In Which Only Happy Things Exist

My most recent bestest creation and third place finisher at the 2013 Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival! Eeee! Most exciting revelation: I know how to spin, and am quite good at it. :)
Observe the fine thread. The gloss of silk and the rich rust color of the fiber. I used a drop spindle for this, which is unusual for me as I'd had such trouble with that method of spinning until this year.

Which makes it sound as though I've been spinning forever, but I didn't start until last April or so, borrowing Molly's wheel and then going to The Mannings to pick out one for my very own. Lenny, as he's known, is very dependable and cute, spending most of his time in the living room with me, the cats, and the fibers.

But earlier this year, I decided to attend the Madrona Fiber Festival in Tacoma, combining my love of fiber with a much-needed visit home to see Candyce. There, I learned how to use a drop spindle from the lovely women in the Spindlewood booth, and left the festival with two of their spindles and a considerable quantity of various wools.
I also got to semi-Kinnear the Yarn Harlot. It's not a true Kinnear, as I had to ask her to stand still for a moment so I could get the shot. She's very mobile!

This post is sort of the Memento of my last year, since it starts with my recent spinning achievement and works its way backwards in time. :)

I've done some knitting too, but this past 12-month is really marked by my shift to spinning. I'd always loved watching people spin, and it was so relaxing to let my mind drift while I turned little bits of fluff into something completely different.


And my year isn't all about knitting and or spinning, either. While not a luminary in the game world, I've done a couple of presentations that seemed to be well-received. And while I haven't been in the public eye much while our game was unannounced, I was pleased to be invited by an actual game luminary, Richard Dansky, to come speak at the East Coast Game Conference last month.

I like public speaking, especially on topics I enjoy. My presentation was about creating memorable NPCs in games, and folks seemed to like it, which was nice. I found I missed talking to other people about working in the games industry, people who love games and want to work on them, or learn more about working on them.

Good things happened to me in the past year, and that's been very pleasant.

Ohai, Blog :)

Put on your MovieDude voice! In a world filled with distractions, her blog went un-updated for nearly four months....

What have I done? Where did the time go?

As shown in image one, I saw a buncha sheep. Kate, Catherine and I drove up to Rhinebeck for the New York Sheep and Wool festival. It was a blast! Kate worked both days in Miss Babs' booth, while Catherine and I prowled around separately, fondling yarn and ogling sheep, goats, and alpacas. I ate fabled artichokes, and brought back some maple sugar cotton candy for Veronica (and it was pretty tasty; she shared it at knitting night before becoming slightly ill from having so much... hehehe).

Also in the past three months, the sock pattern I designed for Kate's yarn club went out. It's called Kaguya-hime, and was part of her World Folktales Yarn Club shipment for September. I also wrote the re-telling of the story, and made some little Japanese paper bookmarks to go with the pattern. The pattern will be available for non-Club members in December! Yay!

What I liked about this sock pattern is that it was easy to memorize and customize. I also used a band heel for it, which worked out really well as it's a simple style that's perfect for two-at-a-time Magic Loop socks. At first, I used info on it that I found on the internet, but after doing one pair of socks following the dimensions on those other instructions, I realized that I didn't particularly like how the heel turned out (even though those socks turned out well), so I changed it up to the version in with my pattern.

I also designed another sock pattern as part of Ravelry's Sock Knitters Anonymous June challenge, but haven't written up the pattern for that as yet. My August socks were knit in a cool cotton blend yarn that Donna gave me for my birthday, so I need to do another pair in actual wool to see how well it works. It's an all-over lace pattern derived from the same Japanese stitch pattern book from which I got the Kaguya-hime stitch. Opera Socks (the cotton socks) will be written up and released later as well. Squee!

And, also for Kate, I designed a shawl for a kit she wants to put together for her Etsy shop. It's called Molly's P'shawl, and the first test knit of it came out rather nicely. I made a half-sized version and gave it to Kate's daughter Lili. Super cute, if I do say so myself, and easy to knit, with a gorgeous lace edging. I'll knit a full-sized one later on, but the first p'shawlette, less than 50 grams, took no more than a couple of days to work up. It would have been done more quickly had I actually spent more time knitting.

For lo! The true reason this blog has languished isn't because of knitting and designing patterns, but the fault of Mass Effect, both 1 and 2. O.o I've done three playthroughs as FemShep, and now have MaleShep nearing the end of ME2, after importing him from ME1.

