Episode 23: Pollyanna

In this week's episode, the girls wrap up the Hugos, geek out about fashion, talk about the latest upcoming movies & t.v. shows, as well as catch up about their DIY projects.
Come join us in our geekfest!

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Lets Talk Geek!

Hugo Wrap-Up!

Voting for the Hugos ends July 31st, so get your votes in now! In the meantime, the girls wraps up the Hugos with their votes on the Hugos.

http://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/2012-hugo-awards/

Future-geek-Fest

The girls are excited about some up-and-coming t.v. shows & movies, including:

• Anime - Sandy
• Utakoi 
• Humanity is in Decline

• Movies:
• Looper coming out in September
• Para Norman (from the studio that made Coraline) coming in AUGUST
• Wreck-It-Ralph
• T.V. Shows
• The Munsters 
• Tron Uprising 

Geek Fashion

Here's a new segment for the show! The girls talk about geek fashion, ranging from geek t-shirts to jewelry. 

Shops & vendors that sell some nice geek items:

• http://www.blackmilkclothing.com/
• http://www.teefury.com/
• http://www.springtimecreations.com

• http://www.splitreason.com
• Go Chase Rabbits -- http://www.etsy.com/shop/GoChaseRabbits?ref=seller_info

And for those who want to stay ontop of some geek fashion, go to Fashionably Geek at:  http://fashionablygeek.com/

Crafting, Making, & DIY

Knitting & Crochet

• Jade:
• The Blackberry Cabled cardigan (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/blackberry-cabled-cardigan). 

• Pair of generic vanilla socks
• Sandy: --  knitting for Afghans for Afghans and has 1.5 lbs of knitted items for the charity.

Make It Sew!

Sandy has worked on Japanese Yukatas for her friends for the Japanese Obon festivals.

Other DIY Projects

España works on some paper-mache for her artwork, while Jade makes herself a leather belt & belt hanger for Ren Faire.

Episode 22: Extra Crafty

In this week's episode, the girls make up for the lack of crafting in the previous episode by being extra crafty.
We invite you to come give a listen!

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Events

Friday-Sunday, August 3-6
Mythcon 43
Clark Kerr Conference Center
2601 Warring St, Berkeley
www.mythsoc.org
The annual conference of the Mythopoeic Society. GOH: Malinda Lo, G. Ronald

Saturday-Sunday, August 11-12
Kin-Yoobi Con
The Hilton Newark/Fremont Hotel
39900 Balentine Drive, Newark www.kinyoobicon.com
Kin-Yoobi Con focuses on featuring a diverse array of events, from game shows to fashion shows, from scavenger hunts to fan dubbing, from karaoke contests to video game tournaments! We want not only to cater to the otaku and hardcore gamer but also the average anime fan and game player.| $30 (till July 20)

Labyrinth Masquerade June 29th - June 30th → http://www.labyrinthmasquerade.com/
Anime Expo: LA Convention Center, June 29-July 2
SacAnime: http://www.sacanime.com/ Aug 31-Sept. 2

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Announcement!

We're going to be putting together a pod-ZINE in conjuction with the podcast for the end-of-summer. We're looking to our listeners or other interested folks to submit articles that you think would fit with Geeks & Crafting...esp. anything we've podcasted about before! If you want to do a Hugo nomination review, we're open for that too!

Please send us your article at GGCPODCAST at GMAIL DOT COM by August 1st, 2012. We're looking for articles, fan-art, photographs, and whatever else catches our eye.

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Making & Crafting

The Project Bin

The girls catch up on their projects since the last time they talked about making, which is a lot!

• Jade's projects:
• Finished a cardigan
• Two pairs of socks
• Two pairs of fingerless gloves
• a hat
• UFOs
• Started a new sweater, and has swatched for it.
• SPINNING: Finishing up the last 3 ounces of Gretta before it can be all plied for a sweater.
• Sandy's projects
• Ribby cardigan for a friend (on hold)
• Noro cowl
• Origami flowers
• Afghans for Afghan's knitting
• Japanese yukata (sewing)

Sandy's new collaboration with a friend: http://beetonneedlework.blogspot.com/

Everyone's welcome to join!

