Laborious Knitting

I'm spending my Labor Day trying to knock out some more rows on the Doctor Who scarf. (I guess I don't really understand the purpose of Labor Day....)

For some perspective, I made little graphic of the scarf. The true colors at the top shows how much I've knitted, and the faded colors at the bottom show how much is left to go. Honestly, it was reassuring to see more than half of the scarf done. Suddenly, 376 rows doesn't look quite so intimidating.

I mean, it's still a little intimidating. But slightly less so.

My main goal for this month is to get this scarf absolutely finished - meaning not just the knitting part, but also the weaving in of ends and attaching fringe as well. I hope to be taking this scarf to the post office on September 30th. That way, I can spend all of October focusing on baby knits. I'm ashamed to say that I've knit nothing for my little boy yet, and I'd really like to have something done for him when he arrives.

You might be looking at this and wondering why it looks so crazy long, maybe longer than one you saw on another blog. That's because this is the scarf used in seasons 16 and 17. It's a compilation of two previous scarves, and is pretty monstrous. I have no idea how long it is actually supposed to be. One website said 15 feet, another said 26, and I naturally did not want to be working on 26 feet of scarf so I'm going with 15. Although now that I look at it, it probably is supposed to be closer to 26....

Some changes were made to my pattern because I'm starting to run low on the off-white color. I really don't want to buy another skein just to knit a few rows, particularly since I'm trying to pare down on my crafty supplies before we move again next summer. I'm trying to keep the stripe widths as proportional as possible, but I can tell that the chunks on one side of the scarf are quite a bit smaller than they are on the other. Hopefully the guy I'm knitting this for won't notice.... Or if he does, hopefully he won't care.

Oh, by the way, my nifty little graphic on the side was shrunk down slightly so it wouldn't take up a lot of space. If you want to see the clearer, full size one (which also has no fading on it) then just click here. Want to use that graphic for yourself? That's fine by me. Just leave a link here in the comments or on the Flickr page. I just like seeing what other people make.

The Invasion is Here

MANN   VS   MACHINE

Team Fortress 2's latest update came out on Wednesday, but I didn't get to play until Friday due to some trepidation about the game in general. (I quit playing in April because the online gaming scene was raising my blood pressure too much, which isn't good for pregnant ladies.) But a friend of mine showed me the trailer above and I had to at least see what it was all about.

The format is basically a survival mode - waves of robots will come at you, and you need to stop them before they drop a bomb at your base, blowing it to smithereens. The bomb carriers also follow a set path, indicated by blue markers before each wave starts, so it has a tower defense feel to it as well.

This new mode reminds me of another popular Valve game, Left 4 Dead, which I should add is pretty much my favorite game ever. Naturally, I love this too. It can be really tough, especially when you don't have the appropriate classes covered, but it is oh so satisfying when you do stop the robots from invading. I've also been tinkering around with the upgrades you can purchase, and I feel like I've got a really solid build for the Heavy in this mode.

If you want to know more about Mann vs. Machine, check out their page about it. And if you want to play with me, you can find me on Steam.

Dungeons of Dredmor

Dungeons of Dredmor is a dungeon crawler by Gaslamp Games. The appearance of the game reminds me of 90s-era Square Enix, when they were making such memorable games as Chrono Trigger (yes, I know they were called just Square back then.)

The way you play is similar to NetHack, by which I mean you explore the dungeon floors, loot chests, and fight monsters - but be careful! Those monsters can kill you.

Of course, there is always the option to turn off perma-death so you can reload your character and continue on your merry way.

The above picture shows the male character you can create, but there is also a female version with fiery Merida-like hair (and giant eyebrows, just like the male version.) When naming them, it's best not to give them a name that you might get attached to, because s/he will die. A lot. Even with perma-death turned off, it can be frustrating.

Dungeons of Dredmor doesn't have classes, per se, but they do offer 39 skills, of which you can choose 7 for your character. Mark likes to create combinations that synergize well with each other. I like to click the random button and get to hackin'-and -slashin'.

While I love this game as a quick time-filler, for some reason it really eats up the resources on our computers to boot it up. Why does a pixelated sprite need so many resources? Regardless, once it's running then it's fine, but I found that aspect to be somewhat annoying.

Mark originally bought this game for himself, but I hijacked it from him during work because I was bored. He bought it on Steam while the Summer Sale was going on, but unfortunately the sale ended on the 22nd. The good news is that the game is only $5.00 regularly, and for an additional $2.49 you can get Dungeons of Dredmor and its expansion, Relm of the Diggle Gods. This is why I love indie games - you can't beat those prices.

Shut Up and Take My Money

I've been spending a lot of time perusing baby boy clothes on Etsy recently, largely due to the fact that most department stores carry ugly boys clothes with tacky phrases on them. Like, seriously guys? But I will admit that I less-than-three pretty much all of the onesies in these stores.

• Linda Sumner Designs
• The Wishing Elephant

Batman! Mario! Captain America! LEGEND OF MUTHA-FLIPPIN' ZELDA! Do want. And I totally would have just spent my last paycheck buying all of them too, but, you know, I found out that PayPal is run by jerkfaces so I don't have a debit card attached to it anymore. I know, it's an easy fix, but I've gone this long.... But hey, these things are too cute not to be shared. Go look at them and squee with delight.

Left, Legend of Zelda Link Costume from Linda Sumner Designs, $12.50*


Right, Nintendo Gameboy Baby Clothes from The Wishing Elephant, $22*


*Shipping not included