snoopy tapestry - december 2024

one of my metamours is a big fan of snoopy, so when i was looking for holiday gift ideas for her, this pattern by destiny makes immediately jumped out as a great option. i was also lucky enough to have the stash yarn left over from previous projects to complete the chart itself. i opted not to make it into a full bag, as i wasn't sure if i would have enough yarn and i doubted whether she would actually use a bag anyway.

this was only my second time doing tapestry crochet, and it was my first time using the wide single crochet stitch (tutorial here, by erini's corner) for it. honestly, i really like the look of how it came out, though in hindsight i wish i had done some sort of border around the edge to cover the places where the white yarn peeked through the navy yarn at the end of each row. it also made for a much thicker piece, which was interesting texture-wise.

if i try tapestry crochet again (which i would love to, if i have the yarn i need for the kinds of patterns i like), i'd love to experiment with other options. it seems like there are so many ways to make crochet tapestry work out there, and it feels like i'm always finding out about new options! i definitely want to try mosaic crochet & intarsia, but i want to make sure i find a project i'm sufficiently excited about for each of them. time to go pattern hunting, i suppose :p

everybody needs a hero sweater - november 2024

i made this for the november 17, 2024 orla gartland concert in chicago, and its themed after her everybody needs a hero album. i've been a fan of orla since... gods, it's been almost a decade, i think. i got into her from dodie, who i was introduced to by a friend who had said we looked alike. but as dodie's music has felt less relatable to me in my transition, orla's music has continued to hit home for me every time. she's now my absolute favorite artist by a long shot. so when she finally announced her new album and that she was coming to tour the united states for the very first time, i knew i had to do something really special.

so, as is tradition, i planned something insanely ambitious: an entire custom sweater themed around the new album, including several elements that i would have to freehand and draft myself. i made the sweater base from this pattern, and then everything else was freehanded.

the "hero" on the front is surface crochet made to look like how it was styled for the album, and the phone dock and handset are also both freehanded and meant to be near-exact replicas of the phone from the album art. the phone cord is just a simple crochet chain that i sewed into the sweater itself, and designing its winding path around the sweater from the handset to the phone dock was a hassle and a half, but i think it was totally worth it. even if it meant desperately trying to sew it on up until the very last minute during the whole several-hour drive to chicago for the concert.

i'm really proud of myself for getting this project done, and for trying skills i had never tried before. not only that, but it felt so good to wear it to the concert and feel like i had finally reached an emotional sense of completion. not only that, but i received compliments on the sweater from the bassist orla had with her on tour (literally such a cool person and SO gorgeous oml) as well as several other concert attendees. then a few days later, i received a complimentary comment from orla herself on a tiktok i posted of the sweater! i would've been really proud of the sweater on its own even without the compliments, but it felt wonderful to get my flowers nonetheless.

so if you learn anything from this project, let it be this: have the audacity. make the thing. if you love something, put that love to use, and you will be surprised by what you can do.

kinky boots - summer 2024

in yet another revelation, i was cast in my first musical since going on t! not only that, but i had a duet with the main character early on in the show. that's right, i got to have the honor of performing in kinky boots!

it was so much fun to spend my summer in this show, even when it meant sacrificing time i otherwise would have used to take care of myself, or, yknow, eat. still, it was worth it! i cherish the friendships i made here, and i'm still doing my best to keep those up even a few months later. i hope i keep them far into the future!

this show was also fun because it got me to start exploring my femininity in small ways, including wearing such tall boots. hanging out with and working with such a queer cast certainly didn't hurt!

sweetheart crop top - may 2024

i freehanded this crop top--my first freehanded crochet item!--and used this pattern for the appliques that i sewed on after the crop top base was complete.

i had actually intended for the hearts to be filet crochet, but they turned out looking not-so-heartlike and didn't provide the coverage i wanted, so i made the heart appliques and sewed them on instead. probably wasn't worth the trouble of trying to grid out the filet crochet hearts in the first place, but it was a learning experience, so i'm always grateful for that.

i haven't had many opportunities to wear this piece because i'm not usually one to wear crop tops in the first place (which does beg the question of why i made it, but i digress), but it feels really good to be able to wear something that i made all on my own, including the fit and style of the piece.

the beautiful and damned - march 2024

what an impossibly special experience it was to be a part of this play.

the beautiful and damned is a novel by f. scott fitzgerald from the 1920s, and i had the great fortune of being able to join the cast of a debut production of a play adaptation of this work. not only was this a delight because our director was also the playwright and could provide incredible insight on what we were doing, but it was also my first time back on stage 1) since covid and 2) since going on t.

