Viva Forever

1800+ stitches and about 12 hours of work later…

Note: Click on the square thumbnails to see bigger images.

When I saw a promo for the first issue of CRAFT containing the pattern for the “cro-bot” I was determined to make my own due to its sheer awesomeness. I finally got my hands on the patten recently and away I went. I started a few weeks ago and would’ve liked to have gotten it finished earlier but I had work and fun hanging outs to attend to. Just as well, have done the bulk of it in the span of a day resulted in quite bad shoulder and wrist pains.

Anywho, Mox the 15cm (6 inches) tall robot is now complete, with his own set of black headphones (my mother insists they look more liked hair buns), a tiny felt heart and a scarf though arguably, robots don’t need to listen to music, have hearts nor get cold. Once again, my complete lack of photography skills coupled with my shitty camera meant that the colours came out badly and blurry. Bah. For example, the stripe around the head is supposed to be silver rather than grey but it turned out annoyingly darker than expected. Overall, I’m actually very happy with it and now Mox stands in his own corner on my messy desk.

Also, halfway through Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!

I’ve been somewhat productive!

My mother wanted me to make something for my aunt for her birthday. Oh a whim I bought the pattern for this lil’ girl in a ladybird costume. I named her Emily because she looks like one, maybe because she has green hair. She stands at the mighty height of 11cm (4.3 inches) measured from her feet to the top of her antennae.

I’m quite happy with how she turned out (I love that little shell on her back, you can see it in the second picture) but I’m iffy about her face… next time I might try to find tiny buttons rather than beads for her eyes, currently they’re too googly for my tastes. Also next time, I’ll be sewing the face features on BEFORE finishing everything.

Also, I fail at photography. Everything always comes out blurry and weird. It’s one thing that I never seem to have gotten the hang of, and I seethe in quiet envy at the likes of Omi and Hannah who takes such awesome photos.

Oh and also, I’m nearly finished with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix! It’s getting pretty gripping towards the end!

Completely on a whim, I crocheted a snail.

It was fairly easy to make (though the pattern instructions were a tad bit confusing), started on Friday afternoon and finished yesterday night. I love his little antennae, though the photos make it look like it has tiny cat ears. Oh well! :3 I’m thinking of making him a little beret and/or scarf.

Well, not really finished, as he needs a face still! Below are the ones I’ve come up with (badly photoshopped, mind you :P). TELL ME WHICH ONE YOU PREFER! Of course, completely new suggestions are more than welcome! Note: I can’t guarantee that the end product might look anything like the pictorial representation (I have non-existent embroidery skills at the moment) but I’ll try! Currently my favourites is the one with the moustache and the first smiley one. :)

Oh btw, his name is Oscar Gou. COME ON, IT’S A PUN!! *is lame*

Cable Scarf
Pattern: MimKints
Yarn: Almost two 50g balls of silver, half mohair/acrylic yarn
Cost: About AU$8

I finished it about a week ago. Took me MONTHS to finish from start, though that’s mostly due to laziness, uni and other stuff that got in the way of actual knitting. I’m quite proud of it since it was the first thing I’ve ever knitted. I should’ve made it a little longer (it’s about one metre in length) but it’s good to wear to work as it’s quite narrow and non-bulky. I realised too late that it gets scratchy to wear next to the skin (especially the neck). Oh well, I wear it over thin turtleneck tops. The cables were a pain in the ass to do with all the constant shifting of stitches but it was fun and straightforward. I’m absolutely in love with the colour (don’t think the camera quite picked it up though, I’m terrible with taking photos) but the yarn is this very lovely silver colour.

Gryffindor Scarf
This is what I’ve got so far:

Well… I’m not going to have this finished by the fifth Harry Potter movie, which I’ll probably be seeing tomorrow! Either way, I’m quite happy by how it’s turning out (IT’S SO EASY TO KNIT, especially compared to the cable scarf above) though it’s taking a very long time. It’s so massive, though I keep referencing Harry Potter movie pics and they are apparently supposed to be that wide. I’m a tiny bit frustrated that the yellow yarn is a bit too saturated compared to the movie pics but I quite like the bolder colour (even if it’s not exactly canon, sigh).

Here’s a long post of Things That Have Happened Recently.

Movies
Watched Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer a few days ago. UTTER SHIT, basically due to Jessica Alba’s portrayal of Sue Storm. As I said in a forum, Sue Storm from the comics is supposed to be a top-notch scientist (with four science doctorates under her belt) and is a very capable leader. Sue Storm from the movie was a whingy, pathetic woman who was constantly complaining about not getting to have a perfect wedding and a normal family. WTF. It was nausea-inducing to see her UPSET about Reed Richards working on his scientific projects TO SAVE THE WORLD. It didn’t help when there was a sudden, unexplained redemption of this at the end of the movie.

