Snow and Rain

When I was reading blogs, I found this website, the cartoonist studio. Here is my favorite studio, I think: Tom Batiuk, who does Crankshaft. It was fun to look at all the studios. My studio is currently the couch. I have a drawing board that fits on my lap, a TV Table that I set up to put my ink and water and nibs on. And all the drawing stuff that will fit, like the nibs and pens, inks and erasers, go into a fishing tackle box next to the couch. I also have a full spectrum light that I can set on it side behind the drawing board if I need to trace something, like this drawing! I did it on the "brown" paper, Yupo, which I call brown because it is made of polypropylene. It is fun to work on though. I used a water brush and watercolor pencils to make this. I like the trees and snow, but I don't know how well the girl turned out.

I also draw this, though I drew this in my spare time at work. It is on the cardboard from the back of a pad of paper that I had finished. I like it a lot. It was rather inspired by Edward Gorey. I didn't have a reference of his, but it turned out ok.

Here is this week's Ten Ton Studio Sketch Challenge . The first one is pretty dang funny. I would like to draw something, but I can't think of anything.

I started working on this cropped cardigan for summer (I say cardigan because I will be adding sleeves). I had about 800 yards of cotton and didn't know what to do with it, so I looked up the gauge, weight, yardage, and fiber on Ravelry and found 4 patterns that I liked to choose from. How sweet is that. I also found this top that I plan to make using two different colors of yarn. I might even use two different weights. I might have to modify the pattern a bit, but the top part could be a bit lacy. And this tank top, which is cute and simple and super easy to modify, I bet. And this little Hexacomb Cardigan that I want to make with robin's egg blue for the main part and a nice sunny yellow for the hems. If you look at it on Ravelry, there are some great color combos, so I might do another combo other than blue and yellow.

I have also wanted to start another Harry Potter kick lately. I have a bunch in my queue, so I will probably just finish up some of those, but I might start up on the Harry Potter Craft group again. This month is a challenge to create a transfigured object. Not sure what I will do yet. If anything. And I might join the Hogwarts Sock Kit Swap, round 11. I have at least 2 pairs of started Ravenclaw socks that I should finish. One is my own pattern. Another is from the Harry Potter knitting book, which is an okay book, but not great.

I was working on other socks, Ravenswirl and Ada Lovelace, both Rockin' Sock Club kits. But both ended up being too tight to fit over my heel, so I need to rip both out and work a bigger size or something. I am not sure what to do. More increases at the gusset on the Ada Lovelace? I think I will just make the L instead of the medium. Sigh. I had only finished the ankle on the Ravenswirl and the leg part wouldn't fit over my heel. Maybe I have a giant instep?

FridayFridayFriday

Not a lot to talk about today.

I've been working on a short story to submit to the Aeon Award competition. Angela is going to give it one last proof reading this weekend and then I'll pay my fee and send it in.

I've been doing a lot of thinking and experimenting with the mechanics of how I tell the story in my writing. I've primarily written in a first person present tense style over the years but I am experimenting with a third person non-omniscient present tense these days. No one but me has read any of this yet though. Not even Angela although she will, in all likelihood, be the first.

I've been spending a lot of time in the battle grounds in EQ2 lately as well. So far I really prefer my Wizard to the other classes I have. Unfortunately my slots are all full or I'd probably make either a pally or shadowknight specifically for the BGs.

The BGs at level 90 are really brutal. There are *a lot* of people that can one shot Denaso. I was going to link you to Denasos info page on eq2 players but their search is busted atm so you don;t get to see her nerd sheet. I need to get her some more lvl 90 PvP gear and that one shotting should stop. Hopefully. I'm also going to play Eunika, my berzerker, in some BGs as well.

Anyway, off to post on the arachknits etsy shop.

--Abe

I wove

What a fun weekend. On Saturday, our house was all clean, which was a nice change of pace, Abe... Anyways, we had a nice relaxed morning with tea and stuff. Then we went to the Cartoonist NW meeting. The information was OK, about SEO, but I don't know if we will use it. We'll see. Perhaps we will start a couple of twitter accounts since people seem to like those so much. But at the meeting, we talked to the president of the group and decided we would really join and include some of our work in the art show they are having in July in Ballard. More details to follow. We even talked to some of the people in the group instead of just running out of the room. I we showed someone who is working on a new syndicated comic (or getting ready to submit it?) our Bus Stop story. He seemed to like it. I couldn't really tell. His comic was funny. Shrub - keep an eye out for it.

The mom and Jim came over for dinner. They spent the afternoon with one of Jim's professors. Turns out that professor is the dad of one of the ladies I sort of work with. So that was funny. We had a really good time. We were supposed to get a picture of mom's scarf I wove for her for mother's day, but we didn't get a chance. She sent me this "bad" picture. (haha - better than the ones I take.) She didn't want me to post it, but I have to post something. It is just too exciting.

