Wool Eater Blanket

So last time I talked about finals but this time I would like to talk about where I have been for a little bit and what is happening with some of my posts. I do have a good few things I would like to post but they haven't been done enough so I had only one post set up on auto post. Seriously auto post would be brilliant if I was more dedicated to setting it up. As for where I was I took a mini vacation down to Charleston, South Carolina. I can see why it is such a highly rated tourist destination. The first day my father and I where out of the city. That is one of the few things we have in common, our love of just going out and walking. I enjoyed the walk but not so much the day. The family spent a ton of time arguing and just generally being unpleasant. We had meant to pick up some tea flavored Vodka for my stepbrother and see the famous Angel Oak. Sadly we didn't get the Vodka because we could not find any sign's for the distillery and do to how long we tried to find it we missed the closing of the gate for the oak tree by 17 minutes. Also the whole wile we where driving to find these places my father and I where picking off ticks. I'm not fully sure I got them all off ether. I have one spot on my leg that could be a tiny baby. Ew. That night I didn't sleep well, my family kept the light on in the hotel. I don't get it. I wasn't to happy about this trip to start with. I mean I do love the idea of getting out after all those finals but I was told last minute when we would leave. On top of that I had slept in till 3-4 the day they went for mothers day lunch and they left without me. Missing out on one of the few times we eat out and then told we are leaving early early the next morning is rubbish. They didn't even have the decency to tell me a time till way later. I should be grateful they told me a time at all, normally they don't. When they say early it could be anywhere from 3am till 11am. Like I said, rubbish.

The second day was much better. We went to the Charleston Museum to start with. It was pretty nice. I was most interested in the gun collection, their medical section, as well as their taxidermy section. I had to force my dad to stick around for the last one. I was having none of that rushing through like with the Smithsonian. Next it was down to the Old Exchange building on top of the Battery. The Battery is the wall that kept Charleston safe during its early years seeing as it was such a hard area to start a colony at. The Exchange is the only place the wall can still be seen from seeing as Charleston has artificially raised the ground several feet. I enjoyed the tour they gave. Normally I'm not too keen on the idea but at the same time with a good guide I find everything much more interesting. Finally the last of the day was spent in art galleries. By far my favorite was the RLS gallery. The hostess was very friendly and completely willing to share any information you wanted to know. She shared stories even if you didn't ask. Ok so many she was annoyingly friendly but I still couldn't find fault with her as she was so nice. My favorite artist was Nathan Durfee. Never before could I see myself wanting to buy a painting of a sheep farting into a tuba but I did. Really really didn't see that coming. K.C. Collins was also very inspirational. Anyone who uses an underwater aquarium camera to find references is ok in my book. Same could be said for Erik Johnson's goldfish. Fish are just cool ok?!

Now on to my own art. I really need to paint after all those lovely galleries but for now I'll share more yarn creations. This one again is from a pattern. I'm not a big blanket person so it is kinda the same as with my scarfs, just practice with patterns as a guide. This time it is the Wool Eater by Sarah London. It is a beautiful, and fairly simple, pattern. I'm hoping this will use up a large bit of spare yarn. I say that then buy three skeins so I can have a nice color transition, one I'm not even that happy about. I would call it beautiful up until that last row. There wasn't much I could do about it though. I didn't want to spend much so I wasn't going to buy an extra color and even with checking two stores I couldn't find a very good transition color that wouldn't cost me $20-30 by the time I was done. Oh well I'm sure it will be fine in the end. Though the picture makes me feel better about the real product because I hate it that much.

African Flower

Long time no see. I'm done and threw with finals, yey. I worked much harder this semester then I did any other and it payed off. I got straight A's for the first time in my life. I'm super excited. I did a lot of crochet during this time trying to work off the stress. In fact I started two blankets which is new for me. I've never worked on something this big because my attention span is awful. I figured they would be good for me though. I still have a ton of yarn I need to go through and these will help. The first I would like to share is not the first project I started during finals. I have a lot of things started that I just haven't gotten around to posting. I don't like talking about wip because of how often I don't finish them. Why make myself and others excited for something that may never happen?

This lovely pattern can be found here: Craft Passion
I will admit it took me a bit to understand the pattern but after that they are easy to do.

Any color suggestions?

Dieing here!

I'm not even sure where to begin. So much has happened since I last posted. I think I'm going to skip talking about work except to say it is getting better.