Book Review:

In this episode, Sandy & Jade review the following book:

Knits for Nerds: 30 Projects: Science Fiction, Comic Books, Fantasy by Joan of Dark aka Toni Carr
RETAIL: $16.99 US/ $19.99 CA

Summary: The girls liked it, but with some reservations. Listen to the show for details.

Episode 21: A Little Behind

In this week's episode, the girls try to catch up on some things that happened "recently".

We invite you to come give a listen!

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Events

Thursday-Sunday, July 5-8
Conclusion - Westercon 65
Doubletree Seattle Airport 18740 International Blvd., Seatac, WA
drupal.westercon65.org
GOH: Robin Hobb/Megan Lindholm, Art Bozlee, Frank Wu & Brianna Spacecat Wu, Chaz Boston Baden, Vixy & Tony|| $65

Friday-Sunday, August 3-6
Mythcon 43
Clark Kerr Conference Center
2601 Warring St, Berkeley
www.mythsoc.org
The annual conference of the Mythopoeic Society. GOH: Malinda Lo, G. Ronald

Saturday-Sunday, August 11-12
Kin-Yoobi Con
The Hilton Newark/Fremont Hotel
39900 Balentine Drive, Newark www.kinyoobicon.com
Kin-Yoobi Con focuses on featuring a diverse array of events, from game shows to fashion shows, from scavenger hunts to fan dubbing, from karaoke contests to video game tournaments! We want not only to cater to the otaku and hardcore gamer but also the average anime fan and game player.| $30 (till July 20)

Labyrinth Masquerade June 29th - June 30th → http://www.labyrinthmasquerade.com/
Anime Expo: LA Convention Center, June 29-July 2
SacAnime: http://www.sacanime.com/ Aug 31-Sept. 2

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Hugo Award Nominees

http://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/2012-hugo-awards/

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Nebula Awards

http://www.sfwa.org/nebula-awards/

• Novel: Among Others, Jo Walton (Tor) 
• Novella: ”The Man Who Bridged the Mist,” Kij Johnson (Asimov’s Science Fiction, October/November 2011)
•  Novelette: ”What We Found,” Geoff Ryman (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, September/October 2011) 
• Short Story: ”The Paper Menagerie,” Ken Liu (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March/April 2011) -- ALSO NOMINATED for the Hugos. 
• Ray Bradbury Award: Doctor Who: “The Doctor’s Wife,” Neil Gaiman (writer), Richard Clark (director) (BBC Wales) 
• Andre Norton Award: The Freedom Maze, Delia Sherman (Big Mouth House)2010 Nebula Award Winners 

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Avengers

To find out more about the Avengers comic books, please take a look at:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avengers_(comics) 
• http://marvel.com/characters/bio/1009165/avengers

Episode 20: Interview with NK Jemisin

In this week's episode, the girls interview NK Jemisin about her new upcoming book as well as her blogposts on RACEFAIL 2009.

We invite you to come give a listen!

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In this week's episode, the girls interview NK Jemisin about her new upcoming book as well as her blogposts on RACEFAIL 2009.

For information about NK Jemisin, visit her blog at: http://nkjemisin.com

For more information about RACEFAIL

• http://wiki.feministsf.net/index.php?title=RaceFail_09 
• http://nkjemisin.com/2010/01/why-i-think-racefail-was-the-bestest-thing-evar-for-sff/

Episode 19: Three Con Weekend

In this week's episode, we string together the various reports that about our con adventures over Memorial Day weekend, as well as Maker's Faire and the spinning event at Retzlaff winery.

We invite you to come give a listen!

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Show Summary

This week's episode is a series of reports on the various events the girls attended since the last episode, including:

• Maker’s Faire May 18-20, San Mateo Event Center, San Mateo CA: http://makerfaire.com/ 
• BayCon: http:/www.baycon.org 
• Kublacon: http://www.kublacon.com/ 
• Clockwork Alchemy: http://www.clockworkalchemy.com/ 
• Fanime: http://www.fanime.com/
• Spinning at the Retzlaff Winery, in Livermore, CA http://retzlaffwinery.com/

As this show is a series of recordings, the audio quality changes slightly with each recording. We apologize for any quality issues that you might hear.

Photos

Fanime

Episode 18: EasterCon Wrap up.

In this week's episode, Espana wraps up EasterCon, and Jade talks about leatherworking.

Come & give a listen!

