Darkfall’s been pretty enthralling lately since Jesse got us into Pain Train.  I’ve made a couple new friends in the alliance (though it seems like a lot of them aren’t partial to new people or girls h up their testosterone-aimed games).  My favourite so far is Dremlock StraightRocked.  We’d actually met him a couple of weeks before when Dan, Ken, and I were out on a new player hunt in Human lands.  Now, I’m not always the best shot but I’m usually quick to spot people and ninja-eyed him while we were running through the woods high-fiving each other on our last two newbie conquests.  We hauled ass over to him and started prying the top off our can of Been-Playing-A-Month Whoop Ass.  He turned around and within four minutes crushed all three of us.  He messaged me to say we’d probably picked the wrong newbie and all I could say was that at least we’d died bravely.  *grin*  Anyway, he’s an ultra cool guy and teaches me PvP tips and takes me along to sieges too.

On the PvE front, we’ve been hanging out in PnT’s city crafting and exploring the surrounding areas.  One of my favourite aspects of Darkfall is that you don’t know much about a mob unless you’ve fought it before.  It’s terribly exciting to ride up on a bear or spider or four-armed abomination and attack without knowing how difficult the fight’s going to be or what it will drop or what you’ll get from skinning.  “Oooh, let’s kill it” are currently my most uttered words (followed closely by “MotherFUCK, I died” and “Where are the Swiss Cake Rolls?”).

Travis bought me Fallen Earth to try out and that’s been taking up most of my day time.  It’s an mix of FPS-type combat and normal MMO questing and crafting.  I’ve made several Dark-Tower-themed characters and, of course, a Gankis Khan incarnation.  I’m not terribly fond of how tedious the levels are but the story has been interesting so far.  It’s hard to make the transition from Darkfall to Fallen Earth so I spend a good portion of my play time irritated that I have to keep moving out of first person mode.  It’s always fun to hang with Travis, though; we’re all about the highbrow shit talk.

Unrelatedly, my scarf knitting has come to a screeching halt as I woke this morning to find the puppies had opened a velcro-closured messenger bag (WITH WHAT THUMBS I WANT TO KNOW), shredded all eight skeins inside, chewed up (and must have swallowed ’cause I cannot find them ANYWHERE) a set of circular needles with cable, and demolished Robert’s scarf that was half knit on said needles.  I cried when I saw the mess.  Guess I’ll be starting on the puppies’ sweaters earlier than I’d meant.

Perhaps that was their plan all along.

I totally found a pirate puppy coat knitting pattern while I was looking for Halloween costumes for the dogs (yes, I have become one of those weird pet people).  As I have dabbled in the terrifying and dangerous world of crocheting/knitting when I was younger (and more Mormon), I figured I should try it out.  However, I didn’t feel quite up to that difficulty yet, so I found an ADORABLE paw print face/washcloth pattern and have been practicing.  You can see a little picture down there on the right sidebar that links to my Ravelry projects.  Cute, huh?  I also found some badass Mario-themed ones that I’ll be working on for the kids.  Check ‘em out in my queue (you need a Ravelry account to see this).  I also plan on making some emo scarves–with fingerless mittens on the ends–for the kids and me.  The yarn’s due here Thursday!

Last week, I ordered some needles from KnitPicks.  They’re acrylic, circular, with flexible cables to connect them, and interchangeable tips to make them all different sizes.  They’re ultra cool but I’m having trouble as they’re less slick than metal needles and I knit tighter than I should.  I’m learning Continental style to help me loosen up (god, didn’t that sound FILTHY?!) but I’m still totally saving up for these.  They’re in the same circular, modular family but are metal and instead of the cables screwing on (which can come loose during normal knitting) they press in and click.  The cables also connect to make longer ones and more needles gauges are included in the starter set.  I read they’re the Cadillac of interchangeable knitting needles.  …I feel all kinds of the wrong nerdy saying that.

Lastly, I found a really sweet local knitting store: Blazing Needles.  I’m gonna check ‘em out soon as we’re un-poor.  Yay for Susie Homemaker! 

Now if I can just get my ass out of bed before 2 PM and clean something.