Cosplaying

I've never cosplayed before but I've always wanted to.

Cosplaying is about emulating a character you love, and being them for a brief amount of time.
I just had the great idea of cosplaying a Kyoshi warrior from Avatar the last airbender.

I feel as long as you're a good cosplayer and not a creepy person, you're never too old to cosplay. 

Here's a list of characters I want to eventually cosplay in my life.

Ryoko - Tenchi Muyo
Motoko Kusanagi (the major) - Ghost in the Shell
Shiva - Final Fantasy 8
Yuna - Final Fantasy 10
Dr Girlfriend - The Venture Brothers

So far, that's the list. I will keep adding to it as time goes on.

This will require much sewing and knitting! Horray!

Simple Charity Adult Mitten pattern

Simple Charity Adult Mitten pattern

Because I couldn't find exactly what I wanted without customizing heavily, I decided to make my own worsted weight mitten pattern. I've searched Ravelry for simple charity mittens in a basic style. I like the thumb gusset  coming out of the side of the mitten, but couldn't find mittens for my exact specifications. Thus, these mittens were created.


Red heart worsted/aran weight yarn, size 7 dpns, sewing needle, stitch markers. Scrap yarn or stitch holder.
optional: size 5 dpns, or circular needles.

For adult woman size L or adult man's size S/M

CO 36 stitches. Distribute your stitches how you want, they are easily rearranged later. I usually do 12/12/12.  If you want a design for the top you can do 20/8/8 or some variation.
Do a 2x2 rib with either size 7 needles or size 5 needles. Or, do a 1x1 rib. Do this for 2 inches or till desired length for cuff. For me, beginning of round is shown by the tail of the yarn.

Knit one row plain.
Increase for  wrist by doing so: *K6, m1* till end of row. 6 stitches increased.

Knit plain for 2 inches. You may start designs here.

At beginning of round, m1, m1, place marker. You have 4 stitches for the start of your thumb gusset. Knit one round plain.
Repeat these last two rows until you have 13 stitches between your beginning of round and that marker. Place those 13 stitches on a stitch holder or scrap yarn, and continue knitting in the round. Pull yarn tight to close up the hole when you come to the thumb gusset in subsequent rounds. The hole should close on its own.

If you haven't placed designs and you want to, now is a good time to place designs.
My design was 2 red stripes, separated by black. How I did it: my colors were black (mc) and red (cc). I continued in black for  3 more rows. Then I did 3 rows red. Then another 3 rows black. Then another 3 rows red. Then I cut red and went back to black. There will be a bit of 'stripe jogging', so I placed the jogging stripes at the beginning of round, where my thumb hole resides. It is not quite noticeable.

Continue knitting for 4 more inches. This is usually where the pinky finger ends.

Begin decreases to close the mitten.
*K8, k2tog* till the end of row.
Knit one round plain.
*K7, k2tog* till end of row.
Knit one round plain.
*K6, k2tog* till end of row.
Knit one round plain.

Continue in this manner, until you finish row *k2, k2tog*.
After that row, just k2tog. You should  be left with 6 stitches. Cut yarn and leave a tail 12 inches or longer. Weave through remaining stitches and tie off.

Thumb:
Pick up the stitches left earlier. You should have 13. Pick one up where the hole is, and then you should have a total of 14 stitches.
Knit in the round, tightening  where the hole is. Knit for 2.5 inches. Begin decreases.
*k1, k2tog* till the end of row.
Knit one round plain.
*k2tog* till the end of row.
Leave a tail of 8 inches, draw through remaining stitches and tie off.

At this point, I crocheted around the cuff with my contrasting color. I crocheted 32 stitches evenly around the opening, to tighten the cuff. This is optional.


Make second mitten in this manner, reversing the top hand pattern, by distributing stitches like so: 8/8/20, where 20 is where you put the design.

