Nerdopolis - November 2014, Round 2

Challenge 1 - Area 51: Procrastination Society

 Putting off things has been a part of human history since tasks were created for us to do. We as humans know we need to do them, but somehow we keep telling ourselves “I can do that later” in favor of something more fun in the moment. Before we realize it, it’s almost too late to get the job done!
This month we want you to focus on those projects that you’ve been setting aside in favor of other things, or projects you’ve been meaning to finish for a deadline. For example:

• Finish knitting mittens for a holiday gift
• Crochet more squares for the blanket you meant to finish in the summer
• Dye some yarn you’ve had lingering in your stash for awhile
• Spin the rest of your singles to finish your yarn you started awhile ago

 My submission:

Description of how event theme is met:
I was trying to finsih those socks by the end of October, for the first round of Nerdopolis. I was almost done, when couple of things happened on the very last day (of course!)
- My last day at my clients - had to go and say goodbye to many people, since I worked there for a year and worked with many different people on several projects.

• Giants parade - Giants won World Series and they had huge parade on that very day on Market Street where I work, when I was desperatelly trying to get home (opposite of the parade!) to attend my son’s Halloween school parade! I was only person walking furiously in opposite way trying to catch non existing bus (I clocked almost 20 K steps that day!)
• My son’s parade! and games afterward in school
• Hallowen trick or treating in the evening!

So, I couldn’t finish those socks by any means, and after I got decent sleep I finsihed last inch, bound off, and sew ends on November 2nd…

Team shout out for Nerd Cred: (Optional)
Blue is Babylon 5 color - uniforms are blue, wormholes are blue, and Babylon 5 itself is grey and blue, reminding of a color of my socks:

Challenge 2 - Wildcard: Prepared or Just Lucky?

Which is better: being well-prepared, or being lucky? Are you the a Type A personality with all your hooks and needles neatly organized in ascending size order? Before a new weaving project, do you just set the warp and weft, and start weaving without a goal in mind? Do you research historic weaving styles to prepare for your next project?Do you knit your gauge swatch, or just wing it?
This month’s Wild Card challenge is to craft something illustrating why one style is better - or worse - than the other. Tell us your reasoning and convince us too. You could:

• weave a cloth that surprises you with its interplay of colors
• dye some yarn carefully following a recipe
• get lucky with a new knitting technique or pattern
• jump right in let freeform crochet take you on a new adventure
 

My submission:

I am usually organized person and have to have everything ready before I start the project, and then I follow pattern exactly :)
This shawl was done that way until I got to the lace portion, where I got the idea of adding beads and couldn’t get it out of my head. So I decided to totally improvise - all I knew is that for fingering weight yarn I need beads size 6/0 (whatever that means) and dental floss and I went to local craft shop without even my yarn and bought 2 sets of 300 beads, one red and one amber.
When I got home, I tried amber beads and they were good, so I looked at lace and decided to put bead on every k1 stitch, figuring out that’s the safest place. And that is what I did - I used almost all beads and I dropped them several times, but all in all, this was a rare moment for me, my total whim and improvisation worked, and worked very well.
I gave that shawl to my mom, since it looked awesome on her, and I can see more beads in my future :) Planned or unplanned :)

Team shout out for Nerd Cred: (Optional) Beads - like droplet of rain on the plant in Zen Garden Green Sector. Babylon 5 is a space station and as such, it grows it’s own as much as possible. But besides just function, Garden is a tranquil place, place of relaxation, meditation or just place for a talk.

 Challenge 3 - Carousel Global Community: All the Places You'll Go 

Have you ever had the itch to travel? Whether it be to a far away land to explore new and interesting things? Or to the ruins of an ancient city long forgotten? Or perhaps it is just to that farmers’ market they have in the next town over that you heard was really cool. There are many many places we want to travel to, some near, and some far. There are also many places we just haven’t been yet, and it is often not because we lack the desire to go.
For this challenge, craft something inspired by a place that you would like to go but have never been able to travel to.

• Craft a toy animal for that safari you always dream of
• Craft a market bag in case you ever get a chance to go to that new mall
• Craft something with sparkles for Carnival
• Craft something in the colours of your favourite team that you want to go see in a live game just once.
•  

My submission

I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to visit Lothlorien! My heart will be happy to climb those trees and watch the stars from their top, listening to Elves singing… Stripes on my sock remind me of the trees with light on Caras Galadhon!

Team shout out for Nerd Cred: (Optional)

Narn homeworld used to be rich in forest before Centauri came and strip mined their world for resources. Now it’s desert, and it will take many generation to restore the world back (if ever).
Narns do wear lots of yellow and orange, as my socks, as we can see in G’Kar splendid uniform:

Nerdopolis

 Yes, I didn't blog for a while and Nerdopolis happened.

 This is tournament based game, 3 month long competition between teams of crafters, and of course teams are as nerdy as people want them to be.

 I usually sign up with Team Rangers, for Babylon 5, there are many others like Team Precious (for Tolkien), Team Tardis (Doctor Who), Team UU (Terry Pratchett), Team One More Page (games) etc...

 Nerdopolis is one of a successors of the Nerd Wars - original game is officially done. It was smashing success and finally grew so large and time consuming that original author retired it.

 There are 2 games now - Nerd Wars is still on, but it's not focused on points, and people can belong to several teams.

