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So… the day got away from me and I didn’t get a chance to snap any pictures of the thing I finished knitting yesterday or the things I was working on today. I’m heading out to a party in a little bit so I don’t have time now (and it’s dark anyway), so today marks NaBloPoMo day number one with no pictures. I did make it all the way to day thirteen though, so go me!
The party I am going to tonight is a masquerade ball, which means I had to make a masquerade mask. I was going to knit it but time got away from me, so I made it out of cardboard and leather. I want to show it off (as well as the one I helped my boyfriend make), but I’ll do it when there’s more light (tomorrow probably).
Coming up this week will be FO posts about a couple of little things, WIP posts about a new WWFY swap (for some really awesome thing), and SOMETIME this month I want to do a tut on grafting in pattern (which I figured out how to do from grafting the cabled top of my Red Riding Hood cape). I haven’t seen a tut like this around (I know, I was looking for one), so I’m hoping when I get it up, it’ll be a pretty valuable resource.
Til then, cheers!
That’s how long the boyfriend and I have been together. Tomorrow is our official anniversary, but since he’s going home tomorrow to take the GRE, we’re celebrating tonight with dinner and a movie (followed by an unrelated party with our friends). The morning of our celebratory today was alright quite lovely–we slept in til noon, woke up slowly, had a quick breakfast then went for a walk (in the middle of which I obtained a delicious white chocolate mocha + extra shot of espresso).
Speaking of the boy, I have been working on his birthday sweater somewhat off and on. I finished the body up to the armpit and have started a sleeve:
That’s 15.5 of the 22 inches I’m going to need for the sleeve and almost an entire ball of Comfy Bulky. I have two balls left to do the rest of this sleeve plus a whole other sleeve and about 3/4 of a ball attached to the body for the top part of the body of the sweater. I think it’s pretty safe to say I’m going to need more yarn. I think I’ll put a post up on the Ravelry DS/ISO board today.
Happy Saturday all!
And I’m still working on Leyburn, so instead you get a bad self-photo of what I’m wearing today!
Sweater: Owls, knit in Cascade Ecological Wool
Shirt: Hand-me-down from my sister, who is both larger and younger than me. It does not appear to have a brand tag.
Jeans: Thrift store, pegged by me for wearing in boots.
Boots: Steve and Barry’s, before they went out of business. $9. Hell yes.
Jewelry: Two Disney rings from my grandmother (that I always wear), blue Pocohontas-ish necklace that was a gift from the boyfriend.
No worries, I don’t anticipate making this a regular feature of the blog. Unless you want me to. Mostly I am all about the swaps and the finished knits and sewing projects and whatnot. Tomorrow will probably be more sock. Or something. Later this month I plan to do a tutorial on grafting (Kitchener stitch) in pattern (like seed stitch or cables or something). I need to write it up though. Along with the pattern for my Halloween cape.
So yes. NaBloPoMo!
Day three of NaBloPoMo! Whoo!
I believe I mentioned it yesterday, but I started a sock. A Leyburn sock. A Leyburn sock in SWTC Tofutsies. It looks like this so far:
I like it. I had to undo the bit after the heel and reknit it cause I made it too tight the first time, but other than that, the fit is pretty good. I had wanted to knit these two at a time, but I wound my yarn into a single ball. I’m getting a scale for my birthday (which is in December but I’ll probably get it sometime this month) from my sister, and once I do I can split single balls, but until then, I don’t want to guess, so I’m just knitting one at a time.
In other news: I’ve started watching Bones. I’ve caught the odd episode before, but I never watched it consistently, so now I am. I’m about halfway through the first season (watching it online on Netflix), and I do like it a lot. One of these days I’ll get around to knitting Traveling Woman and Temperance (I already made Saroyan).
Happy Halloween!
So it turns out that my big Halloween weekend was last weekend. I went to a dance on Friday night and had a small get-together last night. Today I wandered about downtown Fredericksburg with my boyfriend, visiting a cat-themed store (that has like, five actual cats wandering about in it and I got to scritch and pet some of them), a coffee shop, and a bookstore, and tonight I’ll be having dinner with some friends. Not a big party scene, but a pretty good weekend nonetheless.
I also started a hat because it occurs to me I don’t have to finish the sweater I was working on until December 9th, so I have some time and I wanted to knit something for ME. And I don’t have enough hats.
It’s Brambles from the most recent Knitty. I’m using some teal Cascade 220 that I picked up a while back. I used it for another small project (a peacock for a bird swap), so I should have enough but it might be close.
