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Archive for the ‘Drawings’ Category

Finished another pair of beaded socks today. They were fun and really easy to knit and are also quite comfy to wear. As usual I used 2,5mm (US1 I think) needles. The yarn is a stretchy sock yarn in pure white called Lana grossa Meilenweit 100 Cotton Stretch. The beads are Rayher Rocailles transp. gelüstert 2,6mm. (It doesn’t really matter which beads you use as long as they can be washed without loosing their color.)

For info on how to get the beads onto the yarn and which method I used to position the beads, see my earlier post.

Here is what I did:

CO 60 stitches and distribute them evenly on DPN (there should be 15 stitches on every needle)

Ribbing: k2,p1 for about 10 rows (or till you’ve reached the desired length)

Bead Pattern: knit 3 rounds before working the chart below. Click the image for a bigger picture. (I’ll eventually redo the chart to make it easier to read) Only work the chart for every other round. The rounds inbetween (or even numbered rounds which arent shown on my chart) are knit.

To position the beads I used the method of bringing the yarn to the front of the work, bringing the bead into position and just slipping (purlwise) the according stitch. For me it works best if I position the bead close to the last knit stitch before slipping the stitch.

The pattern itself is worked over 13 stitches with 1 stitch as margin on each side. That puts the whole pattern on just one DPN and makes it quite comfy to knit. Start working your favorite heel after row 55 and continue with the pattern after the heel is done. At the end of the pattern knit another 3 rows before starting the toe decrease.

The pattern is designed for medium sized feet (European size 38). So if you are working it for bigger feet, just add a few extra rows of plain knitting before working the toe decrease or just continue by drawing your own pattern. When doing your own drawing just make sure that no more than 2 beads are directly next to each other. Happy Knitting! 😀

Here is how the pattern looks once it is done:

Finally, here is my project on rav. with a couple more pics.: http://ravel.me/aravis83/mp104

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Last weekend, K. and I had a great time trying out shrinky dinks. I did the Hypnotoad – All glory to the Hypnotoad – from Futurama and Blinky, the 3 eyed fish from The Simpsons, who lives in the lake behind the nuclear power plant. K. did the Triforce symbol from Zelda and something, which I can’t remember from some other video game. It was such fun! Here are some pics:

Hypnotoad in progress

We used a pencil to draw a draft of the outlines before we did them in more detail with a very fine black marker. Afterwards we colored everything with simple colored pencils. The hole on the top of each we did with an ordinary hole puncher. I was little worried that the holes might be too large, but it shrank SO much, that it’s now the perfect size to draw a string through them.

Here are our shrinky dinks right before shrinking. I put a 1 Euro coin next to them for reverence.

Before shrinking…

And here they are after shrinking. They shrank so much that all of them are really tiny now, especially Blinky.

…and after shrinking!

Doing them was fast and real fun. Oh and I just love how they turned out. 😀

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Last week I finally finished my German Solo. It’s Frances Hodgson Burnett‘s “Der kleine Lord“, which in the orginal is called “Little Lord Fauntleroy”. (click booktitle for etext) Here is a short summary:

Der kleine Lord

Der kleine Lord

Cedric Errol, ein kleiner Junge aus New York, wird von seinem kaltherzigen englischen Großvater, dem Earl of Dorincourt, trotz der standeswidrigen Ehe seines verstorbenen Vaters, als einziger Nachfolger für den Grafentitel bei sich aufgenommen und aufgezogen. Seine Mutter, eine bürgerliche Näherin, darf dasAnwesen aufgrund von Voreingenommenheit und Standesdünkel des Earls nicht betreten.
Nach und nach aber schafft es Cedric, mit seiner freundlichen Art das Herz des Großvaters zu gewinnen…
(Zusammenfassung von Wikipedia und Elli)

Listen to chapter 1:  derkleinelord_01_burnett

I hope you’ll enjoy the listening experience as much as I did reading the book.  Click here to get the whole book!!!

I started this Solo way back in May 2009 (not even a month after joining LibriVox) and it’s very special to me.  It more of less chronicials my time spent recording for LibriVox almost from the day I joined until now. In the course of this solo project:

1. I completely changed my reading style (and hopefully improved it too)

2. I got a fancy new mic (which brought a huge number of new difficulties… will blog about it some time soon)

3. changed my recording software (from Audacity 1.2.6 to Audacity 1.3.7.)

4. developed editing skills (at least I think I did)

5. discovered noisecleaning (acutally I changed headphones and the new ones all of a sudden made me realize the awful hum my computer was producing)

6. completely changed my method of levelling and amplifying

7. and did my very first attempt at doing different voices (I hope I managed to keep them consistant)

I could list many more things, but I think that’s enough!  So please forgive slight inconsistancies in qualitly, reading style… and just enjoy yourselves! (In case you like F. H. Burnett, there are several other books by her in the LV Catalog)

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When looking through my folder of drawings I discovered that I did the same motive in graphite too. So here it is:

Drawing with a graphite pencil
Drawing with a graphite pencil

Besides this being what I consider a “bad” drawing…. I’ve aged Sarah considerably and  if you look closely you can see that I’ve given her a very straight profile with a rather strong jaw (almost bordering on a mandibular prognatism)… I didn’t not like drawing with graphite much. So far charcoal is my fav., even though I’m still in the testing phase! 

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Charcoal pencils

After a really long pause of practically drawing nothing, I really started to feel like doing it again last week. But, alas I could no longer find my old, much beloved drawing pencil. (Actually it’s a just an ordinary one… something you get everywhere. But somehow this one  was special and  just perfect for drawing.)

