Yarn over, pull through.
Yarn over, pull through.
The index finger of my left hand is throbbing and with each search for a spine, I can hear the wool moaning as I push the needle through.
I can hear them talking about me in the other room, but their words mean nothing. I just need to finish this last row and then I will stop. Okay, just one more.
I have become an old lady. I catch sight of myself in the mirror, glasses falling slightly down my nose, my hair in an untidy bun that I would not be caught dead in outside of the house and the crocheting needle in my hand. To be fair, it's not like I am crocheting a scarf (though I probably will at some point). To be even more fair, this is not a project of my choosing. The penguin that I made earlier was. This one Grant asked me to make. He caught sight of the pattern while I was browsing and decided that it was a must-have. He even took me to Birch's this morning just so that we could get the wool that I would need to make it. It's a Mario One-Up Mushroom, which brings out the geek in him and lets me indulge in my new hobby without feeling too ancient.
I started learning to crochet at the end of January. It was a tactic to prevent boredom in an office where browsing has been forbidden and no tickets were coming in to be answered. The office was dead quiet. With no emails to reply to, no phonecalls to answer and no browsing allowed, we resorted to other activities that hadn't been banned. While some read and some scrolled through the applications on their cellphones, I crocheted. It would be crochet a row, refresh the screen to see if there are any new emails. Crochet another row, refresh again. It was great practice, getting me faster and faster and crocheting. It also meant that the F5 button on my work computer may be dying some time soon.
Within a week, I was ready to try my first project. I finished it in a day. A little wonky, not quite perfect, but still a penguin that I could be proud of and one that my goddaughter adored. I finished the penguin around 4pm and immediately started on the next project, which I finished the next morning. I could hardly wait to start on the next one!
The only problem with crocheting in Grahamstown though is the lack of supplies. Sure, there are places to get wool, to get hooks and even to get stuffing. But things like felt and safety eyes are mysteries to the Grahamstown haunts and practically impossible to get unless you want to order them online (which I do not). Instead, I resort to sewing eyes and buying beads to make the best of what I have available. Not quite the same, but they will do.
So, if you are bored and looking for something to do, considering crocheting. It is not just for old people and is actually highly addictive once you get into the hang of it, especially when you discover sites like Ravelry and all the cool things that you can make with the patterns that you find there.
What strange hobbies do you have?
Showing posts with label Hobbies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hobbies. Show all posts
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Thursday, May 5, 2011
My World of WoW
Just because I am doing my 30 day book challenge doesn't mean that I am going to forget about my other blogging duties. Today, I thought I would talk about something that has been taking up a lot of my time and that has been on my mind a lot lately. And what else would that thing be but... World of Warcraft.
Yes, that is right. I am indeed a little more geeky than many people realise. I am an avid WoW player. This wasn't always the case. It all started when Grant got into the game back in 2008. He created a character, and most of his time was spent playing said character at nights and on weekends while I sat in the background reading books, taking naps and watching series. Life went on in this manner for quite some time until I started complaining that Grant was spending more time playing the game than he was spending with me.
What was his solution to this problem?
Creating me a character.
And so Risuna, my human warrior, was born. At first I didn't get what all the hype was about. And then I started getting really into the game. And then I took over Grant's computer because all I wanted to do was play the game.
What was his solution to this problem?
Create me my own account.
Of course, that wasn't really a solution to my addiction, but it allowed him to indulge in his addiction while I indulged in mine. There was a minor problem with this solution, however, and that was that transferring of characters between accounts was not only costly, but also not particularly timely. And so, while I saved up my pennies and counted down the hours, I created myself a new character to level while I waited. And so Khalla, my night-elf druid, was born.
I had tons of fun playing with Khalla and decided that I far preferred having a druid to having a warrior. They were a lot more fun to play with because they could shapeshift and, compared to my warrior who could only DPS, had a lot of options to play around with. I could DPS or tank or heal as I liked, and being able to change between the forms meant that I never really got bored. Before I knew it, I was level 80 with Risuna, who had by this time already been transferred to my account, lagging behind at level 65.
I could have continued to play on with Khalla forever, venturing into dungeons and raids to my heart's content. But unfortunately, Grant got bored with the game, as he inevitably does, and decided to cancel his account. Though he did offer to keep mine going, playing with him was part of the reason I had so much fun playing the game. Without him, it just didn't seem worth it anymore. And so, towards the middle of 2009, we both cancelled our accounts and the joy that I'd had playing WoW faded into the back of my memory.
