Numfar! Do the Dance of Joss!

Well, I have been designing again, and it has been fun!  I designed the "Dance of Joss" socks for a Nerd Wars challenge that had us pay homage to the creator of our nerdom.  For me, that is the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, Joss Whedon.  This man has taken the "horror" genre and made it his own, creating a new language, a 'verse for each of his worlds, and a dedicated following that would watch anything he produces/directs/writes.

I am pleased to present the pattern of "Dance of Joss: The Dance of Jonor."  In Angel Season 2 episode 21 "Through the Looking Glass" Joss Whedon actually stars as Numfar.  In the episode he is asked to do two dances, the Dance of Joy and the Dance of Honor.  These dance socks, or yoga socks, are a tribute to those dances.  The pattern can be repeated all around the socks for a Fair Isle approach, or done down one side in an intarsia pattern.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed watching the show to get the dance steps, and designing the pattern.

Dance of Joss Download

Scrappy Cappy Coffee Cozy

Round 2 of Nerd Wars has started, the new challenges are out. I'm going to try to avoid a super long wrap up post this time by posting my projects as I complete them and then just do a quick visual summary of the project when the round ends.

The first challenge I completed was the Technical Challenge: The Scrap Heap-
"Your challenge this month is to craft something using scraps and leftovers. If needed to complete your project, you may supplement your scraps with non-scrap yarn. You can use scraps from a single project on their own to create something fun, or combine the scraps from multiple projects for the ultimate scrappy project. Or, if you are the kind of crafter that doesn’t have any scraps lying around (you are neater than I, and I salute you), you have the option of stashbusting to fulfill this challenge.

Nerd Wars Round One

Well, Nerd Wars on Ravelry is in full swing.  I am in Team Hellmouth focused on all things Buffy and Angel.  It has been a BLAST!!  Last month we were given six challenges to complete by February 29th, and I managed to complete them all as well as starting on my three month long dissertation project.

In Nerd Wars, there are six categories - Giving Geeks, Nerd Culture, Scientific, Technical, Geek Pride, and Intellectual.  Each month you are issued a challenge in each area, and it's up to you, the knitter, to figure out what to knit and how to tie it to your geekdom.  This contest/challenge goes from February 1st until April 30th.  At the time I'm writing this post, we have completed round 1, and the projects are in for points assignment - the team with the most points wins!  I wanted to be able to keep track of my projects for each round, as well as share out some of the patterns I've made for these projects - namely I am designing a scarf I'm calling the Scythe Scarf from Buffy Season 7, but that's another post.

Here were the challenges and the associated projects from last month.

Knitting a vegetable garden

So, my son loves his vegetables... always has! His favorite baby food was "squacolli" a combination of butternut squash and broccoli. He's recently developed an obsession with eggplants - thanks to his pal Curious George. In an episode (Seed Trouble), George plants a rooftop garden with tomatoes, peppers, corn, eggplants, watermelon and cucumbers.

After watching that episode, my son begged his for an eggplant - which he got. It was a monster of an eggplant! I thought it was an umbrella when Owen showed me the bag. He wanted to eat it, and did take a bite of the raw eggplant - not too tasty. So I fixed him Eggplant Parmesan - which he refused to eat. When I asked him why he didn't want it, he told me I killed and cooked the eggplant. *sigh*

For the next few days, he continued to ask for the eggplant, even going to the fridge to get an egg so he could plant it and get an eggplant. I think he got that from George as well, but it does sort of make sense... Finally I gave in and knitted him his very own eggplant - one that I couldn't kill and cook!!  Next up will be corn, followed by pepper...