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Let me tell you guys, I am having a hell of a week. I’ve been out of college for less than a week and I have a ton of stuff to get rid of, to put away until I move out of my house, and a job to find PLUS I came back to Virginia Beach to find I had jury duty for June despite that I have no car, the court house is on the other side of town, and I’m planning to move out sometime in June. So yeah. It’s been a hell of a week.
Anyway, I’m going back out of town on Saturday (back up to DC where my boyfriend lives to look for apartments and jobs and other stuff), so I have to get everything out of the cars and the living room and into the attic and my bedroom PLUS pack for my week or two out of town.
All this to say (besides that like, I like to tell you guys about my life) that I have been doing some very very simple knitting:
Just a pair of vanilla socks in Knit Picks Stroll (blue and brown, like Ravenclaw colors). Nice and simple so I don’t kill anyone while I’m doing all of my packing and stuff. I also frogged the chunky cashmere sweater but I have to rewash the yarn, so I can’t use it yet. It is nice though. I think it’ll be a scarf or something.
Anyway, I’ll be back in a couple of days with an update if I haven’t been crushed by all of my stuff.
HOLY SHIT YOU GUYS, I GRADUATED FROM COLLEGE!!
And Joe did too. Back to yarn stuff tomorrow.
So I have finished up a couple of knitted things this week because, like I said, it’s dead week/senior week, so all the soon-to-be graduates are chilling on campus for a week before graduation, partying, sleeping in, and generally laying about. I have been knitting, my boyfriend Joe has been putting together a self-published album of his orchestral/piano compositions (he’s good; I promise) and together we’ve been watching Stargate: Atlantis on Netflix (which is delightful, by the way. We’re about halfway into season two and I LOVE IT).
Anyway, during the many episode of SGA we’ve been watching, I’ve gotten a lot of knitting done. Like the shorter version of my Leah vest.
Pattern: Leah, which I am currently working on writing up.
Yarn: Reynold’s Tiara, three skeins I’ve had as long as I’ve been crocheting (ie, a long damn time), probably from a yard sale or something.
Needles: US 6/4 mm
So guys? I TOTALLY LOVE THIS VEST. I really didn’t think I would care for the cropped version but OMG it is so cute. It looks great over blouses and I think it’ll look good over some dresses and t-shirts too. LOVE LOVE LOVE. The points came out exactly how I wanted (just under the bust) and the neckline is perfect. I originally tried to put in too many buttons/button holes but when I reduced them from five to three, it came out perfectly. Seriously LOVE.
Also the photo shoot was fun. My camera guy (Joe) is great and I love him.
As for the yarn: It was just a bit thinner than I would have liked. Ravelry says worsted, but it’s more like a dk. Anyway, it’s discontinued, so I won’t be recommending it for the pattern (probably I’ll just say a cotton or rayon blend worsted weight). Tiara is rayon and silk and the rayon was very splitty and the silk very pilly. The finished vest is quite pretty, but I wouldn’t recommend this yarn to anyone, especially if it’s been sitting on the bottom of your yarn bin for several years. It is a pretty color though and I did use up just about all of it, so it’s out of my stash.
I believe I mentioned before I was working on a cotton summer hat — I’ve finished that too and will have some details/pictures in the next post. Suffice it to say that it’s awesome and basically the best hat ever. That post will not be tomorrow as tonight is Cinco de Mayo and I will be drinking tequila. Yes.
It’s finals week! Boo! I had two finals today and I have one on Wednesday and two on Thursday, plus a final paper due on Thursday. Basically, this week is full of the suck. The finals I had today were Women in Opera and What is Time?, the latter of which is relevant to this blog.
Basically, the final was to create a project that was interactive/could be experienced in some way and explored the concepts of time we discussed in the class (the class being exactly what it says on the tin). Being the knitterly sort, I chose to involve knitting in my project. I knit a hat, photographed it along the way, and strung the photos together into a stop-motion video. This is the hat I made:
Pattern: Aaron’s Hat
Yarn: Paton’s Rumor
Needles: US 8/5 mm
I steamed the hat as it came out a little short (and Rumor is mostly acrylic with a touch of alpaca). It turned out pretty well and will either go into the gift pile or warm my head next winter. One of those. Rumor, incidentally, is a metric fuckton softer than the similar blend Bernat Alpaca blend, which is scratchy and full of guard hairs. Rumor is nice and soft, though it did shed everywhere.
Sorry for the quality of the photos in the video; I had to take a lot of them. Here is my finished product:
The numbers:
I took a photo after every dpn (4 per round)
The hat has 36 rounds.
That’s 144 photos total (plus extras when the photos were blurry or my camera strap got in the way)
Under normal circumstances, this hat would have taken one hour to knit.
Knitting and photographing took approximately five hours.
It’s all condensed into just over one minute.
It was a huge pain in the ass, but I’m pretty pleased with how it came out (even though the pictures are crap). I think it was fairly well received.
Also, in case you were wondering, the music was composed by wonderful boyfriend, who would like me to mention that he threw it together in a couple of minutes cause he’s great (okay, that last part was me).
It’s Friday! I have a cold! I’m still working on enormous socks! Here are some pretty pictures of flowers I took today on my way home from class. Spring: It’s here.
