Cold Hands pg10

I'm collecting yarn for a new cardigan/vest/thing. A couple of years ago, I had bought like six or seven skeins of worsted, grey yarn that I had intended on crocheting in to a throw for my guy. Once I found out that he thought the yarn was too itchy to use, I wrapped the yarn up in a bag and left it in my closet. I'd been taking out a skein or two, here and there, for myself to make in to bags, hats and mitts. It had never occurred to me to make a sweater of sorts out of it. Mind you, when I first purchased it, I only knew how to crochet (and only ever attempted accessories and pillows.) Any kind of large article of clothing was beyond my comprehension.

Now is a different story.

It's almost a year and a half since I first taught myself how to knit. It's been so enjoyable. There is such a hassle shopping for clothing in department stores. Clothes are always so big and long. Tailoring everything is such boring work. Plus, items in the petite section are never as cute as the "normal" people clothing. Knitting and crocheting my own clothes, I can get a perfect custom fit and make really adorable items.

So, I'm collecting my grey yarn, frogging the hats and bags I'd made. I haven't decided if I want to knit a vest or crochet a cropped cardigan. Crochet will always be a bit more fun for me, seeing as I'm a lot faster at it. The cardigan that is on my Facebook page took me a day to make and another day to weave in the ends and block. I have another vest that I knit that took me a good deal longer to make. I worked on it on and off so I can't remember exactly how long that took. I think I put it down in my Ravelry page but I don't feel like bothering to look. Yesterday, I started work on a new pair of fingerless gloves. These are the kind with partial fingers attached, rather than one thumb and one opening for the rest of your fingers. I feel like the partial fingered mitts will keep my hands just a tad bit warmer. I have yet to test them outdoors so I could be wrong. My right glove is knit, today the left side will get tackled. Here's hoping that this one will get knit faster now that I've got my measurements down.

Cold Hands pg9

Sorry for the late post this week. Normally, I'm coloring another "Cold Hands" page first thing on Sundays, but this past weekend, I was out of the country for the Toronto Comic-Con. I've been to Toronto once before (last year) and the city was so great, my guy and I had to go again. More of what that particular convention is like will be discussed on episode 106 of our podcast, later on this evening.

As to the rest of our trip, Toronto has some really great restaurants. One of our absolute favorites is Cafe Crepe. The Toffee Coffee was delicious and didn't agitate my stomach the way many other coffees can and their Parisian Hot dog was like no hot dog I've ever had before. We had eaten dinner at the Burger Bar. My meal, the Cowboy Supper rice bowl, was tasty. I wanted something without too much fat and grease (and flavor) because I wasn't feeling so good (Partly from our stiff bed and the cold weather). The burger my guy had, on the other hand... well... considering it's a burger joint, you would think their burgers would be the best thing they had to offer. The waitress got his order wrong. He asked for cheddar cheese and he got bleu. He asked for fries and she completely forgot them when she brought the rest of our meal. When she did bring them, they were soggy and the sauce was inedible. So, we went back to the Cafe Crepe which is where we had a sort of second dinner and brings my tale 'round about. Even though I was full after having my rice bowl, and finishing half of my hot dog, I ate it all and my coffee because it was just that good.

Another good place to eat at is the BeerBistro. I'm not particular to beers but I heard the food was good and my guy likes to drink beer. On recommendation from the bartender, I did have one glass of beer and I'm a little upset because I didn't quite catch the name of it and it was the best beer I've ever had. So of course, the one beer I like, I probably won't be able to find again. It was peach flavored and that's all that I can remember. Ah, well. We sat right next to the kitchen, over-looking the chef, which was a cool experience. The overall atmosphere was really nice. The best item we tried had to be the Spicy Kobe Beef Tacos.

It's funny. If we weren't at the convention or the comic book store, The Silver Snail, we were some place, eating. I had thought about visiting the LYS, The Lettuce Knit, but I didn't really want to buy anything, just browse. If I did browse, I would've bought something. I figure it's best this way. I'm not that fond of browsing stores because I'm indecisive at times and take forever to pick something I like.

All in all, Toronto is a great place to visit, but I would never live there. Too dang cold. People on the street were talking about how nice the weather was and how it felt like Spring. It was too dang cold.

Page 9 is based on the rough sketch that turned in to this illustration.

:)

Wild-Eyed Vixen

A few samples from my "Black Morning" series.

The depiction of women in old movies can sometimes be a bit over-the-top. I can't recall the name of the movie I was watching, it was some time ago and I don't believe I saw it from the beginning. I came across it flipping through the channels. Anyways, the lead female character was jumping up and down in hysterics over a man she adored, almost like a child. She kept saying over and over that whatever-his-name-was loved him because he yelled at her. Y'see, his yelling meant that he cared about her, that he would get so worked up over what she was doing. The man, of course, was cool and reserved. He tried to deny that he loved her, but she knew. From that moment on, she wasn't leaving his sight. And, the movie ends with the woman taking it upon herself to move in to the man's home.

Sounds psychotic, but in the world of those two individuals, it worked. I wish I knew what the name of that movie was.

I'm re-reading Harry Potter. Yes, again. I can't wait to see the final film. I made myself a pair of Luna's Dirigible Plum earrings in crochet. Luckily I had a pair of old earrings that were falling apart, so I took them apart even more and used the hooks for the top part that goes in to my ear. I'll be posting a picture of them on my Facebook page soon :)

Cold Hands pg8

I write really strange stories. For some odd reason, that dawned on me yesterday as I was drawing up a short three page comic for another anthology.

...

Ever since I bought my new Wacom tablet, I've enjoyed doing more and more digital work. Hmm... enjoyed? Well, I don't enjoy it the same way I enjoy using watercolors but it's been better. I realized why I didn't like painting digitally before was because I was so uncomfortable. Coloring thirty some odd comic pages with a mouse hurt my wrist after a while. With the tablet, my wrist doesn't hurt like it used to. My coloring has sped up. I can't color as many pages as I can pencil or ink, but that will come with more practice. It's nice. It's not even an incredibly big or expensive tablet. Maybe if I was commissioned for more, large digital projects I might consider upgrading. My Bamboo tablet is just fine for me right now.

Cold Hands pg7

Sometimes I mean it and sometimes I don't. Cookies aren't exactly my go-to sweet. I really like chocolate and fudge. Yesterday, I made myself some Hazelnut Brittle. The recipe was for one pound of brittle but, I rarely ever follow a full recipe. I was going to cut the recipe down to a quarter of a pound, but there were a lot more hazelnuts that needed to be used up or were never going to get eaten, so I made half a pound instead. I know a lot of the times other people can become a bit hesitant to try new things, so I'll end up eating my "creations" all by myself. I made coleslaw the other day. It was very tasty. Nobody else wanted to try it and I felt like Marge Simpson when she asked Bart, "What's wrong with my sundaes?"