Tephie's Personal Bombshelter MarkII

NaNo and Knitting

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 05:13:11 GMT

Well I haven't updated in a while so here we go.

NaNo: Last Sunday and Monday (the 8th and 9th) I didn't write at all so the whole week has been a slog of trying not to fall any further behind. I had a good day today and finally, finally hit a spot where the words didn't require concentrating until I sweated blood to get the out. I'm still behind but I wrote 3k today and if I can manage that again tomorrow I will be caught up.

Knitting: I've got eight inches done on the vest for my Mom for Christmas. That's about 40% complete since Mom is shorter than I am.

I'm a bit farther along that this now, but I haven't taken a new photo and probably won't until I'm ready to divide for the arm holes in about five inches.

I'm also working on a hat using this pattern but that's a "use up the leftovers" project I might run out of yarn before I finish. If I do I'll just rip it out and think of something else to do with that bit of yarn.

Let's see, what else... Oh, I fnally took a photo of that hat I knit while I was at my parents' place this summer.

I think my weight loss is actually visible in my face and neck, which is very happy inducing.

And I finished the gold dalek for my brother and finally took some photos.

On target

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:56:11 GMT

Still no plot really, but there are a few more characters, which will help. Of course two of them were mostly filler, though I don't think Muriel is inclined to stay that way. Other than that there was also some world building today, or rather, world enhancing since I think I'm writing what amounts to "this world plus supernatural beings".

Still no plot

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:15:14 GMT

But I'm feeling around the edges of one, maybe. At least I'm getting words down which makes this much better than this time last year.

One thing I have noticed in my various NaNo stories is that when I'm stumped for what to write and it's logical for my characters to eat, or I'm getting hungry myself, they eat and I tend to describe the food. These are the sorts of things that would be cut, logically, but sometimes I think these would also be great places for endnotes and a recipe section at the end of the novel. :D

Well I have a name at least

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 02:07:44 GMT

This is mostly so when I'm freaking out next year I will have proof that in 2009, as in 2007, I didn't have anything until a character showed up on the 29th.

I don't know what Apollonia does but she's making herself comfortable.

Now I need at least a genre and maybe a second character, based on past NaNo novels I can get something if I have that much.

Adventures in Soap Making

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:51:04 GMT

It's been a while since I made any soap, and I still have lots of lye and oil around so someone has been pushing for more soap to use up the lye. :D

So I threw together a recipe (olive, canola, palm, and coconut for the curious) and figured I'd use up the aloe juice in the back of the fridge (unfortunately I didn't finish it off with this batch) and why not use some cut St. John's Wort while I was at it, and some tangerine and ti tree essential oils.

I had to beat the lye about a bit to break it up but that went well enough, no mishaps which is always a plus when handling lye. I dissolved it in water, half the total liquid for the recipe. The other half I did with the aloe juice into which I put the SJW after running it through my coffee grinder. My coffee grinder was bought entirely for grinding up herbs and things for soap and has never been used for its intended purpose of grinding coffee beans. I let the aloe sit on a warm burner while the lye cooled and measured out my oils.

While I was measuring my oils I realized I had palm oil and had accidentally used palm kernel oil in my calculations. A quick check with the calculator showed me that adding half a pound more palm oil would make my lye amount work. I normally make 8 pound recipes so it was a relief to find that the mold, an old plastic shelf that is a convenient low pan when you flip it over, will hold 8.5 pounds. My vertical mold holds only 8 pounds and the only reason I hadn't prepped that one was that I was expecting the soap to get rather hot while curing. That turned out to be a very good bit of foresight on my part.

Anyway, I warmed the oils just enough to melt them all, turned off the heat and went about doing a cold process soap. The lye went in and I stirred it for a while, then added the aloe, letting most of the vegetable matter stay in the pot, what went into the soap will add nice flecks of scrubbiness. At that point the soap was a nice creamy egg yellow. Alas, the aloe juice has sugars in it and lye and sugar means heat so it was shortly looking more like pumpkin pie.

Then I added the tangerine and ti tree oil... hello hot and seizing soap!

Suddenly my nice calm cold process soap was a fast moving hot process, without turning on the stove. The stick blender (long used for soap and missing several "teeth" off it's guard) was brought into play and I now have 8.5 pounds of dark glossy brown soap cooling in the mold. Well, cooling after it finishes reacting, it's still very hot right now.

