit with a stranded technique. That might mean poison, or it might mean pirates: you decide.

Ribbon of Hope Washcloth: In the same theme as the Pink Ribbon Hat above, this washcloth has a heart-shaped two-color Pink Ribbon motif.

Squiddy: This felted squid is not as small as you might think, but he is kind of cute.

Stewie Griffin Doll: As suggested in one comment, Stewie's dreams of world domination have finally come to fruition as he joins a select group of recognizable cartoon characters rendered into knit amigurumi form. Now, practice your best Sheridan Whiteside voice to go along with him.

 

I also chose a couple of mitten patterns, but I have no idea where to put them.

http://knitwithkt.blogspot.com:80/2007/11/basic-mens-mittens.html

Lady Moss Mittens: Thrummed mittens are extra-warm.

Where did March go?

I need to stop drafting posts and then not actually posting them.

I haven't been posting much lately because I'm super-duper busy as heck. Both the lead bloggers at DIY Life (one is darkmatt3r) stepped down at the beginning of March, and a couple of other ladies and I replaced them (the fact that it took three people to replace two harried ones, and the fact that all three of us are still very busy, might give you an idea of how much work we're talking about).

I wrote two long things in March, too. My article about Hinamatsuri, a holiday I think is really nifty because it involves super-fancy dolls, didn't get a ton of hits (but maybe people will discover it over time). There are some craft patterns at the end... a paper diorama, little cloth dolls, etc.

I also did a free knit/crochet pattern round-up for Easter: bunnies and lambs (or, if you prefer, rabbits and baby sheep). More cuteness per column inch than I knew what to do with. I want to make just about everything I listed, but I can't justify doing so. Anyway: Bunnies and Lambs to Knit, Bunnies and Lambs to Crochet.

I'm getting back on those "best free patterns of the month" columns, but skipping a few months. I have notes for a month that I'm not going to cover, so I will post them here. Later today, probably.

W/r/t my last post, I haven't yet bought any dolls. I did find that my local Japanese market is selling a few basic Re-Ment sets, so I bought one (single, not case) box of "Kawaii Kitchen" and one box of some food-based set. I don't think these are the new Americanized versions. Most of their other candy toy sets are based on, like, Power Rangers or some kind of mecha.

I banged my finger up pretty good last week, and in doing so, learned something: if you have a choice between Hello Kitty Band-Aids and non-Hello Kitty Band-Aids, get the Hello Kitty ones. They're bigger than the WaterBlock style anyway, and they will make you smile (at least, they will if you are me). I've been covering my bandaids in porous clear tape, then wearing a rubber finger cot every time I have to wash my hands.

I have managed to get a friend totally obsessed with Death Note. Now we are having long philosophical debates about A) whether or not we would use the Death Note, and how, and B) our deep, abiding love for L. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you clearly spend your leisure time more wisely than I do. (To be fair, though, everyone I know who sees the show becomes mildly obsessed with it. This includes my previously-animation-hating mother, who has also fallen hard for Ratatouille and anything from Studio Ghibli.) 

(I'm also giggling at the moment, because Law & Order: Criminal Intent is on, and the suspect's last name is Morrissey, so they're saying things like, "I DON'T THINK MORRISSEY COULD HAVE PLANNED THIS ON HIS OWN," and I'm like, NO, HE WAS TOO MISERABLE, HE WILL BE CAUGHT WHEN JOHNNY MARR TURNS HIM IN....)

Doll eat doll world & awesome Valentines

I wrote a post here the other day, but I haven't posted it yet, because I have been working (by which I mean, "not working") on some images for it. Here is an entirely different, inappropriately long post for you. Which took hours to write.

The following is Full of Win:

Vintage Valentines (Press Out Book)

Golden Books

It's a collection of punch-out cards, all of which have red flocking on them (that's velvety stuff). Every single one looks like it was produced at some point between about 1950 and 1965. There are envelopes in the middle, which are printed and themed to go with the cards, but you have to assemble the envelopes. At only $5, I think it's a really good addition to my ephemera collection. (My mom is in her early 50s. When she saw the book, she exclaimed that it was just like the Valentines that were given out among her classmates in elementary school in the early 1950s, so it definitely gets the retro seal of approval.)

Through a combination of circumstances that would be wearisome to describe, I have wound up thinking of buying myself some dolls. I used to collect dolls and some action figures in a casual manner. I bought a blonde 1972 Blythe before they became popular again (or, rather, at the cutting edge of that trend), but my girl needed some work and I wound up selling her to a Japanese collector a few years later because I didn't feel like doing things like rerooting her and finding a new leg for her and etc, and I figured that being paid $1200 for the pleasure of letting someone else do it would be ideal.

Blytherr

Anyway, when I sold my original Blythe, I also had a doll from the first issue of Rosie Red, who is very pretty. (I still have her, but a lot of my stuff is packed willy-nilly in boxes, and I have no idea where she is.) That doll is now worth upwards of $400, and I've considered selling her and buying Rosie Red Encore/Again, basically the same doll for a lot less money. However, I can't remember if I ever opened the box, and I have no idea what her condition will be when I find her. (The Rosie Red photo is taken from this Flickr page.)

I quit following Blythe for a while, because my heart was won over by a similar, slightly less-expensive doll named Pullip. I think it had something to do with a few of the earlier releases of Pullip having stars in their eyes! So, I got my first (so far only) Pullip about two years ago: Greggia. (The photo below is from this Flickr page.)

