Anything can be a euphemism said with the right inflection

"I've been on your sofa studying World Literature." ~Pink Hair

"Oh yeah? Well I've been on your sofa studying the human geonome and all it's permutations... including the finished product." ~Muppet

"I'm growing 12 zygones right now"
*horrified look from Muppet*

Finals going on right now, so posting is obviously down, though the crafting 'aint. Look for some massive posts and pictures once finals get done.

I don't know quite what to say

I haven't been writing lately, and I'm trying to resist the urge to apologize for it. This is, after all, my space, and I shouldn't feel guilty for writing or not writing.

But, I've gotten several e-mails from different people, and it was very heartening. There isn't really anything wrong with me other than a vague sense of loneliness that's been with me lately. I had a friend visiting for just under two weeks, and she was staying in my single at college with me. It was nice to have a room mate again... I've been missing that. Anyway, I was busy with her being here, and then she left on Friday. Meanwhile, another one of my good friends flunked out of school (for various personal reasons) and her parents withdrew her (her parents are not the most sympathetic of people and were not very supportive of the fact that she's been going through a lot of stuff). So in a week two of my friends dropped out of my social life.

Now, normally that wouldn't be that big of deal, but in addition most of my friends that are my year are crazy busy with applying to grad school and other stuff, and my friends that are a year younger than me (including my boyfriend) are all studying abroad.

So I've been just a tad bit lonely.

The end result is I've been trying to expand my social circle, with interesting results. Still, while I am getting to know some facinating and interesting underclassmen, it doesn't make up for the fact that most of my close friends are going through their own crisis.

So... yeah.

In other news, not much happening on the crafting scale. I've spun up three new yarns, and I'm working on another sculpture for my class. We're casting in Bronze! (more on that later) I'm planning on incorporating crochet into the end product. (surprise, surprise)

It's going to ROCK.

Dinosaur Tail

IMG_1964
Originally uploaded by jenamberautumn

So my girlfriend doesn't know it yet, but for graduation I made her a tail. We have an inside joke where we call her (hername)-saur, and make videos and write articles on lj about this mysterious being's living habits which mysteriously mirror a college students'.

Random note: the color of my girlfriend's hair is the same color as the dark pink.

So she graduated a couple of weeks ago, and since then I've been working on her graduation gift. Having looked on the internet and not finding ANY patterns for crocheting a dinosaur tail (there were a few knit ones I came across, but I did not find them remarkable) I decided to make my own.

I started from the tip, and worked in a spiral, increasing by two every third stitch and alternating with a row of no increase, repeat. About a fourth of the way up, this changed to increase every fifth single crochet for a round and then two rounds of single crochet, repeat. Finally, around where the third spike ends (from the tip up) increased every tenth single crochet in a round, and then had with three rounds of no increase, repeat.

As you can see, this was a very approximate pattern, which resulted in a little too much increase at the beginning of the fourth spike up from the tip. Still, I was rather pleased. However, when held up to the butt, the tail looked more like a random pink cone sticking out of the butt. I felt it needed to be angled down.

So then, I employed the same method I use when turning my crochet socks on the heel, except this was much bigger and less drastic. I crochet halfway across, turned, and went back. The next time I went across, I picked up one stitch from the opposite side, and then Crochet two.

It was very... feel along as you go type pattern, which is what I like best. There was also lots of unraveling involved. So finally, I angled the tail down enough that I was happy.

The second step was a giant coaster that was worked in a spiral and then sewed to close up the tail and enable me to stuff it.

Finally, I made the spikes. These were done in a single crochet square which was then folded into a triangle and single crochet together. The first spike is one round, the second three rounds, the fourth five rounds, and the last two seven rounds. They were then sewn onto the body. Looking back, I probably should have sewn those on, then attached the giant coaster and stuffed it.

But still, it turned out well.

What do you think?

PS: Model is my sister.