i felt so authentically seen and valued working in this show in a way i had never felt before doing theater (and i've been doing & loving theater since i was a kid). i will always be grateful for my exceptional castmates and the production team of this show for making me feel so needed on stage in a way i never had before.

neon stripes cardigan - march 2024

so, funny story, i have no idea why i bought this yarn. i think i bought it for a specific pattern, because it's really not a style i would usually wear (it's way too vibrant for my normal wardrobe). but, when i finally got around to looking at the yarn for a project months later, i was completely unable to figure out why i bought it or find any pattern i could have been looking at that would require exactly 4 skeins of this extremely vibrant yarn. i couldn't even get it to work with planned pooling. so instead, i made this cardigan. and honestly? it turned out much better than i ever could've expected, even though it's not something i would've normally worn.

i will say, though, this yarn was an absolute pain to work with. there were knots in every single skein that broke up the striping pattern, so i had to cut & repiece together the yarn several times over in the making of this cardigan. i don't recommend it. (for those curious, it was red heart super saver stripes, in the colorway retro stripe.)

pattern info: this is the summer path cardigan by rachel misner, and it worked up really quick and easy!

conventional vampires - february 2024

a delightful project i had the honor of participating in as lead writer was conventional vampires, which i made alongside a group of 20 or so other creatives for the queer vampire game jam. conventional vampires is a visual novel where you attend a monster fan con and, well, let's just say chaos ensues.

it was such a positive learning experience working in such a big group on such an ambitious project, and even though the game has its flaws and bugs to this day, i'm really proud of our finished product. the art, programming, and music teams really brought something special to the game, and without tooting my own horn too much, i think the writing really came together.

the main things i learned from this project were, firstly, how to use ink to write an interactive narrative, though i don't think i would ever be able to integrate it to unity on my own, and secondly, a bunch of wibbly wobbly lessons about time & project management that i can take with me into future endeavors.

thank you to everyone i worked with on this game, and thank you to everyone who has given it their time to play it!

nanowrimo (reprise) - november 2023

i've participated in nanowrimo since 2014, when i first tried it with my teen writing group i was in at my local library. however, i didn't successfully reach the goal of 50,000 words for the first time until 2017, with a book entitled myth.

myth, however, was a hot mess. the character work was strong, but the plot and setup was confused, and even after 50,000 words, the story hadn't gone anywhere. i'm not really surprised in hindsight, i was 14-15 at the time and not very skilled at constructing plotlines. but still, not my finest work. despite that, though, i'm really proud of the dedication i had to be able to complete the 50,000 word goal!

the main reason why i was able to succeed in 2017 and hadn't before was actually a new daily word count goal system. instead of committing to writing the average 1,667 words every day, i borrowed someone's idea (i wish i could find it now, i'd love to give them credit) where you begin writing more than 3,000 words on the first day, and then your daily word count goal decreases steadily day by day until you only need to write one word on the final day to reach the goal. this is especially effective for me because, with how my adhd manifests, i have a huge burst of motivation and excitement at the beginning of a project, and it lessens over time, so matching my word goals to that mindset maximizes my productivity.

if you're interested in it for yourself, the word counts are below:

i used this same word goal system in 2023 to successfully complete nanowrimo for a second time, taking a crack at telling the myth characters' story again, this time with an actually well-developed premise. to my delight, it went even smoother this time around, and i'm really proud of what i was able to write. i don't know if i'll ever get it completely finished past the 50,000 word goal, but i'm really proud of myself for making the progress i did and telling a story i'm really proud of. maybe someday i'll tackle nanowrimo again... who knows.

faerie rogue token - march 2023

this one should be pretty short and sweet; as my partner v and i got into magic: the gathering, i found they were looking specifically for faerie rogue tokens for a deck they were building. what better opportunity, i thought, to make them some proxy tokens myself and make some art in the process!

so, taking inspiration from the existing faerie rogue tokens wotc had printed, i made a (somewhat amateurish) stained glass art piece of a faerie in a night-time landscape. not my most refined work, but it was fun to make and it's nice to know that the printed copes of it live in v's token box to this day!

green & blue crochet puppy - october 2022

i don't have too much to say about this one, i'll be honest, other than the fact that this dog took me an insane amount of time and energy and is, i believe, one of the only amigurumi projects i have actually taken to completion as of september 2024, along with the others featured on this page. this plush was made with dollar tree's just chenille yarn, and honestly i still can't believe i pulled this project together. i made it for my mom, and while i do wish i still had the dog in my own possession, i'm glad i was influenced to make this despite the challenges.

pattern info: this was made using this pattern with a few modifications, including removing rows 9 and 10 in the head to get 14 rounds and freehanding a tail following a standard increase, decrease pattern.