I'm sure it will be fine.

Oh, do I have a hate on...

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:50:00 GMT

For "Financial Solutions". Why? The motherfuckers keep calling me. The first time or two I just hung up, my only phone is a cell and I don't like paying for junk calls. The next time I listened to the message and pressed 2 to get off their list. I did the same the time after that. Today however I pressed 1 to get a person:

Fucktard: Financial Solutions, how are you today?

Me: Fine, but you've called me four times and I pre-

Fucktard: *hangs up*

Me: ...ssed the do not call... twice. *instant hate on*

So, the next time, shall I just hang up and live with the fuckers calling me? Press 2 again and hope the third time is the charm on getting OFF their fucking list? Press 1 and immediately say "Give me your supervisor"? Or maybe "DO. NOT. Hang up on me." and then tell me to be sure my number is off their list?

Is there anywhere I can stab these assholes where it will hurt?

Better Mug Cake

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:21:39 GMT

Lately it seems I can't read recipes in comments without hitting on the infamous Mug Cake. Now for an emergency chocolate hit it's okay but the texture was always too... meaty, for lack of a better term, for my taste. This is undoubtedly due to the lack of leavening and the fact that there is a whole egg in one large coffee mug worth of cake. So I played around a bit, adding a pinch of salt, a smidge of baking soda, things of that sort, and managed to make it taste a bit better but it still didn't really have a cake texture in my opinion. So I tossed the "must fit in a coffee mug" requirement and came up with this.

~~Coffee~~ Soup Mug Cake

This may work with a smaller mug, but to be safe get yourself a 20 oz mug of some sort. Spray the inside of the mug with your preferred cooking spray.

Mix up in the mug:

¹/₄ cup flour
¹/₃ cup sugar
3 Tbsp cocoa powder
¹/₄ tsp salt
¹/₈ tsp baking soda

Blend these dry ingredients before adding the following wet ones, it will make things easier.

1 egg
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
¹/₄ cup milk
¹/₂ tsp vanilla

Mix well.

Microwave on high for 3-3¹/₂ minutes. The cake will rise above the level of the mug!

Be sure to center the mug in your microwave so the cake will cook evenly and to minimize the chance of a spill over (I've only had it dribble over once, and the mug was not centered in the oven so there was a bit of a tilt, and the small dribble didn't make it all the way down the side of the mug so it was easy to clean up).

You may need a friend to help you eat it, or be greedy and save half for later. ;)

Hamburger Rolls/Buns

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 23:04:01 GMT

This recipe is slightly modified from one I found online somewhere.

1¹/₄ cup warm milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 Tbsp butter
¹/₄ cup sugar
³/₄ tsp salt
4 cups flour
1¹/₄ tsp yeast

Set the bread machine to the dough setting (or do it by hand, but I like the set it and walk away of the machine).

When the dough is done (1¹/₂ hours with my machine), turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, give it a few quick nudges and shape it into a dozen rolls. Keeping with my lazy approach I use non-stick foil to line my pans and put the rolls in the oven with the light on to rise for an hour or until doubled in size. (The light gives the oven just enough warmth for the rolls to rise well.) Pull them out and heat the oven to 350, bake for 10 minutes or until nicely browned (the lower tray always needs a couple minutes on the higher rack after the other tray has come out for me).

In the future I may try a variation using whole wheat for half of the flour and turbinado sugar.

Free corset making tutorial

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:06:23 GMT

I know a few members of my friends list/circle sew, therefore I will share out a link for drafting a corset and if you then use their link to share the link with a friend you can get a second PDF for including gussets, gores, and corded panels. Do note that this is basically an advertisement for Foundations Revealed, but the tutorial (which is for altering an existing pattern but could be adapted to drafting from scratch) is useful.

Already thinking about November

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:28:07 GMT

Yes, I intend to write another partial novel this year. I have no idea what I am going to write but the odds are it will be something in the science fiction and fantasy continuum as usual.

Also as usual, I've been getting pings off my older NaNo attempts. Last year's story was really hard to write, I spent the first half of the month whining (sorry Kris!) and writing was about as easy and pleasant as pulling teeth. Once I moved the story from England to New England it started rolling for me and ended up picking up things I hadn't expected, like alchemy and alchemists that aren't what they seems and occult books that manipulate events and people around them... and Lovecraft's cousin. Needless to say that story is a bit of a mess. The last few days have found my brain turning that tangled knot in all directions and tugging on things that look like they might lead to loose ends. I think I might know how to untangle it now.

