Prodigal Patwoman Returns

And what have I been up to? Well, let's see...

GenCon was this past Thursday thru Sunday. Regular Patwoman readers know I have been working like crazy on this chain mail. Two sets of this for Teutonic Knight costumes. (I made those tunics, too.)

I got the pattern from here. I priced out nylon cording, but it would've been very expensive to buy the 2300 yards it would take to do each one of these. So I bought two cones of Sugar N Cream yarn at Michael's. (About $6 each.)

It took me about 10 days to knit all the pieces. I used #15's, but it's all reverse stockingette stitch, so it's boring as hell. Being under a time limit and having to knit these from the time I got home until the time I went to bed really made me hate them.

Of course, they had to be finished in time to paint--first, with a coat (inside and out) of grey. I probably could have skipped this step if I could have found grey Sugar N Cream yarn, but Michael's only had the off white or the white white in a cone. Then, we painted them with a metallic silver. (I say we, but by that time, it was really only T working on them. He helped seam them together and he did all the painting.) Here they are, on a worktable in my driveway.

We finished them Wednesday night, around dusk.

I wanted to wear my Jayne Hat to GenCon on one of the four days, since a lot of Serenity geeks like me would be there and appreciate it, as well. But, I forgot to wear it every day!

Of course I did a lot of gaming. I am a gamer geek, after all. But there were lots of other things going on. In fact, on Saturday, after T, R, and M had all ditched me, I found a "Knitting Without Needles" seminar. So I got to try my hand at the Knifty Knitter.

Now, as a veteran knitter, I've always thought of loom knitting as "cheater knitting." But I am altering my opinion now. It's actually pretty fun. I learned to use the loom and knitted a tube about 10 inches long in about an hour an a half. That's slower than 2-needle knitting, but it was still fun. Alexandra, the instructor, was so enthused about her hobby that it really rubbed off on the rest of us. The session was free and she let us keep our looms and yarn and even loaded us up with a collection of patterns and websites so we could keep on knitting with the loom.

I also met many celebrities over the course of the convention. (You know how I get with the celebs!) Authors Margaret Weiss, Tracy and Laura Hickman were all very nice. A lot of artists and indie film makers there, too. And, of course, game designers. All very nice people. Where else are you gonna go where the creative minds behind a product are so accessible?

Where else are you gonna find a Roman Gladiator Arena these days? I swear, every time I had a break in my schedule, I bee-lined it over to the Arena to watch big (sometimes shirtless) guys beat the crap out of each other. (I don't know what's hotter than that!)

Now, I know you're all wondering about my encounter with Kevin Sorbo. (And how wicked am I, to make you wait until the end to get the story? You all remember that it was my goal to get him to pose for a picture with me, shirtless.

I did meet him (very handsome in person, but really not as massive as he seems on tv). He was nice and talked to me, even though his handler was rushing him along to some other place right at that moment. Took the time to shake hands and everything. He asked me my name, and then introduced himself. "Hi Pat. I'm Kevin Sorbo." I thought that was pretty funny, since... well, since I knew he was Kevin Sorbo and that's why I was there, right?

Anyway, like I said, I met him. I talked to him. And here's the photographic evidence to prove it.

No means no, Patwoman. Now put your shirt back on and leave me alone!