touch me up

Stop it right now and get that dirty thought out of your mind!

I'm talking about my tattoo here.

So, what have I been doing besides writing med school application essays? And secret knitting? Why, I went and got my tribal moth tattoo touched up.
This time it went much better than the original fill in. Andrew was excited to see me; apparently I looked so bad after the fill in he was afraid I'd never come back for the touch up. I felt like having an Alicia Silverstone moment: As If! He also asked around to see how he could make it easier on me (isnt that sweet?) and said that this time he'd have me laying down instead of sitting up. I have selective memory (otherwise I would never go back and get more pain) and so I couldn't say right away whether it was easier but he could tell it was better for me. And in the end I could tell too. He decided to do a complete second coat rather than spot touch-ups since then it would look more even (like I said - perfectionist) and I was fine with that since I'd already paid for the tattoo, all the touch-ups are free (bonus of going to an awesome studio is that the artists guarantee their work - it may cost more up front, but in the end you save). When we were done he took some pictures - I'm going to be semi-famous! Well, ok, I'll be in his book. And maybe if I'm lucky on the studio's website.

So here I am laying down and looking not so bad.

Then he made me sit up to do the finishing touches on my shoulders. And all sorts of funny faces came out.


Both Andreas and Andrew had a good laugh at my faces.

















I'm glad its over, but of course I'm already planning my next one! Too bad I'm super poor from application fees..... Ah well. It can wait. I have this one to tide me over for a while (:{

FO: Luna Moth Shawl

ok folks, here it finally is the finished shawl!
It was a wonderful pattern and it only took me a month. Super easy too. The pattern is very intuitive after awhile so its not too difficult for first-timers. The yarn is great as well, wearing it is super nice (though it is a little slippery on bare skin).
I tried for probably 30 minutes to get a good picture of the whole thing, but its just too big! So you'll have to make do with some detail pictures instead.

Here is a picture of me at the wedding from the back.



This is the front, me and my brother's girlfriend Olivia.

















Look, its so big it spans my full size bed!




Pretty details!


I must say, for my first giant lace project it came out very nice. Though the blocking was a beast. I hate blocking. Let us just not go into that......
The rest of the yarny and patterny details are up on Ravelry (username Grateblue2 just in case). (and if you are a knitter and havent heard, join Ravelry!) (details not repeated here b/c I'm a lazy bastard)

Tattoo Odyssey

So to start out this post I thought I'd give you a little list so you could better understand my journey to this point of ginourmous tattoo on my back. Then its time for the good stuff: the pictures!

Stages of getting a tattoo:
I really really want this............................... 1 year
Do I really want this?.................................. 1 month
Hey I got a tax bonus! I want a tattoo!
Now! ............................................................. 1 week
Yay I have an appointment!
In 1 month ):{ ......................................... 1 month
Outline:
Ow this kinda hurts! .................................. 1.5 hours
Hey this kinda itches! ................................ 2 days
and its peeling! black bits! ........................ 2 days
Oh look, all better
Fill in:
Ow this kinda hurts! ................................. 30 mins
No, this Really HURTS! ........................... 2 hours
Yuck this feels like a bad sunburn .......... 5 days
Hey this itches! Itches like hell! ............. 2 days
(overlaps with the pain -- how is that possible??)
OK, enough of this, it still itches ............. 2 days
and its peeling! lots of black bits! ........... 4 days
(overlaps with itching)
Finally, I think its healed ........................ 8 days post fill in session

And for those who think that the fill in is less pain than the outline, I can assure you its not true. 2.5 hours of pure pain cannot even compare to the the outline. I'm now convinced that I could probably handle getting shot (note: I do NOT want to though) and childbirth. At least then they could give you pain meds. There were no pain meds involved in this b/c most of them thin your blood. Which makes you Bleed. Bleeding is not good b/c then your skin wont absorb the ink and you'll have to go back for more touch-ups. As it is having an all black tattoo requires a minimum of 1 touch-up session. Joy. BUT it was all def worth it. I think it looks amazing and I love it.
And now, for the fun stuff. Pictures.

First, the Outline.
Here is the "Before" shot with my crappy little blobby dolphin tattoo. (Yes, the picture is in focus, the tattoo is not though)



Cool mirror shot
Making the "ouch" face
Looking oddly serene
Halfway through the outline


Close-up of the outline in progress



Outline is done. All bandaged up and ready to go. (Yes that is blood).

Here is the finished outline before the peeling began. The ointment makes it shiny.