fantasy territory map - june 2022

okay, this one is near and dear to my heart, even more than two years later. around this time, i had gotten into the craft of fantasy mapmaking as inspired by deven rue, one of the most well-known fantasy mapmakers of the current generation. i also learned from the work of several other influential map artists and cartography educators, such as jared blando, wasd20, jp coovert, and maps by owen. if you're interested in fantasy cartography, i also recommend checking out hello future me's videos on place names and city placement.

aside from that huge dump of info, let me speak to this project's importance to me a bit. this map is shaped in the monogram of my partner, v. it took so much time and effort to get it just how i wanted it, and getting to share it with them after all that hard work was an absolute delight. no matter what, this piece of art is a testament to my focus, care, and passion, and i will always be proud of that.

fantasy town map - april 2022

this was my first full fantasy map i drew, and the precursor to the fantasy territory map i would draw in june for my partner, v. if i remember correctly, my instruction for this piece came almost entirely from jared blando's book, fantasy mapmaker: how to draw rpg cities for gamers and fans. this book, along with his other works, are incredible tools for learning how to draw fantasy maps, and i highly recommend them.

taking flight - february 2022

going back and revisiting this game of mine years later has been heartbreaking, in part because of the story, but also because i can tell how much love i put into it, even all that while ago. taking flight was a game i made for the 72-hour mini jam 99: birds.

obviously the theme of the jam was birds, hence the main character astelle being a bird, but the other interesting limitation from the jam was "can't stop moving." i interpreted this to be symbolic; how difficult it may be to keep going, but how we must keep moving onward regardless. it also served as a physical limitation within the game, as once you left a room to move onto the next, you weren't able to return to the room before.

i made several great creative & technical strides for myself in the making of this game, including my first release made with bitsy (and several bitsy hacks) and my first completed game soundtrack, made entirely in beepbox. (genuinely, if you haven't worked with bitsy or beepbox before, i cannot recommend it enough. they are both exceptional tools for what they promise to do, and so intuitive.)

i really want to make more games, and more creative work in general, like this. more work that speaks to who i am, that is born of my love and care and creativity, and that connects immediately with the person on the other side. i should pursue more passion projects that i actually have incentive to finish. maybe another game jam should come my way soon...

teddy bear hat - february 2022

this is a short write up because this hat was honestly pretty simple to make, but i still felt it deserved a place in this project hall of fame because i made it to completion!!!

i crocheted this hat from a pattern courtesy of @yarngoodlife on tiktok, who honestly crocheted and wore it better but that's okay :p i suspect some of the issue came from the fact i was using dollar tree chenille yarn for my hat, which notably didn't hold much structure, and i also had to skip the last row of stitches bc i ran out of yarn. still, i think it came out really cute! and it gave me the confidence to try more intricate patterns with more sewing involved.

reversible moody octopus - july 2021

i don't remember too much about making this piece, other than the fact that i really did not know what i was doing when it came to amigurumi yet, and i definitely did not do a good job tying off & weaving in my ends. how do i know, you ask? well, because after i made it, i gifted this octopus to my partner v, whose desk it sits on to this day, and i can see all the little ends coming out that weren't properly woven in!

still, i think this was a great learning opportunity and i'm glad i made it, because it enabled me to make more cool things in the future. thank you, me in 2021!

pattern info: this is the reversible octopus by curiouspapaya, and i made it with dollar tree's just chenille yarn.

digital art slurry - june 2021

i went on a bit of a digital art kick in june of 2021, including some anatomy work i jumped right into with no experience and some character design work i jumped into with no experience, and some animal drawing i jumped into with no experience... eesh. you'd think that wouldn't still be a pattern for me three years later as i write this, but it absolutely is.

maybe one day i'll stop trying to do things i might not end up being capable of, but honestly? i really think having the audacity to try new things is important if you ever want to get better at something. so i recommend to you, try something new! even if you think you'd never be capable. just be ready to mess things up, and be ready to have to work through issues.

side note, i know the bull guy has a 2020 timestamp... i don't know what i was thinking.

dodie fanart - april 2020

i still can't believe i made this.

like, i know i did, i was there, i put in the hard work to make this happen, but i still can't quite believe i did this.

i have never made photorealistic digital art before or since, and i had only managed photorealism on paper once (for an ex, the finished piece of which i will not be sharing on the internet to protect their privacy). i really don't know what led me to believe i had the skill and talent to make this work, but i suppose i did in the end. former gifted kid superpowers for the win, i guess?

i think one of the most interesting things i learned (other than how to use digital tools better) is how to shade hair. (i then botched it on one of the pigtails but hey, you live and you learn.) i don't know if i'll ever do something like this again, or what could possibly inspire me to do so, but i suppose thank you to dodie's birthday in 2020 for giving me the willpower to make this piece.