We had some steak and corn and pink mashed potatoes. Cute. And some beer. We tried a white seasonal ale from Pike Brewery, but I don't think anyone particularly cared for it. Then we all moved on to Smithwick's, which has taken its place as my favorite. The dogs behaved OK. Mom was sitting in a chair and Nisa leapt into her lap, but mom seemed to think it was funny. She also got to try on her nearly finished Girl Friday sweater and we bought some buttons for it that should be delivered soon. I hope by the end of the week. I only have 1.5 inches of 1x1 rib left to knit and a couple ends to weave in. Then I can finish blocking it and sew on the buttons. I finally did the thing where you wrap the wet knitting all up in a towel and step on it, then block it. Wow does that make a difference. I will never look back. That is a forever thing for me now. This way it can block over night instead of waiting 3 days to a week for the dratted thing to dry. Thanks, Yarn Harlot!

Before they left, we showed them Super Rub-A-Dub, which they simply did not appreciate, and the demo of Fairy Tale Fights where you play Little Red Riding Hood in a white room and massacre other fairy tale characters. Very funny. That demo cracks me up. It is nothing like the game, so I am wary of buying the game, but we'll see.

In The Jerks news, I am now able to do the two pencils for each week's comics in one evening. If I don't wait to long to get started. I think the upcoming ones are just getting better. At least in regards to my drawing if not in hilarity. And next time I post, I will have an actual non The Jerks drawing to post. I just have to Photoshop it together since the stupid scanner is an inch too small to scan the whole thing.

Update: I posted an image at the Ten Ton Studio sketch challenge. Go check it out. :) It's not super amazing, but it has a lot of background and I really need to work on backgrounds.

Abe's my etsy fiend.

So Abe is posting needles on Etsy for me because I can't be bothered. I am so busy doing other things that I don't have the 30 to 45 minutes or so it takes to do the photo shoot and all the data entry. Buh. Today he posted these funny spades needles.

We got our second comment on the comic, but it seems to have been spam. :'( After next week, I am not sure if I will continue to post comic updates on my Facebook page because I don't think anyone cares. We'll see. Maybe I can annoy them all into looking. It is weird to send the notice out to people who I haven't seen since high school, but whatever. I hear about their nights out drinking or their days out running.

I started posting The Jerks comics to DeviantArt. Though I will just post the previous week's comics there on Tuesday instead of the same day.

The porkchop dinner didn't turn out as well the second night light it does with the Cream of Mushroom soup. Oh well. It was still good. Surprise surprise, the french cook book food doesn't lend itself well to the microwave.

This weekend, I watched Delgo. I liked it more than Abe. It was a nice-to-look-at movie, for sure. Not the best, but interesting enough. It was just a plain classic story, but it was also a Family PG movie, so I didn't expect much. Actually, the concept art they showed throughout the credits was far more amazing than the art in the movie. I wish the movie had been done in the style of the concept art, which was gorgeous. From the concept art, it looks like there could have been more interesting detail in the movie, too, but for a Family movie, they have to keep it short. Weird voice cast, though. Freddie Prince Jr, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Eric Idol, Val Kilmer, Malcolm McDowell, many other weird ones.

I got an email from Amazon today about a book that comes out June 29, Knitting MochiMochi by Anna Hrachovec. Wow. I must admit I am excited for that book. Cute Cute stuff. On Ravelry, she has a bunch of cute patterns, like bats whose wings close shut with a button so you can hang them from the ceiling, baby alligators, pigeons that can actually perch on things, a resistor and a capacitor, "dust bunnies," a bath tub with bubbles, a toilet paper roll, and so much more. She also did woodins ("a tiny apparition that lives in fallen trees and is characterized by its asymmetrical ears and leaf tail"), which is a cute pattern from Knitty.

Monday madness

So on Friday night we went to the Phinney farmers market and got some locally grown organic pork chops among other things. On Saturday the pork was thawed but it was too hot to cook. On Sunday I spent most of the day cooking. First I made some bread. Nothing fancy, just the fast white bread recipe from the joy of cooking. I used the SAF Red Instant Yeast that I ordered from King Arthur Flour last week. The bread was awesome, like always, but the yeast made it rise almost double what the old Fleischmann's yeast I used to use did.

Check it out:

Then, for dinner I fried the pork chops:

Made some white sauce with fried mushrooms and onions:

Put it all on rice and served it with some fresh corn:

It was an awesome meal :-)

I caught Nisa being a real jerk on Sunday too. The litter box is in the bathroom for two reasons, first to keep the dogs from trapping the cat in there and second to keep them from eating the kitty-roca. Nisa still finds ways to be a jerk though.

No way to know for sure how long that'd been going on when I caught her but it's entirely possible that the cat had been stuck in the bathroom for a half hour or more.