Pullipgreggia

Yeah, Pullip Greggia has this wacky wool-nerd theme; it all seems sort of Swiss-Alpen. She comes with this hilarious ram hat, a little lamb toy to cuddle (and her eyes close, so it's easy to make it look like she's sleeping), and needles and yarn. She's totally pose-able, like all Pullips. She also has what I think is one of the prettiest stock face-ups of all the Pullip dolls. (Hey, look: the Greggia prototype had blonde hair, instead of auburn.)

There have been a few dolls in the interim that I would have purchased (like Papin and Assa and Paja and Savon and a couple of the related Dal dolls, like Sooni and Fiori), but recently I fell hard for another Pullip that I wanted to add to my collection: Veritas. She's supposed to be "a Venetian explorer," but really she looks like Pirate Pullip Mark II, or perhaps more accurately Restoration Pullip; the first pirate Pullip was Rovam, who was more fantasy and less historical-looking.

Now, of course, since Pullip Veritas was the thing at the top of my Christmas list, with little stars and hearts around it and a note that said, "Everything else is optional but this is the thing I really want; I don't even need anything else!" -- of course, that being the case, Veritas was the one thing on my Christmas list that I didn't get. I got a promise to purchase it in January, but I'm pretty sure the person who made the promise (who was overly generous to me at Xmas anyway) can't actually afford to blow $100 on a doll right now.

The problem is that I've spent so much time plotting my purchase and sending telepathic "please arrive early" signals to my paycheck that I've had ample opportunity to look at other doll stuff, and found myself falling back in love with a few of the newest Blythes. So now I could quite easily spend my entire next paycheck on dolls (I didn't say I would, just that I could).

The specific doll that has caught my eye is Welcome Winter; she just came out very recently. I realize that she looks a lot like Pullip Greggia, actually: essentially neutral country print dress, pale jacket and head scarf, light brown hair. Her hair is ashier than Greggia's. I love that she wears a rabbit pendant, and then the same rabbit charm is at the end of the string that you pull to change her eyes (usually it's just a ring or, maybe, a tab... 72 Blythe had a ring but I think some of the newer ones might not). She has special, non-standard eye chips: two different shades of brown instead of a pink and an orangy golden brown. Before someone who has actually seen a photo of me gets around to saying it: yeah, when you display her blue eyes, she looks as much like me as a Blythe is likely to ever look. Maybe my hair isn't that dark. (The photo below is from this Flickr page.)

Blytheww1

Blytheww2

(The above photo is from this Flickr page.)

I have been looking around, though; I also love the following, and could be happy with any of them... in spite of their lack of a rabbit pull-string charm:

• Dainty Biscuit is very Victorian Princess (and not particularly hime-loli, I think), with long, wavy, light pink hair. To match her dress -- like you do. (Well, when I had pink hair -- darker pink than that -- I tended to have to match my clothes and lipstick to it!) She also has special eye colors, like purple! (Dainty Biscuit Flickr Pool.)
• Enchanted Petal has a dress that actually looks like it could have been decorated with candy sprinkles, and has light aqua-colored hair. She also has special eye colors. (Enchanted Petal Flickr Pool.)
• Pullip Prunella is one of the very newest Pullips; she is a special collaboration with h.Naoto, a Japanese street fashion brand (IE, very "alternative") and comes with a small human-size h.Naoto tote bag. Dal Hangry is also part of this line. These were hard-to-get in pre-order but for the moment people seem to be selling them for reasonable prices (more like a Neo-Blythe than a Pullip, but not too high).
  
• Pullip Blanche -- I don't like her outfit, but I do like her face paint and wig, and the wigs are interchangeable, so it seems like this might be one to buy naked on eBay at some point.
• There's a whole line of inexpensive re-releases of 1972 Blythe by Ashton-Drake, and there are several I'd like from that line (Medieval Mood, Lounging Lovely, etc).
  
• I could go on forever.
  

And then there is the whole matter of me discovering J-Doll! Some of the releases aren't too cool, but others, like Camden High Street, Negen de 9 straatijes, In-sa-dong, and Josephsplatz really are. I like the doll portion of some of the others, like Takeshita Street and Punkaa Street, but not the outfits they're wearing. Like, I think Takeshita Street would look better in Camden High Street's outfit, or In-sa-dong's. They are made by the maker of Pullip, JUN Planning.

The worst thing is that I want a BJD really badly, have for around 5 years, probably an Elfdoll Lishe (here's a brunette Lishe and a blonde Lishe), and I was going to save up for that because it's like $600 and I really shouldn't buy it to begin with, and my plans are in ruins! I also need bookshelves! Egad!

I've left the role of Alice Cherry Blossom: Ballerina out of all of this; basically, I was going to buy her, instead of the Pullip doll, until I realized she's only five inches tall. Yeah, for $300, which was a stretch for me to begin with... when I thought she was more like 9 inches. She's cute but she's not that cute (that's like $60/inch!). Deciding not to buy her was what made me start to think about picking up Welcome Winter or one of the others.

Of course, the crafty application of all this is that I can customize them practically infinitely, and if you don't believe me, look around the Flickr groups I linked. When I had my 72 Blythe I didn't make clothes for her, but I did dress her in Skipper clothes and tote her around with me for a while. Now I've upped my game with some Re-Ment miniatures and so forth, and am working on getting or making or customizing some tiny furniture.

(The other doll thing I am super-bad at: I tend not to give them individual names. My Pullip Greggia is Greggia, which I pronounce "GREH-jee-ah", my Blythe was always Blythe, Rosie Red Blythe is Rosie Red, etc. Everyone else's dolls seem to be named things like Molly and Wren. If I ever got that BJD I'd probably just call it Lishe.)

