Yay for D&D plushies!

I finally figured out why I'm on a plushie-making kick recently. Well, partly because I get to make D&D characters, but mostly because crocheting is the only art I can do while reclining in bed or sitting in the hard backed living room chair, which are the only places I can sit comfortably with this stupid herniated disc. I really miss making jewelry and chainmaille, but I'm not about to make it hurt worse by bending over the table. Hopefully I'll be able to get back to that soon, though. Spring has to arrive some time, right?

Anyway, here are the two plushies I made recently that I want to share. First, this is Fox, Cyneric's animal companion/familiar.



I found the pattern on Ravelry and crocheted it in dark red yarn (and white yarn for the tip of the tail). Then I painted black on the ears, nose, and legs and white on the ears and chest to give it the colorings of a fox. Pay no attention to the leg sticking out funny in the one picture; it's on straight, it just bent out when I sat it down and I didn't notice until after I took the picture.

He turned out really fat, though, so apparently Cyn has been sneaking his fox table scraps. ;)


And here's my latest plushie; this one is Aldalion Kalmîr, my flamboyant, level 6, teenaged grey elf bard. I played him in the previous campaign (this was a few years ago), but he's tied with Cyn as my favorite D&D character ever (and believe me, I've played a lot of different characters), so I wanted to give him love, too.

"Traveling bard" look:


"Battle ready" look:


Better view of his accessories:


He's got purple eyes, silver hair (unfortunately, I had to use grey yarn because I didn't have silver), a purple cloak, vest, and pouch, brown belt, gold and silver necklace, felt bracers, and a polymer clay lute and longbow. If Cyneric's color is red, Aldal's is definitely purple, lol.

And I just had to snap this picture:

For once, there's a reason I took a picture of my cat (I mean, other than the fact that she's cute, lol). Aldalion has a black cat familiar named Dúannan, so he wanted his picture taken with my black cat. Eventually I'll crochet or sculpt him his own black cat, but until then he can borrow mine. ;)

I'm still working on three more plushies, but they're all past the "crochet" stage and into the "have to sculpt/glue/paint/sew" stage, so I've been putting off finishing them- like I said, sitting at the table hurts my back. As soon as one gets armor, another gets a toga and sandals, or a third gets a tabard and wraps, I'll post those. :)

At last, an art update!

I've been feeling icky so I haven't been able to do much work on the four plushies I started weeks ago. Fortunately, I managed to get one done, though! This is my "Dungeons and Dragons" character, Cyneric:




This is pretty much how I imagine him- blue eyes, long black hair, dark red robe, and pouches for his spell components. His skin would actually be a bit darker than this, but I didn't have yarn in the right color. The hood took some work to make large enough to fit all of his hair, but I had to include it because when he travels he wears the hood to keep all of that hair out of the way.

He's holding his quarterstaff (that's a silver winged fox on the end) that I sculpted out of polymer clay, and the shield with his holy symbol straps around his arm (that's polymer clay that I painted a winged fox on in acrylics). I haven't sewn the staff on yet because I'm not sure if I want it attached or not- I may still make Cyneric some armor, and for that I'd need to keep the robe removable and the staff unattached.

Here's a closeup of the shield:

It was really hard to paint that shield- it's only about 1 1/2" across and I don't have any really small paintbrushes, so I'm glad it turned out as well as it did. :)

I'm still working on Cyn's henchman; I need Josh's help to sculpt the armor for that one. I've also got two other plushies in the works that I'd like to finish this week.

And since I've been on a D&D kick, I restarted a blog for Cyneric (I had one years ago that I never used, so I deleted it to make this one). I just like the cute little winged fox icon I made for it, lol.

Tarot quiz

I know I promised an art update next, but I'm waiting on the epoxy to dry on my latest creations (and Josh to help me sculpt plate armor), so I can't photograph them yet. Instead, I'm going to post this quiz that's going around on the blogs of my bead teammates. :)

You are the Hanged Man

Self-sacrifice, Sacrifice, Devotion, Bound.

With the Hanged man there is often a sense of fatalism, waiting for something to happen. Or a fear of
loss from a situation, rather than gain.

