You need to know this, really
Don't think I ever mentioned this, but my piggy Max has a serious foot fetish. Not just a foot fetish - but a smelly foot fetish. You know, the post-gym-on-a-hot-day kind of smelly. He will sniff your smelly foot lovingly and even try to lick it(!), chew your soggy socks and swoon over your steaming running shoes. Pop in the shower, and he's no longer interested. Yep. That's my pig. Didn't you really-really need to know that?

I also finished animation the sun and some stars, and I swear that if I have to animate another celestial object I'll scream.
S & T - both your presents/swap items have been taken to the post office via Ant. Fun-fun-fun.
Oh, and anyone interested in swapping - there's only one kitty recipe card pack, one doggy and two raccoon packs. Hurry up and get them, yo!

So MUCH catching up to do
So I was really busy this week. I'll try and catch up in chronological order:

I got my SP7 first package on Tuesday! After a wee postal service scare (hey just don't like me lately, grrr!), it finally arrived in my very hands. Inside were a pretty card, some very colorful and super soft yarn, Godiva hot cocoa mix (since sampled and lips licked with joy) and cute sweater-shaped needle holders. Yey! Thank you SPKP!
My dear boss and friend J underwent knee surgery thursday, so I spend much of wednsday making her a hand drawn card. I was told that it went very well, and she's now back home, hopefully not in too much pain. It's always hard to see nice people you care about in pain. It's only temporary, though. She'll be better in a jiffy. Yes.
I also started my very first Jaywalker socks. The famous Grumperina pattern made famous by Cara's many knitalongs. It's surprisingly easy, I'm very glad. Perfect for the in classroom zoning out. I'm making the picot-edge version because I love what it does to the cuff, and because a regular ribbed cuff has the tendency to squeeze a bit too much on my shapely calves. And with my achey shins all week, I couldn't really think about adding any more under the knee pain. It's pooling a bit, so I have to manipulate the yarn quite a bit. But I still love the colors. Kool aid. Who'd have though?
The news have been crazy all week, so I won't get into that.
Thursday I also got these beauties. I got one pair to make Sandra's Jaywalkers (no, I'm not getting carried away, this will take a while to get to) and the other for some other unknown pattern. I also found so Opal Unicolor for dirt cheap... from England. I kid you not, that was some hell of a deal. Any pattern suggestions? (I don't think I mentioned it, but the taxman made me very happy by informing me I deserve all my 2005 taxes paid back. I decided to pamper myself with some fun cheap yarn. I also sent most of my acrylic yarn off to charity, hence busting my tiny stash. More yarn needed, the box I got for my stash is very hungry, muppets style...). Hapy feet for me. I had a classmate ask me In class if I was knitting all my socks now. Oh, the smile I smiled...
And on friday Ant found the elusive Indian restaurant we were always told resided in our little suburb. It was, according to him, a very authentic Engllish curry joint, Englishmen included(! One of them carried out a huge stack of take away boxes 'for the Missus'). They also specialize in vegeterian food, and it was indeed delicious. Dad, interested?
Animation also started full speed this week, hence lack of energy and no extra time. And by the way, if you were wondering why I never put my artwork here... well... I did a lot of things in life that are anything but shy, but when it comes to my drawings - I am. When I finish this lovely project in May I might be brave enought to show y'all what's been taking over my life. ...And maybe not. Nothing personal.

Ain't they cute together?


