Before I changed my major to Illustration, I was a Computer Science major for four years before I lost my credits moving to Connecticut from Illinois (long, long story). I was hoping that some knowledge of computers would help with building my computer, but boy, was I so wrong. Greg knew a lot more than I did from building a few computers in the past, but it's safe to say that the water cooling and processor installation gave us a  bit of a headache. Hey, you have to start somewhere, right?

It felt like Christmas in July with all the components wrapped neatly in their respective bubble wrapping. The mess was primarily made by our excitement to unwrap all the components, thankfully we didn't loose any important screws in the process. 

A few hours of cussing and swimming in manuals, we finally finished my computer. Here's a picture of Greg's gigantic tower (red) next to my smaller tower (blue).

Unfortunately, due to the positioning of both of our towers, it was a bit difficult to take a good quality photo.

And.. that's it for this week! In craft related news, my mom is sending my yarn from the States so I should be getting back into my loom knitting within the next few weeks.

Talk about a busy week! My fiancee and I had to move to our new place in the middle of terrible storm, making the inches of mud and the copious amounts of stairs we had to climb more and more difficult to maneuver with the constant downpour. After the storm hit, we also lost power for an entire day, which really sucks when everything (including showering and tea preparation) relies on electricity. 

The good news is that we're finally all settled in, which gives me tons of time to work on my loom knitting again. Unfortunately, my small loom broke during the move (which made me a very sad girl), but luckily I had a large loom stored away for future projects.  

I'm currently working on a half basketweave washcloth with the same green yarn I used for the pillow coasters. The design was inspired by Jana's Patterns, but I modified the pattern to suit the half basketweave idea a little better. Currently my washcloth exceeds 10 1/2 inches, and my goal is to make it to 20 inches before casting off. 

I'm not entirely too sure what my next project will be, especially since I currently lack the funds to purchase another small loom and yarn. We'll see if anything inspires me in the next few weeks, and if I'm able to find a reasonably priced ball of yarn for sale here on Waiheke.

While in the process of moving to our new place, my fiancee and I realized that we were in need of few coasters. A few hours and a bundle of thread later (purchased at a garage sale a few days prior to moving to New Zealand), we had a cute set of knitted “pillowed” coasters.

Since the yarn was far too thin, I knitted (e-wrapped) the coaster up to 15 inches in length/ 4 inches in width and folded the piece to make 3 squares. After reaching the correct length, I  wove the squares together to create the "pillowed" effect. The coaster contains enough layers to allow the coaster to remain cool against your furniture, but thin enough to place your mug comfortably.

The yarn I used is Macy's Supre-Macy Orlon Sayelle 100% acrylic yarn. The yarn itself is quite old and has long been discontinued, but even after all these years, the yarn is still in pretty good shape. 

Before moving to New Zealand, I loom knitted a slipper that I'm quite eager to share with all of you. Although, with the mess of moving to another country, everything is a bit all over the place. We're also in the process of getting internet in our new place, so my updates may be a bit scattered over the upcoming weeks.

In blog related news, I realized that my blog might be a bit too image heavy for those loading from different countries. I'm in the process of removing some of the heavy imagery, such as the background, and replacing it with a flat color. Unfortunately, since this is a craft and illustration blog, I'll have to keep posting related imagery with every post, but the sizes and picture formats will be changed to a smaller and internet friendly file types.

If anyone has any questions about the coaster (or anything really), please feel free to leave a comment or shoot me an email. :]

See you all next week!

Starting tomorrow, I'm going to go back in the past (to California) and rush forward in the future (to New Zealand) and arrive on a Saturday. So basically, I'm going to be travelling for a total of three days if you take into consideration all the time zones and what not.

I won't be able to update this coming Friday, although I'm DYING to show what I've been working on with my circle loom. I'll see all of you next week!

I visited my nephew, sister and brother-in-law in their home on Long Island last weekend to catch up before my move to New Zealand. It was a fun couple of days, and we were even able to squeeze in a trip to Chinatown and Soho.

Walking through Chinatown with a stroller was almost impossible, and by the time we found our designated shop, my sister and I were stressed out and exhausted. I only took a few pictures mainly because we were speed walking and there was just too many people pushing and shoving. If you want to see the full image, please click on the previews below to enlarge the pictures. 

On the way back to Connecticut, I took a ferry to Bridgeport since I wanted to avoid driving back at all costs. Driving to and from New York is enough to give me a heart attack and sprout a few new white hairs, but the ferry was relaxing and a much shorter commute. I should have done this earlier!

Unfortunately, on my way back, I also got sick. Since I was feeling a bit sorry for myself, I picked up an assorted knitting set from Joann Fabrics and I instantly fell in love. Before I go into details of my latest project, let me just state that my history with knitting is one of frustration mixed with a dab of motivation. I've tried learning how to knit the American way (via youtube) and the European/Persian way through my sister-in-law. Since I learned both of them at the same time, I kept mixing up both of the styles and ended up with a hot mess that sort of resembled knitting. BUT I REFUSED TO QUIT. /deep breath. Turns out I'm pretty good with loom knitting though!

I only had a small ball of yarn laying around from my last (somewhat successful) knitting project 2 years ago, but I still wanted to make something useful while practicing with my new loom. As I was pushing through this project like a spinster hellbent on finding a man, I remembered that I needed a small scarf that I could wear during the fall while gardening. I love my infinity scarf to bits, but it just gets in the way whenever I bend forward to pick something up. And thus, I present to you.... my tiny neck/choker scarf thing! Pardon the terrible iPhone quality pictures. I'm still sick and can't be fussed with my dslr. :( 

AND FINALLY, as I was looking through my iPhone, I found a perfect picture that I took whilst in Puerto Rico that accurately describes how I've been feeling these past few days. Enjoy.