The Hanged Man is perhaps the most fascinating card in the deck. It reflects the story of Odin who offered himself as a sacrifice in order to gain knowledge. Hanging from the world tree, wounded by a spear, given no bread or mead, he hung for nine days. On the last day, he saw on the ground runes that had fallen from the tree, understood their meaning, and, coming down, scooped them up for his own. All knowledge is to be found in these runes.

The Hanged Man, in similar fashion, is a card about suspension, not life or death. It signifies selflessness, sacrifice and prophecy. You make yourself vulnerable and in doing so, gain illumination. You see the world differently, with almost mystical insights.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

I tend to associate myself with the Hermit card, but now that I think about it, the Hanged Man is appropriate, too. I definitely see and do things differently (Josh has pointed out many a time how everything I do is backwards), worldly possessions mean very little to me, and I can also relate pretty well to a sacrifice card. This is also a knowledge card, which definitely fits.

And tarot keeps popping up- I think it's telling me that I need to start studying those (and runes) again.

Anyway, I promise my next update will have something art in it- even if only one of my plushies is done, I'll post a picture of that one.

52 books- summary #1

To find a balance between not clogging my blog with thoughts/reviews on every book I finish this year for the "52 books" challenge and still posting about those books, I'm going to post little reviews (not even so much "reviews" as "short thoughts on the books") every time I finish ten or so books. It would just be crazy to make posts every time I finish one, considering that it's only the third week into the year and I've already finished ten and am working on three more. Needless to say, I'm probably going to get way over 52 books by the end of the year (at this rate I'll reach 52 by what, April? Don't quote me on that, though, because I'm terrible at math.) ;)

So here are the first ten I've finished so far this year:

-The Warded Man by Peter Brett
I already reviewed this one, so I'll keep this short and just say how it is an amazing book and I heartily recommend it. Can I give it 6 stars out of 5? 5 stars and a planet?

-The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald
This was one of the ones I listed to in audiobook form, but I can still say that I enjoyed this short story (short stories make for good audiobooks, I've found). It's completely illogical and a really silly concept, but since that's the point, it's a pretty good story. This is only the second Fitzgerald story I've read (I read The Great Gatsby in high school, but remember very little of it), but now I want to read (or listen to) more of his works. I'd give this 4 out of 5 stars.

~Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
I also listened to this one in audiobook form, but I feel like I missed out by not reading it. (Technically this was a reread since I read it as a kid, but that was so long ago that I had completely forgotten the plot.) I really liked it, though (I mean, it's a story about pirates. Of course I'm going to like it!), and it's going to go on my "to buy soon" list so that I can better enjoy it. It also got me wanting to read more Stevenson, so I'm currently listening to Kidnapped. This would get 4 or 4 1/2 stars, but that's likely to go up once I'm able to read it in book form.

-Moving Targets and Other Tales of Valdemar by Mercedes Lackey
I was less than impressed with this anthology of short stories; the previous ones were better, in my opinion. Some of the stories were pretty good, but overall if it hadn't been a book about Valdemar, I probably wouldn't have been nearly as interested. As it was, I couldn't get through the short story in it that was actually written by the author of the series; it was ridiculous and definitely not up to par with the rest of the things she has written in said series. I know the story was supposed to be silly, but I just didn't like it, so it started off the book on a sour note (that was the first story in the book). I'd give this maybe 3 stars, but that's probably being generous and still riding on the glamor Valdemar holds over me.

~Lady Knight by Tamora Pierce
This was about on level with the rest of the Tortall books, but the "Protector of the Small" books aren't my favorites of the series (that would probably be the "Immortals" subseries, which I reread last month). Overall, though, I liked the plot and the characters- as you can tell by the fact that this was a reread. :) The Tortall books are really good, just not the greatest fantasy series I've read; the fact that they're young adult probably has something to do with that, though. I just tend to prefer more adult fantasy. I recently bought a new Tortall book, and that's in my "to read" pile- I'm looking forward to reading that one. 4 stars for the "Protector of the Small" subseries.

~Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Okay, it's Mark Twain and I adore his wit and style, so I'm a bit biased here. I didn't like the book nearly as much as A Connecticut Yankee (but then again, very little can top Twain and King Arthur in my mind), but it was a very good story and Tom is amusing. I really liked the quote "A robber is more high-toned than what a pirate is- as a general thing. In most countries they're awful high up in the nobility- dukes and such." Such a classic Twain comment. ;) This book was also a sort of reread in that I read it as a kid and remembered very little of it. I'll give this 4 or 4 1/2.