Corset-type stitch pattern

I was looking for a pattern to make on the front of my  new cutsew design. This is a new knitted shirt pattern, raglan, that I am trying to design, as an alternative to sewing or buying a lolita blouse.

I wanted the traditional corset-lacing type front, but I don't know how to do advanced cables, nor could I find anything that looked easy enough.
I want this shirt design to be for the intermediate knitter, or advanced beginner. It will involve increases, decreases, knitting, purling, YOs, shaping, and putting stitches on holders.

Anyway, this is the stitch pattern. Its pretty much standard, but depending on the size you make, you will customize this basic stitch pattern for your bust diameter.

I'm considering adding ties to the back.

I anticipate this shirt will look adorable.

-MNR

Another Maya 3d Rant

I was writing these notes in response to  what some 'experts' said on the topic of switching from Maya to a new program. The thread devolved into arguing how good maya is, (or not good). I don't enjoy that they couldn't stick to the topic at hand. But the point remains.
I dunno. I just want to create some pretty pictures, not delve into technical aspects. I will look into the architecture of the program when I feel I am ready.

--------------------

The point is, if you're spending $3000 dollars on a piece of software, the team should invest some more time in fixing bugs, not releasing a new version with the same bugs.
The point is, you use a program for ease of use in addition to being powerful. You shouldn't have to spend hours with tutorials in order to do one effect. You shouldn't
Maya should meet you partway  with their tools, making them understandable to use, and relatively bug free. Maya has achieved this somewhat, but in many ways it doesn't.
There's a button in maya that crashes the program when you press it. You will be in object mode and click on an icon, I forget which, and the program crashes. I call this bugginess, and it shouldn't be that way. Maya crashed on me twice, in the same day, and a total of 3x in the same week. Blender crashed a few months ago for me.
All I was doing was modelling.

Albeit, I could read the documentation, but its written at such a high level as to be inaccessible in general, and confusing when you sit to decipher it.

Similarly, I have read Blender documentation, making more sense when doing basic tasks.

I am an undergrad student taking one animation class. Why do I have to delve deeply into the architecture of the program to be able to model and put a few textures on? Why do I get a fatal error when trying to extrude something? Move some vertices on a low poly model? Why do I need a tech support team in order to figure out what is happening in these errors and glitches? I have project deadlines to meet, (and a good grade to try and get), I just want to get a simple model up and running. It takes the technician several days to fix any complex problems we have with the software.

My biggest problem with maya is that its extremely clunky and slow, both on my laptop and the animation lab computers. One has to go through the menus instead of using hotkeys much of the time, say if you were to slide a set of edges down the mesh.

The compatibility from version to version isn't great. I was so frustrated that I couldn't open a simple modeled and textured image that my teammate had made. Turned out I was using 2011 and they were using 2012, and so the model wouldn't open in my version, had to transfer my file to the school computer.

Why should I have to delve deeply into Euler's method of approximation to find the length of a curve, and how Maple or Latex uses it, if I want to quickly estimate a curve? It is similar to this.

Instead of trying to sell a new product every year,k focus should be made on fixing these issues rather than adding new shiny features. People are paying a great deal for a powerful program. Lots of bugs and uneasy workflow takes away from that power. Having 1 million working features doesn't detract from 5 nonworking features, especially if those 5 are crucial.

To some extent, people that work with 3d programs are techincal artists.  But really, does a 10th grader look at 3d animation and say: "Ooh I want to spend the day debugging a 3d program rather than creating beautiful 3d images!"?

-MNR

Holiday Rush

Edit:
Also, I am using this pattern from ravelry. It is the only one for crocheted worsted weight golf club covers! Well I shall have to change that. When I have more time.
Also, Red Heart Super Saver yarn is so ROUGH. I have vowed to myself not to be taken in for the price ($2.19-$2.50) and buy it. I can buy softer yarn, with slightly less yardage, for slightly more money. Why?

