Bitchcraft! Episode 06 – WTF is going on?

Bitchcraft!

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Aaaaaand we’re back on schedule. Sort of. School is out and now I’m juggling having the kids at home with getting work done. We’ll see how this goes. But we should be back to the current normal schedule for webcomics.

And yes, that big Giant Hand of Doom is MINE!  MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

Bitchcraft! Episode 06 – Survival of the Knittest, part 05?

Bitchcraft!

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Is it divine intervenion?! Or something much worse?! Who knows?

I am headed out on yet another Girl Scout trip this weekend, followed by a long family trip after that. I am madly packing and working on webcomics, but I make no promises about the schedule for next week. I will do my best to have all updates ready before I go, but right now, clean underwear has the higher priority.

Bitchcraft! Episode 05 – Survival of the Knittest, part 3

Bitchcraft!

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It’s amazing how many weapons I can find in my craft room.

Mich and I survived Balticon. Many thanks to everyone who stopped by our table to see us. The support we got from you guys this weekend (i.e. you all bought something) was AWESOME!!! I’ll provide more details on Balticon later. I’m going to bed now.

Bitchcraft! Episode 03 – Survival of the Knittest, part 1

Bitchcraft!

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Uh-oh! Looks like trouble is brewing in Paradise! Or maybe it’s baking…

Mich and I will be at Balticon over Memorial Day weekend, and we will have a table! And we will be selling things at this table! Evil THINGS!! Evil handmade thiiiiiiiiings!! Just look for the Cynical Woman banner, or the very attractive woman with horns and bright pink hair.

Bitchcraft! Episode 01 – Birth of a new horror!!

Bitchcraft!

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It’s here! It’s finally here! A new webcomic!! Mich and I began thinking about this little project sometime shortly after Intervention last year. The idea really took hold of me shortly after I had my ACL reconstructed and I was on those really fun pain-killers!.  It’s taken months to get our characters put together, and I’ve spent the last couple weeks trying to figure out how I wanted to photograph and layout the actual comic, but here it is, the very first episode of Bitchcraft!

The little Mich character (in the loverly W&M sweater) was knitted by Mich, and I crocheted the mini-version of me. The hair matched my hair color when I started this hair project. It will change as time passes, don’t worry.

Just to let you know, this webcomic will not be like The Adventures of Cynical Woman. ACW has become more family oriented over the last couple of years, which is great because it’s an autobiographical webcomic and I do have a family (yes, I do!). But Bitchcraft! is meant to be very different. It will not be family friendly, so don’t read it to your kids. Instead, it will be evil. Very, very evil. Because that’s what I want it to be.

So enjoy the first episode. I will work hard to get the second one up next Friday. And yes, Rats! will eventually be returning. Now that I can walk again, I plan to get up to my office and start scanning in more strips. So lots of comics all around! Enjoy!

Sunday Contements – Hobbies

It’s only 10AM on Sunday, and so far I’ve recorded and produced this week’s Heat Flash Erotica Podcast, gone back to bed, snuggled and cuddled with the Hubster (ah, quality time!), had breakfast, read part of the newspaper, and gotten the laundry going. You can so tell that we are past the holidays here. The day is just going beautifully.

I’m on the couch right now, sipping coffee while I blog. Princess and Hubster have headed out to church, poor Catholic darlings, while Pixie and I remain delightfully heathen and enjoy a quiet morning at home. In a few, I’ll change clothes, exercise, start dinner for the evening, and get to work on folding laundry. Heck, I may even clean a room or two.

But right now, I’m blogging, and today’s topic of contentment is hobbies. I was just reading in Parade Magazine about how people are reacting to the economy and the damage to their incomes. A lot of folks are giving up the big expenses and are focusing on smaller enjoyments. In the paper last week, an article on thrifty living mentioned picking up a hobby as a way to save money. Hobbies can be easy on the wallet, and they give a person something to do with their free time other than shopping. I know for a fact that when I’m busy with writing or art or podcasting, I certainly don’t have time to spend money, so I’m happy to hear someone else agrees this is a good way to save.