Dude. I've spent hours at this game (well, both), and I love it! And also, I am tickled to death to learn that Chris (my c-worker) wrote Ashley Williams and Thane Krios, as well as all the planet descriptions for the first two games.

I found out the latter fact when I mentioned how writing nearly 400 Operatives descriptions for The Agency, plus corporate backgrounds (which included bios of all their important people) gave me a case of hating biographies, and that I felt sorry for the person who wrote those planet descriptions. Hehehe!

I'd like to thank...

...Suz. I can't think of anyone else who encouraged me, nurtured me and made me feel as though I really could do anything in games if I put my mind to it.

Thanks, Cosmic Twin. I'm sure it's still your influence that's blessing me in all sorts of ways that I don't deserve.

It's kind of funny to see my name on a list like this. I'm tickled that Melissa's also on the roster! Went to Target tonight on the way home from work, but this one didn't have a copy.

I know that Carolyn was researching and writing the article for a few months. When she first asked for nominations, I nominated Suz. Unfortunately, the article was going to be about women currently working in MMOs, so Suz didn't qualify. But she qualifies for my personal list. Without her, I wouldn't have gotten so far.

There's a certain bittersweet quality to this sort of thing at the moment. I wish I had someone to share the moment with here with me now. Someone who'd hug me and take me out for a celebratory incandescence. Instead, I hugged the cats (who put me in my place with their lack of impressed-ness) and settled in to work on my Owlings.

Finishing Up

While in Austin, I finished off my Rib Fantastic socks, but I don't like how the toes turned out. They're both awfully shallow and I'm afraid they'll rub through. Hence, I'll be undoing the bind off and re-knitting the toes this weekend.

Meanwhile, however, I started up another pair of socks. This time, the pattern is Tidal Wave. That said, I think I have already messed it up, quite possibly at the point in time where the girl in the seat beside me on the plane began heaving into her airsick bag. =\ Could have been a lot worse (her illness, not the sock)...fortunately, she wasn't as sick as she could have been. Still...yucko!

Speaking of yucko, did I mention that I was sequestered for the better part of a day in Steve's hotel room? We added timing and style to our presentation and observed this happy note on the desk. Invasion of the crickets follows me to Austin! Aiee!

Added some Austin photos to my Flickr page. I'm not sure what the motivation is for me to take photos. Sometimes it's because I see something beautiful and want to remember it. Other times, like this morning, I see something unusual and try to capture it. I wish I had a better camera, but oh, well. I can only do so much :)

Boxes, Boxes...Everywhere!

We have many, many piles of boxes. Some are Dan's, but most are mine. I have a lot of stuff. And this is even after pruning things down to move in together, then further pruning to prep for this moving out.

And just as with our last move, we are interspersing our packing with games on the 360. :D Last summer was all about Civilization Revolution. This year, it's Fallout 3.

I'd been watching Dan play since I got him the game for his birthday. After a while, I decided it wasn't so scary and so I began playing it, too. I'm now further along in the main storyline than he is...hehehe!

It's been interesting to play the same game at different times. He's created another character to take advantage of some the things he's learned while watching me play. And all three of our characters are proceeding through the game in different ways, which means we've each discovered different areas and items...then have to bring the other characters up to date on the latest finds.

Movers are coming on Tuesday! It'll be very exciting and stressful.

Butch has a malignant growth on his tongue so will be at the vet's Tuesday. That gets him out of the place for a couple of days (he should be fine...but of course at his age, surgery is riskier than normal). We're still considering what to do with the cats. We may just put them all into the guest room with the stuff that isn't moving to the condo and hope they live through the day.

Now to pry a game controller from Dan so I can go swipe a bobblehead in Megaton. :D

Knit Four

Rather than doing my current project in feather and fan, I thought perhaps I should keep it simple since I'd really like to complete it before the baby starts school. Instead, I am doing this very easy diagonal baby blanket. The only change I've made is to use a different brand of yarn, as the shop was out of the pound of yarn called for in a color suitable for a baby boy. I'm making it in a dusky, denimy blue that feels very nice.

I wish I'd re-taken up with the knitting before. It would have filled lots of hours lost to Sims 2 University, that's for sure. :)

Lately I've been playing around with a variety of free online games to see what else is out there. I already know I don't like FPS, but there's so many interesting and surprisingly free games in the world...mini-games, RPGs, weird ones like Kitten Cannon. I might jot down some highlights later. So far, I think my favorite is one of those mini-games that I find so endlessly fascinating: Slideout.

