ipod monster

so back before xmas i made 3 ipod monsters for my nephews (and illusionstar). they all got finished as far as the knitting went, but one of my nephews got a lesson in how to felt wool and the other chose to have me do it for him. i wish i had gotten pictures of all of them, but here is the last one that i felted, put a screen protector on, and a velcro closure.




they were all different colors and designs, but were all done with jamieson's dk weight shetland yarn in peacock, bracken, raspberry (shown) and sunrise. they were knit in the round on size 8 dpns and the tentacles are all 4-stitch i-cords. the green feathery yarn is basics polyester. i used it for extra tentacles here and as a ridge going down the back and tail of my other nephew's monster.

i found this yarn hard to felt. going through the wash didn't do it, but working it several times with hand soap and hot-water eventually got it sufficiently matted and shrunk. the basic circumference is 34 stitches around, but i would suggest making (and felting) a gauge swatch for this one. this yarn does not shrink much vertically, so you can eye-ball how long you want the finished monster to be and trust that you will not wind up with something too short.
it is nigh impossible to find clear plastic in usable sizes for screen protectors, so i cut one myself from some photo protective screens i had lying around and used fabric glue to attach it.

cutting holes: it is important to put the ipod IN the monster when you are cutting holes, especially for the circular touch pad hole. the holes stretch once they are cut and will wind up in the wrong place if you make your cut marks on an empty monster.

this project is a lot of fun and leaves room for a lot of creativity. eventually i will make one for me!

x-posted to 20sknitters

this week

has been busy...and stressful without having a good reason.
i haven't been sleeping well. i toss and turn and am alternately too hot and too cold. i am stuffy with the change in weather.
this means that i'm tired and nap-prone during the day.
i am gradually trying to get up earlier and be on a normal-person schedule as opposed to a college student schedule. this morning i got up at 9. this was an improvement.

mostly good news this week.
wednesday afternoon my advisor called and praised me up and down for about 10 minutes about the draft i sent her. she answered my questions and relieved some of my fears about how platable/unpalatable the paper is. she said i could go ahead and send it in. she said i should be very proud of the work i've done, the quality of the completed paper and that i should stay in touch. it was very nice.
so i took it to kinkos, made some bound copies and got them sent out this afternoon.

the germans have been in town and left. i had fun helping ross entertain them and meeting the new stagetech employee in the US. he is south african and was glad to talk about johannesburg.

i also heard back from a couple different jobs. one just wanted me to fill out their EOE form, but another kinda raved about my qualifications and wanted to make sure i knew it was a part-time job. which i did. i hope she doesn't decide that i'm over-qualified, because even though it is a part time position, it is one of the few project management positions that doesn't require experience in areas i don't have. it would be a really good challenge for me and an opportunity to learn things that i can't yet put on my resume. and i would be managing a food closet. i can feel completely good about that.

on the less happy side of things a friend wrote me this week and basically gave me a face full of shit for not calling her or getting together with her enough.....and while i HAVE neglected her, i'm also kinda pissed off. because i've neglected everyone including ross and my mother. i've been focused on my work. i feel like i am only just getting my social life back this week and the germans were in town. to add to that we are poor. i don't have a job and until i do, ross and i can't be blowing lots of money on going out. i feel like she doesn't call me back just as often as i don't call her back and it is frustrating to feel like that makes me the bad guy.

i am going back to game tonight. i have shelved sarnait for the time-being. i've been playing her for 3 years and i need a break. so i will be starting a new character tonight. a toreador. this should be fun.