*

All that aside: we are getting the sub-zero temps that have been sweeping across the Midwest this week. I just got a weather advisory in my browser that suggests that I cover any exposed skin before going outside. I tried to put the dog's sweater on her before I took her out this morning, and she was having none of it, trust me.

*

Finally, a few interesting (totally girly and appropriate for this post) art links:

Macoto Takahashi: Ultra-shoujo manga style, and I mean retro-shoujo. In 2001 I bought a little cardboard sliding-drawer organizer box at a NYC shop called Air Market that sold imported Japanese stuff; it had one of her illustrations printed on it. I also got some rub-on transfers of her art there at the same time (I gave one packet to a friend). I had no idea what the artist's name was until now.

Annika Wester: Sort of a cross between Jeffrey Fulvimari and Edward Gorey. Her official portfolio doesn't have a ton of stuff, so also check out this Annika Wester page and this Annika Wester interview (where they also bring up Edward Gorey; glad it's not just me).

print and pattern

Yes, I should be asleep.

Yes, I had intended to be asleep.

Yes, my sleep "schedule" is currently a thing of havoc and dismay.

But it's very, very cold in my bedroom, so I've been up while waiting for my new heated mattress pad to dry! A wonderful early Xmas gift from my mom, to ensure that I don't have ridiculous chill-induced foot cramps while I'm trying to sleep.

I found a few utterly wonderful things. I wrote about one for DIY Life, and you'll just have to see that when it goes up. The other is not really appropriate for that site, so here it is. I think it's wonderful.

Print and Pattern blog

(They showcase the sort of things that I collect... and are perfect for all those of you who have lately been head-over-heels about that Petit Pattern book series from Japan. Oh, I'll admit it: there are a few of them on my Amazon Wishlist, too.)

Mail order is fun

Oh, dear. So now my fiance, who I have depended on to be the Hauler of Stuff throughout our relationship but particularly since our car accident (he wasn't very injured, and healed quickly), has hurt his back.

Worse, he has no idea how! It's been bothering him mildly on and off for the last week. He drove 90 minutes each way on Thanksgiving Day, sitting in an uncomfortable folding chair most of the day in the interim, then on Saturday and Sunday, he exhibited at a convention where he also sat all day on uncomfortable chairs.

He takes stuff into the con, too, but the thing I can think of that is most likely to have injured him is his Tub O' Original Art For Sale, which is so heavy that I can't even attempt to pick it up without pain. (It's several hundred sheets of bristol board, around 12x15ish.) Don't know, though. There was no moment where he did something and then thought, "I shouldn't have done that."

He has lots of good drugs from the doctor, two days off work, and a heating pad that I lent him after his appointment this morning.

On top of all this, as mentioned in my last psot, my dog has been sick this past week. Not too horribly sick, but she had a bladder infection and a yeasty ear infection. She's still being treated for both. $400 so far; I took responsiblity for half of it. *groan*

I found the missing library book I mentioned in that post. It was right where it should have been, in my stack of library books on the part of the bookshelf that I reserve for them, only I couldn't see it. It was between two larger books. I was looking at the spines, and the book I sought was pushed back a little, so the spines of the larger books met around it! You could only see that it was there by looking at the stack from a different angle.

 

Button Angst

And now, to the title of the post!

The other night, as a Present To Me, I ordered this purple cashmere v-neck cardigan and the matching tank that you can see in the picture. They were on sale ($60 total), and I like to be warm in the winter. It isn't here yet.

 

Purplecashmeresweater

 

I've heard some bad things about this year's Target cashmere (like, "it's thin and itchy"), so we'll see. Last year's was great. Eucalan wash -- I use the lavender version -- helps soften most protein-fiber clothing, and you can also use a bit of diluted hair conditioner on cashmere to soften it further, as long as you can stand the conditioner being against your skin.

It seems as though the buttons will color-match, but they look whitish in some of the photos, and it's difficult to tell whether they match or not. They might have picked up a flash reflection, or they might just be light-colored buttons.

I love the intaglio/lens/cabochon buttons made by Winky and Dutch, which are a picture under a clear dome set into a metal backing and which the company itself seemingly only sells to merchants. Some time ago a friend's cousin added an entire set of their pin-up girl buttons to a sweater she had de-and-re-constructed for herself.*

It looked really cool, but the buttons themselves are pricey, as buttons go, and not all that easy to find. I'm more likely to buy something in person than to mail order it. For example, somewhere -- still in the mess of boxes from my last move -- indifferently packed by the worst movers ever, and not labelled -- I have W&D barettes, the "Sad Puppy" design in a hair-pin setting, from a shop I used to go to. Their other jewelry is not too difficult to find.

So, I noticed that ReproDepot has been having a sale on the W&D buttons, which they sell at a decent price to begin with, most of them in two sizes. It seems like they might be trying to sell through their remaining stock. The selection has decreased over the last few years; they used to carry many more "sets" than they do, IIRC, and a lot more single-button designs. 

The problem is that my sweater, assuming I even want to replace the buttons on it, has five buttons. I don't like either of the Sci-Fi collections enough to buy one; I wanted the Robot or Tourism collection. No robots to be seen, and they only have a few of the Tourism buttons, one of which doesn't really match the others.

 

Button - london

I was going to get London/Tokyo/Hollywood/Miami, all of which have blue skies, but the only other one available is Brooklyn Bridge, which doesn't. Pegasus would have been OK as the fifth match, but it was unavailable in the smaller size, about 1/3" or so, that I needed. This is the size for "shirt" buttons. There is a larger size, more like 3/4", which would work for stuff like chunky handknit sweaters. I have at least one or two of each, but not enough to work for this project.