And now the Fill In



Close up of red swollen -ness

At this point, I made him take a break b/c I was feeling woozy and needed a snack. So Ariel snapped a picture.
Here I am thinking its all done (b/c he cleaned it) but not wanting to get up b/c of the pain.
There are no pictures of him touching up spots while I was standing. Trust me that is was intense and horrible.


And here is the final picture after all the itching and peeling.
Taa-daaa!



Its beautiful. Well, I think so anyway and that's what matters since its my back. (:{
I have to say throughout it all my artist, Andrew, was a class act. A perfectionist through and through. Everyone that I dealt with at Fat Ram's Pumpkin Tattoo over in Jamaica Plain was great and I would definitely recommend that studio, and of course my artist, Andrew, to anyone. If you are like me and dont want to wait a year to get in to see the famous owner, Ram himself, then go see Andrew. His custom work is great as well. He also didn't freak out when I decided after the outline that I wanted to tweak parts of the design. Its going to be on my back for the rest of my life so of course he wants me to be happy with it.
Well now this has become a super long post, so I think its time to end it. There may be more about this in a couple months after the required touch-up. And I can assure you I am not looking forward to that. But, it must be done.
Edit: in case anyone is wondering, its a tribal design based off of the luna moth

New adventures and challenges

This past Monday the Yarners got together to learn how to crochet and to record an episode of the FiberCult podcast. As promised, here is a picture of my very first crocheted circle.

Since I wasn't following a pattern, and I was increasing at will (which is not as random as I would have liked it to be) it doesn't exactly lay flat. BUT, it does resemble a circle, which is entirely the point on a first go. Catherine was a fabulous teacher and showed me how to begin the circle. Very excited. I can see more crochet in my future!








The second thing I have to share is the starting of my Luna Moth Shawl! (This picture gives a better idea of the pattern, but in a different yarn).

You probably do not recall, but I posted a while back professing my love for this particular shawl (in the Callista yarn color pictured and everything) to go with my espresso colored strapless dress for my cousin's wedding in August. In this post I also asked everyone's opinion on knitting this pattern and whether it would be too much for me, or too difficult. Well, no one commented. So I took that to mean that it was manageable. Then, a month later when I was ready to start, I took the pattern to our Monday night Stitch and Bitch and asked some questions to clarify the pattern. Some of the ladies tried to give me a good dose of reality considering the trickyness of lace patterns and my time deadline. I dont like to hear reality if its discouraging. And who would?
Being the obstinate chicky that I am, I decided to just go for it.
Also, those words of discouragement actually had the opposite effect: I'm even more determined to knit it now than I was before. This commonly happens with me, if someone tells me I cant do something, and I think I can do it, well then I'm super motivated to prove them wrong.

Since the pattern called for a crochet provisional cast on, after the mini crochet lesson on Monday all I needed was some quiet time to begin. The pattern is actually knit as increasing semi-circles so you have to start by turning your stitches into a semi-circle. I'm not very good at reading a pattern and envisioning it in my head so I wasn't exactly sure that what I was doing was correct, but once I started knitting it it became clear to me. It actually took me 3 tries before I got it right and could start the actual pattern work (I kept losing my stitches when I would unzip the provisional cast on -- my fix for this was to put the needle through the stitches and then unzip -- took more maneuvering of the yarn, but it was only 3 stitches so it wasn't that bad). But it could have been worse.

You can see the fruit of my labors in the picture below. Pretty nice eh? (:{ Notice the wonderful lifeline, and the nice arch of the semi-circle.

The only complaint I have so far is that I've already run into some yarn yuckyness and had to cut it out and re-attach the yarn. I really hate when that happens. I see a complaint letter to elann.com in my future. But other than that, so far, so good.
And I'll be sure not to make the same mistake I made with my first attempt at lace work: I will not bring it to Stitch and Bitch. Lest I get to talking and mess up all my beautiful stitches. This is strictly a quiet me time knitting project due to the concentration I want to give it. And yes, because of this I may not finish by the wedding, but I will finish. (:{

Mail Call

I actually received my yarn a couple days ago, I've just been too lazy to post.
There are my 5 balls of Callista yarn, my very first purchase from elann.com! They are actually much prettier than the picture shows, i blame poor lighting.



And what exactly will I be knitting with this wonderful yarn?

Why the Luna Moth Shawl of course!


I know, I know, it looks a bit complicated. And maybe I am getting in over my head with this one, but I really really want to knit this. To wear with my dress at my cousins wedding in August. So as soon as all of these secret projects and gifts are done knitting, I will attempt the shawl. (:{

I plan on making it a bit smaller than the pattern states though. If I knit it to size it would be a blanket on me since I'm so short. And I dont want to feel like I'm carrying around a blanket on my shoulders, that's just not attractive.