Can't share the stage with animals and knitted toys.... which is why that's all I have for today. : )

Gocco-fest!
Can you tell that I got "a little" excited about my gocco last night? I planned those little "present girl" notes when I realized I was wasting a lot of good paper cutting the recipe cards out of lager sheets of cardstock. I used the same screen (I ran pretty low on those due to my vast experimentation the past couple of days) for the little image, the ribbon and the full "Paper Armadillo" logo. I'm so hooked it's beyond reasonable.
I started with yellow ink, but it wasn't showing very well on the purple and pink tags (and discovered, at the same time, how much ink you really save when you surround it with the ink blocking thingy), so I changed to pink. All of a sudden I had lots of ink to use all of a sudden, and not enough cards. So I dug up all the envelopes for my future cards, and some I just use for the bills (...) and printed like a nutter. It was fun.
And then I printed on some ribbons I got at Michael's the other day. I got so inspired by Liquid Sky Arts gift wrapping. I used the fabric ink, but it didn't take ironing that well. So I didn't, because it's not like I'm going to wash them, right?
And so my room looked a bit like that last night:


And here are some better looks:



Now I really need to get working on my film. Gevaalt...

Gocco galore
Got to love this device. Why would anyone want to stop making those, ah?
It took a couple of days and about six screens to figure out the proper combo of carbon ink, exposure time and amount of ink to apply. See, the manual won't tell you to keep the pressure and bullb house on for a few extra seconds after the flash. It won't tell you that you can save tons of ink by surrounding the print with ink blocking material. Thank goodness for good people.I made two new recipe card packs. I love the way the racoon ones came out. With the doggy ones - I flipped sides by accident! I wanted the pup on the left to the recipe section. Arrrrggg! They're still cute, though. I feel another swap coming.
Speaking of swaps - only 2 more of the kitty recipe card packs are available! So I'm adding the racoon and doggy card too. There's two of each, same specs as the kitty ones, except the doggy are light grey, blue and light brown paper - in blue ink, and the racoon is on two shades of brown - in pink ink. I'll toss in a few more surprises. Bring the swapping on!

Working hard!
So French Kate is meowing along. The body and ears are finished, and I'm plotting the legs and hands. I have to wait for sitting in class to advance on anything these days, but she will be finished soon. Film is on top of my list these days. Although it's so easy to get distracted. I'm considering knitting a hat for the little sweety too, but I'll have to think about that some more. The cabled scarf is going well. I hit a pattern repeat every time I have 10 spare minutes. I'm wondering if it's take more than 2 balls. If it doesn't, I might sell the other two. Any buyers?

So stuff is really busy, working on my film, trying to make a good finish and a nice body of artwork.
At the same time, I need to think about the end of the year's portfolio review and my personal presentation.
I'm thinking about my possible venture "Paper Armadillo", but that's a long story.
I'm thinking about moving out and all the stuff we need to get, choose, design, pack and stuff.
I'm thinking about puppies, and kitties too.
No wonder I'm tired...

Things that make a girl happy
1. My morning conversation with my piggy, Max.
2. Markers and pencils in many colors.
3. Watching "the making of" documentaries.
4. Awesome children's books.
5. Pretty patterned papers.
6. Well cooked vegetarian food.
7. Inspiring independent artists.
8. Mac computers.
9. Making up patterns that work.
10. My boyfriend.

Happy loving day, everybody!

p.s.
Did I mention that my baby is the best? He got me this needle case I was making faces at not getting for myself a while ago. As in a W-H-I-L-E ago...

Big adventures in Little Tokyo
Yes! We finally took our all day adventure trip to Little Tokyo, LA. We're making more and more escape trips off campus, and getting mentally ready to leave little suburbia to the big city. So this time - we went to "japan". Awesome!
We started the day by getting into a food store for something to drink. We found just about anything we'd need to make our favorite sushi stuff, a lot of uber cute food wrappings, canned coffee and loads of candy! The boxes on the right are empty. Yep, we ate them all. One is those little egg shaped things that taste like apple pie (supposed to be apple pie with vanilla ice cream, but I wasn't getting the ice cream all that much), and the other like cuppuchino (but if you let it melt in your mouth instead of chew it - there was some caramel inside too!). The center are samples of mini Japanese chocolates, and the left is this trange but delicious yogurt and fruit toffee with mini jelly eggs inside. I swear, those Japanese dudes make the craziest stuff. I'm sure those "magical" snacks are like Hersheys in Japan, but thy are still way cool than that. Of course we got some Pocky too, but that's all gone now.