• This yarn bruises my tensioning fingers
• Its so rough and unpleasant, like straw, even on my feet for slippers. Thus, you cannot use it for cushions/pillows, slipper socks, hats, scarves, necklaces, wrist warmers, mittens...
• It pills after a while
• It doesn't keep heat when you make it into cold weather items, and it doesn't breathe at all for spring/fall items
• When washed and dried, it might soften up, or it might turn to straw.
• When doubled up, it gets really stiff.
• Garments made with the yarn lose their elasticity.

I will not buy Red Heart SS yarn, at least until I use up the ones I have. I will also purchase softer yarn, like caron simply soft, or bernat super value cotton yarn, or lionbrand ANYTHING.
Its only good for toys and things you won't touch directly. Red Heart's other yarns are ok, such as its Soft brand yarn, and its cotton. I'm frustrated that my local shops, all they have are the rough SS yarn. Its a pity because there are so many beautiful shades. I love the sage and thyme colors, so beautiful. But I made legwarmers out of the sage, and they're rough and they sag and turn baggy by the middle of the day....

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I've been knitting like crazy over the past week. Trying to finish two pairs of socks and miscellaneous crocheted necklaces for my family. We're short on money but what I"m not short on is yarn, hooks and needles. And beads. Basically crafting items. x_X
hahahah.... yeah.

Wool socks for charles.
Fingering weight socks for mother, utilizing the chiffon pattern from Ravelry, misc beaded jewelry
Irish Crochet brooch pin for aunt, misc beaded jewelry
beaded jewelry set for sister
crocheted golf club covers for james, and misc items.


Oooh, holiday rush. I will finish posting when I'm not so busy! As in, after the 25th probably.

rudiments of a new sock design

So I'm working on a new sock design for my sister's boyfriend. I just don't like the several hundred different sock patterns I have on my Ravelry waiting list. =P

If these are successful, I will post my pattern on ravelry. 

Most of them are fingering weight. I don't have the luxury of using sockweight yarn.

I'm using a yarn called shepard's classic, 100% worsted weight wool yarn. Using size 4 needles.
He has thick calves, so I must work within those parameters. Last year, I miscalculated and made socks.... for his 6 and 10 year old kids. Ugh! Not like it wasn't good they got nice socks though. I just wish that they had fit his feet.

These are the same needles I used last year. But I've gotten wise. Instead of 48 stitches, I"m casting on 64!, the size I usually cast on with size 1 or 2 needles.

Knit the first row.
I rib for half an inch,so the socks stay up.
I wanted some visual interest,but I'm also a lazy knitter, so I did a cable rib, so every other set of even stitches on the row, there's a k2, and every other set of 6 knit stitches, there's a cable.
I can illustrate what i mean when i finish the cuff.
These are going to be simple top down socks, with a gusset heel, since I haven't done heel flaps in a while. I don't want to forget! Plus, I want to try the reinforced heel.

I think I might continue the cable rib pattern down the top of the foot. The toe is going to be a regular square toe, with the kitchener stitch. But that will be some time off, since he has really big feet.

I really want to finish in time for christmas. Cheer for me?

-MNR

Thanksgiving break 1 and minecraft

Yaaay finally get a break from school. Its just so rough, constantly doing the work. But after this, we will be off and running to finish works, as finals and final projects are due after this.

Family will be family, also. :/
Still knittin. I have christmas presents to finish up.
Several socks to finish, shawl pins, and golf club covers.

So there's this fairly popular game called minecraft.  By Notch and Mojang.
I have some world generator seeds to share.

I am not sure if this is a good method of finding seeds. But its kinda fun. I'm using Random.org to find random seeds between 1 and 100 000 000.

2459939 - Iron nearby, lots of above ground coal, you spawn in a forest at the edge of a desert with plenty of cacti. Lots of tall grass with which to obtain seeds. Plenty of animals spawn near you. The problem is, there's a few shallow ravines.