Geeking out in the U.K

Friends of ours recommended that we visit Forbidden Planet, which is just a small chain of stores around London that carry comics, SF/F books, collectibles, games, and other media memorabilia. It's just more massive than any comic book or game store than I've been to in the U.S, and they had a massive range of products. I didn't take any photos (unfortunately), but if you're in the U.K, stop by at least one store.

As part of our trip, we caught our train to Wales at Paddington Station.

And if you're familiar with that name, you might be familiar with a certain bear, named Paddington. Obviously, we had to stop and take a photo of this "little" bear.

We also had to go to Kings Cross Station to catch our early morning train to Scotland. Despite what you might think, this station is pretty modern.

And for those Harry Potter fans, we took some photos at Platform 9 3/4ths. Luckily, because our train was so early, we didn't have to wait in line to take a picture, but unfortunately, this also meant we couldn't go into the huge Harry Potter store right next door.....

We didn't make any special trips to see these "monuments". It was just lucky that we were passing through these locations. However, it did make my little geek heart sing!

DIY Geeky Pillow Cases

There is an often a dearth of practical geek goods that don't cost you an arm and a leg, like bedding. There are some out there, but they are often made for child size beds. The adult size geek bedding is often made out of crappy fabric --- I'm looking at you ThinkGeek and your polyester bedding! And I've been longing for my old Star Wars, Batman, and Holly Hobby ones (hey, don't judge...:-P)

(Edited to add: Someone just pointed to PotternBarn Kids, where they have QUEEN size sheets of the old Star Wars prints!! http://www.potterybarnkids.com/products/star-wars-sheeting/)

I've been wanting to remedy the situation for myself. So I was at the fabric store the other day and found some geeky type fabrics in the remnant bin of soft cotton flannel with each one was about not-quite 2 yards in length. I knew the perfect projects for them, and they only cost me $5.00 per remnant.

So I got to serging and sewing.

Since standard pillows measure 20x26, the amount I got was more than enough to make a good size pillow case. Plus, as pillow cases are rectangular, it took a total of 20 minutes to make two pillow cases.

The following diagram shows the dimensions I used for the pillow case.
 

(Note: This is a quick and dirty tutorial. There are more elegant ways to make a pillow, and certainly one with more construction effort. However, this is what I did.)

1. WASH and DRY your fabric first before you start sewing. So, you know how much you actually will have before you start sewing. It'll be tragic to sew your case, then have it shrink in the wash.
2. Measure & cut your fabric per the diagram.
• I simply folded the fabric so I would have less sides to sew. However, you can also cut out two pieces of fabric instead.
•  Pinking shears are your friend!
3. (Optional) Serge all of the edges or use an zig-zag stitch (on your regular sewing machine)
4. Fold over the fabric, as shown in the diagram, and measure accordingly.
5. Pin the wrong sides together along the longer side. Sew both the long sides.
6. Turn the Top Hem by 1" all around the edge. Pin in place then sew. (You can have a bigger top hem than what I did with mine. I was just constrained by how much fabric I had.)
7. Turn right side out.

Viola! Finished pillow case!

I love flannel fabric. It's so soft and warm. Even one of the Boys helped me test drive it.

It's the Little Things: Geek Jewelry

It's the little things that make me happy. The movie, Labryinth, starring David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly, is in my all-time top 10 movies of all time.

I love the puppetry that Jim Hensen's company put into the movie. The door knockers in the movie are funny and memorable.

I recently acquired these adorable earrings from an Etsy seller in Ontario.

Aren't they the most adorable things! I think the artist really captured their facial features. I can't wait to wear them.

Knitted Klingon!

As masquerade photographer, I often get to view a costumer's creations before the convention public, and many of them just blow my mind of the craftsmanship, creativity, and effort that these costumers put into their outfits. It's a little perk, but I enjoy it immensely.

This WesterCon had a motley of spectacular costumes, and I enjoyed every single one of them. However, when someone mixes my two loves -- crafting and science fiction/fantasy -- and bring them together in a grand mash-up of creativity -- well, I just have to stand up and take notice. And this particular masquerade entry just blew my mind as a knitter!

IT'S A KNITTED KLINGON!

Yes, you see that right! It's an entire Klingon outfit that has been knitted head to ankle.

