RPG Painted Mini - Ranger-Druid

This is one of those rare moments when I will say I'm darn proud of how this came out:

The folks at Reaper Minis have her labeled as a Ranger, but I used this mini to play a Druid named Holly. Here she is with Baelik, her faithful bobcat animal companion, also from Reaper Minis:

Here is the unpainted original, image from Reaper Minis:

The Eency Weency Yarnblob

climbed up the winder spring...

Today's Mad Knittist Notes

Brought to you by yet another about-to-be overdue baby set: I've got 2 ladies having babies, both due in March, and I've not knitted a stitch. Ooops. Meanwhile, I've got a dice bag 75% complete, a scarf about 60% done, and gloves 0% done. Should I set my sights on fewer projects? Heck no! :-D

RPG Painted Mini - Bard

Here's a mini of a High Elf bard I painted last year:

Here's the unpainted version, image from Reaper Minis:

My Hubby/DM is very particular about which players are allowed to play bards, but I think I could pull it off. Someday. If I ever get bored playing rogues. It could happen.

Yarnblob on the Edge!

I'll bet by now you're wondering why I'm posting pics of "yarnblobs." Well, it has been my experience that every time I wind yarn from a pre-wound skein to a spool (cake?), there's always a blob of yarn in the middle that plops out and has to be untangled before winding can continue. Every. Single. Time. So, I decided to start taking pictures of them and on posting them once a week. I figure I'll never run out of these pics unless Murphy's Law kicks in and suddenly my life becomes yarnblob free..... It could happen.

Sea Shells

After having decided to make a Fan Kimono with the pink Drops Alpaca Virginia Knitting sent me, I decided to go ahead and do some test swatches. First, I tried it with size US 13 needles in an attempt to get somewhere near the gauge in the pattern I want to use. That did not go well. At all. Seriously, it would have qualified for a Yarnblob post.

Being a stubborn Capricorn, however, I did not give up. I did two more test swatches with different size needles, hoping to find one that would make the yarn behave and show off the shell pattern. This was done with US 9's:

I didn't bother doing a second repeat on the shell pattern because it just wasn't getting any more shell-like. Say goodnight, Floppy. I tried again with US 3's:

Lo and behold, a shell pattern. It seems the bigger the needles, the floppier this yarn looks. I think I'll go with the US 3's. It'll require some serious adjustment on the pattern, but the US 3's seem to tame this fuzzy pinkness better than the others. That, or I'll have to find a coordinating yarn to knit together with it. It's too late in the evening for my brain to function well enough to either look for a coordinating yarn or do any sort of accurate calculating, so I'll try tomorrow.

Hittin' the Easy Button

After a rough day at work, I had to go to the grocery store on my way home (those dern kids insist on eating "every: day - tsk!). Being somewhat exhausted, I picked up dinner pre-cooked in the deli section so we could get everyone fed reasonably early. Easy Button! Right after dinner, I had the kids help with the laundry, the cat box, and a few other things. I say "help" but I really just told them what to do and had them do it. Easy Button! All that done, I decided we needed cookies, but didn't want to roll and ice them. Drop cookies are easy enough, so I made up a batch of chocolate-chocolate chip-mint drop cookies using chips I bought while at the store today:

I used parchment paper on the cookie pans so they just need to cool and be put away, already clean. Easy Button! After baking, I only managed to down one before I was all sugared out - they're very rich. Have I mentioned that I love my stand mixer? My Hubby likes to keep brown sugar in the freezer, so of course it gets lumpy. I just left the mixer on for a few minutes with the butter and sugar, and it got the lumps out. Easy Button!

Meanwhile, after having a cookie or two himself, my Hubby reminded me that I've not posted pics of these socks:

 

 

I made them some time ago, as you can see by the slow felting process that's going on during washing. I made these for myself, but despite my precise and numerous calculations, they ended up big enough for my Hubby. That was before I realized my in-the-round gauge is different than my back-and-forth gauge. Blast ye scurvy purls! These days, I just knit them with a few quick calculations once I've got enough knitted to establish gauge. Easy button!

Now that I've hit the easy button so many times in one evening, I'm too tired to knit. Oh well, off to bed; that's easy too. Probably another rough day at work tomorrow, but that doesn't hit the easy button, so I' not gonna think about that just now.