Some searching took me to EQuilter, which has tons of cool stuff and seems to be the only other regular online merchant of these buttons. They have a larger selection (with a few more designs at the "previous page" link), but they only sell them in sets of three -- usually three of the same button, but sometimes three thematically linked buttons -- or in larger sets. They do have the robot set.

 

Button - robots

They charge, however, much more than ReproDepot does. The buttons I wanted are around $1.50-$2, depending on whether or not there's a sale, at ReproDepot. They break down to over $3 each at EQuilter, probably because they only sell the larger size (it seems). This is a lot more than I want to spend on potentially putting wacky buttons on a sweater (even $1.50 is possibly excessive, but I've wanted to do this for so many years that I was willing to go for it).

End result: I bought six Tokyo buttons from ReproDepot for about $1.50 each. The other one I really liked was London, but I didn't think that mix-and-match would work unless each button was different, which I couldn't manage with ReproDepot's current selection. Since the sweater is purple - if I use it on that - the Tokyo design both seemed like a better match for purple and more appropriate in terms of color scheme. (Purple and sky blue seems more "Japanese" than "British", right?) Obviously, I bought one extra button "just in case."

 

Button - tokyo

It being Christmas, and having already bought the sweater set, I had to completely ignore every other thing I want from ReproDepot. (At the last link, it's the Ayumi Uyama felt animal kits: I like the deer, rabbit, dog, and duck, in order of preference. The Minigurumi kits are all pretty adorable, too: they look like designs from a book I have, Mame Wanko, which is all about tiny fabric dogs and their accessories.)

 

A Mysterious Yarn-Related Project

 

Lang mille colori 68

The other crafty thing I ordered lately was Lang Mille Colori yarn in color number 68, a sort of earthtone mix. Mille Colori is a self-striping wool/acrylic blend. #68 is on color chart 2, at that link, the strip on the far right.

This is for a mystery project for which I wanted a relatively tough self-striping yarn, worsted or bulky, with non-garish colors and thin, rapidly-changing stripes. 

I looked at a bunch of Berroco yarns: Keltic (stripe pattern too long and subtle), Jasper (composition made me worried it would pill, didn't see an appropriate color scheme, stripes also too subtle), and Foliage (the only color I liked for the project had been discontinued, plus I was worried that the spin was too loose/uneven -- it seems that Foliage is basically Berroco's version of Kureyon). I nearly chose Keltic's "Argyll" or "Tartan" colors; my friend memorably described most of the other colors as "week-old stale vomit" -- ouch. I considered Noro Kureyon (too uneven) and Big Kureyon (not the right colors for this project), and Rowan Tapestry (DK weight, too drapey).

I found Mille Colori in a weird, serendipitous way... it kept popping up in Google Image Searches, then also popped up when I did a search on "self-striping" and variations of the term at the site where I almost ordered some Keltic.

I hope people like this thing when I'm done with it, because I really have agonized over the yarn. If it goes right, it'll be a free pattern. If not, I will cry real tears of tears: I've been planning it for months, and I'm putting off another project to do it, and as I mentioned a few posts back, my last attempt went really wrong.

 

* The same girl, who supposedly didn't even particularly like me, gave me this great pair of black Doc Martens oxfords that I wear to this day. They were almost new, but she was moving and wanted to travel light, packing most of the stuff she was taking into her soft guitar case around the instrument itself. The shoes were too weighty and bulky for her to take. I still think of her gratefully every time I wear the things... and last I heard, she was doing OK.

my poor doggie

My dog is sick. It hasn't been fun.

She's been kind of "off" for a while, since her last bath, but in an indeterminate, non-symptomatic way. She threw up Sunday morning, then seemed all right (vets don't make much of dogs throwing up if they don't seem sick otherwise). Monday, she had to pee constantly. I made the appointment with the vet Monday night.

By Tuesday morning her pee had more blood in it than urine, so it was a good thing that it was time for her appointment. She's very fearful; we have to mildly sedate her to get her to cooperate enough with the vet for the vet to help her. As suspected, she has a UTI (bladder infection), as well as a mild yeasty ear infection (not a part of her general misery - just slightly itchy ears that I was going to take her in for next week anyway).

My mom was going to accompany me to my fiance's family's annual Thanksgiving shindig for the first time, but now she isn't: she's staying home with the dog. I am considering staying home as well. There's no real reason, though, except that the dog will know I'm gone and miss me, and I will worry about her all day.

She's going to be OK, but when I saw her pee blood, it freaked me out A LOT.

(My dog is a 5-year-old Shetland Sheepdog, who looks like a half-pint version of Lassie, and is an extremely smart and curious little canine lady.)

I am extremely tired, which is sort of a no-brainer if you look at the clock (it's 5AM, and I have been sleeping erratically lately), but I mean more in the sense of how much I can concentrate. My DVR is filling up with shows I'm not watching and I can barely staple my eyes open whether I've had 4 hours of sleep or 12 hours of sleep. My back is still bad, but not quite as bad as it was. At the moment, I feel sort of... hollow-eyed.

I normally have about 80 books out of the library, between my various projects (which I need to work on more systematically instead of in a ten-at-once way; the latter means little progress on any of them instead of major progress on one or two). I have just LOST A LIBRARY BOOK, something I never do... the last thing I lost from the library was Kate Bush's cd The Hounds of Love, which I only misplaced because I confused its cover with that of a Goldfrapp cd that has actual dogs on it. That was about two years ago, and I found it, but I can't find the book Fleece Dog any which where. And I want to find it. It's a slim paperback that costs $25. If I wanted to pay that much for it, I would own it already!

Made of fail and sleepiness, but mostly I think I'm just going to go to bed.