On the other hand, I saw Transformers yesterday and that was pretty awesome! I myself am not much into the Transformers franchise but I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. It was action-packed and suspenseful almost all the way through, however I got a splitting headache at the end (though probably unrelated, methinks I am developing a cold). They did great work on the transforming sequences though it’s unrealistic how the robots look so much bigger than the vehicles they transform from.

Games: WoW
EB Games is having their store-wide sales and Tim and I saw the 14-day trials of World of Warcraft DVDs on sale for 97 cent each. We’ve been resisting the hype for a long time and seeing it almost given away for free, we bought two copies on impulse. We have heard horror stories of people becoming absolutely addicted to the game and we were quite apprehensive about it but we figured that we’ll see how it goes for 14 days. I was a little appalled that it required so much space; installation from the DVD took about 50 minutes and the patching process took an extra 1.5GB of downloads!

Anyway all I can say is, wow I’m so incredibly disappointed in the game. I’ve played MMORPGs before and I’ve enjoyed them to varying extents. I’ve played Maple Story, Silkroad and Fly For Fun, as well as dabbling for a tiny bit in Ragnarok. All of these games, except the latter, were free and fairly enjoyable.

World of Warcraft seems to be almost exactly the same (in playability) as the above games but costs money per month. Sure it’s pretty, has little features like talking monsters and the dialogue between you and the NPC does not contain evident spelling mistakes (unlike Silkroad and Fly For Fun). But… it’s really not all that different from other FREE games it seems. You select a class, kill x number of monsters for experience and/or money/equipment or deliver things. Sure it’s fun to lose a bit of time in when bored… but I’m certainly not buying into the hype of it. I’m glad I guess, that’s one less thing to potentially get addicted to.

Craft: Scarves
I finished my first silver scarf. Pictures tomorrow.

Currently working on my Gryffindor scarf. I figured out how to do circular knitting, now it’s just about churning out a good 66,800 stitches before I’m done. I realise that not only would I most realistically not have the scarf done by when the movie is out, but that I might not live to see the day where I’ve completed this mammoth of a project. Oh well, I’m going to keep going with it.

Meme
Got tagged by Danielle. You have to post these rules: one, each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves. Two, people who are tagged need to write their own blog entry about their eight things and post these rules. Three, at the end of your entry, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names/pseudonyms/blogs. Four, don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog. Ready? Here goes!

1. I have both duvet AND a woolly blanket to keep me warm at night, even though in Winter our house has central heating. No love for cold.
2. I have four posters in my room; Two of characters from X/1999, one of Fruits Basket and a little one of Sephiroth from FFVII.
3. I have a habit of starting games but don’t often finish them. It’s usually not the fault of the game, I guess I just get distracted easily.
4. I can’t stand sexism, either to men or women.
5. Having said that, I do watch America’s (and Australia’s) Next Top Model, but out of morbid curiosity. I find it so mind-boggling that judges of photo-shoots of the girls would say things like “in this photo your eyes are too dull, you don’t have fire in your eyes.” What the hell? “Fire” comes from reflecting light; it’s the photographer’s fault for not catching her in the right lighting. Also, how easy is it to put a bit of glow to her eyes using Photoshop? It’s not like they aren’t ridiculously airbrushed as it is. Watching these kinds of shows is like watching the circus; surreal and comical in an almost sad way.
6. I’ve never been to the circus.
7. I haven’t cleaned my desk or room at all after my exams. *is so lazy*
8. I’ve done too many of these memes, can’t remember what “random facts” I’ve stated previously or not.

Random Pet Peeve
Someone else has brought it up on their blog/forum post a long while ago and it really stuck with me. It really annoys me when people dismiss anger from women as being “oh they’re just PMSing”. Maybe, JUST MAYBE, they’re actually, I dunno, ANGRY AND/OR FRUSTRATED? Females ARE capable of such emotions! Sure, some women get bad PMS but I venture to say that generally speaking, anger/frustration is more common than PMS that is severe enough to manifest as uncontrollable emotional reactions. Next time a woman is angry at you, if you’re tempted to think “oh she’s just PMSing” maybe think to yourself that your dismissive way of thinking is probably the very reason that she thinks you’re a douchebag, no matter what time of the month it is.