What I've been up to lately

Wow, I just remembered this blog -- can't believe it's been nearly four years since I posted anything here! But I just haven't had much interesting to say, especially about knitting; oh, I still knit (and crochet), of course, but there are enough very informative pages and blogs out there and I don't have much to add; plus, when I have notes about a specific project, they go on Ravelry. So if you want to see my latest knitting exploits, check out my project page there.

Lately, I've found a new obsession: chain mail. It started last month, when I attended a charity event called Can't Stop the Serenity, which was a showing of Joss Whedon's "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" and "Serenity". In addition to the movies, they also had an auction to benefit various charities, and one of the items up for sale was a chain mail version of the hat the character Jayne Cobb wore in one of the episodes of "Firefly" (Google "Jayne hat" if you want to see what it looks like). Well, I had seen knitted versions of the hat before (and the one in the show was also knitted), and always meant to make one at some point, but the chain mail Jayne hat was just so silly that I really, really wanted one. I put in a fairly high bid in the auction, but I didn't win, so I decided to learn to make my own.

On the advice of a jack-of-all-crafts friend, I found urbanmaille.com, which had not only some really good tutorials, but also beginner-level kits for bracelets to get you familiar with the basics. I bought the set of all three and made two the first weekend and the third a week or so later.

Then I bought some cheap little rings from the local craft store and practiced the European 4-in-1 weave. That didn't go so well; it was hard to keep the rings from moving around and I ended up having to pin them down to keep them straight. Still, I ordered some colored anodized aluminum rings for the hat, and started to make it when they arrived. That went much better; turned out that those cheap little rings were horrible, and the real ones were much easier to work with. I finished the hat in a little over a week, and I'm pleased with how it came out.

My next project was a necklace to go with my Renaissance fair costume. I have also finished a matching headband and earrings.

More long-term: probably some more jewelry for me, and some for Christmas presents. I never know what to get anyone, so I love it when I can think of things to make. My mother goes crazy for anything I make, so it's nice to have something new to surprise her with.

I'm wishing there were something like Ravelry for chain mail -- as it is, I just post my projects to Facebook. (I could post them to Ravelry itself, I suppose, but if you try to choose "Other" as a craft, you get a request to please not post non-yarn-related craft projects. I could defy them, but you know, it's their site, and it's free, so I figure they get to make the rules.) And now I can talk about it here, though I'm not sure if anyone actually reads this besides me.