And that is how I know that NaNo is coming, because my brain never gets enchanted with the older stories until it knows it has to start coming up with a new one.

It's been a while...

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:15:37 GMT

But then I do tend to drop off the face of the planet in the summer. Nothing all that unusual happened this year, I went and saw the family and came back with some paperwork to deal with but that's mostly settled now.

Unsurprisingly, I did some knitting. I finished the heating pad cover while I was with my family. They watch a fair amount of TV and only have dial-up internet so I watched NCIS and knitted.

See where it goes from a wide nearly vertical band to the quick zig zags? That was the point I was at when I got there.

I then used most of the rest of the cone to knit a hat, but I haven't photographed that yet. Maybe I should get Hafoc to take a photo the next time we have a clear day and a couple minutes free.

When I got back home I spent the majority of one day sitting in a hospital waiting room (not my story to tell, but suffice to say it was voluntary surgery and went well) and therefore knit about 90% of one of these socks:

Remarkably I managed to knock the next one out in about a week. I get bored easy so a lot of stockinette, or any other extremely repetitive pattern, is a slog to knit. It really helps to knit that sort of thing while watching TV if possible.

Let's see, after that I did a "big comfy sweater" for Anjeni, which means it's a pretty tiny sweater (for those that haven't been following Anjeni is about the size of a Barbie doll).

I've started my Christmas knitting. My brother requested a gold dalek to go with his grey one so I've been working on that, but managed to trash my wrist and spent a week knitting nothing. I have no photos of that yet.

Nor do I have photos of the couple pairs of dolly panties I knit.

Last weekend I went up north to the cottage, land of no internet (though there are wireless deals there now) and basically no TV, and worked on my lace shawl. I managed to get it from 15% to nearly 30% complete (by area).

Oh, and I have a pinwheel cardigan/coat in progress for Anjeni, that got sidelined at the same time the dalek did.

Which brings me to what I knit today, a new wig for Anjeni. I'm still making a latched floss one on the shaped wig cap that I crocheted months ago but it slow (boring), and I'm sick of dealing with the old wig, so Anjeni has been hanging out either bald or wearing the in progress wig. Photos of her bald are okay, but sometimes it just isn't a look she's in the mood to sport. Enter the $1 ball of eyelash yarn:

And good grief, apparently I never mentioned that shawl of hers. I knit that too of course:

And off the doll:

The blocking of the first one was with pins and rather sloppy, the second was using some thin DPNs for blocking wires and is a bit over stretched. Eventually I'll re-dye the thing and re-block it. I knit it in "natural" bamboo and dyed it black, the black ran a LOT and it's kinda faded out so back in the dye bath it will go at some point.

On an unrelated note, any other Semagic users having trouble posting? It keeps telling me it can't connect to the server, and that server happens to be LJ, IJ, and DW!

Tiny knitting update

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 21:19:15 GMT

In more ways than one.

So, I've been knitting things for Anjeni on small needles, sizes US#0 and #1 mostly (2 and 2.25mm) of late. And really, I never, ever, expected to knit with needles that small.

And they are too big.

So I used a Joann's 40% off one item coupon to get $1 shipping and ordered a Susan Bates sock set. It contains sizes 1 and 0, which I have but I could use another set of 0 anyway (and I now have three sets of 1s) but more importantly, it has sizes 00 and 000 (1.75 and 1.5mm). The cost for the 4 sets is still less than the cost of 2 sets in steel (the Susan Bates are aluminum) so I figured it was reasonable for testing if I actually can stand knitting that tiny.

So, onto the testing.

First, using the 00 needles, something I was thinking about for maybe, possibly, working into knit shoes for my girl. I didn't like the result as shoes but they make cute slippers.



Then I thought she really needed a top other than that cropped tank she's been wearing for ages now. I was uninspired for making something up so I went looking for a human pattern to downscale. Here is a doll sized Coachella from Knitty:



Knit with #10 bamboo crochet thread on 00s for the most part (the first few rows on 000 to encourage the neck to roll). The fabric ended up far too stiff to drape properly so I sewed it down to fake it. It's worked from top to bottom and even though I used the sewn bindoff for stretchiness it's tight over her knit pants at the hip. I had intended to dye it but I like it as is for now.

