How to Hand Roll a Center Pull Ball

I have the hardest time keeping my yarn organized. For some reason, I always get the skeins that disintegrate the moment I start to unwind them, so I end up with a Pigpen-worthy mess of yarn all over my room. Because of this, I looked all over the place for the right way to roll a yarn ball, but came up with only more problems than I had before. So I decided to post a tutorial on how I do it in case there is someone out there like me that has major issues with yarn chaos.



Step One:

Grab your mess of yarn and find the end of it. Now look at your hand. See the middle three fingers? These are going to be your nostepinne AKA the thingy you wrap the yarn around. Slip your yarn through your pointer and middle fingers and pinch down to keep it in place. Make sure to leave out a decent length of the end of your yarn so it doesn't get lost in the winding process. That will be the center pull end of your ball of yarn!

Pinch that yarn!

Easy Customizeable Headband/Ear Warmer

 

Green with a cute heart!

And now, here's my very first pattern ever! It's super easy & very cute. If you'd rather just download a pdf version of it, one can be found here:

 http://www.mediafire.com/?9790zbwkured27n

Now onto the pattern!







{ Materials: } 

• 2 Balls of Yarn (each a different color. I used some leftovers from a skein I had lying around)
• Size I (5.50mm) Crochet Hook
• 2 Buttons or Snap Fasteners
• Yarn / Tapestry Needle 

The Stressors of a New Small Business Owner

Smam Crafts! business cards.

So. It's September now & that means Camp NaNoWriMo is over, unfortunately. I got to 17.5k I think? & I was hoping to hit 25k. But still, I got a decent amount written in the short amount of time I had! Unfortunately writer's block has crept up on me, so I haven't done a whole lot of writing lately. I think that's partly because of the Monrovia Festival being next weekend, so I'm nervously working on business cards one moment & crocheting furiously so I have enough of an inventory the next. Which I love, don't get me wrong. I love to plan and to get everything ready. It's just a little too much for me to focus on at once.

At least I'm much more motivated this time around! Last year, I barely had anything made. I sold $30 worth of stuff, but it still wasn't much. Just three hats. Spent that money in no time! haha. It was still a really fun experience and I can't wait to check it out this year. I just want to do good, sales-wise since I'm missing two days of work for it.

Lots on my mind! But I got five more items made! A cute lilac headband, striped cable slouch hat, a green & purple cowl, an awesome slouchy brimmed hat, & a silver & navy scarf. I'd like to get at least one more scarf made & a few more baby wash cloths. Then I'd be content.

I just realized today that I have a small business. Can you believe that? It really sunk in when I printed off my first business cards as I was getting everything ready. Since I was little, I have ALWAYS wanted to have my own business. It didn't have to be anything big or too exciting, just something I enjoyed to do.

Well here you go, tiny version of me! Smam Crafts! Awwww yeah!

Anybody else every thought of starting your own small business? Did it ever stress you out big time?

Some Awesome Resources for Fellow Writers

I'm surprised my face is pictured here.

I have this thing I do where I continuously research. This was my big issue with my lack of internet access. It wasn't the fact that I couldn't keep in contact with everyone (I know, I'm evil), it was because I couldn't google anything and research. My researching obsessions is no different when it comes to my writing. I like to read up on different tips to help with characterization or how to make your villains more interesting, etc. I can't get enough of it!

My all time favorite site to find articles for such is Fiction Factor. During the "Hopeless Time" of my fabled lack of internet access (that lasted 2 or so years), every time I actually got internet access, I saved a few articles off of the Fiction Factor site so I could go home and read up on it whenever I wanted. I still have a giant folder full of saved webpages from there. They have so many good tips. I would definitely recommend that site for any fellow writers that are like me and always like to read up on ways to improve or for inspiration of any kind.

Also, I found a fabulous post on tumblr with a ton of resources: 102 Resources for Fiction Writing. I haven't looked through all of them, but I see it as The Holy Grail right now. Especially for someone who article hoards as much as I do.

The NaNoWriMo forums are also amazing when it comes to any sort of information on writing. People are always posting new links to fiction writer resources.

Just thought I'd share~ Back to working on The Light Ahead. Let's see how much I can get done before the 31st! 20k words? 15k words? Bueller?

Monrovia Festival

My aunt bought my sister & I a booth at the Monrovia Festival that's coming up this September (7th-9th). I've been digging through the stuff I've randomly crocheted/knit in the past year. I found around 10-15 items I already have made that are sellable & after marking down my ideal prices for each item... the total of my inventory is around $140! This contains 1 baby afghan, 1 cowl, 2 scarves, 2 bags, 1 baby headband, 1 baby hat, 1 pair of fingerless gloves, 2 baby wash cloths, & 3 hats.



Click the thumbnails to see full size image.


So that's what I have so far. I'm actually really excited to see if anybody is interested in my wares. I really like making them for sure. :] Can't wait until the 7th! Wish me luck!

Stardust Libraria; My Writing Site

Layout Screenshot!

Stardust Libraria is about 40% done now. I just need to add information on the stuff that I'm currently working on and all will be well. I would also like to mention, that I fucking love Google Fonts. It makes me absolutely giddy that I have a better choice in fonts for websites than I used to. Yay!