The hat is working up pretty quickly, and I’m thrilled how it’s coming out. I can’t wait to block and wear it. : )
With a little over a week til Halloween and two days until the first of a series of Halloween parties for which I am expected to dress up, I have been knitting almost non-stop. Of the five balls of Northampton I bought to work my red capelet, I have full worked two and am halfway through the third. I’ve finished the shoulder shaping and started the hood, so things are moving right along. Here’s where I’m at right now:
So I just have the hood left, plus weaving in ends (just the one from finishing though, since I weave in cast on tails as I go) and blocking (which the thing seriously needs–the bottom edge curls up like nobody’s business.
I have also finished the underbust corset I’ll be wearing and have the rest of the components of the costume. I’ve decided to go with either black pumps or boots (depending on my mood), but I can’t wait to put it all together and photograph it for you to see. It’s gonna be bitchin’.
I went to a “Giganic” yard sale:
and bought five issues of Threads for 50 cents, a basket, and a full-length mirror, something my apartment was sorely lacking.
I went to the mall and bought these cute boots from Charlotte Russe:
but sadly no red shoes, which is what I was looking for (for my Halloween costume and also to have). Apparently you’re not supposed to wear bright red shoes in October.
I started my red capelet for Halloween:
And I found out I now have less than a week to knit it as I’m going to a Halloween party this Saturday instead of next Saturday. Can I knit that fast? We shall definitely see. What you see here was all knitted yesterday (except for the garter border). So… maybe.
Gah, I love Halloween.
Day two of fall break was today! I spent the late afternoon playing in the Rappahannok river with Sarah (unfortunately, I did not take any pictures).
I spent the morning sorting and photographing all of my yarn stash. I spent much of the evening loading it all in the Ravelry (and watching Dollhouse). It’s all in there now, so I’ll be able to see what I have without going to dig through it all. Before I put all the yarn back in the bins (sorted by weight), I spread it all out on the floor and took a picture:
The bottom half is all worsted weight and the top half is lace/fingering/sport weights. The middle (and the very top row) is mostly yarns I’ve frogged from sweaters. Right above that off to the left side is sock yarn. I counted, and I have enough sock yarn for 25 pairs of socks (including one from my scraps, in the plastic bag there).
There are a couple of things missing from the picture, like the yarn for my Halloween cape and bonus sock yarn I got in the mail the other day. It also (obviously) doesn’t include my spinning fiber, though that’s all loaded on Ravelry. I also don’t have pictures of my acrylic yarn stash and it’s not in Ravelry since I don’t have brand names and such for it. It’s mostly assorted band-less balls a friend bought me at an estate sale. Useful for blankets and amigurumi as well as for swap partners that won’t handwash wool and don’t mind acrylic.
I like seeing it all laid out in the picture here. Maybe I will indeed have enough to knit next year when I’m a poor, starving college grad.
So I am currently on Fall Break from school until Wednesday. Which means no class on Monday and Tuesday. Whoo! Today I went downtown with my friend Sarah and explored some antique stores in the quaint town of Fredericksburg. Fun times. I also rode my bike up and down hills for about an hour, so exercise! Whoo!
We went downtown looking for Halloween costume ideas (for Sarah) and costume elements (for me). I still need to find a basket of some sort, and I am looking for red shoes as well. We were, unfortunately, unsuccessful, but we did spy this:
(sorry for the blurry picture)
That’s a muff. Made of fur. WITH A FACE. Frightening.
(In crafting news: I’m knitting for swaps and commissions. And I started today taking pictures of my stash to load into Ravelry. Also, don’t forget about the contest!)
So my plans for Socktoberfest got kind of waylaid. I had to finish up Liesl and now I have an OWS claim (for slippers, which are at least some kind of footwear) and over the weekend, I got two orders for shark mittens in adult sizes, so I have to knit those too. Plus I have a ton of work (thank you midterms) and I still have to knit my capelet for my Halloween costume. So no time to knit socks. I can, however, wear socks:
In other news, today is my second Blogoversary! I have officially been blogging for two years! In celebration, I’m having a sale in my Ravelry pattern store for blog readers! If you comment on this post TODAY with your email address or Ravelry name, I’ll send you a discount code for 50% off any pattern of your choice. That means you can purchase the shark mittens pattern for only $3! Happy commenting!
(PS: Don’t forget about the contest!
Stitch, Brinn, Stitch! 