Letterbox Spot: St. John in the Wilderness

And now, a break in crochet news for some letterboxing!

Mom came down to visit after spending time with my brother, sister-in-law, and baby nephew in Kentucky.

Because my Virginia plans fell through this weekend, we were able to drive up to North Carolina and visit with Grandma Dottie!  On the way, though, despite the drizzling rain and fog on the mountain highways, we stopped for a couple of drive-by letterboxes in Flat Rock.

Days Gone By was planted by Tiggermama, and her clue said very specifically to bring a camera.  I did, and I was not disappointed!

(Please keep in mind that I will never quit my day job to be a photographer.)

St. John in the Wilderness is a beautiful church with a simple, elegant terraced cemetery surrounding.  Every plot was draped in ivy and moss, with the old gravemarkers darkened by rain.  The gray, misty weather gave a silent serenity to the entire small graveyard.

The entrance; driveway to the left.

The letterbox clues were fairly straight-forward, but I spent more time tourist-ing than following clues...I turned around a lot and retraced my steps quite a bit.

The paths were so well-kept, even in spite of the autumn leaves. 

I've always been intrigued by unique gravestones.

Following the clue, the path turned right, and I followed, finally getting a look at the church itself.

The terraced plots were so simple and lovely.

I paused for a picture of a leaf on one of the paving stones.

If I were given to haiku, perhaps I would write one about this leaf.

At last, I found the key grave of note in the cemetery: Christopher Memminger and his family.  Memminger was the first Secretary of the Treasury of the Confederate States of America.  This plot acted as the beginning of the true letterbox hunt.

Someone has kept the Confederate flag flying in memoriam.

Of course, I got distracted by the Narnia-esque lamppost I found:

Mr. Tumnus, where are you when I need you?

I headed towards the back of the graveyard, and came upon the stone-cut roses mentioned in the clue:

Trying to capture the intricacy of the carving.

My close-ups need work...

I had a hard time tracking down the last part of the clue, because I am unfamiliar with stonemasonry and other carving techniques.  I was sure I had to look for a particular type of cross...not the name on the cross.

Coming upon my final marker in the clue.

I was so fortunate the rain hadn't washed out the name.

Close-up of the detail on the center of the cross.

I successfully obtained the letterbox at this point (no spoilers!), and headed back towards the car, where Mom was waiting, safe and dry.  I took the driveway back, and paused to click a few more pictures on the way.

Twin mossy crosses.

The unique cross from the other side, heading back toward the beginning.

There are more letterbox escapades, but not as many pictures with such a serene quality.  I'll do a separate post later this week, to keep up my "blog every day in December" goal!

Thanks for reading!

Aviator Goggles

When I started GM'ing for my husband and our friends, it was discovered that nobody had rolled a medic/healer.  Not. One. Person.

*sigh*

As it happened, the Panda (who likes to play with the D&D character creator) likes to make random characters just because.  He had found the "artificer" class and made me a character.  He adjusted her slightly to be a medic type, and then it was decided that I could play her.

Yes, I am GM'ing and playing a character.  I take lots of chances to make my character as non-threatening and semi-useless as possible.  She's a very heavy sleeper, klutzy, and hates my husband's character (for plot and historical reasons).

Anyway...since I LARP, I have a thing about costuming.  I decided that all good artificers have goggles, so I found a pattern by Yarn Twins for an aviator hat set (Ravelry link; pattern purchase necessary) that includes hats, goggles, and scarves for humanoids of all ages and sizes!

I went ahead and made myself a trial pair:

It was so hard to get my hook 

through the plastic lenses!

You can actually see through the plastic, but it can scratch easily, so I primarily wear them as decoration.

Well, my friends saw them and at the time said they wanted their own pairs.

This Christmas season, I remembered this.

Hence, I took the plastic cover from our Thanksgiving pumpkin pie and with the help of the Panda, made:

I made a few mistakes, but I don't think Deevius or DSCA will notice.  We've pushed our 'holiday' visit in Virginia back to January or February, though, so I can lay off the gas a little bit and go back to working on Guude and VintageBeef for the time being.