Coachella is really fun to knit and since I thought it needed a looser fabric I made another one. Still on 00 needles but with #30 crochet cotton.



Again, I had been thinking of dyeing it but I liked the white on her so much that I decided I'd just have to make her some bottoms to go with it. So hot pink hot pants/booty shorts came into existence. The shorts are knit on 000 needles with one ply of Red Heart LusterSheen. Now the yarn is a sport weight acrylic but the key is that it's a cabled yarn, meaning that the plies that make up the yarn are also plied, so it's basically a yarn made from plying together several thinner yarns. In this case it's three 2-ply yarns plied together so I just separated them and used the 2-ply components on their own.

I really, really enjoyed knitting the shorts with the 000s and thin yarn. Unfortunately I didn't unply quite enough yarn so there are a bunch of ends woven around her left leg, and the bind off there ended a bit tight. So the shorts are a bitch to get on and off her but I still like how they fit. I know how much yarn they take now so I can knit another pair with less hassle later.

Looking around at my stash of yarns and threads I found that the #10 bamboo is also cabled as is the #3 cotton I used for her long vest so both of those could be unplied for future projects.

The new color scheme demanded different accessories so the hair clips were swapped for black ones and I made her a new necklace.

Cute, isn't she? :)

Fond of trees too. It was very easy to pose her in trees but she absolutely refused to stand on the ground. I'd like to get more shots of her doing things more interesting that showing off new clothing but so far it hasn't worked out that well. I'll keep trying.

Oh, and a "why not" shot that turned out cute:

Fluffy meme

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:28:46 GMT

If there is one person or more on your friends list who makes your world a better place just because they exist and who you would not have met (in real life or not) without the internet, then post this same sentence in your journal.

Wow, just wow

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 17:06:44 GMT

Someone made a Wall-E from bits and pieces of, well, junk. I am in awe.

More Dolly Knitting

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 18:37:22 GMT

Well, it's been a while so here we go.

First, some non-knitting things.

Some lounging around pants from a bit of old tee shirt and, more importantly, sandals. Finally something not slippers to wear on her feet!

Now on to the knitting. Up first, the hammock!

Unblocked, blocking, and done!

It's a bit larger than I was aiming for but it will work. I think. I still need to actually make it into a hammock for her.

I finally finished the pants.

The waist is a bit loose so I added the draw string to cinch it up a bit.

And while I had her out and posing I was struck with an idea... Remember that test doily I knit? Well those double yarn over holes looked pretty big... and as it happens they are indeed large enough to go over Anjeni's jazz hands.

Please excuse the baldness in the first photo, there's no way to get a shot of the back while she's got her wig on. I like the new outfit but black sandals don't really work with it so I'm back to figuring out how to make her shoes again.

And finally, something for a doll but not for Anjeni:

I still need to make eyes for it. It's intended for a doll twice her size, hence the hugeness.

Journaling services and reading lists

Thu, 28 May 2009 14:45:14 GMT

dancing_serpent brought up the question of where people would prefer to have people leave comments on their journals when posts are crossposted. It's a good question and my answer is whichever service you want to leave comments on.

Nearly all my posts are crossposted to Livejournal (where most of my IRL friends have their journals), InsaneJournal (where I have a permanent account), and Dreamwidth (where I am in love with their revisions of LJ's code engine). Occasionally a post will also go to JournalFen but I reserve that account for more fannish sorts of things, and should I ever finish a fanfic and decide to post it you can expect to to be there (and possibly to a second LJ that I have for things that LJ has in the past decided to go RAWR BANNINATION! on without any legal, or moral, need to do so).

So while pondering on this "where to comment" issue and my habit of shotgun blasting posts to multiple sites I thought I'd just let you all know you can drop me off your friends/reading list on any service you have decided not to follow any longer without offending me. While I have decided to maintain interactive presences on all three services I don't expect others to do so. If you've decided not to post to LJ you certainly don't need to keep me on your friends list there, especially not if you have friended me on IJ or have me on your reading list on DW. You don't have to eat the spam if you don't like it to avoid hurting my feelings. :D

Also, if I have you friended/on my reading list at more than one service and you would prefer to focus interaction on one over the other, just drop me a comment about which name to drop of my list on what service and I'll do it. That way I'll be sure to comment where you would prefer to read it. :)

Frat Boys need not apply, no Creepy Guys either

Thu, 14 May 2009 14:46:57 GMT

Your result for The Social Persona Test (What kind of man/woman are you?)...