(Also: if you, like me, have an embarrassing attachment to the show Bleach and are annoyed that Adult Swim took it off the air before the end of a major story arc and, in fact, halfway through an hour-long episode, you will be thrilled to know that the ensuing episodes are available in fansub form on YouTube. Start with... oh.... 52 or 53, I can't recall which. Here's the theme song that started with the last episode that AS showed, "Ichirin no Hana," which is something about a person being awesome. Yeah, there are lyrics. Up to that point, it's the third theme song for the show, after Orange Range's "Asterisk" and UVERworld's oddly named "Dtechnolife.")

 

Bleach_-_Ichirin_no_Hana

High and Mighty Color

  

20th Century Ghosts, Salon Fantastique, and Clubbing

I haven't written about books in a while, because ha ha who has time to write about books? Who has time to read books? Mostly I just read and write for work these days: it's starting to make me feel stupid, so I've been running around the house trying to find any relatively highbrow literature that I own and haven't read yet. Need brain stretch!

Here are three things I've read recently. I didn't finish any of them.

 

 

20th Century Ghosts

Joe Hill

20th Century Ghosts, by Joe Hill.

OK, everyone knows by now that Joe Hill is one of Stephen King's kids, and everyone knows that he has oodles of genuine talent of his own.

I don't really read horror much anymore, though I was really into horror in the late 1990s. I started to find it tiresome. The thing with genre is: it's not true that it's automatically worse than mainstream realistic literature. But much of it is not necessarily better, either, so the "really great writers" in the horror genre (and in most others) are not writing great literature, they're writing very good commercial fiction. And there is nothing wrong with that, but it's not always what I'm in the mood for.

When I looked at the most recent Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, it seemed like the majority of stories chosen by Ellen Datlow (the horror side of the volume) were stories about being stuck in the hinterlands with something scary, bad backwoods-America dialect included. Add to that "so-and-so has been kidnapped by a serial killer," and you have something like 60% of all short horror fiction. It gets boring after a while, particularly when the writers are good-not-spectacular. (For me, I don't like reading a writer and knowing that I am as good as them or better; I like reading a writer from whom I can learn something, or who challenges me intellectually. For example, among the new stars of fantasy, I'm so impressed with Scott Lynch's amazing "ear" for dialogue. The rhythm is fantastic.)

So, what I'm getting at: Joe Hill is a wonderful writer, who occasionally writes things I don't like, but this collection is uneven. Christopher Golden did the intro, and has written a lot of vampire fiction, and liked the story "Abraham's Boys," which recasts Van Helsing as a fanatical, vampire-fearing sadist with two sons who hate his guts. I did not particularly like this story; there's a whole list of reasons why I didn't like it. (It's not really based on the characters, except in name only and with Dracula as a framing device. It's darker than anything I want to read right now in a way that I don't enjoy, which is nothing against the story itself; I'm just not into horror. I thought the characterization was heavy-handed.) There are several stories of the "escape from a serial killer" variety.

However, three I liked a lot:

The title story is about the ghost of a young woman who died suddenly in a movie theater during the first showing of The Wizard of Oz, and who manifests in that theater. All the people she manifests to are deeply affected by it, and somehow wind up with careers closely connected to the cinema, not least the boy she appeared to in the mid-1940s who wound up owning the theater for the rest of his life. This story, which I think is mostly about longing, has a peculiar beauty in spite of its "horrifying" moments.

There's a story a bit later which isn't a horror story at all (Hill has written in and out of genre); it lives more in the land of magical realism, and no, I don't mean "Mexico or Colombia." A kid's best friend is an inflatable boy. There's never any explanation of why the kid is inflatable: they live in a world where being born as a blow-up doll is an infrequent birth defect, and that's just how it is. He works around the logic of exactly what it would mean to be an inflatable person: mean kids would try to prick you, you'd have to avoid dog bites and excessive heat, the scars of your childhood would be covered by rubber patches. This one is quirky and elegaic.

The last of the stories I enjoyed a lot... you know, I can't remember right now. If I do remember it, I'll come back and add it. It might have been the one about the guy you think will be a serial killer all the way through the story, but he turns out to be a hero.

 

Salon Fantastique: Fifteen Original Tales of Fantasy

Salon Fantastique: Fifteen Original Tales of Fantasy edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling.

This anthology didn't really have a theme, other than "Hey, you're awesome, write us a story." I have heard a lot of praise for it, but I thought it was middling... definitely better than all those Sword and Sorceress anthologies that have given many, many young writers of heroic fantasy their start, but, you know, not Borges. And again, it's not that any of the stories I didn't like were bad... it's that they reminded me of 10 other fantasies I've read. (For example, I like Catherynne Valente, but her story here essentially reminded me of The Tower at Stony Wood by Patricia McKillip and the Ceres: Celestial Legend manga. There's really only so much you can do with a selkie. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't a standout.)

Of what I read here (not all of the stories), I was floored by Jedediah Berry's contribution. It's about a few people living in a cabin in the 1890s, running out of food for the winter, constantly negotiating with spirits who live on the perimeter of their now-spent farmland. The wife is narcoleptic and sleeps more and more; the husband has one leg and is constantly enticed by the spirits with visions of their son, a childhood suicide. A mysterious young woman, who may need to forget that she was once a Queen of either the spirits, the natives, or both, has moved in with them and does the cooking, and they've co-opted a visiting surveyor. It could be chilling, but for some reason, it's just dreamy and heartbreaking. (And I don't remember the title because I've already returned the book to the library.)

I also liked Gregory Maguire's story, which isn't really a fantasy: it's about what a gay-or-bisexual young soldier, shot in WW1, sees as he's dying, and as his lover tries to save him. Historically, I can't get into Maguire's stuff (I have most of his novels and have yet to finish even one of them), so I was pleased to like this one.

