snippy

Now that it's been received, I can show a picture of Knitted Robot #3, which was knitted as a gift for epi_lj in gratitude for giving me the idea to knit robots in the first place.

Knitted Robot #3 Knitted as a gift, July and August 2006. Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift wool in bracken and green, on 3.5 mm needles.

I really liked several things about this robot, including the fine fabric produced by knitting a small yarn on small needles, the horizonal orientiation of the rectangular head, and the very narrow arms.

In the last couple of weeks I've had what feels like a lot of encouragement about my knitted robots. Both my tattoo artist and my hair stylist asked how much they are and wanted to buy one. I'm getting better at achieving my goal for each robot. I am thinking of setting a goal of 5 robots done in time for Orycon (and entering them in the art show, of course).

I need to source more affordable yarns that I still enjoy working with. That'll be fun, shopping all the craft and yarn shops in the area on weekends. School starts at the end of September, though (calculus!) and that will limit my time considerably. I can easily knit one per week in the summer (have done it, that is, for 3 this summer), but I'd probably better double that time estimate for when I'm in school. That leaves me time to make 5 new robots even if some take more than 2 weeks.

We'll see.

It's been unusually hot here for the last week. Normal daytime temp is 80, normal nighttime temp is 55; we've been having temps over 95 (and over 100) during the day, cooling all the way off to only 74 at night--hardly worth opening up the house for. And humidity upwards of 70% which is so rare here as to be remarkable.

So outdoors is ovenlike, with heavy air. We didn't have weeks of high temps to prepare, either; it's rained and been in the 60s during the day within the last month, if I recall correctly. No acclimation going on!

But we're surviving at our house, with a window a/c unit in the livingroom and a portable a/c that moves from our bedroom at night to the livingroom during the day.

Saturday srunning and I spent the afternoon together. We saw The Devil Wears Prada, which was cute but also sexist and a bit anti-gay (I enjoy Stanley Tucci nevertheless), then shopped at the mall for a while until the restaurant we planned for dinner opened.

The restaurant was Nostrana, and we had an excellent meal. We started with a salami appetizer: four kinds, my favorites were the sopressata and the Mexican-chocolate salami. Then we shared a pasta dish of fettucini with pesto, mint, and hot peppers, followed by lamb two ways (ribs and chop) with baby turnips and baby artichokes.

For dessert she had peach/blueberry crisp (which was lovely) and I had panna cotta with blackcap sauce. The service was excellent, responsive without being obtrusive. I kept searching the menu for something my darling sinanju would eat, hoping that I could get him to go with me sometime; the only thing I could think of was the individual pizzas, but he's quite picky about his pizza so I'm not sure.

I've knit two robots this month, and started a third: an orange and black sumo wrestler robot, and one that is a gift and I can't describe just yet. The one I've just started is also a gift, so until I've finished and mailed it, no pictures.

A few weeks ago, epi_lj posted a link to some superfantastic knitted robots. I was utterly charmed by them and went home that night and began planning a knitted robot of my very own.

I don't have a huge stash of yarn, but I do have a few balls and skeins donated by srunning to help me when I started knitting, and some of that yarn was perfect for this project.

This picture isn't very clear, as it was taken on a co-worker's cell phone/camera, but you can get an idea of my little robot.

Knitted Robot #1

I have already offered to make a knitted robot for another co-worker, and epi_lj since I got the idea there (just pick your colors, if you want one, epi_lj).

I'm very thrilled with my robot!