This is my creativity journal. Here you will find random things of creation from crochet and knitting to paper crafts, photography, cooking, poetry and prose, LJ icons, banners, colorbars, and more. You can read about my role-playing games, random musings and whatnot at jackalibis.

UPCOMING FOR OCTOBER/NOVEMBER: National Novel Writing Month starts on November 1. Read about my progress and whatnot at keeper_nanos.

You know, it's a wonder I ever get anything done, considering I have three blogs that I try to keep updated, not to mention the ones I guest-blog at, and running various forums, social networks and the like.

Anyway, I'm about to start doing some form of daily writings, which will be found here. Less "morning pages" and more "I have words blocking the way to my novel! Get them out! Get them out! GET THEM OUT!!!" *smirk* So, that's what this is going to be, okay? There's no telling what I'm going to decide to subject title them, so you'll just have to sort them out yourself if you don't want to read them.

I promise the longer ones will be behind LJ-cuts, though. I try to be kind to people's friends pages. Especially since my own journals show up on my own pages sometimes, so I try to remember to keep it reasonable. I hate having to scroll past stuff I don't have interest in reading at that moment (I'm really bad about doing that with communities).

So, yeah. Expect something sometime in the near future.

oYeah, I'm so good at it I haven't even posted in months....

Anywho, a few updates.

Cthulu plush still WIP (arms and wings to go--got frustrated when the arms turned out two different sizes). Wonderland stories slow coming. Other projects got in the way.

Kicked ass in November with NaNoWriMo. Finally made the word count with time to spare. Yay!

And in other news....

( Crosspost about One Profile To Rule Them All! )

I've noticed two things:

1. Circular needles hate me. 'nuff said.

2. I need more sizes in DPNs. All I have is US 3s, and I need a wider variety in order to make the projects I need. And I've been wondering, is it possible to add extra DPNs to make larger circles in order to make hats and stuff? I have 8 size 3s, and have been tempted to try it. I'm just afraid of getting confused... I may try it one day...

So, umm... Yeah.

This is along the lines of what I need:

http://www.karpstyles.com/catalog.html?item=2022

We went to Hobby Lobby last night and I found a lot of stuff I want but can't afford right now. I'm also trying to keep myself from buying any yarn until I actually have a project in line for it. I have a hefty stash now thanks to mareofearth.

Right now, I'm knitting a sweater on DPNs for the ferret. She's so small that even the smallest clothes from Petco don't fit her well, so I'm going to give it a shot of making some for her myself. Once I find out the right size, I plan on getting a bit more adventurous with it. The nice thing is I can even use just small balls of scrap yarn for her rather than having to use larger skeins or project yarn. ^_^

For one, I'm about to be getting American McGee's Alice! Yay! With special thanks to mareofearth for having the book and the actual disc. Yayness! *huggles*

Also, Halloween costumes are about to be in the work. I will be going as Alice, and my hubby is going as the Mad Hatter. You can see pictures of my costume concept over on my personal journal, jackalibis 

In addition to that, we will be trying to get some black and purple wool yarns in order to crochet and then felt a top hat for the Hatter. The one for the Halloween costume is just going to be posterboard and fabric. The reason we're taking it a little further is because of an additional project we're looking at doing.

If we can find enough people to actually get involved in it, we're going to start a Wonderland web film. For obvious reasons, we'll need people willing to dress in some rather...unique costumes, a few of whom are familiar with how to operate video cameras, and a snapshot photographer. We haven't cast any roles at all yet, though we have some ideas of who we would like for certain roles, but it's just speculation at the moment.

For one, at the moment, we don't even have a script. A script would be nice. ^_~

I've started writing again. It feels good. I am happy. ^_^

You can find it here: http://jackalibis.deviantart.com/art/Misadventures-in-Wonderland-98804773

Even better, I have a wonderful friend I made at the library who wants to illustrate it! ^_^ Check out her page at http://garrenn.deviantart.com/

Depending on how it goes, I may back out of NaNo this year just to work on this story. I'm really excited about this one.

As few of you might know, I have a little sister (technically, a half-sister, as we only have the same dad). She just recently turned fourteen and is starting to grow out of the boys=cooties phase. Seeing as there is little more than abstinence taught/supported by local schools, programs, families, etc., I thought it would be a good idea to push more for safer sex.

On Ravelry, there is a group called Knit (or Crochet) a Condom Amulet (found here). I thought this was a great idea, and since our local county health department does give condoms to anyone who requests them (though, as it turns out, I'm allergic to the ones they give out, except on the very rare occasion that they have Trojans... Okay, yeah, I know---TMI, but still). What I was thinking is getting as many as they will give me each month to fill up some amulets with and pass out to young girls and guys that I know are or are likely to become sexually active.