I've been working on Another World, which is a short story I've been trying to put together for a while now. I keep wondering whether I should save it and work on it during NaNoWriMo this year or start to plunk away at it. lol. Because I have another story that I thought about working on, but I'm not super excited about it. So... that's what I'm worried about. LOL. If I'm wishy washy about it now, odds are that I'm going to be the same come November. And that would seriously suck if I bombed another year of NaNoWriMo!! I'd be very upset.

So there is a very high chance that I'll work on Another World this November. I'll make sure to post here when I have information about it up on Libraria!

I decided to take a lesson from Berm (AKA Amanda) and get a nice cork board, memo notes, & push pins to set up my outline. I always thought that was very interesting whenever I saw it hanging up on her wall. I bought a HUGE cork board at work for $10, so I have lots of space to put up lots of scenes! Don't get me wrong, I love me some Liquid Story Binder XE, but it's nice to have something physical like that too to work with when I'm planning a story.

I discovered that the only way for me to be productive when writing is to plan out a bunch of scenes I would like to see in the novel & then figure out the order of them & boom! Novel outline. That was the only way I got to 50k words in 2008. I can admit to it, I am so ADD when it comes to writing & am so picky about what I put down, that I get frustrated with myself & stop writing! So I have to babysit myself to get anything done. But hey, at least I know how to get it done now!

Time to plot out that novel...

Horrible Truths - Game of Thrones Fanfiction

YES, I am posting my fanfiction to my blog. This is actually a fill for the Sansa-Sandor community's comment fic meme on livejournal. It's SanSan. Fear it. Here's the prompt:

Sansa and Sandor's daughter turns 12, and Sandor has a sudden horrifying realisation that that's how old Sansa was the night of the Blackwater Battle when he pinned her to the bed, thought about trying to fuck her, and put a dagger to her throat. Cue freak out :)

Basically, I would like Sandor to recognise the fact that twelve year olds are actually still very young and wee, despite how he remembers it (or how it might have seemed at the time). And I would like him to apologise to Sansa all over again... how he does that, I shall leave up to the author... ;) --the_moonmoth

See? Sansa likes that I'm posting fanfiction here.

Title: Horrible Truths
Rating: PG-13 (just mentions of adult situations. nothing horrific happens)
Word Count: 1981
Warnings: Mentions of rape & thoughts of sex with a minor (even though in medieval times, Sansa was already considered a woman, yuckies!)

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story! They belong to George R.R. Martin.

Yarn Organizationgasm!

My cheap tubs bring all the yarn to the yard!

Sweet fucking jesus! I just finished organizing the yarn vomit in my room. I bought 3 motherfucking 7.1 gallon tubs on sale at for $2 each at work & now my yarn/spinning materials are stuffed into glorious tubs. No more yarn vomit! I seriously hate when my yarn starts tangling, so I usually just ignore it because I don't want to deal with it. LOL. But then the mass just gets bigger... & bigger... & bigger. So I had to slay yarnzilla. & I feel amazing now that I have that out of the way. See? So much better. (yes, no sheet right now. It's cleaning time, bitches.)


All my roving is put up in one of the bins too, so maybe the easy access will make me want to start spinning again. Though it's hard for me to use my drop spindle after Liz had me try out her mom's Ashford Joy. omfg. I need a spinning wheel. Her mom's gonna let me borrow one of her wheels & if I like it, I can buy it. lol. But phewies, the cost hurts my soul. Some people seriously spend over 1k on a spinning wheel. That makes me have a mini panic attack just thinking about it.

I'm still trying to edit pathofstardust.net & make it look somewhat presentable right now, but yeah. I'm so ADD. I get all distracted by tumblr & a softer world. Which is hilarious, btw. Proof:

Asofterworld. My website soulmate.

A friend of mine actually called me & told me how that comic strip applied to her completely. I feel that 3 out of 5 a softer world comics are lines pulled directly from my brain. Things Smam Does Not Say Out Loud = a softer world. Oh sweet jesus.

Time to go back to knitting this fucking whore of a shawl & listening to Nine Inch Nails because I love my music angry, tortured, & full of cursing.

Welcome to the Chaos

Finally got my blog set up. I think I'm going to set my blog as my main page on pathofstardust.net. I've seen a few sites do that & I really like how it looks & how it's easy to just see what's going on in that person's life. They can type in updates about the site as well as just blab away about what's going on in their lives nowadays.

So I approve, pretty much. Obviously. Since I'm doing the same thing. Copycat away! *zooms off into the distance*

Spent the day attempting to organize the chaos that is my yarn stash. I seriously have 30+ skeins of yarn laying about in a tangle and it hurts my soul to leave it. I'm just so god damn tired after work! And on my days off, I just want to laze about, surf the internet... sleep, etc. It's what I love to do. I can admit to it. So yes, I'm pilfering through the mess of roving and skeins of yarn & stuffing the good stuff away into my zippable tote bag. I'll make it fit. I'm determined.

Oh & I finally watched The Big Lebowski all the way through. How the hell did it take me so long to do that? We'll cut off your chonson, Lebooski! WE BELIEVE IN NAHSING! NAHSING! Oh nihilists~! You so fuuuuuunny.

Back to cleaning. Or attempting to do so.