Mario Scarf

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Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009

been_boinged_large

I picked up my first Nerd Merit Badge the other day called: “Been Boing-Boinged.” I wish it sounded a little less pervy, but it’s a sweet merit badge to get, I think! My scarf was picked up on boingboing.net last year and at the time I had no clue what BoingBoing was. I had all these people commenting, “You’ve been boingboinged?” and I’m thinking, “uhhhh, did I miss something here?” When it arrives in the mail, I think I’ll have to finally fix my sewing machine and make myself a sweet Nerd Vest, just like when I was a Girl Scout.

Give me fooood!

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

I probably shouldn’t be writing today since I’m fasting before a blood test later this afternoon. My dermatologist asked me to fast for 12 hours before another Accutane blood-work procedure to check up on my liver function and cholesterol levels. I don’t know why I had to go and choose an afternoon appointment instead of a morning appointment, because now I get to think about food during my waking hours and drink copious amounts of water with Crystal Light imagining it’s a liquid fruit salad. I even pulled a Bugs Bunny on Jason when he got home from school- rolled up his sleeve, tossed on a little pretend salt on his forearm and pretended to corn-cob-gnaw up to his elbow. So yes, I am a touch cranky and I reeeeeally want to get this day over as fast as possible. I see sushi or roasted soy-lime tofu in my dinner-future.

The past weekend was a bit tortuous in the South- it rained for almost four days straight and rainy weather is my trigger for a rotten mood. I get really mopey, don’t feel like doing anything, and start taking every little thing personally. I knew I had to do something about it so on Saturday I made sure that Jason and I did something fun together- we went out to Ru-San’s sushi buffet for lunch, and saw Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D that night. If you’re into old sci-fi movies or enjoy Japanese robot vs. monster movies, you’ll like Dreamworks’s latest offering. We were surround by kids, but I think we got more out of it than they did. Jason and I almost peed our pants when the monsters were telling their background stories- each one is based on an old sci-fi movie, so funny.

In scarf-related news, I got an offer for something kind of big, but I’m reluctant to discuss it in complete detail here yet. It’s something that involves a fast-approaching deadline… I’d have to have the scarf completed by the end of April or beginning of May to be considered. And I’d have to have some semblance of a pattern made, and I’ve never written an actual knitting pattern before aside from the chicken scratch I write for myself. I feel like I could dig deep and crank it out in a month, but I’m really worried that I’ll set this huge goal for myself and end up crashing and burning. I just wanted to be honest with all of you and get my thoughts out there, but I don’t want to encourage any great expectations… yet. I probably won’t mention this again unless something actually happens come 30 days from now, sooooo yeah.

Another project I’ve started planning is a series of actual tutorials (ones that I will actually succeed at, heh) on what I lovingly refer to as “camp crafts.” When I was a kid, I dabbled in a bunch of crafts that weren’t exactly practical, as in, they didn’t serve any serious purpose, but were a lot of fun and really got my fine motor skills working. I’m talking about finger knitting, making friendship bracelets, etc. I do kids’ crafts every week at the church and realized that a lot of these kids don’t know how to do a lot of the things I did at their age. There are a lot of books out there (that I probably once owned) that can teach kids all these skills, but some cost up to $20 a pop, but you don’t get the same instruction a live person can offer. I want to make video tutorials aimed at kids that are free on the web, and invite you to solicit yours ideas/suggestions for activities. I’d even love to have guest vids! This project is still in the works and I will probably make a whole new web page to house everything so this isn’t something cropping up overnight. It’s just something I’ve been thinking about for quite awhile and have been envisioning all the possible angles of approach. My goal is to give kids everywhere the chance to experience easy and fun crafting that they can pass on to friends. Viral crafting for kids, if you will. And it gives me the chance to be a kid again!

This week’s goals include:

  • Spinning furiously to add more yarns to the Etsy shop
  • Making lists of kids’ crafts
  • Spring cleaning my craft room
  • Sprucing up the front yard! (Yay! Been waiting all soggy winter to get started!)

And just so this post isn’t complete picture-less:

Remember “Delightful” from the other week? I measured it today to put it in my Etsy shop and it’s 255-freaking-yards! I had no clue it would end up that long. And it’s about a worsted to bulky weight which means helluva lotta yarn!