So I thought I was going to get to do more crochet and to review those two new books for today but life got in the way. Been busy going about; had lunch with friends, got my costume for Halloween, wrangled with a bank and with a pharmacy — so half up, half down, I’d say.

Also, I’m working on a crochet pattern that is a combination of crochet and quilting. Yeah, I like two crafts for old women. I think this makes me around 236 years old.

Last night as a palate cleanser, I did work on my ABSOLUTELY HYOOGE papercraft phoenix. Had to stop after a few hours cos I ran out of Loctite superglue. It’s coming along well; I can’t wait to get it finished so I can hang it over my bed. The real challenge will be keeping the cats from hunting it.

So I’ve come to you today with a few more papercraft links that some in the audience might find enjoyable. Yes, I do occasionally crochet, why do you ask? It’s just that in times of stress or when my free time goes missing and I can’t concentrate as much on my art, I tend towards other less serious crafts.

Now, with a bit less attitude, some papercraft links:
Green Sea Turtle — I love turtles.
The Gate of Sundown — isn’t this gorgeous?
Phoenix Hall — another beautiful temple.
Cloud Strife from Kingdom Hearts — wouldn’t mind making dolls of more of the KH characters.
Skelanimals Fox — A skellington fox. Pretty nifty!

No, I’m not cleaning out my bookmarks and posting random papercraft links. *shifty eyes* No, not at all!

More stuff tomorrow; hopefully I’ll have a quilt square ready for pictures and a pattern ready for posting over on my Page a Day main blog. I’ve got to drive an 80 mile round trip and pick up a neurotic cat for a week of fostering, so my mileage on all things will vary.

Tags: life, papercraft

Starting any new psychiatric meds is always a breathtaking experience. It’s like a long-anticipated roadtrip to some place new — we’re on the interstate to sanity! Others may have reported back from that fabled land (with pictures, slides, and stories not to be believed) but we’ve never seen it. Now we’re doing an amazing rate of speed down the road, which unwinds like a beautiful black ribbon. The windows are down, the breeze is up, and it finally seems that there’s a magnificent world of possibility out there.

It’s definitely a trip. A sanity trip. I dare say it’s a rare one.

Is this what “normal” people feel all along? The self-assurance, the prodigious confidence, the conviction that all is possible, that there will somehow be enough money, that nothing truly bad will happen, that everything can be overcome?

What a heady drug, that feeling. No wonder such routes to it are tightly controlled.

I’ve been reading Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ’72, which is interesting. I love Hunter S. Thompson but I don’t care much for politics. (I find it rude and common, says the sordid wench herself.) So whole pages of this book are breathlessly and sharply written, as rich and full of symbolism and pagentry as a Noh play. The merest gesture conveys volumes to an acolyte, I’m sure, but doesn’t even wave a flag in my direction. Still, it’s fascinating. I may not understand the dance, but I do appreciate the beauty of it.

You know, I’ve got more that I wanted to say here tonight but the week has been rough and I don’t think I can bring myself to do so. I’m needing a break. I may work on a current personal project (Set and Anubis, the start of my Egyptian gods patterns) or I may just bugger off and play some Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin.

I just did receive in two new crochet books, so I’ll probably give you guys a review of them tomorrow. Until then, my savage darlings…

EDIT: Forgot! I wanted to give everyone some papercraft (I love papercraft almost as much as I love crochet. It’s my adulterous relationship. *grins*) So here, have a papercraft automaton of a cat playing the piano. You’re welcome.

Tags: chemistry, hunter s. thompson, papercraft, politics

I am a Gonzo Hooker.

It doesn’t mean what you think it means — I’m taking the word back.  I mean that I crochet, all out, balls to the wall, every waking minute that I can.  It means that I live, breathe, and die crochet.

It means that I’d rather be crocheting than almost anything else.  It means that every time I see an interesting object, character, idea — I want to work out how to make a crocheted version of it.  It means my hands itch everytime I don’t have a hook and yarn in them.  The second best thing to a crochet hook is a piece of paper and a pen — if I can’t be MAKING something, I can be writing down the directions on how to make it for someone else.

Being a gonzo hooker means I dream in yarn.  In my sleep I walk in a world where everything is crocheted — where rocks are comfortable cushions, where you cut grass to make fringe, and where automobile accidents result in nothing more serious than having to fluff back up your bumper.

There are castles on clouds in the sky, and they ravel themselves up from the skein in my hand.

Crochet can’t help but be gonzo… because with a $2 metal hook and a $2 skein of Red Heart Yarn, you can make the world different than it was 30 minutes ago.  Less than 5 dollars American spent (less than $3, if you remember where you put your LAST hook) you can change the universe.

You can make something NEW.  And on this tired old planet, new is of the good.

I have my other blog that I’m getting started at http://www.voxmortuum.net — that’s going to pretty much be strictly a free page a day of crochet patterns.  Here’s going to be everything else about being a gonzo hooker – where I go, how I feel, what I read, what I see and hear.

I can’t promise this blog will be totally work friendly — the name of the blog is probably the first flag.  *grins*  I may say things like sh!t and f*ck, and I’ll try to censor them for the tender sensibilities in the audience.

This won’t be your mother’s crochet.  These won’t be scarves or hats or afghans or baby booties or anything else silly — unless it rocks your face off.  I want to take crochet to a higher level, beyond a hobby to an artform.

I’ll be posting something here everyday, of varying worth and interest.  Just like life.

Tags: crochet, gonzo, life