I'm pretty sure I'm sick. This would be the first time in years. It is ether that or I'm finally starting to react to the pollen which I never have reacted before. My throat hurt for a long time from talking so much at work. I finally got some cough drops and it went away, only for me to wake up with a runny nose, coughing, and lots of sneezing. I hope it goes away before I work on Friday.

I haven't slept much over the last few days. For one thing stress keeps waking me up and I'm skipping meals because of it. Beyond that I have 4 papers due all within the same 4 day school week. Most are 8-10 pages long. The first, even though I started it well before the due date, was such a pain I didn't get it done till the day it was due. This left me with a research paper due the next day after that one was due and I hadn't started. I ended up staying up all night and skipping class to get it done. I finished about 30 minutes before class and even then I was a page and a half short. At least I got the word count down. I still have one due Thursday that I haven't started.

I'm still taking the night off. I need the sleep and relaxation too much.

Here is a little needle work practice. It is all I have time for.

Whale Pattern

Pattern level: Easy
Hook size: F 5/3.75mm
Yarn: Red Heart Delft Blue

Body:
Row 1: Ch 2, 6sc in 2nd ch from hook (or start with a Magic Ring)
R2: Sc 2 in each sc around (12)
R3: Sc 1, 2 sc in next sc, rep 6 times (18)
R4: Sc 2, 2 sc in next sc, rep 6 times (24)
R5: Sc 3, 2sc in next sc, rep 6 times (30)
R6: Sc 4, 2 sc in next sc, rep 6 times (36)
R7: Sc 5, 2 sc in next sc, rep 6 times (42)
R8-23: 1sc in each sc for 15 rounds
R24: Sc 5, dec 1, rep 6 times (36)
R25-26: l sc in each sc for 2 rounds
R27: Sc 4, dec 1, rep 6 times (30)
R28: 1 sc in each sc for 1 round
R29: Sc 3, dec 1, rep 6 times (24)
R30: 1sc in each sc for 1 round
R31: Sc 2, dec 1, rep 6 times (18)
R32: Sc 6, dec 3, sc 5, 2 sc in next sc (16)
R33: 2 sc in next 2 sc, 3 sc, dec 3, 4 sc, 2 sc in next 2 sc (16)
R34: 5sc, dec 2, 8 sc (15)
R35: 2 sc in next 2 sc, 2 sc, dec 2, 7 sc (15)
R36: 5 sc, dec 2, 6 sc (13)
R37: 4 sc, dec 2, 6 sc (12)
R38: 2 sc, dec 2, 4 sc (8)
R39: Dec 2, Finish

Front Fins:
R1: Ch 2, 6sc in 2nd ch from hook (or start with a magic ring)
R2:  Sc 2 in each sc around (12)
R3: Sc 1, 2 sc in next sc, rep 6 times (18)
R4-9: Sc in each sc around for 6 rows

Back Fins:
R1:  Ch 2, 6sc in 2nd ch from hook (or start with a magic ring)
R2: Sc 1, 2 sc in next sc, rep 3 times (9)
R3: Sc 1, 2 sc in next sc, rep 5 times (15)
R4-7: Sc in each sc around for 4 rows

Mouth:
R1: Ch 12
R2: 11 sc
R3: Working into remaining foundation chain, 2 sc in next ch, 10 sc
Unused Foundation (Keep in mind that I do not use 3 sc for the turn.)

Working in the unused foundation turns the pattern from rows to rounds. I kept the pattern written in rows. Each row will be one side of the round.

R4: 2 sc in next sc, 10 sc
R5: 2 sc in next sc, 10 sc, 2sc in next sc
R6: 2 sc in next sc, 11 sc, 2sc in next sc
R7: 2 sc in next sc, 12 sc, 2sc in next sc
R8: 2 sc in next sc, 13 sc
R9+: Crochet in a round till desired length

Skarner WIP

There is so much to say so I'll start with Happy Easter, Happy April Fool's Day, and Happy Birthday to me.

I've been really stressed lately with worry about my new job and trying to get my life together. It isn't exactly falling apart but I have goals to meet. I did get so stressed I spent my breakfast crying over a ham sandwich. Though I felt better later when a few things where cleared up.

For my birthday someone made me a cake. It is huge! It is 3 layers and probably 8-10 inches high. It is a pineapple and some kinda nut with cream cheese frosting type cake.