Talk to you later!

Facebook Art Trades 2014 - #2

The second art trade went to another of my husband's former coworkers.  We call him 'Biester'.  He's Swiss.  There are a lot of jokes at his expense.

Biester has yet to finish the final game in the Mass Effect series, but he asked if for the art trade I would make him something in that theme.

I did some research for charts and graphs, and found something suitable.  I had to reduce the size a little; otherwise the coasters I made would have been better off as trivets:

If you squint a little and tilt your head, they're great!

These didn't get a very good reception on the Mass Effect subreddit, but I keep telling myself that as long as Biester likes them (he wouldn't stop thanking me), then that's all that matters.

I hope to finish work on the last pair of slippers in the House Slipper Collection!  From there, I will probably give Guude some much-needed attention.

Until tomorrow (I hope!).

Baby Groot!

Full disclaimer:  I have not seen Guardians of the Galaxy.  I do not intend to see it anytime soon.  After Iron Man 3, Thor 2, and Captain America 2, I am all Marvel'd out.

However, this did not stop any of my friends from posting patterns on my Facebook wall.  The most prevalent being:

Baby Groot

The pattern was provided by Nathaniel Wise, whom I met through my husband's work at the university we attended.  I think he was angling for me to make him one.  Another mutual friend pointed out that now that Wise was married, his adorable and crafty wife could do it for him, and we left it at that.

However...

I have another friend that LARPs in the same campaign, named Kat.  She is in possession of something I am not: a working sewing machine.  Remember when I made that post about Tatoke?  Well, when the local fabric store had it's summer clearance on fleece, I trotted my little self down there and managed to grab myself some anti-pill fleece in blue-gray for at least 60% off per yard (or more; can't remember at the moment).

Kat offered to help me make my own tunic for free, and she even purchased the trim sewn to the bottom hem and side slits.  (If I ever get around to it, I'll do pictures sometime.)

As trade, all she wanted was a Baby Groot for her husband, Doc.  She wanted it in time for Christmas, so over Thanksgiving I set out to try out Twinkie Chan's free pattern.

The results were quite adorable:

I didn't happen to have a usable flower pot handy.

To date, this is one of the most liked crochet projects on my Facebook wall.  And according to the Facebook Page manager, it's done better than 95% of my other posts made on my official Velvet Key Creations page.  (Go figure.)

And although the crochet subreddit isn't all that populous, most people seemed to enjoy him.  Unfortunately, since Groot is licensed by Marvel, he can't be sold in an Etsy store.  So, the cuteness is limited to personal gifts or trades.  Still, not too bad.

Today's updated crochet project list:

1)  House Slipper Collection (5 pairs)

2)  D20 of Plushiness

3)  Facebook Art Trade 2014 - #4

4)  Facebook Art Trade 2014 - #5

5)  Guude Plushie

6)  VintageBeef VII Plushie

7)  Baby Groot II

8)  Black & Purple Scarf

So, I did finish those goggles...future post!

Facebook Art Trades 2014 - #1

So I've been promising this post for awhile; it just took me a long time to get pictures!

On January 8th of this year, I copied and pasted the following status to my Facebook:

"I'm trying something different this year!

Welcome to Pay It Forward art-making project for 2014:

I promise to make a small work of art for the first five people who comment on this post and say "YES, I want in". A 'like' alone is not enough of a commitment, nor is a comment about thinking Pay It Forward is a great idea.


You must in turn post this as your status update and make something for the first five who comment on your status.

* The rules are simple: it has to be your work, made by you, and the recipient must receive it before 2014 ends.

* It can be anything art-based: a drawing or a conceptual work of art and anything in between. See? SIMPLE.

Yes, you can be on each other's pay it forward lists."

I had to check and make sure that crochet items counted as "art"...since I think of it more as a "craft".