And here’s a bonus one of my boy:
I like to think of myself as a pretty snappy dresser. I try to look nice most days (though I’m always disappointed when I look nice and feel confident and then don’t see anyone all day). I try to incorporate hand knits and hand-made items into my daily wardrobe and sometimes I more or less successful at it.
I’m pretty pleased with today’s outfit, for example. I occasionally like to photograph the outfits I like best so I can remember them for later. I feel especially good about this one because most of my favorite clothes are in the dirty laundry, so I had to get a little creative:
I love it though! Here’s the breakdown:
Jeans: Old Navy, probably from a thrift store
Tank top: H&M
Shrug: This One from Fitted Knits in Cascade 220 (goodness my hair was shorter and redder then)
Shoes: Guess kitten heels, $3 at a yard sale
Earrings: Rue 21 outlet
Hair: AM SUPER PROUD OF I LOVE HEIDI BRAIDS
Basically the only item I bought from a real store was the tank top, and even then it was in the clearance rack and only $3. Not only is this outfit super cute, it was also super cheap. Yay!
I love this picture. The words are from a poem by TS Eliot called “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” I think it’s pretty apropos of my life right now. Worrying about one day at a time.
Sorry there’s no knitting or crafting in this post. I’m still working on those socks from last time (I’m up to the gussets; they’re very large). Things (my life, crafting, everything) should pick up soon and things will get back to normal. I’ll finish these damn socks and then knit another pair. So knitting is happening.
This is going to be something of a short point as I’m currently dealing with some things (someone close to me in in the hospital). I can’t really get into it, but suffice it to say I don’t really have the brain space for anything except sleeping.
I am knitting a little though. I started these socks last week before all of this sort of exploded (before Thursday) and had/have been making pretty good progress. They’re not hard, which is good cause I can’t really do hard right now.
More on the socks later when everything has gotten back to normal.
Sorry I’ve been away for a couple of days. I’ve been busy and mostly have only been knitting shark mittens because I swear to god, I’ll be knitting them for the rest of my life.
OH WAIT I’ve also been doing some sewing.
So last night was a thing at my school called the Victorian Ball, in which people get dressed up in elaborate Victorian garb (much of which they have made themselves, like Rachel, who made bloomers, a slip, a petticoat/underskirt, a dress, a bustle, and a vest thing (and probably some other stuff I’m forgetting) not to mention she also wore a corset she bought.
So yeah. Victorian Ball = SRS BISNESS. You can actually see some pictures of how SRS it is on my friend Caitlin’s blog, where she posted pictures of everyone in their fancy clothes.
I didn’t actually go to the ball (I went on a double date with my lovely boyfriend and two of our friends), but I did go to the after party, at which I didn’t want to be one of the few people in jeans. Also, I like pretty clothes. I got all dressed up to go to dinner (cause I’ll take any excuse at all for fancy clothes):
OH WHAT’S THAT THERE? That would be a corset that I made! For totally free!
The outside fabric and lining fabric I got for free from a scrap bin at a Renaissance Fair. I didn’t have any grommets, so I just used tabs of bias tape which I’ve had forever and probably stole from my mothers sewing things (she doesn’t sew anymore anyway). It has some issues and it isn’t boned, but I totally love it.
In case you were wondering, the skirt (which is basically my favorite skirt) came from a yard sale and the blouse from a thrift store. The shoes also came from a thrift store. So basically, this outfit = cheapest fancy clothes ever. We won’t talk about my stockings (which I bought from Sock Dreams and were… not as cheap as the other stuff.
Also, because I am SOSOSO proud of it, my hair:
It took forever, no lie. I did two french braid pigtails (which took a while cause I had to remember how to do side french braids), then pinned them across my head. It’s basically the most complicated and awesome hairstyle I’ve ever worn. I LOVE IT. It needed a good healthy coat of hairspray, but for being hekd up only on the ends with bobby pins, it was pretty secure.
These pictures were taken at night with the flash and the self-timer so they’re kinda crappy, but I hope to get some better pictures of the corset later this week. I also started a new sewing project which was phenomenally quick and is almost done, and of course, a million shark mittens. Also so WWFY socks.
Let it never be said I have nothing to make.
So… yeah. Sorry for the radio silence. I’ve been on vacation this week (since last Thursday and through Saturday) and haven’t had a lot of blog fodder. But I hope everyone had/is having a lovely holiday. Mine’s been pretty low-key so far, lots of shopping and resting, and my boyfriend and I are currently going through the Joss Whedon show Dollhouse (I’ve seen all it of it; he hasn’t; I think it’s brilliant and I love it).
I’ve been knitting, but mostly shark mittens. I currently have I believe three more pairs to knit, and then I have a bit of a break. Still lots of WWFY/swap knitting though. I recently received a package that had been sent to my house in like, September for a WWFY swap so now I have two pairs of socks to add to the queue. Fun. Like I said before though, once I’ve finished this round of swapping, I’m going to take a break and knit for ME ME ME.
I hope everyone has a fabulous New Year’s tomorrow. I’m attending a costume party (a fairy tale-themed murder mystery party) as Little Bo Peep. It should be lots of fun. : ) And as for resolutions, I don’t really have any other than to do better and be happy. How about you? What are your resolutions?
Stitch, Brinn, Stitch! 