New comic posted at http://the-jerks.com/ tomorrow morning! Be sure to look for it.

--Abe

Friday!

So, we voted Nisa the jerks of the week because she ate some huge turd on our walk and Angela had to dig it out of her mouth. It was gross. Then, she climbed up on the table and ate all of the cats food. So I pushed the chairs in as far as they would go and later I caught her pushing one of the chairs out!

We've posted two comics on http://the-jerks.com/ this week. Our schedule is Tuesdays and Thursdays. It look like we had about 3K hits since Tuesday morning which is pretty good. Hopefully that will get a lot bigger over the next six months or so.

I've been busy all day and I have a lot to do still so this one is short.

--Abe

The Jerks is a live web comic!

Woot. So the comic is up: the-jerks.com. Every Tuesday, Thursday, barring Abe forgetting. We have about a month of backlog. I haven't really worked on much else, drawing wise. I do have these sketches I did during breaks at work.

Abe has been looking over the views on the-jerks.com and they are coming from all over the world. But mostly between 9 and 5 on the server time. Weird, right?

We did go see Iron Man 2 last weekend. That was actually a really fun movie and I have no idea why it got such bad reviews. I thought it was really fun and completely in the same vein as the first one. It was so loud though. Almost too loud for me to hear, but not quite, if you know what I mean. I am so glad we saw it in theaters. Maybe the bad reviews were from "traditionalist" Iron Man fans, but I know nothing about Iron Man except these movies. Abe and I were talking about it and we can't think of any good way to follow all the "canon" from the comics. They are going to draw in people with no knowledge of background so everything is new. If they just tried to take an existing comic and make that into a movie, it wouldn't translate well because the comics tend to assume a basic amount of knowledge (usually it seems to me). I like the approach they have taken where they make a story based on existing pieces of story. It is a new story based on old story. That way it is new to the newbies and the old fans. Old fans get to see live action pieces of the story they love but in new context. I could just be talking out my butt, but I like how they are doing them.

I have been watching Ten Ton Studios sketch challenge and their challenge this week is what a superhero of supervillain of your choice would look like from a different era. There are already some really good ones. I might do the drawing, but I don't know if I will enter. Can you say lazy? Scanning sucks. I dream of one day owning a scanner large enough to scan in one shot a 9x12 piece of paper. Ooh. That is about an inch or half an inch larger in width and length than my current one. Annoying, right? I have no idea what superhero I would draw or what era to move them too. Abe had a good idea that I will try though. If I can get it done in time, maybe I will post it. I only have to give it away if the winner likes mine enough and that is a bit of an honor.

I know I had an epiphany about the Water Lady story, but I haven't been able to bring myself to draw any character sketches yet. I really need to get on that. In my defense, I have been working on The Jerks and trying to focus on that. Though I guess sometimes I get distracted by drawing a picture for the circus story, which doesn't even have a story line yet.

This past Friday, I got my May Rockin' Sock Club kit in the mail. I am doing the Ada Lovelace sock. It came with a nice green Spirits yarn, which means it is barely colored at all, but I think it is lovely. The pattern is sort of steam-punk according to the description from the designer. It has a mix of lace and cables, which I just love. In fact, that is used on my spats. I think I should make some of those spats and sell them on Etsy. And some of my gloves. Today, I will get Abe to start posting items on Etsy. I have a fair number of items ready to post, but they need pictures and stuff and Abe can post them. Anyways, back to the new sock kit, I started Friday night and am currently working on the heel flap of the first sock. So I am about a quarter done. This cuff looks kind of short, but complicated, so it is hard to gauge. I am working on this instead of my mom's sweater. Bad Angela. But my plan is to work complete the first sock, complete the second sleeve of mom's cardigan, complete the second sock, and then complete the right front of mom's cardigan. Then I will basically be done with both. But not really, because then on the sweater, I have to block it, sew it, and knit the button band stuff. Which shouldn't take too long. And I can't finish that until mom gets me the buttons so I know how big, where, and how many button holes to make.

Monday

So, the new website for our comics is a terribly kept secret :-)

I've finally got it all working and set up the way we want it so we are going to post the first comic there tomorrow. We'll be posting comics there on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This blog will continue to be our personal blog. We haven't decided on the posting schedule for this blog yet but we'll let you now as soon as we figure it out.

I made some kick ass oatmeal, maple syrup and bacon bread yesterday. It makes the best damn sandwiches :-)

I'm watching the Ken Burns WW II documentary, The War, while I work on the site. It's pretty fantastic.

--Abe

Happy Friday!

Angela asked me to post today.

On Wednesday night I went to Dissonant Plane to see Thione Diop and his brother play the drums. They were totally awesome. They played for about an hour or so and they asked and answered questions in between songs. I bought one of their CDs. It's awesome.

