Impulse knitting!

Uh, okay, I'm attempting to revive this blog. Or at least continue it in 2-year increments. Well I think it will be better going forward, as I was busy at Toy Design school for the last two years, and now that I've graduated and enjoyed a summer of "funemployment," I'm trying my best to live like a part-time bum (doing freelance work here and there).



I impulsively decided to try this pattern from my Stitch 'n' Bitch Nation book, as I had a big stash of unused yarn, and I had just figured out what I would be for Halloween and was excited to accessorize.

Well, it's not likely that I'll finish this in time for Halloween festivities, but it was a good motivation to at least figure out how to use double-pointed needles for the first time, and I might still use them as the weather gets colder.

I found a giant skein of pink worsted weight acrylic for the main color and also another skein of pink and off-white to use for the stripes. The stripe yarns were a heavier weight, but I figured since it was just for 4 rows each, plus it would all stretch out when I wear it anyway, I figured it would be okay.

BTW I finished a quarter of this project while watching Project Runway on DVR and Wolverine: X-Men Origins on Netflix with my roommate (who is just learning to knit!). Wolverine was surprisingly bad, almost comically bad, despite gloriously hot Hugh Jackman and beautiful Daniel Henney (who was cast as the bad guy, sadly. Why are all the Asians cast as bad guys??). Really bad special effects and bizarre unfunny plots like the boxing fat bastard-esque character. And what was Will.I.Am of Black-Eyed Peas doing in this movie???



Hello Daniel. Can I be your Hello Kitty?

Anyway, more pics to come to reveal the rest of my half-crafted Halloween costume!

Simple Joys of a Knotty Girl

On my bus commute to work this morning, I knitted while listening to my iPod on shuffle.

I secretly amused myself, as I was knitting devil-tailed pants for my nephew, to the beat of Beyoncé's "Naughty Girl."

Does Super Mario wear socks?

I have always wanted to do a knitting or cross-stitch project using some kind of known pop-culture pixel art. I like handmade hobbies, because it is a nice respite from the usual computer thing I do all day. It reminds me how nice it is to take time with a special unique item, plus it is refreshing to create something tactile and memorable.

And while I'm at it, it's fun to play with irony of creating a digital look through analog medium (which I realize has been done before).

So I am attempting to create this Super-Mario-inspired image (pictured right) in cross-stitch form. While this image is still a work in progress, I had decided to change it so that the Mario and his friends have bare feet, with shoes to placed to the side.

However it raises the question, do Mario and his friends wear socks? And if so, what color socks does one wear with brown shoes, overalls and a red or green shirt? I checked eHow.com for an answer, but no Nintendo character is boring enough to wear khakis. What do you think? Socks or no? And what color?