Anyway, I had five sign-ups!

...let's not even examine the fact that it is now December of 2014 and I've only finished three of the five projects.

Moving on...

I had signed up for one of my former professors' art trades; when I was in grad school, I was prepping to teach English in China, so I took Cultural Anthropology, as well as History of Asia in the same semester.  I didn't know that the same doctor taught both classes, so it ended up that I saw her every day of the week for an entire semester.

She's an amazing lady; also a little bit of a geek.  She loves Doctor Who and frequently referenced it in the class my husband took from her, a special class about the concept of time throughout history.

So...I had already successfully completed the red Dalek for Deevius for her birthday during the summer.  What could be simpler than doing another?

Thus, I set out on the quest to create...The Purple Dalek.

Cuddly extermination may commence.

Throw in some Lego figures for scale.

Pretty good!

We met up at a Starbucks near my workplace and must have spent an hour just catching up and talking.  She had her art trade for me:

Fabulous handmade cards, and white shell jewelry!

I'm a huge fan of the abalone shell beads.  There's a particular store in Charleston, SC that I have to stop in whenever I'm in town that sells long strings of them.  I loved everything about this gift!

Thank you, Dr. S!

More on other art trades in a future post...

Dwarf Lass's Beard! - Cosplay Commission

For LARP last month, I was told that the plot team needed a dwarf beard to match the one I had made in 2013:

That's Mike the coworker.

We had been asked to help run a special All Hallow's (Halloween) haunted house.  Deevius was also with me, for her first (and so far, only) LARP event.  Mike was playing a barbarian.  I was an islander (think Polynesian--I wore a lei and a sarong with hibiscus flowers).

So, in reusing the beard, Mike and Sheryl were going to be playing a pair of dwarf siblings, so she wanted a "girly" beard.  

o_O

How you make an epic beard girly is a little beyond me, but she asked for green bows, so I thought, "Okay, I can figure something out."

Using the same pattern as before, courtesy of Melissa Campbell (Ravelry login required) I started the beard base.

And then I realized that in my 2013 notes about the first beard, all I had said was "pattern was followed 85%; I made some strands shorter due to wearer’s request."

...um, whut?

Commence the educated guessing!  Finished product:

Pattern is supposed to be accompanied by a

crocheted helmet, hence the buttonholes.

I threaded some rare sparkly green yarn I found

in a clearance bin in a tiny yarn shop in New York

through the "metal clasps" of the beard, and 

embellished with plastic gems for extra girlyness.

I found a YouTube tutorial on how to tie perfect bows,

and made teeny, tiny ones.  I then secured the center

knot with superglue and a gem.  I also knotted and 

glued all of the ends, just to be safe.

After all of my rushing around to get this and Nautica's scarf done in time for the event, the gal playing the sister dwarf did not come to the event, or I would have tried to get a picture of her for you.

Instead, Mike the coworker wore his beard, and some professional photographers were out and caught these candids:

Left to Right:  Eolian (Dave) and Moriarty (Todd).

The girl with her back to the camera

is Onesti (Ashe), who plays a Sarr (cat person).

The crochet quest continues!  Today's list:

1)  Two (2) pairs of aviator goggles.

2)  A D-20 plush dice.

3)  Five (5) pairs of slippers.

4)  Guude plushie (the first one!)

5)  VintageBeef VII

6)  Enderman (still...)

7)  Baby Groot II  (I'll do a different post on Baby Groot I.)

We'll keep plugging away!

YorickBeef!

I finished the sixth VintageBeef plushie early in my Thanksgiving break, and decided to tweet a humorous picture after finishing his head:

Alas, poor @VintageBeefLP! I knew him well: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. pic.twitter.com/gPd6TXcSZH
— Katie (@Velvet_Key) November 26, 2014

(That's from Hamlet.)

 No reply from Mr. Beef this time, but it was more just for fun than anything else.  He is now listed as a reserved item for Dailyn Jones on Etsy, so I hope he sells soon!