I finished Dragon Age earlier in the week. I enjoyed the game a lot. The story was well executed if a bit unoriginal. The party characters were *awesome* though. I played a human noble lady rogue and I peopled my party with good characters; Wynne, Leliana, and Alistair. I made Alistair a shield wielding tank, Wynne in to a heal bot and me and Leliana into a dual wielding death squad. We pretty much just rolled through everything.

I wanted to keep playing after the end but, for some reason, the game took away both of my characters weapons. That pissed me off so much that I haven't played it.

Instead I went totally different and have been playing Dawn of War II, which I've mentioned previously. I hope to finish it this weekend.

--Abe

Wednesday weirdness

We don't usually post on Wednesday but I forgot to post on Monday so . . .

I spent all day working on our little surprise. It was a long and painful experience. I'll post about it in detail once the secret is out.

I've been playing Dawn of War II lately. I generally dislike RTS games because I find micro-management to be a form of torture rather than a game. However, DoWII does away with micro-management of bases, resources and resource gathering and leaves you with just managing your squads of hilariously over-the-top space marines as they shoot, hack, chainsaw, explode and stomp their way through hordes of Orcs, Eldar and Tyranids. It's a good time all the way around.

Well back to hacking away at the project.

--Abe

Phinney market and sewing

We had a pretty good weekend. On Friday we went to the Phinney Farmer's Market, which was the first one this year. It is very small, but has some good stuff. Not much in the way of vegetables yet, unless you like thumb-sized asparagus or salad (which I hate). But we did find a place that sold local, grass-fed, organic, free-range meat (of the 4-legged variety). We got a huge piece of top sirloin that will make three meals for each of us. Holy cow. (haha)

We also got some potatoes from them -- Purple Majesty. Made into mashed potatoes, they looked like Play-doh. But they tasted like normal potatoes. The meat tasted amazing, though. A little pricey, and you had to buy whatever size they had, but Abe just cut it into three pieces and then he cooks that and cuts it in half. I am drooling just in writing this. We also had some organic corn on the cob with it. Man that is a good meal. Anyways, they also sell bratwurst, so next Friday, we will go again and get maybe some pork chops and some bratwurst. Hopefully there will be more vegetables soon.Isn't that just the best looking dinner. The meat really does taste different than the other meat we have gotten. I cannot wait to try those bratwursts.

Then we went to good will. Or was that Saturday. Anyways, Abe got some shorts and a shirt, and I got some comfy corduroy pants and a cool black and white hounds tooth purse with red trim. Then I went to the mall and got a new wallet because mine was pissing me off. Every time I opened it the stupid cards would all fall out. So I went to Fuego and got an Angry Little Girls wallet. It is really cute. I almost wish I had gotten the vampire one, but this one is great and now I am not one of THOSE people. Turns out I LOVE that store. It is similar to hot topic, but funnier.

I also drew some more for the upcoming web comic, including a header image. So we are getting there. Arthur and Georgie are fun to draw. Actually, there are two new characters who are also way fun to draw. I will draw away and then stop to look at it as a whole and laugh every single time.

Yesterday, I wanted to go get some zippers for the cloth I bought to make skirts from. So when I got home, I made a skirt. I also got another zipper to fix a skirt that had a broken zipper. So now I have two skirts to wear. The skirt I made myself looks great. I had to make some darts and mess those up, but I think my shirts will cover it, and if not, I can always go back and fix it. I should have read the instructions in my Skirt book on how to make darts. Anyways, the book is Sew What: Skirts and it is awesome. The one I made yesterday was A-Line. I also plan to make a straight skirt with some green and cream hounds tooth, and a pleated skirt with some green and brown plaid. While I got the zippers, I also bought some clearance fabric because it as 30% off, so I got some cute red fabric that I will use as a layer over some black fabric for a skirt. I think that will be really cute. And I got some yellow fabric with pink dots that I will make into bloomers for which I will tat some lace to attach at the bottom of each leg. Nice, yeah? (FYI, I was totally spacing out every time Abe took a picture of me in this skirt.)

I have plans. I have too many plans. This is on top of all the knitting I have to do, including the new Rockin' Sock Club kit that should be coming in the next couple weeks (so far I am two for two - received two kits and both are already knit up) and the sweater I am knitting for my mom. Another Girl Friday, but in evergreen. It is coming right along. I have the left front, back, and one sleeve done. I started the second sleeve yesterday, but I only got about an inch in. I also have the Raven Swirl (rav) Rockin' Sock Club socks on the needles. I am almost half way done with the first sock. I love this pattern and can't wait for them to be done. Speaking of plans, I also got a free coat rack and I plan to sand and paint it this summer...There is a chance I might have more to do than can possibly be done...

One day when I was working on something at work, I looked out the window at the rain and had a bit of an epiphany on how to tell my water lady story. It was very satisfying. So that is my next big comics project.