So I’ve treated myself to my first real set of charcoal pencils. They are super awesome and came with a lot of additional things (some of which I’ve never seen before… but I guess YouTube will soon remedy that ;))

Anyway here is something I’ve done about a year ago, with my old drawing pencil:

Drawing with ordinary pencil
Drawing with ordinary pencil

And here is the same motive drawn with the new charcoal ones. I love the outcome, though it’s just a rough draft:

Drawing with charcoal pencil
Drawing with charcoal pencil

In case you are wondering, the original I’ve copied is the cover of F. H. Burnett’s “A little princess“. I’ve somewhat aged Sarah, but well I think there still is a fair likeness.

(Sorry for the poor pic quality… I’ve just done a quick iphone shot of the. Somehow it’s really difficult to get them digitalized without altering them completely. )

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Looking for group

Richard- Chief Warlock of the brothers of darkness, Lord of the 13 hells, Master of the bones, Emporer of the black, Lord of the undead and mayor of a little village up the coast

Richard- Chief Warlock of the brothers of darkness, Lord of the 13 hells, Master of the bones, Emporer of the black, Lord of the undead and mayor of a little village up the coast

Looking for Group” is a really good e-comic! It starts out with Cale’non, a very nice, charming elf, meeting Richard (that’s the guy in the pic). While Cale’non wants to be hero and only do good, Richard is an “evil”warlock, who enjoys killing and destroying. After a few difficulities right at the beginning, one involving Richard reducing Cale’non to ashes, the two of them kind of end up traveling together…

Here is an example of the dialogue and my very fav. part of the comic (Cale’non is in ashes… Richard’s punishment for making fun of his name ;)):

Cale’non:”I think I require the services of a healer.”

Richard:”Walk it off you pussy.”

Anyway the comic is incredibly funny and makes good reading! It’s one of those that make you laugh all the way through! There is a new page every other week and even a movie is planned!

Here is a short video about “evil” Richard! It’s weird but really great at the same time and the music is awesome! (Just can’t think of from where I know the music right now.) But let me forewarn you it’s not for the faint hearted! 😉

Btw. there are a couple more vids on the homepage and a lot of cool wallpapers! (the link is right on top of this post!)

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Twilight

My attempt to copy the from cover of the "Twilight" book

My attempt to copy the from cover of the "Twilight" book

A couple of months ago I read all four books of the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer. Actually there was quite a hype made around those books and especially the movie of the first one. Usually if a book is that much pushed it can only mean two things. Either its very bad and needs a lot of publicity to get it sold (which it mostly the case in my opinion) or it really is great and deserves to be read! (which is the exception to the rule!)

As luck had it, I was able to buy all four of them really cheap and at once started to read.

<Sorry folks better not read any further from here if you haven’t read them yet! This might contain a few spoilers!>

The first book called “Twilight” starts out quite nicely. Painting the scene of a small rainy town, which appears to be quite the perfect setting for vampires. The main character Bella Swan moves there to live with her father, as her mother is getting married and she doesn’t want to live with her and her new husband… Anyway Bella starts school and there is this strange guy and of course she falls in love. But he is distant and there is something dangerous but very fascinating about him….

Until then the book really is good. But that’s where the whining starts and it hardly lets off till the end. If you look at the book critically nothing happens until the very end, when Bella is nearly killed by another vampire and gets rescued by her heroic Edward (This part is great put it’s really short compared to all the whining and mooning after him)!

That’s where the first book ends and the others start off. I won’t summarize each of them. I’ll only say that the story gets lots more interesting with the second and third book. It’s here that werewolves (bid surprise ;)) enter the scene!

In the fourth the whole clan of the vampires, whose ranks Bella has joined by now is threatened by an opposing very mighty clan of Italian vampires. The author really did a nice job building up towards the climax with the two parties facing each other. And the werewolves finally decide to join the ranks of the “good vegetetarian” vampires (Btw. the Cullen’s, the good ones, only drink animal blood instead of human blood). But just as you get ready for a bit of fighting and bloodshed, the whole thing gets resolved in a totally unbloody sort of way. Bella more or less suddenly developes an amazing gift and the others flee… (In my opinion a bit of fighting would not have hurt the book at all, as this peaceful end not only makes the oposing vampires look pathetic, it too leaves the reader quite unsatisfied!)

<From here it’s ok to read again… done with the Spoilers>

In spite of all my critcism I rather liked the books! The books make an interesting and easy reading (especially the last 3). Besides it really is a nice story, even if there is lots of whining (especially in the first book)!

For everybody who is interested now, here is the full summary.

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Handle with care

Handle with care

“Handle with Care” is a book written by Jodi Picoult, who currently is one of my favorite authors. This book is about Willow, who was born with osteogenesis imperfecta also known as brittle bone disease. When her parents face finacial ruin they consider sueing for wrongful birth. But to complicate matters further, the doctor they are about to sue is the best friend of Willows mother…

The book is wonderfully written, with lots of unexpected twists and turns. What really makes it special, is that the different main characters, such as Willow’ parents and her sister but also the doctor and the lawyer are telling part of the story. (… and infusing their very personal opinions and views.)

I enjoyed reading the book immensely, in spite of the rather unexpected ending (… which I won’t give away in case somebody still hasn’t read it ;))

Anyway the picture, which I added to this post, I my version of the book cover! (In case anybody wonders how the original looks like, I linked a picture of it to my drawing!)

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