When I was in school (graduated high school in 2003), there had been more pregnancies that led to drop-outs than there were deaths from my graduating class. Seeing as we didn't loose anyone to death, the fact that over 25 girls dropped out between the ages of 16 to 19 is a bit scary. All of them had been pregnant. I know that for most of my school years, I saw several older and younger classmates get pregnant, and in a couple of cases we had the police called to the school after a few girls gave birth to premies in the bathroom and tried to flush the infants down the toilet. WTF?!

It scares me that people are so geared towards teaching abstinence around here rather than safer sex (since there is truly no such thing as "safe sex," since you can still get pregnant or catch STDs despite your best efforts, but you just severely reduce the risks of either). So, if anyone is interested in helping provide amulets for the cause, please PM me and I'll provide shipping information.

( Want more TMI? Read on... )

What's even more scary is that the youth of our world are not the only ones at highest risk anymore. Elders are now becoming a startling part of the statistics as they think they don't need protection since they are beyond getting pregnant.

Let's take sex to a safer level. Most county health departments provide free condoms to anyone who walks in requesting them. Not everyone can be on birth control, and for many, condoms are the only option. Condoms should not be stored inside a wallet, due to the bending and whatnot can tear them up. An amulet can be made of something as simple as duct tape and a pair of magnetic fasteners to make it appeasable for guys to carry. Girls will carry anything they find appealing. So let's make sex safer with a little added protection. ^_~

Yes, I actually do have finished objects. They're older, and had been packed away when we moved, so I'm only starting to discover them. And I also finished a scarf I crocheted for this fall. So, I'll be getting pictures up later, since I still have to re-block the purse I had made... It got all squished and tangled, so I've had to wash it (no worries, it's acrylic) and now I need to block it again.

So, what have I finished in the past?

• Baby blanket for Kiari (finished in February 2008?)
• Chocolate Cherry Chip Carryall Bag (finished in January 2008)
• Ferret Hidey Hole (Finished January 2008)
• Ferret Carry Bag (Finished January 2008)
• 2 beanie hats (finished November 2007)
• Countless potholders (finished 2007-2008)

Anything older than that, and it would have been before I got back into crochet. So, that's as far back as anyone will be seeing. Besides, most of anything older than that has been worn out or given away as gifts or donated to thrift stores. So no pictures of anything of that, and I don't remember what all I'd made. I know it was all simple stuff.

There can never be enough ways to connect to people, and having the option for photo, music and video sharing is all the better, in my opinion.

I don't get it.

I really don't.

I see so many people saying, "I knit, but I can't crochet to save my life," or "I crochet, but knitting is well beyond me."

I used to get frustrated with trying to learn to knit, but then, I had a good reason to be frustrated. I had shitty needles, an even shittier instruction booklet, and no 'net access to discover easier tutorials from. I couldn't make sense of the instructions (which when I showed them to a seasoned knitter, she couldn't understand them either, so I didn't feel quite so bad afterwards).

Now I'm doing both. Once I got good instructions, knitting was just as easy as crochet for me (save the fact that I'm still doing the very basics and haven't tackled cables and such yet). So, how is it that people think they can do one, but not the other? It just took time, and better instructions.

I hold my yarn to the left for both crochet and knitting. It pulls from whereever it happens to be sitting. I'm not picky. I don't wrap it around my fingers like so many others do due to hyperhidrosis and arthritis. It hurts my hands to do so, and it often soaks the yarn if I try to wrap it. Once I decided to hold the yarn the same way I do for crochet in order to knit (with it draped over the back of my left pointer finger to make it easier to lift it over the hook/needle).

So, if I can do it, why is it so hard for other people? I didn't think I'd ever figure out knitting, but I kept trying, and while I haven't yet got the grasp of circular needles, I can knit in a round on doublepoints, and I can knit, purl, increase and decrease. It's not that difficult, with the right instructions. And so far, the best ones I've ever found are the Stitch 'n' Bitch books, both for knitting and crochet.

Watching pimp_my_altar and pocketshrines , I've decided to play around with some ideas as well. We've bought some mints (of the curiously strong variety ^_~) for the tins, and will be starting on them once I figure out something else to put the mints in... I have two tins to use for my own projects, and my hubby has two for his. All four will probably be showcased here once they're finished, as he doesn't have a journal anywhere (he used to have a GreatestJournal, but never used it, so I'm not going to bother suggesting him sign up for an LJ. I'll just post images up here if he wants to showcase his stuff too).