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Events

• Maker’s Faire May 18-20, San Mateo Event Center, San Mateo CA

• World Maker Faire New York, Sept. 29 & 30, 2012, New York Hall of Science, Queens NY

• Conference of Northern California Handweavers-- at the Oakland Marriot May 18-20
• http://www.cnch.org/

• May: Memorial Day Weekend
• BayCon: http:/www.baycon.org
• Kublacon: http://www.kublacon.com/
• Clockwork Alchemy: http://www.clockworkalchemy.com/
• Fanime: http://www.fanime.com/

• June 2nd: Spinning at the Retzlaff Winery, in Livermore, CA

Topics

Fibery Arts

Jade

• Still working on the Chic Knits basic hoodie pattern. She's on the ribbing portion of the sweater.
• She found her PopCorn knitting via a skinny scarf with her handspun, Stained Glass. It took over all of her knitting until she was finished. 
•  Put aside her SPAKAL spinning as she is working on her costume for Clockwork Alchemy

Sandy

• Freezing my butt off in the office, so an emergency shawl is in order, over and above the lace shawl I’m searching for. Enter the Wool Peddler’s Shawl by Cheryl Oberle, from her book, Folk Shawls. Knitting it in Araucania Atacama alpaca yarn, a light worsted in turquoise, with flecks of black and brown. Doing it in stockinette rather than garter stitch for the body, started with a garter tab for the cast on (thanks, Westknits!). Garter tab tutorial! 
  
• Finished the second front of the Ribby Cardi. Yay!

• Recipient of blankie has reviewed the squares-- we started joining last night! We are doing a crochet join-- alternating scs and ch1, skipping alternate spaces. A nice, elastic join.
• New project to cast on for: Afghans for Afghans is starting their summer campaign for knits to be sent to kids and adults. This time, they want hats, socks and mittens only. Details here.

Make it Sew

Jade is still working on her Steampunk Mulan, which has morphed a bit from the original baseline.

Episode 17: Mogwai Projects

In this week's episode, we are still missing Espana, but Sandy & Jade geek out about fitness, then talk about project gremlins. Come & give a listen!

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Events

• Maker’s Faire May 18-20, San Mateo Event Center, San Mateo CA

• World Maker Faire New York, Sept. 29 & 30, 2012, New York Hall of Science, Queens NY

• Conference of Northern California Handweavers-- at the Oakland Marriot May 18-20
• http://www.cnch.org/

• May: Memorial Day Weekend
• BayCon: http:/www.baycon.org
• Kublacon: http://www.kublacon.com/
• Clockwork Alchemy: http://www.clockworkalchemy.com/
• Fanime: http://www.fanime.com/

• June 2nd: Spinning at the Retzlaff Winery, in Livermore, CA

Women in Gaming

For those of you who game online, we have a video that should be of interest, especially if you’re female or know female gamer -- it deals with sexual harassment and how women deal with the “predominately” male audience (although we know that the statistics for that don’t play out). This is a more in-depth discussion that we’ll get to once Espana returns, but we felt that this video was worth sharing now. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrLp_bArz3Q N00dz or GTFO panel discussion at PAXEast

Geeks and Fitness!

Sandy & Jade talk about geeks & fitness. Check out Fitocracy to help make fitness more fun.
http://www.fitocracy.com/

Making, Crafting, and DIY

FIBERY GOODNESS!

The girls talk about how not to turn your seemingly harmless project (a Mogwai) into something that will wreck havoc with your crafting life (gremlins) especially, if you start it after midnight (when you're tired)

• Jade
• Finished the pair of generic vanilla sock
• Started on a new sweater -- the Chic Knits basic hoodie pattern. 
• Still spinning for the Knitmore girls SPAKAL and has 3 ounces of Gretta spun up
• Almost had a project turn from Mogwai into a gremlin!

 

• Sandy
• Ribby Cardi is going great!
• Blanket Squares for our friend are completed
• Looking for the Ultimate Shawl
• 
  

Completed Squares

 Beading

Jade went to the Bead Society of Northern California  bead show at the Oakland Marriot with about 120 vendors and artisans.
 

Costuming

Jade is still plugging away at the leather parts for her costume. While sewing with a leather awl, the project bit her, and she bled a little bit over the leather. But most costumers don’t consider it done until you’ve bled over it!