I finally have some pictures to show of my knittings!

I have knitted:

• a helmet liner for my handsome ninja-wannabe beef
• TWO heelhead scarves!

My first heelhead scarf, which I affectionately like to call the Steelhead scarf (because that’s how I read the name of the pattern every time I had a look), has been on my needles for a long time – since last year in fact. I finished it some time ago, but was too lazy to take a photo and upload it and blog about it. Besides, I lost my camera battery charger that I hadn’t even used once and had to order a new one. Of course the cheapest option was from a web store whose owner won’t send your stuff until you start getting really mad. It took about 2 months!

Anyway. The black heelhead scarf was for myself. I liked knitting it eventually, after having had plenty of trouble with it. So I knitted another one for my mum in colourful stripes, because she’s a colour fan as myself. The difference between us is that I won’t wear just anything colorful, but she will. She has more confidence for dressing up like a clown… just kidding, I think she has a great taste and really can pull off a colourful style.

So here they are, me wearing the black scarf and Turpo sporting the fancy splash of colour:

(Turpo looks like an artist!)

(Modelling knitwear is FUN!)

(Click to enlarge)

And moving on to the helmet liner: why did I want to knit it? I can only remember wanting to knit a hat for myself (which I did), and while I was at it I noticed a pattern for a marine helmet liner (opens a pdf file). It’s a pattern perfectly suited for US marine troops, knitters can knit them and send them in for real use!

I really liked that idea, except I wasn’t going to send my own helmet liner anywhere. I was going to knit it no matter what, even if I couldn’t find anyone to give it to. But then I got blessed with my own Finnish ex-navy tough guy who could use it. Perfect!  He really seems to like it and says he’s going to use it, even though the yarn is a bit itchy. It’s not even 100% wool, which btw would be unacceptable for US troops who’d rather not have their face melt together with their helmet liner in the case of fire…

I had my troubles with the helmet liner, too. For the first time I was using two circular needles, with the other one acting as a stitch holder while knitting the cap portion; and I also learned to add stitches with the cabled cast-on method. There was some unraveling involved at some points, but I persevered and pulled through. Moreover I think my knitting is starting to get quite even and nice-looking. It’s almost as if I wasn’t a beginner knitter still.

(Beautiful eyes, huh?)

All in all, even though it took me a long time to finish these and publish them here, I’m very pleased with the results. Gods I like knitting so much. And I get huge kicks from learning new knitting tricks.

(Turpo is a HUGE fan of cuddling! See how she’s enjoying it!)

Next up is my still unfinished object, a Karius scarf, and sewing together my hobbit sweater. I can’t wait to have Turpo model it. I’m also planning to knit matching mittens for the colourful heelhead scarf for mum, since there is some yarn left still.

And now I can take another month’s break from blogging again. Or not. I have some ideas for new portraits again and will get down to it tomorrow…

I haven’t posted a painting in a long while and I feel bad about it. So I shall amend this sad state of affairs.

During the spring term on the painting course, this was the last painting I finished. I think it just might be my best so far. The teacher agreed that I’ve come a long way from the start of the autumn term.

I paid special attention to making the eyes realistic, and I’m very proud of their look. The face overall has a pretty good resemblance to the model, Cillian Murphy. He’s been one of my favorite actors ever since 28 days later, because he has such a distinctive, peculiar face. High and sharp cheek bones, gaunt cheeks, full lips and very light blue eyes. Very strange, which I like.

(I no longer know how to link the small pic to a larger one on WordPress, thanks so much update 3.01)

There are some  minor things off about the face, but I came to a point where making any changes would have probably jeopardized the painting as a whole. Usually it’s best to just leave it as it is at some point and make another version if you are desperate to get it exactly right. I think I will paint Cillian again later, but from a different picture and angle. Even though I’m not perfectly content with the actual resemblance, I like the color combo of earthy tones combined with cool blue. Besides, we had a live model once during the course, and she came by to look at it and recognized him immediately.

In other news, for a while I’ve meant to move my pictures to some other gallery than Photobucket. It’s just so sucky. But moving the pictures and updating the links won’t be a walk in the park either. As for continuing my painting, I’m thinking of joining the Saturday group in the autumn term. I can no longer attend morning classes just in case I get work, and that unfortunately means I will have a different instructor.

The Saturday group is actually 5 hours for independent painters to come and make use of the facilities, without any guidance from an instructor. That would be fine, since painting without guidance is better than no painting at all. It’s the facilities that I most appreciated in addition to the instructions, since it is very complicated to set up my painting table at home. Plus, having a set time for painting never hurts.

