Pirate code monkey

The code monkey is a valuable member of our team. I'm not kidding: only one user can run a particular set of tests at a time, so only the person that has the monkey is allowed to use the simulator. Code monkey don't like testing.
Because the monkey is passed around quite often, one of the eyes was coming loose. We could have, of course, reglued it. But we didn't have glue, we had duct-tape. Cue Pirate Code Monkey!

FO: Code Monkey

Code Monkey get up get coffee
Code Monkey go to job

I am a code monkey. My co-workers are code monkeys (though the term became a lot more popular after I joined the company). We love Jonathan Coulton's Code Monkey song.

Crocheted Code Monkey came to work :)


He sit down pretend to work


Code Monkey has GIR background


Code monkey not alone (2!)


Code monkey is an amalgamation of the Monkey and the Corporate Zombie from Creepy Cute Crochet (amazon|ravelry), done with my trusty 3.5mm hook and some peaches and creme.

Code Monkey turns and leaves. Has tail.


Seriously, Code Monkey recommends Code Monkey song. Go watch.

More piggies, GIR. I demand piggies!

One of my favourite cartoon shows is Invader Zim, and in particular GIR, the little robot. GIR is quite a stupid robot, built like that on purpose by the rules where Zim comes from, before packing him to Earth, the furthest place they could think of. Zim is not a good invader. And GIR is so cute. I am a bit like GIR.

My favourite episode is Bad, bad rubber piggy, in which they build a Space Time Object Replacement Device and send piggies back to the past. These are for science, GIR. SCIENCE!
(Come here and hear audio-clips from the series. Just select "Bad, bad rubber piggy" on the episode search, and you will find out why I'm so weird, and how much this post is littered by quotes)

I have now made two piggies, with different patterns. I will make yet another piggy (need more piggies), but using design elements of both of them, as I would like something in between.

Piggy 1	Piggy 2

Were I a real scientist!, I would put the piggies in the Large Hadron Collider and fly them against each other to create a new breed of super-piggy, with the strength of ten thousand little piggies!


Oh, gods, I think I've gone mad.
Yay, we're doomed!

Wedding accessories (FOs)

You might remember that I had to attend my cousin's wedding, and I decided to knit my accessories (as well as use an old dress, which annoyed my mother no end).
The wedding was this past Saturday and, barring some disagreements about what time to come back, it wasn't so bad, given that it was an affair that involved my family. I came out with a clear thought: I'm not getting married. If I do, I will elope.

Click here for the full picture!

Hair Flower

Ravelry hair flower
Pattern: Main flower (rav) and Small flower (rav)
Yarn: Rowan Cotton Glace in black and maritime (discontinued)
Needles: 2.75 mm for main flower and 3.0 mm hook for small flower
Notes: I like how my hair turned up! I didn't know what do to with it, so I asked Ravelry for help. I loved the Chinese bun tutorial, so that's what I did. 10 minutes, 20 hairpins, 1 dpn and plenty of holding-spray later, I was the proud wearer of that bun, and mocked the people that had spent at least 2 hours that morning at the hairdressers. As the evening wore on, some of the hairs started to uncoil, but still remain in nice curls, so they looked on purpose. If you have long hair, I would certainly recommend this hair style!


Lace evening gloves



Ravelry project page
Pattern: Afternoon tea fingerless gloves (rav)
Yarn: Patons 100% cotton 4 ply, in black
Hook: 2.5 mm
Notes: My brother commented on the gloves, and said he thought they were very elegant.
I had a bit of trouble when I started making them, first having to check many sticthes (tr3tog explanation here), and then getting overconfident and doing it wrong. Worth it, though. They do stretch a lot when you block them, so don't be afraid if they look too small: I certainly thought I was going to have to redo them in a 2.75/3.0 hook (although continued with the first one to practice), and in the end it stretched plenty.

Gloves in action!

Sorry for the poor quality of this picture. There were actually very few pictures of me in my family's digital camera, so that was the best I could get.

