Stargrace

Teaching Myself

For as long as I can remember I’ve been fascinated with knitting and crochet. My Dad taught me the basics of knitting when I was younger but I forgot how to do it, it’s really one of those skills that you need to keep using. Crochet was more of a self taught process. I relied on videos from YouTube, a lot of forums and suggestions from friends. I found crochet easier to pick up since you’re only dealing with one hook. I made a few stuffed animals, a simple hat, those sorts of things. As much as I crochet though I really wanted to learn knitting. In specific I wanted to learn how to knit socks. Socks are my end goal when it comes to knitting. They’re the dream that always seems just a little be out of my grasp. I’ve bought videos on how to knit socks from Craftsy, but so far all of my efforts have been thwarted. I blame this on a few things but the main one is that I’m incredibly impatient and don’t practice enough. If I try something a few times and don’t get it I tend to get frustrated and give up. That’s absolutely not the way to learn any new skills. This year I decided it was going to be my year. I have quite a large yarn stash in a bin that I’ve been neglecting, and I really want to learn how to make socks.

I started out small by revisiting the knit and purl stitch. That’s the black bath cloth in the picture top right. I finally figured out the one thing I was doing wrong every time I tried to purl – I kept forgetting to move the yarn to the front (or the back). As soon as that one issue clicked for me it started coming together. When I felt that I had practiced that enough I decided it was time to learn how to yo (yarn over, also known as an increase) and k2tog (knit two together, or a decrease). That’s the green bath cloth. That one starts out in a triangle shape as you increase the stitches, and then narrows back down to complete the square as you decrease. Both of those are very easy to do, at least when you’re working in a knit stitch. I haven’t attempted increases and decreases while working a purl stitch yet.

I joined Ravelry and started looking through the easy (level 1) and beginner (level 2) free patterns on their site. Right now I’m working on some Easy Fingerless Mitts that will help me continue my practice of knit / purl but what they also do is get me familiar with markers and how those work so you’re not constantly counting stitches. This came as such a surprise to me. I hadn’t even realized that it’s what markers were for. In crochet and cross stitch and knitting I’ve always counted EVERY stitch which makes for lots of errors because a single miss counted stitch is all it takes.

For the fingerless mitts, I’m using three stitch markers. One marks the wrong side of the piece. Two others mark when I swap stitches. Basically whenever I see the blue stitch marker (hidden here because we’re looking at the right side) I know that I knit 5, purl 20, knit 10. I swap stitches every time I hit the marker, no counting required (aside from when I placed those markers). If I don’t see the blue marker, I just knit stitch the entire row. Easy, right?

That’s where I’m at now. In the meantime I’m thinking I need a few more sets of needles. I really prefer working with wooden ones over metal or plastic, and I’m missing a few essential sizes that patterns call for. Plus you can never have too much yarn, so I’m going to be looking for a bit more of that, too.

When I first started out learning crochet and knitting, I really just didn’t like knitting at all, but the more I do it the more I come to the conclusion that I actually enjoy knitting more than I do crochet! Go figure. Socks, I’m coming for you.

Minecraft Mods: Botania

The beginning of my little botania set up wasn’t much, it has changed a lot since the screenshot above, but that’s what I started with. Botania is neat, it’s a mod that doesn’t add a lot to the world (to begin with) so you end up making most of the components. What it does add, is 16 types of mystical flowers that you can harvest in the Overworld and then when you plop those into your crafting window they refine into petals. Then you take those petals and make neat stuff with them. I found a few guides online and that’s what I followed for the first portions. Unlike a lot of mods that require me to be some sort of engineer, this one was simple and straightforward. Those mods are really the best for me, I like complexity but I don’t like things that are so complex they make my play session stressful.

The mods I stumbled into are this one in text, and then this series on youtube (finally, a broadcaster I can stand to listen to). First I harvested a whole lot of mystical flowers. Then I turned those into petals. I set up an outdoor greenhouse with a good amount of space and surrounded it in glass. Stuck a few chests out there, and I was ready to begin. I already had the lexica botania (book that shows you all the recipes) but I can’t remember where I got it from. In any case, you can craft it if you want.

The first thing I made was a petal apothecary. Very simple, it’s just stones and a petal. Filled it with water, and then used white petals and seeds to create a pure daisy. When you plant these and surround them by stone or wood (not cobblestone, not planks) the wood / stone changes into livingwood / livingstone. I collected a bunch of this before moving on.