The Renaissance Faire Wench (QLAF)

Quirky Liberal Alpha Female

The hardest part about being the Renn. Faire Wench is that people often mistake you for a beta female. This is not so. You might be quite flirtatious, but you are hardly relient [sic] on men. You like to do things the mainstream would consider weird, (like dress in costume, perhaps?). Eat, drink, and be merry, but make sure whoever you date respects you and does not take advantage of your laid-back attitude. (BTW, you are likely the only type who can see That Creepy Guy (NLBM) for who he is, helping him to bring out the Manga Geek (QLBM) inside. This does not mean you have to date one, however. You are quite flexible and can enjoy the company of many of the types.)

You are more QUIRKY than NORMAL.

You are more LIBERAL than TRADITIONAL.

You are more DOMINANT than PASSIVE.

When picking a date, consider: The Lord of the Misfits (QLAM), The Fratt [sic] Boy (NLAM), The Snowball's Chance in Hell (QTBM), The Manga Geek (QLBM), or That Creepy Guy (NLBM).

(Image from http://www.buycostumes.com/Lock-Lace-Bodice-Navy-Renaissance-Collection-Adult/27296/ProductDetail.aspx )

Take The Social Persona Test (What kind of man/woman are you?) at HelloQuizzy

Bored, so knitting survey update

Sun, 10 May 2009 01:31:11 GMT

Back in October 2007 I did a knitting survey, I think it's about time to update it. Changes are in red.

Mark with bold the things you have knit, with italics the ones you plan to do sometime, and leave the rest alone.

Afghan
American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)
Baby Items
Bobbles - We still hates them >:(
Buttonholes
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Cardigan
Cast-on: Judy's Magic - My preferred for center out circular designs and sock toes.
Cast-on: Long Tail
Cast-on: Provisional - I generally use either crochet (around the needle, not pick up) or the "invisible" cast on with thread.
Cast-on: Tubular - Italian style
Charity knitting
Continental knitting
Cuffs/fingerless mitts/arm-warmers
Darning
Designing knitted garments
Domino knitting (= modular knitting)
Double knitting
Drop stitch patterns
Dyeing with food colors (Kool-aid, Wilton's Cake Colors, etc)
Dyeing with plant colors
Dyeing yarn
Entrelac
Fair Isle knitting/Stranded colorwork
Free-form knitting
Fulling/felting
Garter stitch
Graffiti knitting
Gloves
Hair accessories
Hat
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cosies…) - swatches in cotton make good washcloths
Holiday related knitting - gifts, not decorations
I-cord
Intarsia
Jewelry
Kitchener stitch
Knitting a gift
Knitting a pattern from an on-line knitting magazine
Knitting and purling backwards
Knitting art
Knitted flowers
Knitting for a living
Knitting for pets - I want to make a Kitty Pi
Knitting items for a wedding
Knitting on a loom
Knitting for preemies
Knitting smocking
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on one or two circulars
Knitting to make money
Knitting two socks on circulars simultaneously
Knitting two socks on DPNs simultaneously
Knitting with alpaca
Knitting with banana fiber yarn
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Knitting with beads - I want to do more of this
Knitting with camel yarn
Knitting with cashmere
Knitting with circular needles
Knitting with cotton
Knitting with dog/cat hair - ...not on purpose.
Knitting with DPNs - I've been doing a lot of this lately....
Knitting with linen
Knitting with metal wire
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Knitting with silk
Knitting with self patterning/self striping/variegated yarn
Knitting with someone else’s hand-spun yarn
Knitting with soy yarn
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Knitting with wool - my shawl is wool
Knitting with your own hand-spun yarn
Lace patterns
Machine knitting - I've been craving this lately.
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Moebius Band Knitting
Norwegian Knitting
Participate in an exchange
Participating in a KAL
Pillows
Publishing a knitting book - This will probably never happen, and it would be self-published, but the idea has been bubbling.
Purses/bags
Rug
Scarf
Shadow/illusion knitting
Shawl - Have yet to finish my first, but I'm still working on it.
Short rows - Just tried the Japanese technique and love it.
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Slip stitch patterns
Slippers
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Steeks - still scare the bejeezus out of me
Stockinette stitch
Stuffed Toys
Superimposed knitting - I want to do more than a swatch worth.
Swatching
Sweater
Teaching a child to knit
Teaching a male how to knit
Textured knitting
Thrummed knitting
Toy/doll clothing - I didn't expect to be doing this back then :D
Twisted Stitch Patterns
Two end knitting (aka: twining)
Writing a pattern - I still need to format them properly for other people to use.

