Lucky Cat

Belt test tonight, so instead of actually reviewing my material, I spent the afternoon making a good luck charm.  But it's the same kind of cultural appropriation as karate, so that's got to be worth something!

According to googling ancient tradition, green is for educational luck, and the raised right paw is supposed to bring in the money to pay for that education.  The bell is because it's a kitty.

As usual, I kind of hate his face.  Why do other people's embroidered faces look so cute, and mine look like some cretin had access to string and a needle.

Stuff I've recently made

 A wine bag for Jamel, full of her favorite racist wine.  Well, half full.

An elephant for Thessaly to replace the one whose trunk was horribly gnawed and whose tail was either chewed or pulled off.

Did I take a picture of an elephant using the MySpace angle?  You bet your ass I did.

A pill and some soap for Dandan.  I like making soap.  It's pretty easy--even someone like me can quickly whittle a little cross like that--and it makes people wonder if I feel their personal hygiene isn't up to my rigorous standards.

Karate belt displays for Kate.  The cases are doll/toy display boxes from Michaels which at the moment are 50% off, making them much cheaper than actual acrylic belt displays.  And these are big enough that I finally found something to do with all my belt test certificates as well!

These colors may run

My grandparents love America, so I picked up a ball of Sugar'n Cream Stripes (which the Ben Franklin cashier thought was 99 cents like my other two balls of cotton yarn.  Jackpot!) and grabbed a pattern off LionBrand.com.  The pattern says it's a washcloth, but I figure it could maybe be a pot holder (which they have way too many of already).  Or a dish cloth (of which they seem to have zero).  Or maybe just two big ass fucking doilies.  Big like America's love of liberty.

(The fabric changes color by itself, so I'm not just really bad at stripes.)

It's a pretty quick pattern once you get it started, and if you're lazy and happen to have already made one, you don't really need to do a lot of counting or obsessively keep track of the rounds.

I've also finished my first tribute to Pokemon Red/Blue starter Pokemon.  I very obviously need to iron it, and then decide if I'm going to keep it or put it up on Etsy.

When I discovered that Heart Gold/Soul Silver had overworld sprites for all the Pokemon, my first thought was "more patterns".  Sky's the limit, except trying to backstitch the curl in Squirtle's tail or the details of his shell looks absolutely terrible.  Especially when you try to do it freehand on 18ct.

Charmander is in progress.  If I would actually sit down and work on it (instead of writing all these stupid papers and crocheting washcloths/towels/huge-ass doilies), I could probably get the letters done in about 20 minutes.

I'm also still working on a project from Michelle.  All the letters you see are finished, and once I get more of E-bear's head done, I'm going to start the Y.  I haven't got the furthest part of the bear finished yet, so it'll be easier to do the counting once that's there.

Since the bears are so dark, I may not be able to do the eyes in black backstitch.  I'm leaning towards pale blue, but I'm open to suggestions.

On less dainty and ladylike fronts, I'm still hoping to be ready to test for blue belt at the end of this month (but I may have to postpone the test if we all go out after the last Goth class).

You follow your katra, and you can do anything

The Christmas sweatshop is still plugging along.  Or whatever a sweatshop of one would do.  I got two presents finished, two almost done, and made an ornament for my grandparents' tree.  And I haven't gotten around to taking pictures of any of this--some of it I can't post until it's in someone else's hot little hands, and the ornament is two states away.

The ornament is another Ana Paula Rimoli pattern.  So far I've made about three of the little trees with light green Vanna's Choice and Lion Brand Holiday Homespun.  I hate working with Holiday Homespun, but it does make nicer trees.  I'd like to make two of the birds for Ms. H--- and Ms. C--- over at the school where I tutor.  Birds seem nondenominational.

Finding the little eyes has become my grail quest.  (My sad, ultimately unimportant grail quest, but at least I'm not going to fail to get my safety eyes because of kingdom-ruining adultery.)  Locally I can't find any small enough to look good on my little animals, I hate embroidering the eyes and am not very good at it, and I don't like the backs of the ones I got from Etsy.  Apparently I have now been crocheting enough to have started the slow slide into insanity that seems to plague all crocheters and knitters (or at least the ones on the internet).

***

Tonight I am an orange belt.

I don't even remember doing my third kata.  I know I did something and that it was apparently correct, but the moves just sort of did themselves.  Which has happened before because theater people are crazy.

Party on Saturday, so today was Couch Clearing Day.

Around here, that means there's still stuff on the couches, but this pile has been split into three smaller piles and moved somewhere else.

There's about four unfinished projects in this picture: the neon pink Daisy coaster (a single crochet blanket for the Daisy to sit on in her new home), a blanket for the Snuggles Project, pieces of an amigurumi elephant, and Cirque des Cercles in the Old Navy bag.

I've decided I'm going to be an orange belt by the end of October.  The should be do-able even though my hook kicks are pretty sad.  (The link's not quite it, but had the best pictures I could find.)

If you know anything about my athletic ability, you probably know that I'm lazy.  And if you know two things about my athletic ability, the other one would be that I'm as flexible as a brick.  My flexibility's improved since I started doing yoga and karate, but seeing the improvement makes people feel sorry for me.

So, some of the higher kicks are currently unimpressive.  Fortunately I'm one of the tallest people in the class, so it's not that hard to land even my crappiest kicks above the belt.  Some credit should also go to my big, sasquatch feet.

Eppon III, Pot Spider, and Plants

Doing an hour of Wii Fit Free Step the day before karate was a poor choice.  My calves are unhappy.

Given that I'm not epic fail at memorizing kata, maybe I actually could have become a tolerable dancer.  You know, if not for the "laziness" and "unwillingness to practice" and "giving up because I wasn't good at it right away."

Finished up Pot Spider yesterday.  The legs are bit too long, but I think that--and the anatomically correct googly eyes--add to the Halloween creepiness of it.

I need to think of something to put in it, but candy doesn't really last in this house, and I'm not sure how a plant would work with Pot Spider (and do I really want to put dirt in something I spent two days painting?)

But I do have baby cacti now!  There's going to be a lot of plant abortions though.  Some of the seeds grew through the mesh that came on the soil pellets, and there's some pellets that already have four seedlings.