Busy busy busy . . . kind of

So, I’ve lost another job. There just hasn’t been enough business at my sister’s sandwich shop to justify having two people there, so, I’m unemployed again. I really, really need to find something, or win the lottery. Or come up with a design that goes viral. I’m working on all of those.

Obviously, that viral pattern is not going to be As a Flower Blossoms. I can count the number of sales of that pattern on one hand of the guy who gave us a tour of the Kokomo Opalescent Glass factory about fifteen years ago. He’d lost a couple fingers on each hand. It was a really awesome tour, but I never, ever want to work in a glass-making factory!

Among other things I’ve been doing (like looking for a job, buying lottery tickets, and trying to come up with the next big knitting pattern), I’m one of the captains for Team Epic in Nerd Wars for Tournament 4. Sign-ups are open until midnight EST on 1/26/12.

Not sure what Nerd Wars is? According to the Game Master, EyeAmElise, “This is a silly game designed to help motivate you to finish projects you wanted to do anyway!”

In a nutshell, you join a team based on the things you enjoy (outside of crafting), like Jim Henson’s creations (Team Fraggle), musicals (Team Jazz Hands), or playing role-playing games (Team Epic, the best team out there!). (For a list of teams and what “nerdery” they encompass, see this chart.) Each month of the tournament, there are six challenges posted. You answer as many challenges as you want by crafting something within the month of the challenge, and earn points for your team. You can also do a dissertation, which is a project that will take you the whole tournament, or three months. You also get to meet new people both in your team thread, and by participating in the chat room, Otaku Lounge. Mostly what you can win are new friends, bragging rights, and a feeling of accomplishment, but there are opportunities for actual prizes, too!

The team to join is, of course, Team Epic! We are the home for social role-players (tabletop, MMORPG, on-line text-based games, LARPing . . . one or two player games, like Zelda and Baldur’s Gate, are covered by our sister team, Team 1-Up). Whether you play Dungeons & Dragons, World of Warcraft, GURPS, or Spirits of the Earth — or something no one else has ever heard of — we’d love to have you join and tell us about your latest adventure!

You do need to join Ravelry before you can join Nerd Wars, but joining Ravelry is free, easy, and worthwhile even without Nerd Wars!

Nerd Wars is intended for adults. If you are under the age of 18 and would like to play, please contact one of the Nerd Wars mods.

Now, I have some projects I’d really like to get done before the tournament starts next week, so I’d better get knitting!

This year it’s gonna be different

I know, I thought that last year, too. I was going to do the whole post-a-week thing, and look how well that went over.

I’ve been really busy the last month, knitting, knitting, crocheting, and knitting some more. I made bunches of stuff for holiday presents/Nerd Wars, and even got a little mystery knitting in.

But, now I’m going to get back in the swing of reading other people’s blogs (I haven’t in a month), and writing here.

I am the captain of my soul, the tailor of my fate. I am going to take control and put my life back into some semblance of order. Really. I’m going to fight against my natural pessimism, ennui, and apathy. (And not use the little quick post thingy on the dashboard anymore, because then I do things like post before I’m finished.) I’m going to do things that need to be done, and make my little rubber room corner of the world a better place, at least for me.

Wisdom of the Ages

I just have to share this tidbit from Thing Two (my eleven year old son):

Mayonnaise hiccoughs don’t taste very good.

I have been remiss

I have been very busy knitting and crocheting for holiday gifts/Nerd Wars/Mystery 220. And there’s still so much to do, not to mention the baking.

And I need to figure out spinning with a drop spindle, too. One of my Nerd Wars teammates gave me one of her old spindles (and some roving and a small pot of the Knitters’ and Spinners’ Balm she makes and sells in her shop — it smells really good, and does soften my rough spots nicely), and I’ve borrowed my mom’s book Respect the Spindle, and I’m trying to do it. I finally got the hang of just using the dowel and spinning on a stick (I looked for an example on-line, but I don’t see anything), but once I get some spun, and try to draft some more . . . it breaks. It doesn’t seem to matter what I do, how thick I leave the draft, it still breaks. I know, this takes practice, and I haven’t been at it very long (like maybe . . . twenty minutes total?), but I’m very frustrated. I want to get drafting to the point where I can do more than ten inches of yarn before the fibers come apart before I try the spindle again.

And I need to finish the shawl I’m designing. Not to mention the other couple of designs I’ve got started.

Next year I’ll get cracking on updating this more often. Really.

Oh, and just so’s you know, 7-UP Mixed Berry (I get diet) is awesome, and I really wish it wasn’t a “limited edition” flavor.

In Loving Memory

When I finally finished the D4 Bag of Dice Holding, my mom told me she was very proud of me for doing it. In her memory, I’m offering a half-off sale on the pattern, through Ravelry. Just enter the coupon code “lovemom.”

I’m also trying to think of something I can design for her. I have to decide what she would have liked. Something for her? Something she’d like to knit for someone else? She was very proud of her Swedish heritage, but I don’t think I’m up to doing something Bohus style! And I haven’t tried tvåändsstickning yet, but maybe this is the impetus I need to do it. I actually had a pattern idea several years ago that I might resurrect now, something with some traditional Swedish motifs. We’ll see what happens.

It was time to go

We took Mom off of the respirator and the vasoconstrictor she was on around 5:00 tonight, and she was gone in less than twenty minutes. It was a hard decision to make, even knowing that she didn’t want to be kept alive by machines, but since she went so easily and quickly, we’re sure it was the right one.

Thank you for all your kind words and keeping us in your thoughts and prayers.

A very sad day.

My mom is in the hospital. She is, as they say, gravely ill. Basically, any minute, I could get a call from my sister saying that she’s gone.

Mom is 82. She raised ten kids (four from my dad’s first marriage, the rest her own). She has sixteen grandkids (I think I’ve counted right), and I don’t know how many great-grandkids.

She taught me how to knit and crochet (even though she really didn’t like crochet, herself). She taught me how to bake.

She told me last week that I’m her favorite.

In fifteen days, it will have been six years since my dad died.

Maybe she’ll pull through. It seems unlikely, but, maybe.

Things to do, the rough draft

To do in October, I hope. Thankfully, some of the Nerd Wars and Mystery220 stuff can double as holiday gifts.

Oh, crap, would you believe I wasn’t even thinking about Hallowe’en costumes? I had thought that I should dust off my pictures from last year when I tried to put together a tutorial for a trick-or-treat bag, though.

Craft has stalled. Immediate action required to regain control.

I know I have been uncharacteristically optimistic in my plans for everything I’m going to get done in the next three months, but now I’m starting to think I may have really taken it too far, and I’m kind of looking at the list in my head and going a bit tharn.

I think I should write (or type) out an actual list, so I have something concrete to go on. Things to do for Nerd Wars, the things I’m designing, the gifts I plan to have made in time for Christmas and Monkey Day, the mystery KALs, the test knit for Tinyknit . . . I’m sure there’s more. It’s always nice to be able to physically cross things off as finished, which I could do if I’d make a list.

I’ll put making a physical list on my mental to-do list.

Glitter and Be Gay

If I’m not pure, at least my jewels are!

“Glitter and Be Gay” is an awesome song from Leonard Bernstein’s operetta of Candide. (I really, really like Dawn Upshaw’s recording of it, but I’ve never heard a bad one from anyone else, either.) And I feel like it’s appropriate for me right now.

You see, I just had some ice cream (Blue Bunny Premium Super Fudge Brownie, to be exact), and I’m also the proud owner of a copy of Laura Nelkin’s Adorn collection.

I didn’t cheat!