Apparently I’m too mysterious. *grins*

The new project is Knitty’s MaryElla, made from a lovely kit from EarthFaire.

Neither scan (this or the one I showed previously) show the wonderful color of the beads. They’re a dark iridescent, and just lovely. However, stringing them all was a pain in the butt.

Yes, I know the pattern tells you not to. I’d read elsewhere that it was a good idea anyway, so you don’t have to cut the thread every time you need to add beads. Plus, knowing me, if I didn’t get the unpleasantness done all at once, it would never get done.

This is very fun knitting, even if it’s on 0000 needles. Just takes some getting used to. Of course, I’m sure for those who don’t knit socks, it would be even harder. Doesn’t seem like too big a difference between a size 1 and 0000.

And yes, Becky. I am insane. But so are you, sis.

Who wants to guess what this will be? If there’s enough interest, maybe I’ll make it a small contest. Email me with your guesses!

Okay, so I have a reason why I haven’t updated. Knitting content is included. I promise!

My hard drive decided to start going back, and it needed replaced. If you’ve ever done this, you know it’s a complete pain in the ass. I *think* I’m back to where I was before with most things. We’ll see.

Also, things in SWG are kinda uneasy. For those who don’t play online games, I’m part of a fairly good-sized group of people, commonly known as a guild. People generally join guilds to make playing more fun, make friends, etc. You can do more fun things if you have people to go play with, since these kind of games are generally designed so that most things are designed for groups to do.

Unfortunately, in SWG, there’s not a lot to actually *do* that hasn’t been done many, many, many times. This isn’t a problem for my guild, Total Eclipse, since we’re what’s known as a role-playing guild. In other words, we all have characters in the game, and we try to “live,” for lack of a better word, in the Star Wars world while we’re playing. So our characters don’t talk about things like what’s on TV, or our real life jobs, or whatever. They might discuss what they do for a living, since they’re separate people. Or whatever their hobby is, or what’s going on with people they know, or the war. (It’s Star Wars, after all!)

At this point, you all probably think I’m insane and should be carted off somewhere. You’re probably right. However, it’s great fun, and generally lets you forget real life problems, at least for awhile. And it beats “Let’s go out and kill Tuskens again!” It is, however, extra work on top of all the standard work that guild officers would do.

Let’s face it. Any time you’re responsible for a group of people, there’s work. Some of it is what my friend Thirteen would call “cat herding.” Just getting people to do the right things at the right times, for the good of everyone. There’s things like inventory and finances, and just keeping track of things. I have spreadsheets for all different kinds of things in the game.

I take the majority of the work. I’m the guild leader. And, going into this, I knew it would be work. I don’t mind at all. TE is an incredibly great group of people, and I’m honored to be trusted like I am. However, I can’t do it all myself, and so I have some officers. Unfortunately, I lost two of them last night. One of them was Mike, who was my Executive Officer.

Yeah. So…stress. I’ve gone from having four officers to two. And one of those two is out of town at the moment. So…a bit of panic on top of the stress. We’ll get through it. As I said, it’s a great group of people, and I love them all. They all understand that I’m stressed and have jumped to help out wherever they can. I love them all. I really do. I’m happy to count almost every member of TE as a friend, and our new members will be friends in time, I’m sure. But it’s affected my knitting, in that it’s hard to hold needles when you’re pulling your hair out.

However, I did manage to finish the Dublin Bay socks. I’m rather happy with them, but I’m starting to think I’d like to get hold of some size 0 needles that won’t snap when I look at them funny, because I’d like to see how I’d like a tighter gauge.

And, without further ado, pictures.

Odd perspective, I know. Picture taken by my webcam, which sits on top of my monitor. Trying to get both feet in the picture was a bit difficult. And my desk is relatively clean there. Sad, isn’t it?

I do love the little lace pattern up the side of the leg. Enough that I shaved my legs just for these pictures. Heh. Yes, you guys can feel loved.

I adore brightly colored socks. I don’t know why, other than the fact that they make me incredibly happy, both to wear and to knit.

The downside is, I can never ask Mike’s opinion of them. He hates them. In fact, he won’t wear anything than a dark, preferably solid-colored sock. Stockinette or a plain ribbing. *yawns* So his reaction to my Jaywalkers or the Dublin Bay socks is rather…unenthused. At least he makes the attempt, but bright colors just aren’t his thing. I think the best line he’s given me yet has been “It looks just as good as it always has.” I do love the man - he honestly tries.

The first Dublin Bay sock is almost done - a dozen or so more rounds until I start the toe. Here’s a crappy webcam picture, to the right.

Not loving the blotch of pink, but at least that will be safely inside my shoes when I wear them. And I am not ripping these back again. For anything. I am not that strong a person, or a knitter. And these have a certain charm. Probably because everyone who sees them thinks I’m insane.

They’re probably right. After all, the papers you can see behind the sock are a printout of a spreadsheet I’ve made for Star Wars Galaxies. Actually, it’s two different views of the same spreadsheet. I might have a problem…

Really, I do. Just, it seems this year is the year of me fighting with the yarn, and the yarn not wanting to tell me what it wants to be when it grows up.

Seriously…completed work this year? One pair of socks. Assorted cat toys. Numerous partial socks that have been frogged.

Probably half a dozen attempts at Adamas, which is now in Time Out.

But here, I present to you, what might just be yarn and a pattern attempting to get along. Good thing, as this yarn’s been frogged more times than I care to count.

Yarn is my beloved Lorna’s Laces in the Knit Happens colorway (custom dyed for one of my LYSs!). Pattern is Dublin Bay - fairly simple, but a step beyond basic stockinette. Since my gauge is off, and I have no size 0 needles that I’m happy with, I’m working it over 64 stitches on size 1 Brittany Birch needles.

Oh, digital camera’s still broken. This picture courtesy of my webcam. Whee.