Z is for Zoe!

Z is for Zoe Washburne.

Another character from 'Firefly', Zoe is second-in-command on the Serenity.  She is one tough lady!  She fought in the war with Mal and still acts like he is her commanding officer.  She is married to the pilot, Wash, even though when she first met him she did not like him and said something about him 'bothered' her.  Fandom thinks it was the weird mustache he had at the time!  Here's a LINK to read all about Zoe.

Zoe is played by Gina Torres:

The gun is perfect for Zoe; she always has a gun of some sort.  It's usually a rifle, but occasionally:

And so!  Z is last and Zoe finishes it all up!  I took a picture as soon as the marker lines were erased :D  I didn't iron it yet, obviously, but here's the completed project :D :D :D

This was fun, but next year, if there is an A-Z challenge and if I join, I'm doing something different!  

Well, probably.  That Geek Alphabet by the same designer does look like a lot of fun...

Oh, and Spike?  Totally and forever my favorite!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Y is for Yolanda

Y is for Yolanda!

Y must have been a harder letter - I didn't recognize who it was at first.  Yolanda is a Firefly character; she was in a total of two episodes, and they weren't back to back.  Yolanda is also not her real name (probably).  Her name used in the websites is Saffron, but it's probable that isn't her real name, either.  I'm not going to say a lot about her as it would spoil the episodes, just that she is a con artist who usually pretends to be sweet and innocent and then seduces people so she can rob them.  She also used the name Bridget on the show, and I laughed when Mal referred to her as 'Yo-Saff-Bridge'. :D

Yolanda is played by Christinia Hendricks.

The lipstick kiss is her symbol not only because she seduced people, but also knocked Mal out by kissing him when her lipstick had a powerful drug in it.  (I've seen that used in several shows, and the writers never explain why the drugged lipstick doesn't knock the girl out, too.)

Got to work it in... hmm... probably, Yolanda and Spike would have gotten along.  I can't see her pulling the wool over his eyes, though.  Spike figured the other characters out pretty quick, usually.  Spike is very smart and even Angel admitted it.  He just gets bored and forgets his plans.  I think Spike has vampire ADHD.  Spike is my favorite!

Only one letter left to go!

X is for Xander

X is for Alexander Lavelle Harris - always known as Xander!

Xander I like - maybe I have a weakness for sarcastic guys? LOL!  Here's his LINK, and it's long, too.  Xander is the one normal character, supposedly, on the show, though for a normal guy with no powers, he sure did attract the monsters!  Fandom (especially fanfic writers) loves that :D  

I like Xander bunches; he's in my top five characters.  Every TV show in the world, as the seasons get longer, seem to give their characters more and more angst and less and less happiness, so, like Willow, I like him better in the earlier seasons.  But I don't dislike later-season Xander as much as I do Willow.  He was still a pretty good guy, they just cranked his insecurities up to 11 and he made some bad choices.  But he, at least, tried to make up for them.

Xander is played by Nicholas Brendon, who has some very yummy shoulders.

And he's cute, too - that helps.  Even with the dorky clothes they stuck him on the show, up to and including the work uniforms.  Half the females on the show had a hidden crush on him at one time, but wouldn't admit it because they thought he was a 'dork' or a 'loser'.  Cordelia was one of them.  So was Willow.  So was Buffy. So was Dawn.  Drusilla liked him.  She called him 'Kitten'.  Spike, sarcastically, called him a 'Nummy Treat'.

Dorky shirt.  Nummy shoulders.

The eyepatch for Xander is 'cause he lost his left eye in the final season.  It was gouged out by a bad guy called Caleb, who wanted to take care of the fact that Xander, being normal, was the one who could 'see' what was going on all the time, not just with that particular bad guy.  Spike tackled Caleb, saving Xander from being hurt even worse.  Spike is my favorite!

Xander and Spike don't get along... uh, kinda?  Or so they insist.  And yet they hang out like buddies in more than one episode.  But only 'cause they have to.  Yeah, yeah, sure.

((They are secret buddies.  I'm sure of it.))

(((Especially if you ignore some of the later seasons.)))

W is for Willow

W is for Willow Rosenberg!