 Nerdopolis is more like original Nerd Wars - there are 5 challenges per month, people are organized in teams, and there are nerd creed points for tying up your project with your team.

  First tournament run from October 2014 till December 2014.

Nerd Wars Tournament 8 Round 1 - Discovery

Team Rangers
Craft: knit

Project:
Description: Primordial soup is the place where the life began. Theory explains that the warm temperatures of the earth and its water bodies, a mix of gases including Methane (CH4), hydrogen (H2), ammonia (NH3), and water vapor (H2O) together with some form of energy ( assuming lightning) were responsible for the formation of the first building blocks of life, the amino acid. How it actually happened it’s still a mystery.

I’ve knitted colorful block that reminds me of amino acids in RNA in primordial soup - bright, full of colors and life.
Watson-Creek model of RNA:

My block:

Team tie-in:
Colors, colors everywhere! Babylon 5 is a place of many alien races and in hopes to promote better understandig between them, captain Sinclair gave every race an opportunity to display their customs. Minbari were dignified, Narn’s full of chants and smoke, and Centauri? Loud, full of food, colors and drinks! This square will be perfect coaster on Ambasador Molari festive table!

Nerd Wars Tournament 8 Round 1 - Encyclopedia

Team Rangers
Craft: knit

Project: Opal square

Description: I was born in August, but I was 2 months premature, my birthday was supposed to be in October. Birthstone of October is Opal - mineraloid that can have different colors, but most commons are blue and green. I knitted a 1st square for my sons’ blanket in light blue, representing opal like this:

I do claim my birthday on both days :) I do feel like Libra more often than Leo - several people refused to believe that I am Leo :)
Team tie-in: Blue is prominent color on Babylon 5 - station is blue, Eartforce uniforms are blue and when off duty, several people wear blue or silver color. And yet, since most humans are military, we don’t see them wearing jewelry much, but other races do, specially Centauri - they value appearances way more than anybody else and wear their wealth proudly,as we can see at this Amabasador Londo picture:

Centauri gliter:

Nerd Wars Tournament 8 Round 1 - Nerdology

Team Rangers
Craft: knit
Project page:
Bearfoot bear
Team Unity Project
Description of the project;
My inspiration for this project are feet - humble, everyday feet that propel us from one place to another, without complaining and burning fossil fuel… Well, not exactly not complaining, ok:

Feet are simplest form of alternative transportation, and yet often overlooked or neglected.

To get our feet to perform their best, we need good, comfortable socks to cushion them when walking, protect them from cold and pamper them with softness.
I knitted pair of socks for my DH, of wool/mohair blend that are silky to touch and tough to wear. They were supposed to be his birthday present (july) but he liked them so much that he got them earlier :)

Team tie-in:
Captain Sheridan is a all around awesome guy, but as everybody else, he has his little “rituals” to help him deal with stressful situations. One of them is leaving socks to wash - his old drill sergeant always said that the person who has nothing left to do is going to get killed. Only he would live forever, because he always had socks to wash…
This is also our TUP project - this month we are crafting something to represent 20 years of Babylon 5 and it’s importance to us. Those socks are made of yarn famous for durability and comfort, and I do hope they will last at least big chunk of those 20 years. Being present for my DH, who is in my life for almost as 20 years too and another big Babylon 5 fan, makes me very glad that I am able to knit Sheridan socks for him and make him happy!

Nerd Wars Tournament 8 Round 1 - Flexible schedule

Here are the projects:

1) Flexible schedule is the category for things you started before Nerd Wars tournament, and you finish it during the tournament, and it required at least 2 hours of work.
Challenge:
This month’s challenge is to sit back, relax, and enjoy a cup of your favorite beverage while you finish off those projects we just haven’t had the chance to complete - and pay homage to that beverage.

 I did 2 - circular baby blanket for a coworker

 That circular blanket was fun, at least until I got to the last couple of rows - every row started to take forever! And then, I did border in seed stitch, and didn't do increases, and had to go back 8 rows because blanket was not laying flat, but circle was getting too small, bunching into rectangular shape. I knitted border again with increases (but only 3 rows) in seed stitch and it worked fine. Cascade 220 relaxes a lot after washing and soften a bit, so after blocking this blanket much better.

Baby cardigan for her baby boy - Valley yarn superwash from Webs:

I've named cardigan "Little soy milk bean" - pattern is "Coffee bean" and me and coworker often went to Starbucks together in the afternoon for coffee - latte with soy milk for me, short macciatto for her  :)
I love the colors, initially I wanted more blue, like the one in the blanket, but WEBS at Stitches was out of blue (guess what was the most popular color!) so I got bluish-purple and I just love it :) Luckily, my coworker likes the colors too :) And those cute little frog buttons are from Etsy shop :)
 Only issue I can see is that I made 3 months size, and I have a feeling that this will be used more at 6 or even 9 months, depending on the baby size...

Tournament 8

 Deja vu... I am Ranger again ....:) And I am rewatching Babylon 5 again :)

 This time I decided to try to post more often. Round 1 is done, and I had bunch of projects finished, I almost melt the dwarf :)

 Well, official terminology is dwarf the nebula, previously it was melt the cube - when you finish all the challenges for that month. We, the Rangers joke about having a date with dwarf, nebulize the dwarf, melt the dwarf ... Poor dwarf with us :)

I almost did got that dwarf, if 28th wasn't on Friday night I would mail donation one too, but couldn't get to the post office in time. Anyways, it was fun round.