Then I made a bunch of dayblooms, those are the flowers pictured above. They generate mana when it’s daytime. I found these flowers died off WAY too fast to be worth the effort. Once I had a method of creating a tiny bit of mana, I created two distilled mana pools, and a mana spreader. The mana spreader takes the mana from the flowers and shoots it towards something (like the mana pool). Once the distiller stuffed enough mana in the pool, I dropped the second pool into it, and created a regular mana pool. They store a lot more mana than the distilled ones. Once I had TWO mana pools and enough mana, I created an endoflame and got rid of the dayblooms. The endoflame turns things like blocks of coals and blaze torches into mana. So now I have endoflames shooting mana into a mana spreader, and the mana spreader shoot that mana over to a mana distributor. This block basically just takes the mana and splits it between any pools that are next to it. I wanted one pool dedicated to alchemy, and another pool dedicated to runes. I stuck an alchemy catalyst under one of the pools, and now when I drop things in there from this list it will transform them at a cost of mana. The other thing I created was a runic altar. This one is a bit different, in this one you take things that you have enchanted (like iron ingots, and flower petals) and combine them into runes. Then those runes can be used in combines over at the petal apothecary. That’s where the fun really starts.

I created a set of manasteel armor, some rings (one stores mana, the other one slowly creates mana), and a weapon. I would create tools, but unfortunately because of the weapon leveling mod I have, base tools are not ‘useable’ tools, they’re only used to craft the next tier. It sucks, but I really like leveling my tools up so I don’t want to get rid of that mod quite yet. I also made a sash that lets me walk up 1 block steps, and created a flower that will create more mystical flowers so I don’t have to hunt all over the place. Finally I created a flower that will fuel my forges that are nearby, and improves the efficiency. Oh, and I made a rod that uses a small amount of mana and creates dirt blocks, and another rod that creates water blocks. Just handy little things like that. It’s not game breaking, and I like that I’ve been able to (somewhat easily) explore the mod and not feel completely overwhelmed.

This is just one of MANY mods included in FeedTheBeastInfinity which is the mod I’m currently playing. I’ll probably make a few more posts explaining the other mods I’ve played with so far, but well there’s that whole “trying to find time” thing that keeps sneaking up. As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Who Inspires You

Firstly, image is not my own, I nicked it from the internet. Secondly, this post is less about video games and more about life, so you’ll just have to come to grips with that.

In the last ten years I have “met” some truly inspiring people. Some are people I’ve gotten the pleasure to meet in real life, others are those I only know through video games or through online social media (which typically involves video games). They may not be particularly inspirational to you, but to me they have helped shape who I am. I thought I’d take a little bit of time to talk about some of the more influential ones and share why I find them inspiring. I’ve done posts like this in the past, so you may see some repeats.

Teresa from twitter / blog / games: One of the most inspiring ladies I’ve never met before, I just absolutely love her outlook on life. Things don’t always go as planned, they’re not always sunshine and roses, and yet somehow this lady reminds me that we must keep going forward. That we keep putting one foot in front of the other and move on. I also think she’s one of the bravest that I know, especially when writing about life on her blog. I find this very inspirational, very motivational.

Emily (Domino) twitter: Now the producer at DaybreakGames, this lady is just.. wow. First of all she’s Canadian, so of course there’s a point in her favour already, we Canuck’s have to stick together. She cooks some pretty amazing food, owns cats, and I’ve never seen her handle herself as anything but professional especially in this type of a job. I’ve “known” Emily for years now, and she did amazing things for the EQ2 housing community once upon a time and continues to promote the community. She’s also pretty crafty. I don’t know how on earth she finds the time. This woman is like a superhero to me.

Deirdre (CRB_Sunshine) twitter : Community Manager for WildStar, I have the pleasure of working with this lady on a daily basis. One of those superhuman’s who are able to balance multiple tasks on a single finger, I have no idea how she does it. She also has a very lovely family, and she just works very hard. People who work hard inspire me, they motivate me. Especially when I feel things are slipping through my grasp. Obviously I’m a bit biased with this entry, but I can’t help it.

Tami (Cuppy) twitter: Now, I haven’t always seen eye to eye with Cuppy. In fact I’m pretty sure I’m blocked on her twitter (or she hasn’t given me a single thought and just ignores anything I say, which is just as likely, I’m pretty invisible) BUT this woman is amazing. She’s the content producer at Riot, and is probably one of the strongest women I know. She stands up for her beliefs – and I find that inspiring. I don’t believe that we have to get along with everyone to find them inspirational. We don’t even have to like them. I think it’s foolish to think that we’ll get along with everyone we come across, but I know I’m still a better person for watching this person interact with others.

Morgan (Missdoomcookie) twitter: Working as a Narrative Designer for Halo 5, this lady is geek to the core – and fantastic. One thing I need to note about all of the above, is that they all have broad interests and that’s just part of the reason I find them inspirational. They’re real people, with regular interests that they don’t mind sharing with the world. They’ve opened themselves up and let people know that they’re human beings. I find that fascinating. I’ve “known” Morgan for years now, though we’ve never actually met in person. Her crafty side makes me want to learn more, and her writing is amazing.

I’ve never ‘met’ any of these ladies in person (even though I was in close proximity to most of them at one time or another back when I was writing for Beckett Massive Online Gamer) but they’ve still touched my life. Is that a bit creepy? Probably, but just like some people look up to movie stars, athletes, or other public figures, these are the people that I look up to. They deserve a bit of recognition and my thanks.