I read other stories in this anthology, but either couldn't get into them or didn't find them that interesting when I finished. Again, it's the issue of, yes, these are good writers, but ultimately I can't get into the stories they're telling.

 

Clubbing (Minx)

Andi Watson

Clubbing by Andi Watson & Josh Howard

No, no no, no no no.

I normally like Andi Watson's stuff; it's a bit fluffy, but sweet. This one is from DC's Minx line, which has made a lot of noise lately with books like The PLAIN Janes (which I thought was just OK, though illustrated by a friend of my fiance's -- the art is the best I've seen in a Minx book so far, which I'll get to in a minute) and Re-Gifters (which is my favorite of the Minx books I've read so far, about a teen Korean-American girl who has a mad crush on one of her classmates as they both attempt to compete in a martial-arts championship).

I can't really fault Minx books for being what they are: designed for girls in their early teens. From that POV, there's nothing much wrong with Clubbing, though it would probably still count as a bit shallow. The premise has promise: average teen goth girl (fashion obsessed, prone to sneaking out to clubs and lying about her age or to make herself seem more cool, etc) gets caught lying about her age to sneak into a club, then shipped off to visit her grandparents in the country. Her name is Charlotte.

 

The grandparents own a small golf resort in the Lake District; the grandmother is appropriately grandmotherly, while the grandfather is an old military man who seems like every "Old Colonel" cliche in every British book, film, or radio or television show ever. Oh, the amusement as ultra-urban ubergoth Charlotte tries to fit in with the yokels! Then a woman from her grandparents' circle makes a few mysterious remarks to Charlotte and ends up dead on the golf course -- clubbed to death, IIRC. (The title is a threefold pun.) It's a silly mystery and the solution is as far-fetched as you can imagine, but if I say that the premise of the whole thing is very similar to the movie Hot Fuzz, you might get the idea.

 

 

Hot Fuzz (3-Disc Collector's Edition)

Disaffected junior punk/goth/emo girls in their early teens might like Clubbing, but I thought it was feather-weight and paper-thin and not even worth finishing. And Hot Fuzz is much more entertaining... so skip Clubbing and watch that instead.

The art is charming enough, but beware: a lot of artists whose work is put out at this size work much larger (12x15 is, I think, what my fiance does, maybe 14x17). It allows them to send in resized image files that makes their art look crazy detailed, because they shrink it down. (This is how my fiance works, and he's very open about it. He did a book for Oni, and Minx has mined a lot of Oni's talent, though not him yet. I think he would love having the work itself, but would not enjoy the following stricture:)

Minx requires its artists to draw the art at around the same size as it will be when published, so as a result, the art in their books is not very detailed. They also require a certain degree of speed, which doesn't help the look of the eventual art.

Someone I know (not my fiance) who was approached -- and eventually rejected -- to write a book for them explained some stuff about what one of the editors is looking for; the criteria ("put in something weird!") is such that you can expect to see more ridiculous plots like the one in Clubbing. Seriously, Andi Watson seems like a really cool guy with whom I'd totally like to be friends, but shelve this one with his lesser works. Mostly, it's about Charlotte's succession of really cute outfits, with a very light emphasis on her relationships with her grandparents.

Meanwhile, I'll be on the lookout for a book that engages me enough that I can finish it. Gilbert Hernandez's Palomar stories might be just the ticket. Sopa de Pena! I'm also going to hit Middlemarch or The Diamond Age soon: supposedly awesome books I own but have never read.

And Spamalot tickets for the family, because apparently they all want to go.

Three relevant things, or more:

A) I just had a pattern go horribly wrong... well, a week or two ago. It was supposed to be a Halloween pattern, and it just didn't happen. Overambitious? I don't know. (One of my problems was that it was awfully big, on purpose, and the other was that I kept changing my mind as I went along.) Maybe it will show up on Etsy after I rework it, maybe I'll save it for next year... something like that.

B) I'm over-inspired. I have so many ideas lately that I don't have the time to put all of them into action. I bought an "idea board" and I use the Stickies program and I have more notebooks that you do, I can guarantee, but I'm still not sure I'll ever get to all of this! It's frustrating to feel overflowing with creativity (since I'm so often blocked) and to literally not have time to pursue most of my ideas. Like, I'm not doing NaNoWriMo even though I had an idea. One of the others reasons I'm not doing NaNoWriMo is....

C) I have some wicked carpal tunnel feelings in my right wrist. I think it's related to the elbow, and I think it's related to mousing (because that is very uncomfortable too), and it's really getting on my nerves! My fiance wears leather wristbands all the time... not because he's a hard-core six-plus-foot-tall guy with a shaved head and leather wristbands, YEAH!, but because he used to be a grocery store cashier and he got carpal tunnel that way. (T. is tall and shaven-headed, it's true, but definitely not menacing.) I do not want to wear leather wristbands for the rest of my life... I wear very little jewelry. But I will wear Hand-Eze gloves or a wrist brace or something for a while.

Anyway, I have not been able to handle my 18-hour keyboard marathons recently. Some nights I can't really type at all.

The wrist issue may or may not have something to do with the regular metal Clover crochet hook I was trying to use in developing the pattern in "A." I couldn't figure out why my arm was tiring quickly and hurting when I crocheted; then I assumed it was because of the shape of the hook head. It wasn't.

Clover is a Japanese brand, and the hooks are approximately 1/2" shorter than the similar metal Susan Bates hooks I'm used to! Is this because your typical Japanese lady is approximately 6" or so shorter than me with a much smaller frame? No idea. I picked up a Clover deluxe comfort handle hook to try, and haven't had problems with it at all... so the issue wasn't the head of the hook.

