I found a yarn that looked like something you’d dig out of a cat’s litterbox and Nate felt the same way.

It was a good day.

Last month, I decided that, since Nate showed interest in having his own Innsmouth shirt, I’d try them out from the customer angle, and put in an order. The only real problem I had, and this is probably partially my own fault for ordering just in time for the holiday gridlock of shopping hell, is the amount of time it took for my order to actually ship. Now, keep in mind, MySoti is a small operation and it prints-on-demand, so it doesn’t have a stock of pre-printed shirts to draw from to fill orders during a rush.

Shipping woes aside, once the shirt got here, I was pleased. The print job is actually quite good, considering I used a raster saved as a PNG for the image.

The colors are a little lighter than I was expecting, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing and is, again, probably my own fault for not using a vector image, but I don’t have Illustrator anymore. Aside from that, which isn’t really a big deal to me anyhow, the way the ink is printed on the fabric is interesting and much better quality than I was expecting. Instead of simply being silkscreened onto the fabric in a layer that would crack and split after just a few wears and washes, it seems to be printed into the fabric itself, making it more flexible and resilient.

I’m quite satisfied with the products MySoti is putting out and I’m glad to work with them.

Let’s see what happens in the next 10 years.

And three more days of it in the forecast.

So, I’ll spend it working on these.

I’ve posted about Squid Rocket before (which, to date, has the most sales), but over the last month I’ve thrown two new designs up, although they somehow managed to keep in the theme of unlikely beasties. Weird, huh?

“Yeti” features… well, a yeti (sasquatch, abominable snowman, bigfoot, wendigo, etc), who is ice fishing. The concept for this design I can’t take all the credit for. I was in the mood to doodle but at a loss for what, so I asked a friend and she replied, “Draw a yeti ice fishing.” So, I did, and ended up liking the sketch enough to finish it and slap it on a shirt.

“Innsmouth” is a tribute to the work of H.P. Lovecraft. It features my personal interpretation of a Deep One, as described in The Shadow over Innsmouth, but with an anime-esque twist. The text is a spoof on those touristy shirts you can find in almost any iconic town or city, this time promoting the seaside port town of Innsmouth, Massachusetts (entirely fictional and also featured in the aforementioned Lovecraft story). It’s kind of a nice little joke for any Lovecraft fan, but you can still wear it out in public without people thinking it’s especially bizarre or in bad taste.

When I first opened up a shop at MySoti, I didn’t really think I should expect much out of it. I figured I might get a sale or two a year and when I finally decided to buy a shirt of my own design for myself or friends and family, the option would be there. Sure, there are fancier sites with cheaper shirts, like Threadless, but that’s a situation where your design being printed for sale is determined by popular vote, so there’s always a chance it won’t ever happen. I know this from experience when I submitted Squid Rocket to Threadless and barely got 2.0/5 as a final score. Not enough to get printed. So, in a way, this is more convenient and a better option simply because I don’t have to rely on popular opinion to ever get my designs on a shirt.

This is the newest teaser video for Guild Wars 2, sequel to the popular MMORPG by ArenaNet. For a good while, there was no new information coming out about this game, and many of us who were looking forward to a continuation of the story of Tyria were fearing the worst — that it had gone the way of such anticipated games as Duke Nukem Forever and Starcraft Ghosts… vaporware, never to be made. While these videos alone don’t definitively prove that GW2 will ever actually be released, it’s still a sign that SOMETHING is going on at the offices of ArenaNet, so I’m hoping the momentum will keep up, despite all the delays and lulls in updates about content and features.

From what I’m seeing, this game is going to be fantastic. I’ve always loved the aesthetics of Guild Wars, which were much higher quality than competing games, such as WoW, without having to resort to an absurdly cartoony style, and GW2 seems to be going down the same design road as Dragon Age: Origins, getting darker and grittier as new material comes out. Dark fantasy is the best fantasy, in my opinion.

Another thing I really liked in this video is how they’re taking the Sylvari race. In Eye of the North, they debuted, but you saw very little of them and knew even less about them. From the original designs you first got a glimpse of, they were very childlike, spritely creatures… and I wasn’t terribly enthused about that. However, it seems ANet has decided to mature them a bit and make them less like scantily clad little girls wearing foliage for clothing and made them less overtly human.

I’d be lying if I said this video didn’t get me all hyped up over GW2 all over again.

So I’m replaying Final Fantasy IX…

Druids seem to be more self-sufficient than their human priest counterparts, but this may just be racial modifiers coming into play, such as higher dexterity/agility for better dodging and more potent magic ability. I’m really not sure, but it’s refreshing to be able to do a moderately difficult quest on my own when it would take me hours to get a decent party together otherwise.

Outside of Elven Isle (the newbie area if you start off as an elf character instead of a human), I don’t see a lot of changes to the world in-game, which is why I really only consider “Chapter II”, as they call it, to be a quasi-expansion, rather than a full expansion which normally would add more than just a race, two classes and a new tutorial location.

I also got Scribblenauts last week. I have to say, it’s probably one of the most innovative and original games I’ve seen on the DS in a good, long time. It’s really refreshing and I love how open-ended it is.

Prints available from my DeviantART store or RedBubble

My newest illustration and also the design for my next tattoo (probably getting it within the next 6 months or so). Can you tell I’m a little bit of a paleo-geek?

Apologies for the last two Geekends not happening. Nothing much to post about; not playing any new games at the moment and there’s not a whole lot of interest happening in the games I am playing right now. HOWEVER, there’s a huge update for Runes of Magic scheduled for Tuesday and I’m going to be picking up Scribblenauts tomorrow. So, there should be some stuff worth posting Geekends about in the near future.

Also, my wonderous friend Nanner was quite the peach and bought me a couple of skeins of handpainted superwash sock yarn from Poppy Flower Fibers and they were waiting for me when I came home today. They’re absolutely GORGEOUS and so smooshy.

The photo really doesn’t do them justice, but it will have to suffice.

Name: Brain Cozy
Pattern: Brangelina Hat by Crazy Aunt Purl
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick and Quick
Needle: US 10/11 (16″ circular and DPNs)

A basic watchcap-style hat to go with his scarf and fingerless mittens, to keep his ears warm once it actually starts to get wintery out. He really likes it, but doesn’t have a lot of occasion to wear it right now.

It was a fairly quick knit, thanks to the loftiness of the yarn and the size of the needles. Turned out pretty nicely, I think.

From Knitting

Name: Latte Mitts
Pattern: Jacoby
Yarn: Lane Cervinia Calzetteria
Needles: Clover US 2 9″ circular

This is only half of the pair, so I guess it only barely passes for an FO. I’m taking a break before I start the other one. Anyhow, unlike Nate’s Jacobies, this was made not with DPNs, but the 9″ sock knitting circular needle I got from Twisted Knitter. Worked out pretty well. I liked not having to move between needles several times each round, and it certainly made ribbing go faster.

Between the two mitts, I’ve cast on for both a simple dishcloth as well as the Sockhead Hat by BohoKnits. I’m doing it in the same yarn as the latte mitts I’ve done half of, so they’ll match. I’m really picky about hats because of the length of my hair (super duper long), but a slouchy sort of beret seems like it works well with longer locks.

From Knitting