By September 2010, I had just about forgotten about my days of WoW playing. They seemed like a distant dream, until they were refreshed by a friend of mine who became obsessed with levelling his character in time for the release of the Cataclysm expansion. Watching him play brought back all the good times I'd had levelling my own characters, and I begged Grant to reconsider opening our accounts once again. After some hmming and haaing, it was decided. We were going to try again. But on the European server this time around. This meant that we would have to start fresh, creating new characters. Because all of Grant's friends were playing Horde characters, it also meant a changing of sides, something that I wasn't particularly looking forward to. I had always been the good guy (or gal). I had always been the one keeping people in line rather than the one toeing the line myself. But there wasn't much choice in the matter - if I was going to play again, and if I was going to play with Grant, I was going to have to switch sides and become the bad guy (or gal).
And so Keillan, my tauren hunter, was born. Her name was a bit of a tribute to Khalla, the lost druid that I had loved so much. The tauren race, being one of the original few that could become druids, are not well known hunters, but I wanted to try something new. I didn't particularly like the look of any of the other characters (besides the blood elves, whose choices in profession were few), and so I decided to stick with my tauren and become a hunter. And I have found that I quite enjoy it. If I cannot become another animal, at least I can have them as pets.
I recently managed to level Keillan up to 85, the highest that Cataclysm will allow you to go, and am currently running her through heroic dungeons to gain justice points and try to gear her up for raiding. And so, this is what I have been spending my time doing. As geeky as it is, I am a WoW player, and I am proud of it.
So my question for today: What is your strangest/geekiest/most embarrassing pastime?
Yes, that is right. I am indeed a little more geeky than many people realise. I am an avid WoW player. This wasn't always the case. It all started when Grant got into the game back in 2008. He created a character, and most of his time was spent playing said character at nights and on weekends while I sat in the background reading books, taking naps and watching series. Life went on in this manner for quite some time until I started complaining that Grant was spending more time playing the game than he was spending with me.
What was his solution to this problem?
Creating me a character.
And so Risuna, my human warrior, was born. At first I didn't get what all the hype was about. And then I started getting really into the game. And then I took over Grant's computer because all I wanted to do was play the game.
What was his solution to this problem?
Create me my own account.
Of course, that wasn't really a solution to my addiction, but it allowed him to indulge in his addiction while I indulged in mine. There was a minor problem with this solution, however, and that was that transferring of characters between accounts was not only costly, but also not particularly timely. And so, while I saved up my pennies and counted down the hours, I created myself a new character to level while I waited. And so Khalla, my night-elf druid, was born.
I had tons of fun playing with Khalla and decided that I far preferred having a druid to having a warrior. They were a lot more fun to play with because they could shapeshift and, compared to my warrior who could only DPS, had a lot of options to play around with. I could DPS or tank or heal as I liked, and being able to change between the forms meant that I never really got bored. Before I knew it, I was level 80 with Risuna, who had by this time already been transferred to my account, lagging behind at level 65.
I could have continued to play on with Khalla forever, venturing into dungeons and raids to my heart's content. But unfortunately, Grant got bored with the game, as he inevitably does, and decided to cancel his account. Though he did offer to keep mine going, playing with him was part of the reason I had so much fun playing the game. Without him, it just didn't seem worth it anymore. And so, towards the middle of 2009, we both cancelled our accounts and the joy that I'd had playing WoW faded into the back of my memory.
By September 2010, I had just about forgotten about my days of WoW playing. They seemed like a distant dream, until they were refreshed by a friend of mine who became obsessed with levelling his character in time for the release of the Cataclysm expansion. Watching him play brought back all the good times I'd had levelling my own characters, and I begged Grant to reconsider opening our accounts once again. After some hmming and haaing, it was decided. We were going to try again. But on the European server this time around. This meant that we would have to start fresh, creating new characters. Because all of Grant's friends were playing Horde characters, it also meant a changing of sides, something that I wasn't particularly looking forward to. I had always been the good guy (or gal). I had always been the one keeping people in line rather than the one toeing the line myself. But there wasn't much choice in the matter - if I was going to play again, and if I was going to play with Grant, I was going to have to switch sides and become the bad guy (or gal).
And so Keillan, my tauren hunter, was born. Her name was a bit of a tribute to Khalla, the lost druid that I had loved so much. The tauren race, being one of the original few that could become druids, are not well known hunters, but I wanted to try something new. I didn't particularly like the look of any of the other characters (besides the blood elves, whose choices in profession were few), and so I decided to stick with my tauren and become a hunter. And I have found that I quite enjoy it. If I cannot become another animal, at least I can have them as pets.
I recently managed to level Keillan up to 85, the highest that Cataclysm will allow you to go, and am currently running her through heroic dungeons to gain justice points and try to gear her up for raiding. And so, this is what I have been spending my time doing. As geeky as it is, I am a WoW player, and I am proud of it.
So my question for today: What is your strangest/geekiest/most embarrassing pastime?
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