Which really doesn’t mean anything except Ugly Betty and Grey’s Anatomy is on tonight.

Right now I’m doing two VERY important things:

1. Avoiding homework

2. Avoiding my family

I’m really not sure if this is a side effect of PTSD, the agoraphobia or just a long life of being generally stressed, but I’ve hit this wall where I just don’t really want to talk to any of the people I currently know. Except the ones I live with. (Mike, Josh, the dogs, the cat…)

I really wish I lived somewhere else. Somewhere with a legit art school or at least a legit school with an arts program, since Las Vegas seems to be the universal SUCK HOLE of continuing education. I want to take a spinning class, and of the two LYS in town, one (the good one at least.) offers classes, but it requires going across town every Wed. night to attend. Going across town is one thing when I have someone with me, as I usually do when I go yarn shopping at this store. However, attending a class would mean that I was traveling alone. Which means I would be going farther away from my house than two miles unaccompanied. Which, does not happen often and rarely if ever happens after dark. (I’m out of Klonapin, anxiety attacks are not fun after dark, on the mean streets of Las Vegas without anti anxiety med’s.)

Anyways, enough of emotional Dani breakdown time. I’m enjoying a delicious and healthy fruit smoothie (gag, I need chocolate) and actively procrastinating, in fact I’m procrastinating so hard it’s sort of making my  head hurt.

I am so close to finishing the new improved Short n’ Sweet (just a couple more motif reps on the body, then sleeves and finishing and it’s done!) but I keep staring at it and just lack the motivation to finish it.

I bought my Mom an mp3 player that I need to unpack, install and load up with music and pictures before crocheting and/or knitting her a cozy for it. It’s her Mothers Day present. I think I might make her a quick cap and frilly scarf too, since she does of course still live in Alaska and will actually get use out of a spring scarf set unlike most of the people I know.

I winged a hat and scarf for a friend of mine on the way down to San Diego a few weeks ago (when I got blueballed on penguins, thanks Seaworld.) and I liked how they came out, so I might try to figure out what I did tonight while watching my shows. I’m sure Mom would appreciate it.

I need to set up my etsy.com shop. It would be nice to start selling some of the stuff that is now stuffed into every corner of my house. Plus, I’ve spent a small fortune on yarn that doesn’t get used because I’ve yet to purpose it into something I will actually wear. I think I need to stop crafting for myself and start crafting for profit. Well, and non-profit. I’m going to work on some puppy blankets to give the local shelter.

OH! I nearly forgot, I got my stuff from my swap partner! It’s awesome, he really caught on to my near debilitating obsession with penguins, he made me a needle threader polymer penguin, and a felt needle holder (for normal needles, not tapestry or embroidery, too small.) in the shape of a penguin, the needles hold in his belly under the white park. This will make sense when I actually upload the pictures onto the computer. Which I will do after I accomplish the rest of the list of things I’m putting off.

*sigh*

Math homework here I come.

So it has come to my attention that the entire time I’ve been crocheting I’ve been doing it wrong. Since I technically learned to knit before I picked up crochet I hold my hook and fabric like knitting needles. I’ve never really watched other people crochet a whole lot, so I didn’t realize I did it weird, except that when my mother in law watches me crochet she gives me the cocked head of a puppy waiting for the next command. “Eh?” I think is the appropriate term for the look she gives me.

This holding the hook wrong, and subsequently the yarn and the entire fabric of the project, is what I think makes learning new techniques and stitches so hard when I’m trying to figure it out via a book or website. But I’ve still managed to work it out and I’ve gotten quite fast and proficient at crocheting the wrong way. This explains why I couldn’t quite teach my hairdresser how to crochet properly though, it probably didn’t translate well since she hasn’t ever knitted either.

Speaking of doing things wrong, I’ve been knitting wrong too! It’s no wonder the first scarf I made Mike all those years ago when I was learning to knit didn’t have a continuous pattern of ribbing, because I wasn’t knitting or purling right so basically he got a scarf of lumps and bumps instead of ribbing. I’m trying to reteach myself to knit properly so I can then learn to purl properly and do all the other fancy needlework I’ve been dying to do. I really want to learn to use the DPN’s so I can make socks! I would also really like to make actual honest to goodness clothing items and since it’s so much more difficult to accomplish a soft, pliable fabric with crochet I really do need the flexibility of knitted fabric to fully realize some of my designs.

I ordered myself some business cards for the budding DaniDo Crafty line of knitted/crocheted/embroidered/dyed goodies. I even created my own logo:

I think it’s cute, and since we all know how much I love anything with a little face on it, I thought it was appropriate as well.

My current project is making a new Short n’ Sweet bolero like the brown one commonly referred to as ‘The Devils Jacket’ that I did a few weeks ago. I’m using a softer and lighter weight yarn for this one so it’s not as heavy or bulky as the one made out of 100% cotton. This is an acrylic yarn, but it looks and feels like really light mohair or baby alpaca. It drapes quit nice which is good because since it’s acrylic I don’t imagine blocking it will work very well. But I can also wash and dry it in the dryer without fear of felting, pilling or shrinking. This second bolero is going much faster, easier and nicer than the first. Practice makes perfect. I think I’m going to work on some fishnet like fabric to make into some overlays for tank tops and basic dresses. I have found there is a serious lack of Goth knitted/crocheted apparel. I intend to fix that.