~Mort by Terry Pratchett
Another bias on my part; this was the very first Discworld book I ever read. I happened to randomly pick it up at the bookstore when I was in high school (honestly just based on the cover art and blurb on the back) and from there it spiraled into an addiction. This is so much a reread that my copy is all bent up (although not quite as bad as some Discworld books, lol). This is also a double bias because I used to roleplay (although now I just cosplay) the daughter of the characters in this book, so reading this story always feels like home, you know? This isn't even so much a review as my personal thoughts on this book, huh? Well, the story is great, the characters are great (Mort is so adorable and Death is always amusing in a somewhat pathetic way) and I definitely give this book 5 stars.

~The "Elemental Masters" books by Mercedes Lackey
I'm grouping these together because I read two of them last month (before the book challenge started) and three this month. I really enjoy this series and it's gotten me into wanting to read more historical fiction (this series takes place in the early 1900's). My favorite of the books is Phoenix and Ashes, probably because of the secondary character who is an earth witch, and the fact that the main character learns magic through tarot cards. That's one of the great things about Lackey- she writes really well about witchcraft and pagan themes, and I've found that to be a rare skill. Authors tend to either trivialize it or make the magic entirely unrealistic (and don't get me started on how many times those themes have been portrayed in a bad or condescending light- not just in books but everywhere), but I can always trust her to do a good job writing it. Yay for pagan-friendly authors! Anyway, I'd give this series 4 1/2 stars, although that may be subject to change because I still need to read one of the books in the series and I've heard that one isn't as good as the rest, so it may pull down the score.


Wow, this entry ended up longer than I wanted, even with trying to keep the reviews short. I blame the fact that I can be more than a bit longwinded when it comes to talking about books. ;) I guess it's a good thing that I only need to worry about posting one or two of these a month! And hey, I promise that my next update will be art-related. I've been slowly making a few plushies so I'll share those in the next update. :)

D&D rambling and plushies

I haven't really been working on much (still taking a break from making things for my shop), so in that spare time I've been reading. The next post I make will be a sort of review of the first ten books I read this year; I think for every ten books I read, I'll post about them for the "52 books" challenge.

Fortunately, I do have something art-related to post about. :) Most of my "Dungeons and Dragons" group was finally able to get together again (it's really hard to coordinate schedules during the holidays!) and I was able to give all but one of them their presents. I don't think the last person has a link to my blog, so I'm probably safe in posting it before I see her.

So without further ado, here are the characters:

The blond (Linora) you've already met, but this is the rest of the group (well, minus my character(s) and NPCs. I still need to make my cleric and his henchman, and I'm going to make one that Josh [he's the dungeon master] plays). So, basically, these are all the PCs but my own.

Here are some closeup pictures:

These are Ayman and Caleb; Ayman is a human wizard holding a quarterstaff and Caleb is a gnome fighter holding an axe.


And these are Ghost and Dallas; Ghost is an elven ranger with a flaming sword and Dallas is a gnome thief with a dagger (or at least I think those are the classes of those two characters. They're both annoyingly secretive- the characters I mean, not the players).

They're all crocheted with felt accessories (such as belts and pouches), Ghost has painted "studs" on her armor, Caleb's armor is actual chainmaille (it pays to know how to weave chainmaille, I guess!), and their weapons are polymer clay (sculpted by my fiancé, since he knows more about weapons than I do).


And speaking of D&D, I made a little linking banner to the group's blog and stuck it in the sidebar of my blog. The D&D blog is probably extremely boring for people not in the group (and probably boring for people who are, lol. I've found that Cyneric loves to write, so I guess he's the unofficial scribe of the group now. Appropriate for a Messenger priest, I suppose!), but I figure it's worth linking to anyway.