The costumer in question (Shael Hawman) knitted an entire Klingon outfit --- from her cabled hat to mimic the Klingon forehead ridges, to her braided yarn wig, to her simple ribbed dress. This Klingon is dressed head to foot in yarn-y goodness! And her bat'leth was knitted out of yarn over a bat'leth form! (Or at least I think so -- I'm not quite sure how she created her bat'leth.)

This costume was something that I hadn't even conceived of creating, but now that I see the finished object, it is definitely a marvel to behold. She knitted the whole thing out of acrylic yarn -- as she told me it would be much too expensive to knit completely out of wool. Even so, she said was very warm underneath all those knitted garments.

I found out later that she won Best in Show - Workmanship at BayCon2013. So much kudos to Shael on her amazing outfit.

(I'm still working on getting the rest of the Masquerade photos up, but I thought you guys might enjoy a sneak peak.)

Grrly Post about Handbags

As a geek grrl, I'm not big into handbags. I use a lot of messenger type bags, especially those from Eagle Creek and Timbuk2. I don't like "girly" type bags that need to match my outfit or shoes.

My small Timbuk2 bag looks kinda sort like this:

It's small, it's practical, and it fits all my daily gear neatly (including a small knitting project. AND it goes with everything. I usually carry it with me everywhere. (Yeah, I'm not the fashionista!)

However, as a photography geek and fiber arts geek, I like carrying around my knitting projects and (sometimes) my camera gear around. As a professional photographer, I have some hefty gear. My point-and-shoot camera is small enough to fit into any bag that I might have, but not so much with the DSLR and lens.

My Timbuk2 & Eagle Creek are great for carrying out general gear and a knitting project, but not so much the camera gear.

This means, I need a bigger bag than I normally carry, but with enough protection for my camera gear. AND that I can take to more social events without clashing too much with whatever outfit I'm wearing. And, it doesn't necessarily need to be a messenger bag.

Now, most camera bags can fit the bill, as they are big enough to handle my gear AND take a knitting project. BUT are basic black, made for men, heavy, and generally boxy, ugly and SCREAM "camera bag"!

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE my camera bags, which are great for when I have to go out on location to shoot or if I'm going out into the woods with my gear. But for general urban shooting or social events? I'm no fashionista by any sense of the word, BUT I like to be a little bit stylish. Plus, have I mentioned some of these camera bags/backpacks are HEAVY when empty?

So, I started looking around. There are more and more women photographers out there, and surely, someone's got something that is
a) practical
b) somewhat stylish (even for a geek grrl like me)
c) fits my needs

I found two potential candidates:
* Kelly Moore bags
* Jill-e

Now, I'm leaning more towards the Kelly Moore bags, because of Kelly did a bunch of videos showing off the bags; how big they are, what they can fit into them, and how they fit against her body. It gave me a really good idea of how it would work with me. PLUS she's got a wide variety of designs & styles.

They aren't boxy at all and come in a variety of colors. This one is catching my eye:

However, the Jill-e bags aren't bad either.

It's definitely outside of my normal style, and appeals more to the *girl* in me, than the GeekGrrl, but I think I can manage.

Geekery: A Definition

According to Wikipedia:

The word geek is a slang term, with different meanings ranging from "a computer expert or enthusiast" to "a carnival performer who performs sensationally morbid or disgusting acts", with a general pejorative meaning of "a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, esp[ecially] one who is perceived to be overly intellectual".[1]

Back in the 80s, if you were a geek, it meant you were a computer or technical nerd of some sort. However, words change over time. The term, geek, pretty much means someone who is devoted to a particular skill, hobby, area of interest, and pursues that to the best of his/her ability.

Nowadays, you have:
* computer geeks
* sci-fi geeks
* film geeks
* comic book geeks
* roleplaying geeks
* knitting geeks
etc. etc

In essence, for me, a geek is someone who is an enthusiast, who loves their particular area of interest (often passionately) to the point of distraction.

Now, not only am I geek in the true sense of the word (a computer geek), but I have varying areas of geekery that have nothing to do with computers. I am a jack-of-all-trades sort of geek.  Some main forms of my geekery include:

* comic book geekery
* book geekery
* photography geekery
* fiber arts geekery (knitting, crocheting, spinning, etc.)
* costuming geekery
* sci-fi geekery
* steampunk geekery
* music geekery
* gamer geekdom
* baking geekery

In this blog, I'll touch on various forms of my geekery, while trying to maintain focus on my crafting geekery.

Time to get my geek on!