I'm afraid I was probably behaving like a complete tourist, "ooh"-ing and "ahh"-ing at just about everything. I hope I wasn't too loud being creeped out by the mini snack dried fish and crab (yeachs!). My eyes were automaticlly drawn to anything cute, even if I didn't want to get it.
So the next stop is a book store, where I got this incredible Amigurumi (Japanese crocheted dolls) book! I think I can figure out the basic principals - there are illustrations and photos of hand doing things. I'm goint to look for someone who can make some simple translations, though (just in case I'm missing something dramatic). I think the main thing I'm going to do with this book is use it as inspiration. And there's inspiration galore. Check it out!



Ant got one of the Hayao Miyazaki storyboards books, a book by theis cool comic book/board artist, and the strangest horror film... about spirals. I kid you not. It had potential, but sadly, it was bad... Ebay? I think so.
Than, we pretty much wandered around, walking into touristy and "real" stores, we even went into a couple of supermarkets, which was just cool. We went into a confectinary and bought some Japanese sweets too. These things are insane! There are many shapes, what we had was green, oval and smooth (Ant's description: "like a small child"), and when you bite it tere's something smooth and sweet inside. You basically have no idea what you're eating. What it is, actually, is made of ground rice and those beans, sweetened with all sorts of crazy colorings. They were all called Mochi (like the ice cream), but I'm sure they have different separate names. Oh, am I going back for this one little shop and raiding it. There were more selections, with baked stuff too, but we didn't get anything for the fear of eggs (my love is allergic). May I say, delish?
And in the end of the day, we ate at a cute little local restaurant. We just realized we were eating sushi and/or Japanese on avarage once a week in the past month (Ant took me out for sushi on thursday night, I forgot to mention), not including getting ready-made sushi from TJ's and Whole Foods. I'm re-discovering vegetable and tofu tempura. Some of it is pretty delicious. Ant had a nice platter, that sadly included a squid piece. He should go on Fear Factor. I really don't know how he kept a straight face through it... ; )
And so our adventure day ended on a full-bellied and happy note. Where next time? We'll see. I'm still just happy that we get to look at LA with some joy, before we live in it (or close to) and start complaining. Hey, the traffic does suck. Post suburb, I think our love to ANY big city (where you can actually walk from one place to the other in) is going to be a great relief. And LA is pretty cool, after all.

And, is my Japanese fiesta wasn't enough - I found this cool pattern. Don't worry, baby. I'm not going to make those... ; )

Finished and started
At long last, I finished Wavy which was hunting me forever. It came out a bit short, I could have used another ball, if I had the patience to knit any more of it. I ruined the pattern in the end of the second repeat and preferred to keep it that way. It's a bit short. But it's super warm, and the green somehow makes me pretty happy. A B will be a fair grade. The main problem was the yarn and needle combo - this yarn was slipping off my cheappy aluminum needles like nuts. I also realized that I don't like this type of single ply. It either goes loose or tightens up so much that it was hard to keep the stitches even. And the yarn would keep getting tight and roll on itself and I'd have to unwind it. Ant loves the hat I made for him from it, but I'm far from being in love. Did I mention it sheds more than my cat Clio?
Pattern: Wavy by Sarah Smith, Knitty Winter 2004.
Yarn: Valley Yarns - Berkshire in "Lime", two balls. wool 85%, alpaca 15% 100 gr/141 yrads



And then... I started two new projects:

My dear French friend S has a sweety of a baby girl, and since he started teasing me about my knitting - I decided revenge is due! Et voila - I'm making he a Kate (any suggestions for the french name?). I'm making a variation on the pattern: she's going to be smaller - thinner yarn on #2 US needles, she's going to have a red t-shirt instead of shirt and pants. I'm also going to have to embroider the eyes because I really can't find proper safety eyes anywhere. S, if you start complaining, I swear... ; )



I also started Midnight Knitter's Karaoke Cable Scarf. I'm using the Artyarns Supermerino I got a while ago (hooray to stashbusting, although my stash is really small actually). I'm not in love with the color, but it's slowly growing on me. I also changed needle size from #7 US to #6. I'm using my circular #6 because I was too lazy (and broke) to get new needles. And also because I'm getting pretty fed up with the 14" aluminum ones I got in the beginning of my knitting career (october?). I got so picky in such a small period of time... ; ) Hey, I'm trying cables now, that's something...