And can I say that it's a lot easier to get into his character in words rather than actions? I have a heck of a time playing a character with high wisdom (I tend to be forgetful and say dumb things without thinking- I would have a low wisdom), so it's hard to keep him in character during the game. When writing, though, I have time to give his actions thought and can better keep track of what is going on in his head. After geez, four years of playing him, you'd think I'd be able to play him, but it's still something I'm going to have to work at. Maybe I should go over all my notes before each game- then all the info in Cyn's head will be in my head, and I won't make him look like an idiot.

It makes me miss the young elven bard who was my previous character; he was easy to get into the head of because he was a lot like me- high intelligence, very low wisdom. He had my trait of speaking before thinking... heck, doing anything before thinking (I remember him reaching into the mouth of a monster statue to grab a jewel and the mouth clamping down on his hand. We both knew it looked suspicious, but shiny thing!) He was young, impulsive, and got by on charisma and impractical knowledge. My current priest, on the other hand, is older, more competent, and actually thinks before doing things. At least, he's supposed to; remembering to make him do so is the hard part. To make things more complicated, he's a priest of a mischief god, so I have to find a balance between thoughtful and competent, and being a practical joker.

But I'm completely rambling and I'm sure no one who reads this has any idea of what I'm talking about. (I'm good at inspiring confusion- heck, I'm perplexity personified.) ;)

And another Pratchgan update

I'd feel all good about myself for finishing this square early (it's the January one, and I usually finish them near the end of the month), but the only reason it's finished is because I worked on it the same time as the December square and that one was painfully late. ;)

Here's my square for Mort:

It's the Sto Helit coat of arms- crossed scythes over an hourglass (I was going to have Josh design the outline of a shield around it, but it wouldn't have fit very well). I know the coat of arms is supposed to be black on black, but that would be boring to make and hard to see when finished, so instead I went with a gothy colored background (it's darker than it looks- the flash made everything super bright) and the regular colors of an hourglass and scythes.

I may sew skull beads on this (and the future Death books), but I'm probably going to wait until I'm done the last one for that. Like always, my awesome fiancé charted out the design (he looked off the coat of arms in the Discworld Companion), and I cross stitched it onto a crocheted square.

I'm thinking about having Josh chart out the design larger, then making a tapestry of it to hang on my wall. Susan is my Discworld counterpart (and favorite costume to wear) so I figure I probably need one. ;) ...Ooo! That also gives me the idea to have him chart out the Valdemar crest so I can make that into one, too. I just have to figure out if my afghan hook is large enough- I may need to get one slightly longer for this to work.

And I just realized that I've been forgetting to tag my Pratchgan entries with my "books" tag. Whoops? I'll have to edit them later.

Pratchgan update

I finally finished the December square for the Pratchgan-Along (I got so far behind what with making presents and all). The good news is that I'm already well on my way to finishing the January square, so I may actually finish something early for the first time in my life. ;)

The December book was Equal Rites, and this is what I came up with:


The girly colors of the square represent Esk, as the first female wizard, and the broom is her staff disguised as a broom. The tea cup is for Granny, who gets stuck reading tea leaves throughout the book. As always, my awesome fiancé charted out the design for me and I cross stitched it onto a crocheted square. :)

I'm noticing, though, that even though all of the squares are about 32 stitches by 32 stitches (some may be 33 or 34, though), none of the squares are exactly the same size. I think the problem is that when I cross stitch near the outside of the square, the thickness of that yarn stretches out the crocheted base (I noticed this mostly on this square because the edge of the broom and the handle of the cup are outside, while the center is relatively empty). I guess once I have all the squares done, I'll just crochet around them a few times until they're all the size of the largest squares. I've sort of thought about how to put the blanket together, but since I won't be done for another- what, 3 years? I have plenty of time to figure that out.


And on another subject, I really want to get back into street team things. I feel so guilty that I've abandoned all of them (well, I'm trying to keep up with the ABST forum, and I've been approving members into FAST and trying to read as many posts there as I can, but that's about it). I was hoping that by now my back would be better, but the weather is just crappier and it's feeling just as bad as it was, if not worse. I'm going to borrow my fiancé's laptop this week and see if I can catch up that way; right now I'm on the computer for maybe an hour a day (usually a few minutes at a time) and that's just not long enough to do anything. If the laptop idea doesn't work, I'm going to have to extend my absences until April or maybe late March, and I hate being away and not able to contribute. *crosses fingers that the laptop will help* I am so ready for winter to be over!