I meant to spend the day working on essays seeing as I have 3-4 to do this week. I picked a topic for my research essay at the very least but I still spend much of the day sleeping. When I wasn't sleeping I was crocheting this little guy: Skarner

I also painted a large amount this weekend. I didn't finish anything but I'm hoping they will be up on Deviant Art soon. Don't count on that.

I finally got into see the Doctor for my lab results. There was a slight screw up the first time I tried to see her. They had put the appointment in my stepmothers name and it needed to be rescheduled. It ended up being on Friday at 8:40 am. Way to early but I didn't mind so much because I was finally getting what I needed. For three weeks I didn't have vitamin D and I realized just how bad I had been suffering without it. I was miserable but I am better now. I was a bit disappointed that I didn't get to take myself to my appointment, which is funny because I normally get stressed about that kind of thing, because I was hoping to pop by the Biology building. On Fridays they don't have class but they keep the doors unlocked. I was hoping to paint the specimens they have in the rooms.

Painting

I've recently bought two books and both are on brushwork in painting. The books are called the Brushstroke Handbook by Maureen McNaughton and Brushwork Essentials by Mark Christopher Weber. I love them both, for different reasons. The first has extraordinary detail and the art work is beautiful. The second is good for a quick reference. I've been wanting to paint for a wile now. I played around for a bit and then switch to trying to apply what I picked up from a quick look through of these books. Mind you the ones in the squares are india ink and white paint by Sargent Art. The bottom two pages are Crayola Tempera.

Other then painting I've been shopping for many hours over the last two days. I was looking for black pants. I didn't get any black pants. I did find the shoes I need for work though. I also bought a dress, two shirts, and I found Coraline for $5. My dad picked up the Gremlins also. He mentioned he would get the Harry Potter ones all at once because they where $10 for each in blueray. The only reason he wasn't was because they where missing the last two. I knew they couldn't be so I went and found them. He said he was using that as an excuse and that he really wasn't serious. Damn.

Now here is the too much information second of the blog:
So wile I was trying on a half dozen dresses I noticed something. I have back flab that make the perfect love handles. I don't use that term like most people mean it to be general fattiness I mean actual perfect description of a love handle as just a hand sized, squeeze me, type spot. It is cute and disturbing at the same time.

Secondly I scored when it came to buying bras. Ok maybe not the best score I could hope for but considering how often I go into flying rants about them I'll consider it a score. I have a awkward size that is very rarely if ever found in stores. Victoria secret doesn't even make up into the cup size. Those that do make them normally charge $50-60. Considering you should buy new ones every six months I'm sure you understand my need for rants. I found very close to my size this weekend, close enough I won't feel crushing disappointment after looking, and they where on sale. I got two for $20. A size or so too small in the cup and not the best shape but I'll take it.

Cheers! & Whale!

On Wednesday I went to a job interview, I actually found it to be a great experience. It was relaxing and satisfying at the same time. It was like playing hooky but doing something really good at the same time. I'm also glad it didn't last too long, no time to panic. It was also a really nice and sunny day so waiting outside was a dream.

Back to reality. I barely had my shit together, I had my references but their was pieces missing. They also asked about my school, which is a new one to me, and I didn't have the address,ect. I ended up sneaking off to the car in order to try and find the info seeing as I had my school bag with me and just maybe the fact I don't clean it out would save me. It did in a way. I'm awful with names so I was glad I could snag my teacher name off of my syllabus. Then it was a long wait and I paced back and forth after doodling for a wile. The interview lasted maybe 5 or so minutes. They had no idea how to pronounce my last name. This allowed me a bit of friendly banter. She asked why I picked the hours I did and I told her it was because I was at school in those earlier hours. She asked why I wanted to work there and I said I believed them to be the best to allow me to further my schooling. Then finally I was asked a time when I had helped someone. I stumbled a bit on this one, I am really not a helpful person and my head went to gaga land, but I quickly got back on track and said I helped the drama department at my school, even though I was not in drama. I said it also helped myself since I am an art major and making stage sets was good experience.

I woke up the other day thinking it was a perfect day and everything would go well. My books came in that I ordered and I had the house to myself. Best yet I got a call that told me I got the job. I'm really excited.

Now I'm going to have to be responsible. O.O