Here is Willow's LINK.  Willow was one of my favorite characters - at first.  I really liked her when she was a shy little nerd, like this:

And I thought it was neat when they started expanding her character and making her more confident and in control.  Then... well... I got annoyed.  It was storyline and character development that she got 'addicted' to magic, but I kept waiting for the other characters to kind of put their foot down like they did over the bad choices other characters made but it just never happened.  She used spells left, right and sideways for whatever she wanted, not caring how it affected anyone else.  She used memory spells on Tara to make her forget that she'd been using magic after she promised she wouldn't, and then put another on her after Tara found out and started to leave her over it.  And yet Tara was going right back to her when she died.

Then Willow 'went nuts', committed murder, and tried to end the world because she couldn't bring Tara back to life.  There's a popular quote from her about how she was a loser before Tara and a junkie after Tara, and the only good thing about her was when Tara looked at her and made her feel wonderful... it makes me cringe.  She wanted Tara back so she could feel wonderful? Nice...  And after all that, when Xander talks her out of ending the world and she comes back to herself - the consequences she had to face for murder, (and attempted murder) when even Buffy was going to turn herself in when she thought she had committed murder, was - she got a trip to England and to study how to 'control herself' with a coven of powerful witches.  Uh-huh... I just gave up there.

Plus, y'know, she was mean to Spike, and Spike is my favorite.

Willow is played by Alyson Hannigan:

And I really do like her in the first few seasons.  She's awesome then!

Only three letters to go!  And next up is a character I like better :D :D :D

**EDITED TO ADD**

That I forgot to say, the pencil is a good symbol for her - she used to be so very studious and worried about her grades and loved to research!

'Made of Change' Patterns

Heya!

Quick heads up - I was drifting around Ravelry for a few minutes before I get back to my 'W' block and saw that there's a special offer for two of the 'Made of Change' afghans.

If you add these two to your cart:

'Spirals of Change'

and 'Panes of Change'

Then 'Panes of Change' is free when you purchase them!  It only works if you use the ADD TO CART function!!!

I was planning to get these eventually, so I grabbed them while I could.  The offer is only good through May 4th.  The 'Made of Change' store is HERE.  I'm not affiliated in any way; I'm just a fan :D

V is for Vampires!

V is for Vampires!

More specific than Undead, lol!  A very toothy smiley face, indeed XD

This one is toooooooooooooo easy:  Spike is a Vampire, and Spike is my favorite.

My Mum's Poster

My mum finished her poster!

I think it looks great :D  She was very meticulous; all the white is colored in with a white colored pencil, and she studied pictures of the capital to get the grey shading just right, and looked up Uncle Sam's hat, too.

She's going to do this one next:

U is for Undead!

U is for Undead!

Quite fitting for the shows - Vampires, Mummies, the Reavers, people coming back from the grave (is Buffy a Zombie? LOL!!!)

This finishes out the fourth row!  I love this design - I will be buying the Discworld one soon.  Not going to try and get it done in a month, though!!!

Oh, just to keep the game going - Spike is my favorite, and he's undead :D :D :D :D

T is for Tara

T is for Tara!

Tara is Willow's girlfriend on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  She is very sweet and shy, and comes from an emotionally (at the least, possibly more) abusive background.  She is one of the few characters to die and actually stay dead on the show.  I liked Tara, but I didn't like the way it seemed like she was just an accessory for Willow.  I think her character could have been better developed.  Even her death seemed to be just to further Willow's story.  Anyway, you can read about Tara HERE.

Tara was played by Amber Benson:

The flower is a nice symbol for Tara; she seemed to have flowers around her a lot and used them in spells, although I don't particularly remember blue violets or pansies, which ever these little things are.  There's even a scene of the Scoobies putting flowers on her grave after she dies.

Tara didn't have much involvement with Spike that I remember, but she was nicer to him than most of the others, and Spike is my favorite (I got that in every other post, why give up now?) so that makes me pretty fond of Tara.

S is for Spike!!!

S is for Spike!  YAY!!!

Spike is my favorite!  (It's possible that I have mentioned that before :D )  I like him so much that a few years ago, I stitched this:

Spike starts out as a bad guy on Buffy, the Vampire Slayer.  I thought he was awesome from the very beginning, though, bad guy or not.  Later he's more of an anti-hero, is the way people usually put it.  He's got a very long story, too - even longer than Angel's.  Here's his LINK.   