I’m also considering making a website for advertising my translation and proofreading services. I have my own personal nerd to help me so basically I just need to come up with the content and design. I might not get customers anytime soon since I have so little on my CV as far as translations, but I might have a chance with low pay rates and with a convincing website.

Even small jobs would add to the groundwork for getting to my ultimate goal, i.e. some day successfully getting employed at a translation agency. It’s difficult to convince them that I could be a great translator when I have done so little of it officially, with proofs. I believe in my own abilities but I have little to show for it. But maybe one day.

It’s the only explanation for why I haven’t blogged since April. Usually summer is my season for blogging because summers are boring and everything is closed and I am forced to be on vacation. The weather might be nice, the best it can get in Finland, but it’s often ruined by feelings of being an utterly useless and inferior human being because I didn’t deserve the vacation. This time though, I haven’t been feeling particularly bad in a long while, thanks to a certain nerd and his cute and cuddly dog. We have successfully cultivated the art of doing nothing much together.

Anyway. I got tagged by a Twitter knitter, Cheekytart (you can follow her here). So I’m basically obligated to blog, but I don’t feel forced at all. I needed something like this: My desire (more sharp than filed steel) did spur me forth,* when given a chance. The tag entails answering to a slew of questions about my personal life, which is fine.

1- What’s your staple meal (ie. what meal do you cook most often when you can’t be bothered to be adventurous) ?

I like to make a chicken wok with vegetables, basmati rice and various spices. I just throw in some courgettes, sweet pepper, black olives, mushrooms, sometimes carrot, and add different curry spices like turmeric, cumin, coriander, cardamom, ginger, chili, cinnamon and clove. You can make endless variations by wokking and you don’t have to consult any recipes, and I love that. It’s hard to go wrong because I’m not so choosy when it comes to tastes in food. The food has to be quite terrible for me not to eat it.

2- What do you want to be when you grow up?

I wonder how you know you are actually all grown up. Right now I would love to find work which involved using my language skills. Translation, proofreading, data entry, developing language-related apps, anything involving writing…

One of my ambitions is to write a dissertation, since I see it as something I have to do or I’ll always wonder what I could have accomplished with it, what I would find out if me and not anybody else looked at the data I am planning to use. I don’t see myself as a researcher for life because I don’t take criticism very well. I prefer an easier life to an ambitious one, since the former seems to entail far less agony and anguish.

Work is important to me because I haven’t had much of it so far in my life and to me it’s one way of defining myself as a person. I just want to feel useful and earn my living myself instead of living off everybody else.

3- What book are you reading at the moment (if any)

Larry Niven’s Ringworld. Someone over at the Mass Effect Social Forums said it was similar to the Mass Effect universe so I gave it a try. I’m almost finished and it is not a bad book. Before that, I read Allen Steele’s Coyote series, a gorgeous, realistic long series on colonizing an exoplanet, and Jack McDevitt‘s Ancient shores, a softer approach to scifi.

4- How do you relax?

I relax by exercising a lot and then eating something tasty with tea, watching tv and knitting, sometimes playing Mass Effect. Exercise is vital to my sanity and to my body’s functionality. Everything else is a plus.

5- What color are the interior walls of your home?

I live in a rental apartment with fugly old wallpapers, they are kind of white but not really, with weird yellowish and bluish stains and some texture. I try not to pay attention to it and I imagine it’s all white.

6- What is your guiltiest pleasure?

I don’t feel guilt over pleasures usually. Because I’m so worth it.

7- What time is bedtime and getting up time?

I like to tuck myself in around 11 pm so I have time to read a bit before sleep. Since I’m not working, I usually get up at 8.30 am unless, well, the circumstances are unusual.

8- How long do you spend reading blogs (per day or per week)?

I don’t read blogs on a daily basis, but I probably read one or two every week. I have spent so little time by the laptop lately, excepting Tweetdeck and email, that I simply haven’t had the time to read anything extra. Besides, my favorites have been taking a hiatus from blogging too, and nothing has been interesting enough to compel me into reading. I barely browse teh internets at all these days unless I’m using dictionaries or some other useful services.

–

There, I’ve blogged! This just might have been the longest hiatus I’ve had with blogging so far. I just moved my blog to a new host, Downtownhost, which I so far recommend.

I would like to tag:

Ukkoite, because he probably isn’t man enough to blog about a blog meme, let alone one that asks very personal questions — really, he’s such a sissy he will not dare ;)

SetAsEssential, a Swedish lady whose portrait I’d like to paint one day as soon as she sends me a decent photo of herself. ;)

Baltarstar, because she’s such a sweetheart and writes so well.

*From Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act 3, Scene 3, line by Antonio (see here).