Matt sends this link: 2005 Game Designer of the Year. He's winning! Aieeee! :)

My sister got me hooked on Final Fantasy back in the old NES days. I own just about all the versions of the game and now to my delight have gotten the GBA version in time for my trip. Yay!

It's slightly disconcerting that the game is much easier than I remember and there are new translations and spells. The GBA is perfect to play it on.

I also have Pokemon Pinball to take along. That's an addicting little deal too, since I'm obsessing over not being able to evolve those damn little thingers. Chris watched me playing the other day and didn't know what one of the critters was. "I'm old school," he said. Apparently they've added in dozens of new guys since my cherub was young enough to collect them. Some help he'll be.

I'm home now. Mittens and Melody are perched at my feet, giving each other stink eye but otherwise being cordial. I am, of course, lounging in bed now because I am exhausted.

One thing I hate about Las Vegas is the fact that folks can smoke indoors, so they do. While the Hilton's casino area had reasonable air, the conference side had terrible circulation. Poor Matt caught something or other and was unusually subdued. It was kind of freaky to see him so quiet for the majority of the trip. Of course, the two warp core breaches he shared with one of the other designers might have hastened his illness. :)

I had a pretty good time, overall. Disconcertingly when someone introduced me at one session, a group in the far corner went, "Ohhhh...that's Owlchick." Eep. To which I could only reply, "Yes! And I'm an actual chick!" I don't know that I actually met any of these folks, though. I hate being so bad with names, but there you go.

More some other time. I fell asleep at 3 and woke up at 5 this morning (Broos, be grateful I didn't call you then). :/ While I went to bed at reasonble hours all the other nights, I don't sleep well in hotels so cumulatively I've lost more sleep than I can handle.

A day of firsts. I caught the train from Solana Beach to Los Angeles to spend the day at E3. This is my first stop in Solana Beach and first train ride in California. And despite my fears that I would catch the wrong train and end up in Argentina, things went very well. As I waited for the train, some of the sound folks for the game arrived at the station so I knew I was pointed the correct way. One fear down, a million to go :)

Last year at E3, I lived an entirely different life. I wasn't working or living where I am now. My job, while interesting, wasn't exactly what I had wanted. My current employer sent me to E3 to interview with the folks who would become my supervisors and my entire life changed.

And in the past year, I've realized I love my current job. Every day seems a little different with different challenges or opportunities. There's stuff I wish would be different, but I'm able to get past those things.

One thing that I am not sure what to do with is my homesickness for Seattle. I miss the weather, the city, my friends, and most of all my cherubs. That makes me question whether I've made the right decision, to do what I love but live so far away from everything. I lived in Seattle for 20 years and know where to find X, Y or Z if I need to. Will it take 20 years for me to live here before I feel that same sense of connection to San Diego?

The Sims2 have eaten what's left of my life. I am trying to see how generation 2 will be, which means I have to carefully grow up dozens of little Sims, make sure they aren't related somehow and then pair them off two by two. What a time sucker upperer.

Today one of our producery types took me on a long-promised trek to a place that serves Hawaiian food. I have not had Hawaiian food anywhere but Hawaii, so it has been ages. My gosh, the food was so good! I've had laulau where the "meat" is a chunk of pork fat and the fish is non-existent. Wherever these people get their laulaus, they hold a fistful of meat and were ono! I hope I can find this place again sometime because it was so worth it!

Matt just called to remind me to watch House tonight. I have never seen it before but Tivo says it has Hugh Laurie, whom I adore. Go, Tivo, go!

Ooooh!!! That's one of my quests on the top of page 2! The folks who did the voices for the npcs on this quest did a great job. It's so cool to listen to someone else say something you wrote and it sounds exactly as you imagined it. :) In a related note, I was giddy with delight over one of my npcs whose voice sounded so familiar I wondered what TV commercials he'd done. Turns out he'd done the voice for one of my favorite npcs in KotOR too. How cool is that? :)

The cherubs are playing a form of cooperative HALO, wherein they try to kill each other in order to fill up the floor around them with their dead bodies. They are about ankle-deep in body husks now. It's a very unusual technique, but they're apparently enjoying the chaos. Weird.