Saturday: Video Game Roundup

I didn’t get that much gaming in this week, but of course we gamers always seem to find a bit of time here and there. Without further wait, here’s what I’ve been up to this week.

Minecraft

Most of this week was spent playing FeedTheBeast Infinity. There are 164 mods in this pack (165 on my server as I added one I really wanted) and it’s got something for pretty much everyone. Instead of setting up a village outdoors as I typically do, I created an enormous house within a rock mountain, and carved out each room. Then as I upgraded my tools and obtained a chisel I customized the home further. The screenshot above is my crafting room. Lots of space. I’ve also created a portal to the Twilight Forest, and to The Nether. There are Runic Dungeons that I haven’t explored yet, and just so much to do. The mod I added includes a way to level up your tools and weapons so that they get better and progress. You have to upgrade them in order, and it’s just a lot of fun to add this level of customization. Of course on the downside my axe for chopping trees now smelts things it hits – and that means wood just instantly turns to coal when I cut down the tree instead of giving me wooden blocks. Had to make a new axe because of that.

WildStar

Closed Beta Testing has begun and so I’ve been spending most of my time on the beta servers sending in bug reports. I copied my character over from live, and have been playing around with all of the new things that have been added. Got a few new pets and some new costumes so far, I’m really looking forward to the game moving to free to play so that more people can experience what an awesome game it is and not get hung up on the monthly price tag.

GuildWars 2

In a surprising turn of events, my mesmer managed to ding level 80 this week. In part due to crafting, and also due to those daily loot boxes you get to open every day. Today when I logged in I was given 2 ‘level’ tokens that let me climb to level 79 instantly. Now I need to finish my personal story, I’m at the level 60 ones now where the giant dragon comes down and things all go crazy for a while. I’m glad that I reached 80, and now I’m debating whether I want to level up another character right away or just continue to do things on the mesmer. I do have a few other level 80 characters but they’re on a different account, so I’m glad I managed to level this one up. I picked up some level 80 gear but now that I’m 80 I have absolutely no idea what I should be working on, aside from finishing off my personal story.

Wurm Online

A few new things have been added to the game, black sheep and some rams. I’ve been working on my priests still which is pretty slow work but I enjoy doing it. I’ve also been breeding more animals and working on meditation which is a really slow skill to try to level up. Right now I have four active accounts, but I expect that will drop down to three before too long. I have a year of premium on my Vynora priest along with my main character, Stargrace, and included a year on my Najho priest. I do have a battery that I’ve been using for the Najho, but I really don’t want to have to pay to keep them all active. That’s one of the downsides of Wurm, you have to pay per character.

That’s it for this week! What has everyone else been playing? Let me know in comments.

Therapeutic Organization

I spend a lot of time (both in game and out) organizing things. I find it really therapeutic and calming for whatever reason. For example, lets take yesterday. Just last month I did a clean install of windows 8.1 because I bought an SSD (my first one ever). I decided that a clean install was the way to go and while it was a bit of a pain it could have been worse. Yesterday I was getting a message about a chipset driver I needed to install. So I downloaded the app that would let me do that and of course somehow along the way something broke (I blame it on the fact that I had a LOT of updates to do all at once and just sort of crammed them together without closing programs down first etc). I couldn’t restore and I couldn’t get windows to load, so after a bunch of frustration I just decided to do a fresh install again. It was actually very quick, and thanks to a few little things I had previously set up, it wasn’t as painful as it could have been. For example my default documents / pictures folder is not on the same drive as windows. Nor are my games. There was a handful of smaller programs but nothing essential. I was able to install the few items I was missing thanks to the windows.old folder, and then remove that folder.

Instead of being upset and concerned that I had to completely reinstall windows (again), it was nice and relaxing. Now everything is fixed up just as it was before, and I had a “fun” afternoon of cleaning. I get this same feeling when I’m in video games where there’s an organizational component. Minecraft, for example. I spend hours making lawns look good, creating even pieces of land, organizing boxes and inventory, and just “cleaning”. I tend to do the same things in other games just out of habit. In EQ2 there’s always inventory issues especially when there are so many pieces of decor to shift through, so I spend hours making sure everything is in the right place. Odd? Maybe. I could probably be given some sort of closet organization sim game and have a blast with it.

The point is, it doesn’t matter how you spend your time in a game so long as you’re having fun (minus methods that tend to hurt other players, I’m not an advocate of that). Me, I have fun cleaning. It doesn’t happen every day but when it does, I’m glad I have the control and the option to organize things in game.

I’ve been playing a bit of Minecraft lately, along with Wurm Online, World of Warcraft, and WildStar (PTR!) I’m looking forward to giving a round up of what I’ve been up to in more detail tomorrow. As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.