Change of plans

Today, I wanted to mention that it's been two years since I had my major breakdown, and how far I've come from then. Instead, I'm going to complain about sleep.

As I've mentioned before, a side effect of one of my meds is incredibly vivid dreams, which leave me tired all the time. I am decreasing my meds, partly because I don't need them now, and partly to help me sleep better.
However, it's not working! The propanolol is what makes me sleepy. Since decreasing it even further (from 80-40-40 mg to 40 mg all), I'm more sleepy than ever. This past night I slept 10 hours, and had to go back to bed after 2 hours awake, because I was just too tired. I had noticed I had been more sleepy recently but, when I check my records, I noticed that this latest phase started when I decreased them. They were meant to have the opposite effect!


However, in good news, I have finished the first of my lace gloves. And 2.5mm is alright, so I don't have to redo it. This is quite quite convenient, because Get Knitted, my LYS, didn't have a 2.75mm hook!

Half lace gloves and half tachikoma, all crochet

I'm very happy with how my lacy gloves are coming out. They are only a bit difficult, but I need to pay lots of attention and not crochet too tight, or they don't fit. As it is, I don't know if they will fit me done with a 2.5 mm hook, but I'm continuing anyway, for practice. If, when I finish this glove it doesn't fit, I guess I'll go look for a 2.75 mm hook.



Similarly, my tachikoma is looking remarkably like a tachikoma. I'm super proud of this because I'm making the pattern as I go along. The head and the eyes are done, and now I'm working on the pod, which you can see in the second picture below. The most difficult thing are going to be the legs, but I have a couple of ideas already...

Black necklace (FO)

I have not been very good at the blogging business lately, have I?
I have some mild excuses lined up, like I had a friend over this weekend, and it was really nice but really tiring, and I barely got resting time, let alone knitting time!
But on Monday and Tuesday, I got out the hooks and, while Alex played on the PS2 (StarOcean), I wipped out a FO! *giggles at the pun*

I had to relearn how to do a double crochet, and struggled a bit with the small circles until I got the hang of it again, but today I have worn my new necklace to work! When I tried to put it together yesterday there was some amount of fail on my part, as I still sew in the button wrong despite having double checked, but I managed to make it better, despite feeling depressed (this involved a two hour nap in the middle of the evening).


I had a bit of trouble this morning finding something to wear that would leave most of my neckline open to show off the necklace, but I think it worked. It looks really nice, and I might make some more jewlery out of yarn!


Technical details
Ravelry project page
Pattern: Ponte Vecchio, from Barroco
Yarn: Rowan Cotton Glace, in black
Hook: 3.5 mm
Technical notes: Really quick and easy crochet, very easy to memorise as well (I did the three small circles on the bus, from memory). It looks very elegant, especially in black, and it looks steampunk to me, so I can pretent I am in that kind of setting! A, will knit again.

Incidentally, this is my 101 post!

Katamari! (FO)

(I will recommend that you open this video in a separate tab. It's the introduction video to We love Katamari, and it features my favourite Katamari song, "Katamari on the swing". I figured it was an appropiate soundtrack)

Here is my fully-funtional Katamari!

What is that?	It's getting near!
It's taken one of us!	Nooooooooo

Nothing can beat a Katamari!


Technical details
Ravelry project page
Pattern: Magnetic Katamari, by Amy Shimel (Amy's Babies) (Ravelry pattern page)
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cotton DK, in blue, yellow and orange (yellow and orange are leftovers from the Jayne Hats)
Hooks: 3.0 mm (for the main body) and 3.5 mm (for the nubs) - although I did try 4.0, 4.5 and 5.0 when I was being special at crochet; don't use those.
Notes: if you know how to crochet, and do single crochets instead of slip stitches, it is a very easy crochet. Once I got my stitches right, it flew off the hook. I couldn't get the recommended magnets (I couldn't get them online from a UK store), so I ordered some random ones from Craft Bits. The service was good and quick. I placed the order on Saturday morning, and I got a confirmation that the items had shipped on Tuesday. Wednesday evening, when I got home from work, the magnets were in my mailbox (stuck to it, as well!).