One of my resolutions this year is to not harp on things that go wrong (and be less cynical, negative, and whiny- I've fallen into a slump over the past year), so I'm just going to cross my fingers and hope for the best, and if it doesn't work out, just go from there. If I have to take a break from shop things, at least that'll give me more time to focus on reading and studying Old English. :)

A costume update

First, can I complain about how the stupid weather can't decide whether to be cold or warm (well, less cold) or snow or be nice? The herniated disc in my back is not happy about the ups and downs of the weather this year. Anyone have a time machine handy so I can jump to April? Ah well, at least I'm making headway in the "52 books" challenge; I've already finished four and am working on two others.

Anyway, the main point of this update is to post pictures of my formal Whites (my "Heralds of Valdemar" costume)- someone on Ravelry was wondering what it looked like. I still don't have a picture of me wearing it, but at least now I have pictures of the parts. :) I've been putting this together for years now; I would have tried to finish it sooner, but I don't really want to wear it before my wedding, since as well as being a cosplay costume, it's also my wedding dress (if I'm lucky and we can find the cash, I'll be able to get married this year; otherwise, it'll probably be next year). I'm just terrified of getting it dirty before it gets a chance to be used for a wedding dress. Me and white clothing don't do well together.

Oh, and it may not look it, but all the blues do match.

Here's the dress and sleeves, with my cat sneaking into the picture:

Both parts came from this awesome clothing site. (Seriously, I have a whole bunch of clothes from there!) The sleeves are these in white and blue crushed velvet. The dress is this one in white velvet and satin and with a white ribbon lacing the back.

This is the winter cloak:

When Josh bought it for me, I had no idea it would be so heavy! It is definitely a winter cloak, so it'll be great for October at the Renfaire, but otherwise it's not so useful (this cloak has to be at least 20 pounds- it's like carrying a good sized dog on my shoulders, lol). I'm going to make or buy a white crushed velvet cloak for summer/fall, but I don't have the money for that yet.


These are the boots- they're off-white, but the closest thing I could come to accurate and that would match the regular/working Whites costume I've been planning forever (maybe I'll be able to afford to start that one later this year).


My (rather crappy) sword. It's just a toy plastic one that I painted some blue on and made a polymer clay "jewel" for the pommel. I have to figure out what to do with the scabbard, though; that's black and really doesn't match. Maybe I'll just ignore it and stick the sword down through my belt.

And speaking of the belt:

I posted this picture before, but now you can see it more in context. :) It's the chainmaille belt that a friend started and I finished.


This is the purse I crocheted to go with the costume (can't go to the faire or something without a bag!). I think I may line it, but I haven't had a chance to do that yet. The darker blue parts of the yarn match the rest of the costume.


This is the circlet and necklace that go with it- I got the circlet off eBay, I think, and I found the necklace at the Renfaire.

Here's a closeup of the necklace:

I'm so lucky I found this- it looks exactly like the symbol of Valdemar.


And here are the rather simple earrings I made- they're pewter horse charms, mother of pearl chips, and various glass beads hanging from blue ear wires. I think I may also make blue chain earrings to hang from my cartilages to the upper lobe piercings, but I haven't done those yet.


And I also made a Tayledras style hair thing (like the brown and orange one I made last summer), only using blue and white feathers and beads, and a silvery white ribbon. I wanted to use white suede cord, but it was too wide to string my beads through. It clips into my hair with a blue hairclip, but you can't see that in the picture. Right now my hair is too short to look good with the hair thing, but by the time I wear the costume next, it'll be a lot longer.

And please pay no attention to the crappy picture of me- I just got out of the shower so my hair is damp and scraggly and I'm wearing a very unfeminine baggy tshirt, lol.

So yeah, long update with lots of pictures, but I wanted to share. :)

Now for some more Christmas presents

After taking some time off from making things (I was arted out by the end of December after two months of working my hands off to make Christmas presents) I finally started on some things I want to make for myself. Right now I'm almost done crocheting the background square for "Equal Rites" (for my Pratchgan), then I'm going to jump right into crocheting the January square ("Mort") while I wait for Josh to chart me out the designs for said squares. I hate that I fell behind because the afghan stitch bores the heck out of me and now I have to do two in one month to catch up.