Knitting, dolls, and knitting for dolls

Tue, 05 May 2009 21:08:58 GMT

In an attempt to keep the knitting posts from being huge, and from my journals from being neglected for months, an update before I have tons of photos to link.

Anjeni has been basically hanging out around my PC since I got her. She has a stand in front of my knitting books and sometimes sits on the edge of the shelf above my monitor. Other times she sits in her favorite chair on top of my stacking drawer units on the shelf over my monitor. The chair and the stand are basically out of the way so she's there most, but neither place is very cat resistant nor are they good for photography. What to do about that? Clear out a shelf in the bookcase obviously.

She can stand in there, with about an inch of head room, so the ceiling is definitely low, but it works. The dresser is an old jewelry box, all drawers without a flip top for rings as most boxes of the style generally have. The chair and love seat were given to us by Kris.

Now dolls don't need beds really, but when you have set dressing you really should go for the whole shebang. Given the lack of room on the shelf she could have a narrow bed and her chair and dresser with basically no floor space, or she could go for something less Western traditional, such as a futon (no frame, so it would be folded when not in use) or, say, a hammock. A really spiffy and decorative hammock. A lace doily draped over a hammock "frame" (stretcher bars and edge lines the doily could be stitched to). Maybe some bead edging. It could be arranged decoratively in the corner when not in use perhaps. The first problem is the doily, the mechanics can be determined after that is made.

So I went looking for a good doily pattern to use and immediately hit on a problem. Most doily patterns don't have a firm size. Depending on your yarn/thread and needles/hook you can make any pattern in multiple sizes. In fact, a lot of the knitting patterns just tell you how many rounds they have. So I figured the best way to work around this problem is to make a small doily with the yarn and needles I plan to use and measure it to figure out how many rows my target doily should have.

Thirty two rows and barring the loops from the crochet cast-off, seven inches in diameter. I'm looking for a sixty round doily pattern. That turns out to be a rare, rare beast so I may be using an 88 on smaller needles.

So what to do with my test doily? As it turns out it's a bit small for a proper shawl for Anjeni, and the girl doesn't have anything to wear one with yet anyway. For now, it gets to live on her dresser.

In other knitting news, still doll related, pants with booty coverage in progress:

Japanese short rows are awesome, just saying.

Pumpernickel Bread

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 22:27:45 GMT

I love it, the darker the better, and finally I have a good recipe for it using the bread machine.

1 ¹/₈ cup warm water
¹/₃ cup molasses
1 ¹/₂ Tbsp oil
1 ¹/₂ tsp salt
1 ¹/₂ cup all purpose flour
1 cup rye flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
3 Tbsp cocoa powder
2 tsp dry active yeast

Run through your bread machine set for a 1.5 pound loaf on the whole wheat setting. This bread actually rises more than my normal white bread recipe and has a wonderfully fine crumb.

This recipe isn't as dark as I would like, but we were only able to find light rye flour, so it might be dark enough if I could get some dark rye. Also, the molasses on hand was black strap, which along with the cocoa powder might be adding a bit of bitterness that would be avoided with a less harsh variety of molasses. I like it fine as is however, and seeing as how I'm the one with the extra taste buds in the household.... :D

The original recipe is here if you want to see what changes I made.

Knits and Crafts

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:30:00 GMT

Yep, about time for an update. Before I cut for images I feel I should inform you all that there is a shift in my knitting lately. You see, someone *cough*tamashitoshiro/ToshiroDragon@LJ*cough* sent me an extremely unexpected and generous birthday gift. As a result, my knit and craft urges have been focused on that gift for the past month.

First, the last thing I finished before my birthday:

Now I can say I've knit entrelac. I also knit all the purl side rows from the knit side, aka "knitting backwards".