Spike's actual name is William.  His historical 'Watcher' name is William the Bloody.  If the story he told Buffy about his turning is true, he was first called William the Bloody by his contemporaries in Victorian London, and it was short for William the Bloody Awful Poet.  He looked like this then:

Not a great pic, sorry, but it's hard to find more than a tiny screenshot.  After he was turned, he changed the William the Bloody title into something much more violent.  And he looked like this:

Spike is my favorite for two reasons - one is his character; he is a very unusual vampire!  For all the 'William the Bloody' name, he is much less violent than the rest of his vampire family, and he is still able to feel 'human' emotions, like loyalty and love.  He tried to turn his mother to keep her with him, although it didn't work like he wanted.  Even she couldn't feel love after she was turned and was very nasty to him.  He loved Drusilla, whether she is his Sister or his Sire, and took care of her for over a hundred years after Angelus became Angel and abandoned them.  He loved Buffy before and after he got his soul.

Also, there's the fact that he deliberately sought to get his soul returned and suffered through the Trials for it, when Angel was cursed with his soul. Yet Angel is somehow better than Spike... and completely forgiven for all the mean things he does when he's Angelus when Spike is treated like dirt no matter what.  (I feel very offended for Spike, haha!)  Spike is also very snarky, sarcastic, and hilarious!  Beyond that, he is an awesome fighter; his other historical name is the Slayer of Slayers.  He is responsible for at least two confirmed Slayer deaths.  No other vampire is listed as having even one.

The cigarette is not my favorite symbol of Spike, but I guess his duster or his Doc Martins would have been too complicated?  Anyway, he often has an unlit cigarette in his hand or in the corner of his mouth.  It's actually very rarely lit, but that is not pointed out in the show.

Spike is played by James Marsters:

Like this:

  

That is the other reason why Spike is my favorite!

An Afghan Update

I found my red floss - it was in my purse, where it should not be - I have a small separate bag that I carry this project in.  I'm working away at the S block; I have to go out for a while but I'll be back today with it finished :D

I thought I would show the afghan projects I have going - I am almost as bad with them as I am with cross stitch, when it comes to having too many on the go!  And I haven't updated them in a while.

I have the first Rings of Change to here:

Not tired of Turqua just yet :D

The second one is through the second color pattern:

Now for the Moogly Afghan CAL - there have been two squares every month but I was stuck on the very first one.  All those horrible quadruple-treble crochets, and of course, as soon as I finally got the hang of making them neatly, I only had two left to do.  I had no intention at all of pulling any out!  After I got past those, it was easy-peasy.  And now I can move on to the other squares :D

The Moogly square #1:

It's called Tamara's Kismet Square and the pattern stitch is Jacob's Ladder.  Only change I made was the last two rows - my square needed to be 12 inches and it was coming out just a little too small so I changed them from single crochet rows to half-double crochet rows. Worked beautifully!  It looks straight until I take the picture - that's crochet for you!  I haven't blocked it yet.

Here's the start of block #2.  It's much easier!  Not a quadruple-treble in sight :D  But I still have to pull one row out.  Those top V's are supposed to be in a different place XD

I am also working on a toddler jacket for my nephew and a set of placemats for my Mum but I haven't taken pictures of those just yet.

No progress on the teal-striped afghan, and I'm still on a yarn hunt for the Lily Pond afghan!

R is for River

R is for River Tam!

I seem to have misplaced my red floss; I have a feeling it's on my desk at work!  So I will have to finish up the border tomorrow.  I also don't like the way the Satin floss looks in the long stitch.  I have to contemplate what to do there.

Anyway!  River!  She's a very interesting character, on the show Firefly.  She's a teenager who was a genius and also very gifted athletically, particularly with dance.  She was accepted into a private school called The Academy which was actually a front for a government experiment that turned her into a psychotic (and psychic) assassin.  Her brother Simon managed to rescue her but they are on the run from the government; a lot of the show revolves around attempts to keep her safe.  Here's her LINK.

River is played by Summer Glau:

As for the Axe, River uses that axe and a sword, both taken from Reavers, in her 'Dance of Death' scene at the end of the movie Serenity.

I am not the only person who wished Whedon would have given Spike  a cameo on Firefly; I think he and River would have gotten along.  Spike uses an axe on occasion, and he's definitely capable of dealing with a frail, psychic little psycho girl who is actually very dangerous, as in Drusilla.  And Spike is my favorite, so that would have been a triple bonus. :D

Letter S is tomorrow!  Yay!