Ah well, at least the cross stitching part isn't so bad, and I recently started listening to audio books which definitely helps with the boredom! (Right now I'm listening to "Treasure Island"- man, it's been something like 15 years since I read this last!) Audio books rock because they count towards my 52 books list, but I can make things at the same time. :D

Anyway, after I'm done these squares, I'm going to start working on plushies. I was tempted to make large ones, but I think for now I'm just going to make small ones for myself (I need some instant gratification here, lol). I'm going to start with Sheik from the Smash Bros and Zelda games and my Dungeons and Dragons cleric (I may make one of my no longer played but still much loved grey elf bard, as well) because Cyneric and Aldalion were jealous when I made plushies of the other characters, but not them. The good thing is with smaller plushies, it'll only take me a few days to finish them, whereas with the larger ones, it would take weeks.

And speaking of D&D plushies, I can post the first one I made since that friend has gotten hers. This is Linora, played by my best friend Care:

As you can probably tell, she's a pirate/fighter type. Her body, hat, and coat are crocheted, she's got a tiny feather in her hat, felt embellishments and accessories, and the gold bits are painted on. Her sword is polymer clay (my fiancé made that). Of all the D&D plushies I made, she's my favorite. :D

As soon as I see the rest of my D&D group and can give them their presents, I'll post pictures of those.

The other thing I made for Care is this chainmaille pouch:

It's a four-in-one weave using black, green, and bright aluminum rings, and it cinches together with a suede cord.

Care's recruited me to make her some chainmaille armor once we start making costumes for the LARP group she's trying to start. Of course I said yes (I mean, chainmaille for my best friend? How could I say no!) but that will take a long time to make. Heck, it took me over a week just to make that pouch. Hunching over the table with pliers is not a position my back will agree with, but since the costume-making won't start until probably Spring anyway, I'm hoping by then my back will stop hurting with the warmer weather.

But now I'm rambling. Sorry about that! Back to the art I go!

Book review time- The Warded Man

I haven't been posting the book reviews here that I wrote for the Early Reviewer books from LibraryThing (yeah yeah, forgetfulness, short attention span, busy, etc), but since I loved the last book I got and I'm using this blog for my "52 books in 52 weeks" challenge, I figured I should probably start posting the reviews here again. :) Honestly, I adored this book, and as the first book I read for the "52 books", it set the bar extremely high. So high that I'm skipping over the fantasy books on my "to read" list because none of them can possibly compare, so I'm just going to go in a different direction for the next book I read (probably something classic, like Chaucer or Shakespeare).

Anyway, here's my review of The Warded Man by Peter Brett. I didn't go into the detail about the plot or anything because I really don't like giving anything away in book reviews. If you'd like to read a short description here's a link to the Amazon page, and since I just stumbled across it while looking for that Amazon link, here's a link to the author's website. (lol! He has a D&D character sheet of himself on there! Okay, this man officially rocks! *cough* I mean, I've certainly never given myself D&D stats. Certainly.)

Onto the review!


This book was honestly amazing. While I love fantasy stories, I'll admit that a lot of the time they can formulaic, overdone, or childish. Not so with this book! The Warded Man by Peter Brett is unique, intelligent, and never gets boring or feels like it is dragging along. The characters are developed, well-rounded, and believable, the plot and world are unique and creative (all too uncommon in the fantasy genre!), and the pacing of the story is great. Some stories can get tedious or feel like something is missing when they span over a decade in one book, but Brett did a great job keeping the pace and making it so the reader wasn't left confused or feeling like something was missing with those gaps. Marking the start of each chapter with the year certainly helped with that, and I also liked the little icon representing each character that appears at the start of the chapters.

The only slightly negative feedback I can give about this book is that I would have loved to hear more about the characters in those time gaps, but that's not so much negative as the book being so good that I wanted to read more! Hands down, this is the best book- fantasy or otherwise- that I have read in a very long time. I will heartily recommend this book to anyone who loves fantasy, and probably even to those who don't; it's that good! I'm going to be anxiously awaiting the next book in the series.


(Psst: More reviews from other LibraryThing members can be found on the book's LibraryThing page.)