A love for malas and rosaries has also led to some creative crafting of various types of prayer beads. I'll post some of the better ones later (trust me, some of them aren't all that great to bother with--they're probably going to be taken apart and restrug as a part of something else). I'll probably show off some of the ones we've bought over the years, especially the rosewood rosaries.

I'll be in touch. <3

I finished the entire body of Cthulhu. He is now stuffed, and looks like he has a *coughpeniscough* thanks to having done a horrible job of closing him up. o_O;;;;;; At least no one can say he's not a boy. *lol*

I've finished one arm, and working on making the other, at which point I'll stuff and attach them. Then on to the wings!

Hubby wants him to have legs, and after some thought and planning, he'll have legs identical to his arms. He'll look a bit like a teddy bear as a result, which makes him even more cute (yes, the redundancy about the amigurumi).

And for anyone interested, I now have my Amazon Wishlist available on the left over there...

<------  Somewhere...

So, umm, yeah. ^_^ Now if I could get my friends to do the same, it'd make life a lot easier.

Here's the photostream that currently includes the Cthulhu, the purple sock, and the afgan I'm making for my paternal grandmother:

Yay for random holidays!

REMEMBER the 12th of September this year is the International Crochet Day!

To celebrate the day try one of the following:

~Crochet in public
~Teach someone to crochet
~promote International Crochet day in your blog
~wear something crocheted made/brought with pride

HOOK HAPPY

from http://crochetme.com/forum/international-crochet-day-sep-12th

Also, for a list of some of the random holidays that you can actually send e-cards for at this time, check out Care2's holiday list (by the way, Care2 is a great place for free e-cards, as they donate to charities for each card sent!). http://www.care2.com/send/catholiday.html

Cthulhu is almost finished (thank god!!) but I've lost count somewhere on making the body, so he's looking a little funny. I had already ripped it once and redid it. My hubby said not to worry about it and just finish it up from there since it's not that badly flawed. I'll just wait for pictures until I've got the rest of the actual body done, then I've still got arms, legs and wings to do and he'll be completely finished. Yay!

I've also found a pattern in one of my new books (I've got to add them to my shelfari shelf now) for tube socks, which does not require trying to knit a heel, so I'm in the process of making a sock on DPNs (doublepoint needles). I'm getting better at handling the spikey hedgehog of doom and ubberpain DPNs, and have managed to get about three or four inches of the sock thus far. ^_^ I'm happy about even getting that much on it and it looking sockish. They're just ankle socks, but at least I'm making them. I don't know that once I finish I'll make the other one, as I'm working with a rather course acrilic yarn to make the one I'm working on right now, as I mostly wanted to just try out the pattern. I like the look of the heavier weight, though. I'm using worsted weight (4) rather than fingering, since it's what I had in my stash.

I'll probably pick up some cotton/acrilic yarn next time I go to Hobby Lobby in order to make a pair to actually wear.

It's also giving me an idea about how to better make wrist warmers and/or fingerless gloves. The main problem I'm having in trying to figure out how to knit those is the thumb and fingers (for the ones that actually have partial fingers). Plus all of my yarn that I have enough to attempt to make them is too heavy. I'm going to have to get several skiens of sports or fingering weight first. I could crochet some, I guess, with worsted, but it'll be lacy rather than solid. *shrug*

And on a random side note, I need bento boxes!!! *sigh*

And OMG!!! This one is so cool!

http://www.3-athlon.com/product.php?productid=224

It lets you attach your bento to your bicycle! That is just too awesome. ^_^ But I need to find regular ones as well. Trying to find one for Darian is going to be interesting in itself, but here's a couple I've found that I know he'd like:

http://static.flickr.com/64/166820975_b6246aa0e9.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/21/166820979_f064798919.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/50/166838664_246630d5a0.jpg


Edit: Edited to make links clickable... LJ needs to learn to parse links... *sigh*

Mwahahaha! I found an even better way of doing this from now on. I'll be adding the other books from last time as well, so here we go:

I'm about to start writing again. Yay! ^_^

Yeah, I fell out of it for a while, having got severely discouraged by an extended period of writer's block. And so since I'm holding off on Mayhem High School for NaNoWriMo 2008, I'm going to start work on rewriting the idea for the story that I attempted last year.

In short, the Gods (primarily following those of ancient Egypt) grew sick and tired of humanity, for the most part, ignoring them, or those that did pay attention to them were getting it wrong. So, after a few failed attempts at incarnating themselves into the mortal world, they finally figure out it's better just to create avatars for themselves to inhabit and move around mortals that way. Madness ensues as the mortals they try to "recruit" either continue to disbelieve in them or to get it all wrong. Will humanity ever get it right? You'll just have to read it and see. ^_~

I'll be posting sniplets of it here, and the chapters of it will be hosted on DeviantART (look up Jackalibis for my stuff on DA). So, yeah. There you have it. I'll be posting the prologue later this week (hopefully). ^_^

Holidays are coming.