I took up a couple new hobbies recently: knitting, which I’ve mentioned here before; and over the holidays I taught myself to crochet. Only the basics, obviously, but I’m doing well enough right now that I can finally indulge in something I’ve wanted to do for a while – make amigurumi dolls.

Amigurumi dolls are tiny little hand-crafted dolls, either sewn, knitted or crocheted. They can be anything from the usual lineup of stuff animals – bears, tigers, etc. – to things more obscure like little stuffed felt tea cups or ice cream sandwiches with smiley faces embroidered on them. I’ve opted to try crocheting a few dolls, since I found a couple of books on making various horror, fantasy, and sci-fi characters. How cool would it be to make a crocheted ninja! Or a Gorgon! Or a zombie!

While I was visiting my in-laws after Christmas, I started my first attempt. I took a ball of cheap rainbow-colored yarn and picked out the simplest pattern of those in my books (a robot zombie, waaaaay cool!). One of my brothers-in-law joked that it looked like I was making hackey sacks. Those were actually the head and body. Then I spent New Year’s Eve chatting with my best friend Mary while I made the legs and arms and stitched the whole thing together. I made plenty of mistakes. It took me a while to figure out how to count the stitches and how to properly decrease each row to make things come out just right. But by the time I’d finished up the last little leg, I had the hang of things. Pixie immediately claimed the end result as her own, and wouldn’t even let me embroider a little face on it. So now she gambols about the house with what looks like a faceless little malformed psychedelic crocheted voodoo doll, and she loves it. We decided to call him Rainbow Baby (or sometimes Fleur, after the ring master in Cirque du Soliel’s Allegria, which is Pixie’s favorite movie right now).

Here’s a picture of Rainbow Baby.

I’ve already started work on the next one, and this time not making nearly as many mistakes. Princess has already laid claim to him. Since Princess and Pixie are now both taking karate classes, I can imagine I’ll be doing quite a bit of crocheting and knitting while I sit in the dojo and wait for them. I like that idea, that I’ll have a couple of hours every week to just sit and make something simple and fun. Especially if what I’m making ends up being a zombie or a ninja or a Gorgon…

Or a faceless little malformed psychedelic crocheted voodoo doll. I mean really, how cool is that?!

Have a wonderful Sunday everyone, and be sure to take time to relax.

Artsy Fartsy Knitting!

This is a semi-regular post that I do intend to do, as I have a huge love for all things crafty, and finally may have some time to do some crafty things. My most recent venture into the world of the Artsy Fartsy has been in the field of knitting. A friend of mine, Mich, got me started in late June. I had been bemoaning the fact that Princess’ teacher told me she didn’t concentrate as well as she should in school, and Mich offered to teach Princess to knit. She thought it might help Princess learn to focus on a complex task, and give her something fun to do with her hands.

Well, you know if Princess is going to learn how to knit, I was going to have to learn too. Otherwise, how else was I going to help her out when she got stuck? My mom sent Princess a knitting kit, complete with a set of needles, yarn, and basic instruction book. I went out to the local craft store and picked up some needles and yarn of my own. The end result of this is that I have since created a pot holder, a belt,, a dish cloth (with a skull knitted into it!), and now a pair of wrist warmers. I’m most proud of this last accomplishment. The wrist warmers are the first knitted thing I’ve made for myself, and they won’t be the last.

I love that I can make clothing items for myself. I’m very particular about how I dress, though you might not guess it from looking at me. But I flatter myself to think I cultivate a certain sort of goth/punk mommy aura with my tattered jeans and fitted t-shirts, and I like my accessories to reflect that. The wrist warmers will look perfect this winter, giving me a certain radical chic while all the other mama-jamas stand around the bus stop wearing boring old gloves.

Seriously, though, I liked how these turned out, and they got made very quickly, which is also a plus. I’m hoping to make a matching scarf and maybe even a hat for myself as well. I’ve never really had a winter hat that I liked, so this would be a first.

The pattern for the wrist warmers, if you’re interested, comes from Teach Yourself Visually: Knitting, available on Amazon.com. You can also get it here from Barnes and Noble.