The Katamari now lives on the living room carpet, where I kick it every time I walk past, and it rolls wonderfully! It is awesome!! I'm so happy!

The White Whale attacks!

Two ships sailed happily across the sea.


Suddenly, the White Whale appeared.


Quick, man the harpoons!


But the white whale was too much.


It taunted them.


And finally, it om-nom-nomed them!


Here, Whale! A smile for the camera!



Technical notes
Ravelry project page
Pattern: Tiny Whale, by Hannah Kaminsky. (Ravelry pattern page)
Yarn: Rowan All Seasons Cotton
Hook: 3.5 mm (E)
Notes: I enjoyed making the whale! A+ will buy again :o)
I had a bit of trouble with the tale, but I got it explained by the Ravelry ladies. I just didn't know how to start the tail. Here is the answer I got, for other people looking for it too:
(I’m guessing that) because you were working in the round, the sc 4 is to get you to the right place. Then, when you ch 1, you are working a new row. Then ‘sc2 into one, 2 sc, sc2 into one (6)’ adds up correctly and makes good sense for the tail of a whale, where you would want some strategic increasing to get the right shape.

How NOT to crochet

I've been having some trouble crocheting the katamari. On Sunday, I tried to have one more go at it, and this time I checked stuff online. I found a helpful video on crocheting on the round, although it wasn't the on-the-round technique I found most helpful.
I discovered that I had been crocheting wrong all along.

Let me say it again.
I had been crocheting wrong all along.

A simple crochet is made out of 2 steps. First you draw a loop throught the next stitch. Then you draw the thread around the hook and bring it throught both loops on the hook. It was this last drawing that I did't do. I would draw a loop through the sticht and pull that through the chain stitch, without the "yarn over".

And, suddenly, I can crochet!

And I have some pictures, to show my stupidity to the world. I do deserve to be mocked. Can you tell which is which? (link for those not familiar with how a katamari looks).

Back for a bit

I am back temporarily home after some days away, although I will be off tomorrow again (to Eastercon).

The party was nice, as I managed to secure a small group of people to talk to, rather than being lost in the 90-odd people in the party, although 3 am is waaaaaay too late for a party to finish. I spent the next couple of days tired and headachey, and I am a bit sad today, but I handled the lots of people rather well.
Charlotte liked her scarf lots, and there will be pictures soon.

I think I finally learnt how to crochet. The bad news, however, is that I had made 2 halfs and 2 starts of a half of the katamari wrong. I have a new half that I think is ok, and one nob. I might take it to Eastercon. I do really want to work on my cardigan, but it might be a bit too bulky.

Back again in a couple of days!

Crocheting is difficult

Crocheting is difficult. Also, I really like how "crocheting" is pronounced, with the silent t and a slight french accent, it sounds really pretty... oh, a bunny!


*ejem*
Crocheting is difficult. I did make a little swatch the other day to learn all the different type of stitches, and that was difficult enough, there was much frogging and cursing at the swatch.
But now I'm trying to do the Katamari. I went through 3 different explanations and about 5 trials of the magic ring before I learned how to do it, and then 3 more goes until I made one that didn't look like poo.
Then I started the crochet in the round. It took a bit to get the hang of if, mainly because of the crocheting bit, rather than the round bit, and some frogging as I was getting used to the type of stitches. Then I started it again with a bigger hook.
Yesterday I managed to do most of the first half of the main body, but I don't like it. It's so tight! The pattern says to crochet tight, but it always comes out tight, even when I try to do it loose. The fabric is really hard, and the worse is that the magic circle is a lot loser, so it "pokes out".

But I'm not going to give up, because I want a Katamari.

I might just knit something else (iPod cosy and Tudora) before, and then try again.