Gifts are needed.

And my friends are being complicated! GAH! -_-;;;;;

Why can't most of them like simple things? One friends wants a black hat with a d6 bobble. Easily done. *huggles friend* The others, either don't want to just come out and say what they would like, or I actually want to surprise a couple of them (mostly the surprises are going to distant friends, seeing as the locals will likely see what I'm working on anyway, thanks to them always being over *lol*).

Thus, I'm trying to figure out gift ideas. Most of them are gamers, so if I don't figure out anything better before now and then, they're getting dice bags. Easily done. A couple might get hats and/or scarves as well, if I know they'll actually wear them.

I know what I want this year: Knifty Knitter Looms!

They have them at Wal-Mart and Hobby Lobby. I really want the smaller round looms to make socks with. I've seen the results of looming socks and they look a lot easier to handle than having to try to make them on doublepoint needles (which isn't working out too well for me at the moment! *rubs palms* I keep jabbing myself. Ouch!).

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have completed the head! (At long last...)

Unfortunately, I had also lost count on the stitches as I started the rest of the body and had to rip it out and try again. So I'm only just below the neck, but at least I'm on the right stitch count this time. *grin* I'll post pictures later. Today is going to be spent organizing my stash and projects. I'm getting more yarn than what I know to do with at the moment, as I find really good deals to buy large bunches of random yarn from Unclaimed Baggage on occasion, and with other family members and friends gifting me with even more yarn. *lol* I'll be glad when we finish getting everything out of the spare room (currently mostly a storage room), then we'll be able to have it set up as a library/craft room. ^_^  The nice thing about being in a three bedroom house and only needing two bedrooms.

And so, yeah. I'm done for the time being. I've got to get the stash sorted, and start doublechecking all the boxes in the storage room to see what's being kept and what's being donated to the local mission center (which comes and picks the stuff up for you! Yay!). Once this rain passes, we're going to take everything outside and let them load it onto their truck. Which means I'll finally be able to get to my bookshelf again. -_-;;; It's behind all the boxes. Also, I will hopefully be able to finally get the desktop computer set up for Darian at long last, and get myself a place set up to escape within the house.

With NaNoWriMo on the way, I've been thinking about what to do for this year's novel attempt.

At first, I thought I would want to do Awaken (Remixed) as my novel (a remix of last year's short-lived attempt, Awaken, that didn't make it very far before life got in the way). But I decided it would be best to just do that one as a regular writing attempt. So, you'll be able to find that coming up soon.

NaNoWriMo is going to be Mayhem High School. See my NaNo journal, keeper_nanos , for more info on that.

Another story I'm going to be working on is The Wonderland Wars, the fluff story for a role-playing game I'm working on.

And also I'm working on some side-stories for various role-playing characters from Vampire: The Masquerade, Exalted 2nd Ed., Scion: Hero, World of Darkness 2.0, Changeling: The Lost, and Werewolf: The Forsaken. These are just short stories, either preludes, back stories, in-betweens, or what-ifs.

I'll keep everyone updated.

I got the tentacles made!!! YAY!!!

That...was not fun. I've had fun. That wasn't it. With this project, I've learned a couple of very important things.

1. Always use steel hooks for amigurumi. Aluminum don't like me to try to force them into tiny little spaces.

2. Keep yarns away from toddlers unless you want everything ripped apart before you realize what's happening and why you're not really making progress when you pause to move the stitch counter/safety pin.

3. Using safety pins as stitch counters make any amigurumi look very emo. *lol*

4. Always try to have a picture of the finished project on hand when making amigurumi, especially with anything about Cthulhu. Few people around here have even heard of Lovecraft, and even fewer have ever heard of Cthulhu.

And because I can't remember if I actually made sure to link to it: here is the pattern with a picture of the finished project. Limited color options out of my stash prevent me from attempting the shirt (plus I haven't quite got the hang of switching colors yet), so the finished is going to be a green version of the top picture. I'm still unsure about what to do for the eyes, as I can't find any safety eyes anywhere (and I've looked--even Hobby Lobby didn't have them when we went last!), and I can't order online right now. So... Hmm...

I'll do updated project pictures later... I don't have any of the stuff in here with me at the moment.

And I decided I needed to go back to some from of dark theme, and I managed to find this one today. *smirk* I likes it. It also has a "sticky note" option in the "customize theme" thingy, so I can actually write a summary, add stuff or whatever. So, cool. :)