Stargrace

ArcheAge?

[47/50] It has been ages since I played ArcheAge, but a friend has recently returned to the game and of course the best way to get me hyped up and playing, is to be one of those friends. Of course not owning property has always been one of the things stopping me from playing, and the ease at which you can lose said property. Plus, I’m not really that big on PVP.. why do I want to play again? Oh, right.

Friends.

[48/50]

[49/50]

[50/50] With that final screenshot, I complete my IntPiPoMo of 50 screenshots for the month of November! A very bright and colourful month here at MmoQuests. A big huge thank you to the organizers, and I’m looking forward to participating next year, too!

Missions, Missions, and more Missions

[44/50] EVE Online is probably one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever played. Pair that with the amazing soundtrack, and it’s no wonder I can relax so easily while playing. I’ve been working on fixing my Caldari State faction, which is really not an exciting task, but I need to get it done so that my R&D agents keep working with me.

[45/50] Working missions does send me out to some pretty beautiful locations.

[46/50] Now all I need to do is figure out what ship I want to work towards next. Maybe a drake? I prefer building the ships myself when that’s possible, but I haven’t really looked at what I want to fly since I obtained the Tengu. Or maybe instead of any of that I’ll start mining again, it has been ages since I’ve really done that, which tempts me to start up my second account. I do have a plex just sitting around collecting dust.

The Tickle of WoW

[41/50] It has been a while since I played WoW in any capacity. I let my account lapse a few months ago and moved on to other games. I really haven’t enjoyed the past few expansions, and actually spent most of my time going back and doing old raids more than anything else.

[42/50] The lure to play is still there. I really enjoyed pet battles and I really liked going back through older content. The problem was (and always has been for me) garrisons. Splitting the population into these instanced homes where no one ever talks to or sees another actual person in the game world. With the ability to access brokers, bankers, and crafting, there was no reason for me to step outside and mingle or interact with anyone else and I absolutely did not enjoy logging in simply to do my garrison quests out of obligation. I’ve never belonged to a very active guild, and it feels like it would be too late in the game to get involved these days. Plus I’m pretty particular when it comes to guilds, finding one that’s a good fit (both for me and them) is a long process.

[43/50] I’ve resisted the call so far, but we’ll see how long that lasts. Legion has some exciting things coming with it, and I was tempted to pre-order because the level 100 boost could come in handy (I already have a few level 100 characters, so I’ve seen the content) but if I’m not even playing there’s no reason to get it RIGHT NOW and I’m sure I’ll still want it when we’re closer to release.

Lace and Shawls

I like to challenge myself as I learn to knit, but there’s no road map to follow as far as “well, now that I know X skill, I should learn Y skill” – and it works, since there are hundreds if not thousands of different things to learn when it comes to knitting. I have started setting aside patterns with techniques I’d like to learn, but it’s a slow process to figure out the order of things so that I’m both challenging myself, but not taking on too much too soon (and thus getting discouraged). I thought socks were going to be the ‘end goal’ of my knitting, but it turns out that they were actually the catalyst that sent me out searching for new projects. Socks are pretty standard and once to learn one ‘style’ you’re pretty much set. The next thing I found myself fascinated with was lace, and shawls.

I found a very good beginner pattern that only involves a little bit of lace. Lace is basically any piece that involves increases (these create fancy open spaces) and decreases. The shawl posted above is found here on ravelry free of charge. It only has one lace row, and you work it from the top down. What I’ve done here is used two types of yarn, remember I’m still learning and still very much a beginner, so I’m just using basic acrylic for this shawl. The black is Phentex Worsted Solids, and the second yarn is Red Heart Boutique, Unforgettable, in Sunrise. It’s an amazing LOOKING yarn that shifts colours to look like a sunrise, but it’s an absolute pain in the arse to actually knit with. It’s slippery, splits, and just isn’t much fun especially for a beginner. That being said, take your time, and you’ll do just fine.

So the lace row and the stockinette rows are done with the sunrise yarn, and the back is just garter stitch. Simple, looks pretty, and teaches me the basics of shawls. I have every intention of moving on to Skywalker by Laura Nelkin before too long, this pattern is actually from a Craftsy class that I picked up. I have some beautiful bright yellow fingering weight yarn that I’d like to attempt that shawl with.

I love lace – but I’m not very good at reading charts. I’m hoping to get better but it goes very slowly and requires a lot of practice. I’m also thinking that it might be fun to get into beads. I saw a very lovely shawl with glow in the dark beads knit into the pattern and it looked amazing. I’ve never done any bead work before and I don’t have the slightest idea about what is involved, but it’s still something I have been thinking about, so I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before I dive in.

In the meanwhile, I have two projects on my needles right now. Last night I completed a 6 foot cable scarf that is to be a Christmas present, and I have the shawl along with a very plain blanket on the go. What will I work on next? Depends on my mood.

More Steam Screenshots – and Steam Sales

[36/50] We’re winding down for IntPiPoMo – and I’m so glad I got the opportunity to participate, because I have revitalized myself with some amazing screenshots I forgot I even took. Each one comes with a memory of whatever game I happened to be playing. It’s wonderful.

Yesterday the latest Steam sale started, and this time they’ve removed a lot of the hustle and bustle that you used to see from it. There’s no more “vote on what goes on sale next!” type of deals, nor are there any “this deal is only around for 2 hours and then it will be new sales!” deals either. Instead, what you see is what you get. I found this to be both good and bad. Good, because now I no longer have to wait during a sale to see if a 50% off game will drop to 75% off sometime throughout the sale, and bad because I also have a lot less hype for things.

[37/50] Even with the new version of doing sales, I still ended up making a few purchases. To begin with, all of the DLC for Tropico 5 along with two expansions I was missing were on sale for 75% off. There were 11 DLC in total that I didn’t own and I love Tropico 5, it’s an awesome game, very relaxed.

[38/50] I didn’t buy any more games (yet) but I did add a few more to my wishlist. Don’t forget you can always add me to steam! Anyway, I added Life is Feudal to the list, along with StoneHearth, two games I’m very interested in but just don’t have extra funding right this moment. Life is Feudal of course being the more exciting of the two for me at least.

[39/50] Then I spent a bunch of time looking through the activity section of my steam. I love this, it shows me what everyone is up to, what purchases have been made, what items are hot on wishlists this year. Don’t forget to add a wishlist guys, you never know!

[40/50] There’s four days left of November, and 10 screenshots left to post – so I think I’ve done pretty well on IntPiPoMo. Even with my sporadic blog posts. It even encouraged me to write a bit more than I normally would have. With NaNoWriMo going on this month, and holidays coming up, I know everyone is pretty busy. One thing I’ve learned from working at home, is how to manage my time to make sure that “all the things” end up getting done. Of course this year I also had to let some things slide (Gamers Secret Santa, I’m looking at you) but I know it was for the best.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!