Swapping, anyone?
So here they are - my goccoed recipe cards, ready to be adopted into loving homes. The complete info about them is below. Please leave me a comment or email me directly with your swap offers. There are three of these cuties, for three of you. Here we go:

Each pack of recipe cards include ten double sided card to write your favorite recipes on, to keep or give away. They are screen printed in red-orange ink on white cardstock, 4.5"x6.5". The front of each card includes fill-in-the-blanks and space to write the name of the recipe, number of servings, preparation time, ingredients and tools and cooking instructions. The back has more room to write on and a space to write where you got the recipe from. The printing has slight imperfections, the most visible one is that the back is often somewhat faded, especially the "Paper Armadilo" logo. Each pack is wrapped in decorative green ribbon.

Any takers?

Gocco!!!!!!!
So Gocco arrived yesterday, and for 24 hours I was good, and declared that I won't touch It until the weekend (except for fondling it lovingly). I made the mistake of reading the instruction booklet on my lunch break, and I couldn't say no.
So I designed these two-sided recipe-cards, with a cat and a bunch of other cutinesses. What do you think?
It's not perfect, which is why I won't sell them. The edges of one side are spotty and the second is a bit faded. And my logo, the "Paper Armadillo" (long story) ribbon was probably drawn a bit thinly, so that came up scrumbled. I don't have any exact info yet, but I'm contemplating offering a set or two for a swap. Interested? Leave me a comment or email me at MWright@CalArts.edu.


H-A-P-P-Y...



(10 minutes later) I was emailed this little quiz by A, "which Muppet are you?" And wouldn't you know it - I'm Kermit!

You Are Kermit Hi, ho! Lovable and friendly, you get along well with everyone you know. You're a big thinker, and sometimes you over think life's problems. Don't worry - everyone knows it's not easy being green. Just remember, time's fun when you're having flies!

Somewhat (a lot) corny, but I'm still amused.

Big in Japan
Excuse me, but does anyone NEED a proof that the Japanese are insane-insane-and-awesome-briliant geniuses? 'Ere you go: they're called Walkie Bits, and they're sickly cute. Sickly. Cute. If I had the cash I'd eBay one. Seriously.
Here's another good link.

J'ai finis!
Check out my Sassy socks! I just finished my second pair of socks - the Vesper footies with the picot edge. They came up a bit tight, which makes for some "railroad tracks" here and there. I'm considering gifting them to someone with smaller feet. Maybe, maybe.
So there - me, my socks, my tatoo and my PJ's pants. Yeepee!

 

Moving on II
In the spirit of yesterday's semi-heavy entry - more recent advances in my life, on a lighter note:

I finished my first sock of the "Midnight melon" footsie pair on a break yesterday (I can only knit in class now, and on breaks from drawing). Ain't it cute? Makes my feet look so big... I could have added one stitch per needle to the circumference, but I love it anyway. Oh, and check out who can (finally) kitchener now!


I ran for 25 minutes (2.5 mile, on the treadmill) this morning. It's quite an achievement for me, considering that only 18 months ago I was a pack and a half a day smoker who couldn't lightly jog for 5 minutes. Not to mention the flat-foot-cracked-shins-refusing-to-go-to-a-pediatrist shin pain. By the end of the month, it'll be 30 minutes and 3 miles. Count on it.

And I also got some nice drawings for my film. I'll share sometimes, but if I'm happy with anything regarding my film - that's probably a good thing. Yep.