I'm a Critter Now!

  Starting on the Thursday before last I had found myself with a scratchy throat.  It then progressed to a full sore throat that lasted through Friday and Saturday.  I felt pretty good on Tuesday but then I got a bit worse on Wednesday.  Bill had sent me a link to an episode of Critical Roll on Geek and Sundry.  It wasn't the first episode, but it was a more light hearted one that didn't give away too much of the story-line.  It was hilarious and about flying cows and I was hooked.
  I had already been a fan of Geek and Sundry and have watched a bunch of Felicia Day's Flogs and Table Top with Wil Wheaton, but hadn't watching much beyond those two.  I'm not sure how they got invited on, but Critical Roll is a show where a bunch of voice actors play D&D.  They had been playing about a year or so together before they came to Geek and Sundry.
  When they are streaming on Twitch they donate any money that is sent in to 826 LA and they encourage people to check out if there is an 826 chapter near them.  In only a few episodes they have gotten to the point where they only have time to read the names of people who have donated over $20 because they were getting so many.  They have even had some other people representing other charities stop by everyon once in a while and have given the donations from that night to the other charity.  Most of cast has also has a list of charities they personally support.  They are such nice people, I want to be friends with all of them.
  They are all also very good at what they do.  Matt Mercer is an amazing story teller; you give him a crumb and he will not only tell you about the cake but the kitchen it was baked in and maybe a bit about what kind of day it was.  Everyone one else is so funny and good at improve.  They also get very into it and love their characters so much.  Back before they started playing on the stream they had a death of one of their party members.  Everyone was crying about it and did everything they could to bring her back.  Some people might think that is silly since they are just numbers on a piece of paper and images in their minds.  I think it is awesome because it helps everyone involved get more into it and makes it so much better now that they are sharing it with the world.  Their playlist can be found here, and their Geek and Sundry page can be found here.

  Now that I've gotten that wall of text of me fan-girling (and not so secretly wishing I could be friends with all of them) on to what I got done while watching them run around while causing trouble and fixing problems.

  I finished that hat you saw pictured in the post from a few weeks ago.  There was another thing I changed before that I hadn't noted.  On the second one I made I had decided that I liked the heart lace better without the very top row of lace.  Of course I realised this when starting my last heart of the hat.

  While I had achieved the effect that I had been hoping for with the first try, but you know I like trying new things.  I wanted to see if I could still get the flowing and branching off effect if I didn't use the ribbing and used stockinette instead.

  While it is a cool texture it doesn't look as much like flowing water as when I first did it.  Both are good looking, but I think I like my first attempt better.

  I really like this Aura yarn by Austermann.  I was worried that it was going to be a bit hard to work with because of how smooth and slippery it seemed to be in the ball.  Bits of it was also slipping off before I even started working with it.
  I wasn't very bad at all.  I used metal needles and didn't have any more worries about stitches jumping off the needle than I have had with most other yarns.
  This is a Scallop Lace Hat.  I wasn't sure what all I could make with what I had left and I remembered making this once before and that I liked it.  I didn't know how it was going to turn out because the yarn was a different thickness, but I think it turned out pretty well.

  Since it went so well before, I decided to give it another try.  I know I said that I was going to give the rest of this yarn back to the donation pile, but I was still feeling yucky and didn't want to move around too much to rummage through yarn to find something.  This was sitting near me on the couch.
  I didn't run into any more problems with it, so it seems that the yarn itself might be fine and all the problems I had run into before might have just been the fault of how the yarn had been stored before I got it.  It must have had a hard life.

  I finally remembered to soak and block this.  This was the crochet version of the Neck Warmers I had been knitting like crazy.

  I think it looks pretty cool.  The main body of the neck warmer is done in extended single crochets and the leaves are in single crochets.  I had planned on having the whole thing in singles, but it was taking a long time to get anything done and it was becoming a bit stiff.

  I was feeling better, which was good because I had run out of yarn within easy arm's reach and had to venture forth to find more.  While I had that green and leafy project swatched out I didn't think I was ready for it yet.  Since I was on a hat roll I found something that I thought would make a cute hat.
  I cast on and started knitting.  I figured I would try the second version of my Wish Braid hat I had in mind.  I got a few cables up and saw that I wasn't going to have enough yarn to finish.  I then took it out and re-cast on with one less repeat.  There should be pictures before too long at the rate I'm going.