This week I also have pain and stiffness straight up my right arm, shoulder, and neck. It's the most problematic my back has been in months. I'm only seeing the chiropractor once a week now (the insurance company wants to cut me off and I don't want to owe my firstborn child to the chiropractor if they do)... it was OK for a while, but the last two weeks have been hard & I would have gone twice this week if I could have.

(Obviously, it feels a bit better tonight, or I wouldn't be able to write this.)

There's this whole "Buy Handmade for the Holidays" thing going around: clever collective marketing on the part of people who make stuff! I considered taking the pledge, but here's the thing. I'm going to buy whatever I think is best for the people I'm buying stuff for, whether or not it's handmade, without being made to feel guilty. Consumerism is consumerism whether the item came from Etsy or not. (We're not talking about imported Fair Trade goods per se, though I believe those also fill the criteria of the pledge.) 

On the flip side of that, I have a friend who made a family agreement a few months ago that all holiday presents would be handmade by the givers, and she doesn't feel like she's going to have time. I'm not making anything for anyone this year, probably, because I know that I don't have time. (See also: ouchy wrist.)

& speaking of Etsy, I'm noticing a trend I don't love: people opening shops to sell thrifted/vintage stuff that is not in any way handmade. I'm not talking about revamped stuff or vintage craft supplies. I'm talking about home decor items and used boots. HI, THAT'S WHAT EBAY IS FOR! People are setting up Etsy shops these days to sell totally inappropriate things because A) Etsy's interface is prettier and B) it's hipper to be on Etsy. Whatevs. I feel like a jerk complaining about this trend, because I've seen cute things that I liked in these shops. But I still think it needs to be said.

Finally, I added a gigabyte of memory to the computer I use, a week ago, and it's made my life so much easier: things that used to stall the system indefinitely now only take a second.

What I did tonight, tonight

The last few days have been uneventful for me... I've just been working, and taking care of my mom, who has a viral ear infection, labyrinthitis, that causes constant vertigo. (One of my friends said, "Labyrinthitis? Is that where you wake up with 80s hair and an inexplicable urge to sing and dance?" She didn't realize it's a real illness, but she cracked me up. Though she did miss the opportunity to say, "... an inexplicable urge to sing and dance, magic, dance.") I am really hoping to not also catch the wave, as it were. I had a really difficult time parking my car a couple of times last night, due to dizziness and disorientation, and it worried me.

So, I've had to run a few errands, nothing really exciting, and I've been writing little blurbs on this and that, waiting for Thursday to come. And today was Thursday, and do you know what that meant?

 

Smashing Pumpkins - Ave Adore Bullet with Butterfly wings

Time for the Smashing Pumpkins show! (They didn't actually play "Ava Adore," or any other songs I like from the last two albums, at the show tonight. They did play "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" and a lot of the new album. I like "Tarantula" much better live than I have in video form so far.)

The thing is, right now and all evening, I'd say it was around... 45 degrees. It rained all morning and threatened to rain all day; it's probably the coldest day since late April, and it hit us suddenly (it was 95 degrees on Monday). My torso, arms, and neck were warm, because I was wearing three different long-sleeved shirts (two were hoodies, the top one was fleece) with a cotton jersey scarf. The rest of me was really not very warm at all. Apparently the band thought it was very chilly, too: Billy remarked on it several times, and said that they almost cut the encores short because of it. 

I could have stood in the pit and been warmer, but then, well, I'd have been in the pit, on concrete and unable to move more than three inches in any direction. Instead, I stood on the sloping lawn, where initially I didn't want tickets -- I'm glad I was able to stand there in spite of my technically better ticket. I had a great view for most of the show, and the ground was softer and warmer than the paved area. I was really happy that I brought a thermos of hot tea to keep in the car for after the show. 

The show itself was great; musically quite good, and Billy is much funnier and more charming on stage than I'd expected. I never got to see them the first time around... I tried in 2000, but the show sold out. I had plans to show up at the venue with ridiculous amounts of cash to buy a ticket, then came down with the flu (not a cold - THE FLU, 104 fever for days, almost had to be hospitalized) the day of the show. And they'd broken up! So it was really important to me to make it to this "second chance" show... and I did. (Alas, I didn't have any spare cash for merch. I thought I would, but The Bank Error That Keeps On Taking mostly cleaned out the account again, and obviously dog food is more important. The merch was outrageously expensive anyway, but I love the shirt and hoodie in the "antique engraving" style.)

The only thing that really sucked, aside from the chill, was that I got stuck standing next to this insane, obnoxious, totally plastered trufan girl who showed up maybe a half-hour after we did. Constant loud nasal chatter between acts, screaming along with the songs while facing me and not the stage (I think she saw I was annoyed and decided to "show me"), dancing (badly) in enough space for six people. Now, before I sound like a crochety old man: I don't mind ppl singing and dancing at shows, as long as they don't sing loudly and right at me, and as long as they don't constantly flail their arms into me and everyone around them when they're dancing. I mind rude people, and this girl was so into her fandom (and, I think, her beer) as to not be considerate of anyone around her. The next person to turn to me and scream song lyrics into my face during a show is getting the fist of righteousness, I'm telling you.

(The other funny thing was that, any time she saw a shaved head during the set-up, she started squealing that it was Billy. After the seventh or eighth time, I turned to T. and said, "Do you think the roadies are contractually forbidden to shave their heads, too?")  