Okay, onto the gift and the stuff I've made for it.

First, I made a wig, starting with a crocheted wig cap:

It's blurry, but enough to give the idea, it gets covered in "hair" anyway.

Then, to warm up to tiny knitting (well, she's about Barbie sized, so not REALLY tiny, but definitely the tiniest thing I've knit for) I made slippers.

And then I sewed some shorts for her. Tiny sewing is even more of a challenge than tiny knitting!

Then I felt I really should make something for Kris and her boys:

Maybe she'll show up to and post a picture of it on Nicco.

Then, since Nicco was getting the fish hat and Hajime was getting some things, I made this for Tamas (and Nicco):

I love that background stitch, and the cable is pretty awesome if I do say so myself.

Back to making stuff for my girl, something from Vogue Knitting (winter 2008).

It's from Vogue, you can totally wear it open with nothing under it! But since I wouldn't, she wouldn't, so I made her something to go under it.

So that's Anjeni.

And I really must photograph her in daylight more often than in front of the PC after midnight.

I survived!

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 12:39:31 GMT

About ten minutes on the phone, and on the air (WKMT northern Michigan). A few verbal flubs, minor ones, and I was probably talking a bit fast, but I think it went okay.

I also got to put an email address out on the radio, custom set up for today, so if anyone is looking for a computer geek in northern Michigan they can chat with one that did a little work on CASPER.

OMG I'm nuts!

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 19:05:58 GMT

So I went to the Job Fair today. I was exceedingly wound up about it last night and this morning and managed the world's fastest total revision of a resume ever I think. I printed out fifteen, enough for about half the employers, as if fifty percent was a reasonable match rate. I didn't need that many of course, I think I handed out three and one of those was to Kelly Services. The employers represented were basically military, law enforcement, health care, and food service. Not a very encouraging pool.

Anyway, onto the nuts part. The part giving me butterflies so big they might as well be fruit bats.

I spotted a listing of job categories with the local radio broadcasters. While I know nothing about, and have no interest in, working the public side of radio, I do know computers so I chatted a bit and they aren't looking right now but I can submit a resume. Pretty standard for the geekier positions around here.

And he actually skimmed it.

And noticed a little bit about working on the Cassini project's mission planning software.

And he's really good at talking people into things.

So around 8:10am I'm going to get a phone call and talk about working on that software for about 10-15 minutes on the radio.

I'm going to die.

w00t!

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 19:17:58 GMT

My favorite skirt from back in my grad school days fits¹ again! I love this skirt to pieces, it's black with a vaguely Victorian rose pattern. The fabric is sheer and crinkly and it's put together in tiers with the last tier being short enough to be judged a ruffle. Even though it's tiered it hangs very straight and even though it's sheer it is lined to mid calf (with an nearly as sheer fabric, but it is enough). But the things that make it awesome are that it is long, the ruffle rests on the tops of my feet, and it has movement. Walking in this skirt is amazing because it swirls around like liquid without getting tangled up around my legs.

If you listen carefully you can probably hear my *squee!* of joy at being able to wear this skirt again. Walking out to the mailbox was fun even if it is spitting snow right now. :D

1. For a value of "fit" where I put it on over my head and squish the boobs through before snugging it down to my waist. It won't go over my hips. This is exactly how it fit when I bought it.

But sometimes the ordinary do extraordinary things...

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 17:51:27 GMT

Your result for The Steampunk Style Test...

The Citizen

39% Elegant, 52% Technological, 67% Historical, 40% Adventurous and 23% Playful!

You are the Citizen, the embodiment of steampunk’s everyday side. You realize that there is far more to a rich, living environment than adventurers and lunatic engineers. For every gentleman-scientist or airship fleet admiral there are a dozen or more “ordinary people” who prevent the genre from devolving into a mass of cardboard caricatures, and you take pride in exploring the great diversity of a steampunk world’s population. Your clothing could easily come from any social group or society, and you are equally liable to dress upper, middle, or working class. However, the unifying feature to your fashion sense is that it does not get carried away with “looking steampunk,” instead creating a person who could have just stepped out of the crowd in a novel. Some people may claim that your style is too close to historical accuracy to be steampunk, but fortunately you know better.

Try our other Steampunk test here.

Take The Steampunk Style Test at HelloQuizzy