T. only agreed to come with me because Explosions in the Sky (indie-approved!) was the opening act. I liked them, but they're a little too much guitar noodling and not enough structure. They sound just like certain SP songs without the vocals, and also a lot like the time when Cranes opened for The Cure, and Alison was sick, so Robert Smith stepped in and played her vocal line on his guitar. And they sound a lot like a slightly-less-dreamy Sigur Ros. In all, I don't find it that interesting, but I do find it pleasant. (However, they've never had a major hit and you can't groove to their music, so it's "cooler" to like them than to like SP. The show was really too expensive for people to come just to see them, though, unless they had a Pumpkins fan dragging them along like T. did. I bought his ticket for his birthday.) 

T. thought Explosions in the Sky were from Japan (they're from Texas). I chirruped, "Yeah, they have that sound that says, Konnichi-wa! We're from Osaka and we love kabuki!" I think I meant Noh, actually, rather than kabuki.... Either way, anyone who gets that joke (which is based on vague sonic similarities) has too much time on their hands.

Now I am: done with my fun, back in a warm house, and back down to work (I'm designing a pattern! You'll see in a week, maybe!). Strongly considering a hot shower, because my nose and feet are still frrrrrozen.

Um, did I mention that I FINALLY GOT HIGH-SPEED INTERNET LAST WEEKEND?  I finally got high speed internet last weekend! It's a whole new world! (I can watch Bleach episodes the week they air in Japan! My priorities are in order, yeah!) This weekend is likely going to be the one where I tear the computer apart and give it new innards... the hard disk problems seem to have faded into the background for the time being, but I'm still going to replace the disk with the new one we got, as a failsafe measure. We'll see if I have time, though.

Scrapbooking haul - spooks, skulls, and pirate princesses

I've written a couple of posts that aren't public yet; they're hanging around waiting for me to finish them. Mostly book reviews. Actual content! Imagine that. But I've been busy with lots of other stuff, and Vox rarely behaves completely well for me (it's slightly over-scripted for dial-up internet).

The good news is that I won't be on dial-up after Saturday. We're finally getting a high-speed connection. On the bad side, we don't have wireless internet yet, so it won't reach up to the computer I'm using at the moment for a while (I ordinarily use the one downstairs, but the one up here in my room is a better computer). I might just pick up a wifi card for it this week and see if I can piggyback on a neighbor's connection for a while. Can't do anything secure from there, but I can browse....

Anyway, I have spent a truly obscene amount of money on scrapbooking supplies in the last week or so (like, enough for the router and the wifi card, actually). I was telling my friend R. about it, and she was jealous and wanted good pictures of some of it. This is the punky/gothy edition, since it appeals most to her interests. (Me and R, we both like to listen to Nick Cave a lot.) Actually, it's a first installment. What I have here does not equal an "obscene amount of money" spent on scrapbooking - this is more like $12 or so, except for the stamps I bought.

I bought a lot of Rusty Pickle stuff at one store. This is from their Addams Family collection. I bought two sheets of the Uncle Fester paper, since I liked both sides so much: one is a purple harlequin pattern with black cats, the other is pinwheel rounds made with stylized skeletons. I like Morticia's bats a lot too. You can't see them, but the corners of the checkerboard side of the Gomez paper have spiderwebs (click for a better view).

Gomez and Wednesday

 

Morticia-addamsfamily-rustypickle

 

Unclefester-addamsfamily-rustypickle

 

Addamstags-addamsfamily-rustypickle

I also bought stuff from the Pirate Princess collection. These are, top to bottom, Lane de Belleville (this one is particularly pretty - see the closeup), Mary Read, Grace O'Malley (the icons are really cool) and Elizabeth Swan (sic):

 

 

Lane-pirateprincess-rustypickle

 

Mary-pirateprincess-rustypickle

 

Grace-pirateprincess-rustypickle

 

Elizabeth-pirateprincess-rustypickle

They make some other Pirate Princess supplies... some papers and tags I didn't like as much, one paper called Rachel Wall that I tried really hard to buy (but every sheet they had was a mess - take a look at the larger version and see what the "flowers" actually are), and some stickers and stamps that I didn't see. These are definitely on my personal wishlist:

 

I don't think I'd actually use those stickers, from the center sheet, in scrapbooking, though.

I also saw the Creative Imaginations / Marah Whatsherface (Johnson?) "Caution! Girl" collection. There's something about it, to be honest, that rubs me the wrong way... the chipboard stickers are glitter-encrusted (something I'd prefer to do myself, if I want it at all), the epoxy stickers have silly slogans like "bad hair day" and stuff about messy rooms. It seems like something a mom who didn't quite "get it" would buy to make layouts about her daughter, the Avril Lavigne fan. It just feels off. (I don't even like or buy epoxy stickers: I'm always seeing ones in packages that have warped in on themselves.)

However, they have some really cool brads that I almost bought, and that wouldn't be a bad fit tucked away somewhere on a Pirate Princess page. I promised R. I'd find a picture of these for her, and here they are, only a tiny bit bigger than life-size. Yes, they have pink rhinestones for eyes:

 

Cautiongirlskullbrads

 

I also bought these "Roxie Gothic" alphabet stamps from the Love, Elsie collection. There are also "Roxie Gothic Dots" stamps, which are the outlined letterforms filled with little polka dots. (Gothic is a misnomer here, though: this isn't what a "gothic" font looks like. Those are very plain and simple, check out "Franklin Gothic" for an example. This is an Old English/Blackletter/Fraktur/German style, with a twist.) There are these bright, jelly colors on the package, but the stamps themselves are clear, the kind made to cling to an acrylic block.

 

Roxiegothicstamps

That's all for now. I'll try to get those reviews up soon. And maybe Supply Haul Installment #2, for anyone who's curious.