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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. : )
I finished my Halloween cape just in time for the party I attended on Saturday. I was grafting the hood at like, six-thirty. : ) But it’s done and I love it, and yay!
Pattern: My own, but I am working on writing up so it can be test knitted and offered for sale.
Yarn: About 3.5 balls of Valley Northampton in red.
Needles: US 7/4.5 mm
DUDES. I LOVE THIS THING. It made for a totally bitchin’ Halloween costume (which I am thrilled to be able to wear next weekend when it’s actually Halloween) and it’s also just really comfortable. It’s like wearing a blanket on your shoulders! Very warm, and I plan to wear it all the time.
I made the underbust corset as well. I used some leather I got from a skirt I thrifted and took my measurements to make a pattern on newspaper, then cut out the pattern, cut out the leather, and sewed it up and laced it. Yay! I wore it on… Thursday, I think, also because it’s completely awesome and I love it.
I took a ton of pictures of the thing earlier today, so here are some more for your perusal:
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!
So I have not been blogging as much as I would like. Part of that is that I was sick in the middle of this week and wasn’t sleeping (four hours of sleep over two days is… fun. Not.), but also I’ve not quite settled into the swing of things back at school, and once I do, it’ll be easier to blog more often.
I have, however, been knitting. I recently did a swap on the Will Work for Yarn group on Ravelry for some swatches (for photographing jewelry) in return for a shawl pin and some leftover Malabrigo:
The darker swatch was knit it Malabrigo, so it’s more like in return for a shawl pin and a bit of yarn, I got to knit with Malabrigo, which is almost just as much of a reward as the first two things.
I have also been working on that sweater I mentioned before. It currently looks like this:
I’m up to some waist shaping at the moment. It’s working up at a fair clip–worsted weight and two-row stripes will do that. I think I’m going to love it when it’s done, thought I still haven’t decided if I want to .do a v-neck or a scoop neck. I’m currently leaning toward scoop (I do love me a good scoop neck), but I could still be persuaded otherwise.
I also just finished up a swap, but I’ll talk about that another time so I can show you all the pictures for it at once. I also think I’m doing another WWFY swap (involving WOLLMEISE, which I’m pretty stoked about), so that’s pretty exciting. I have lots of things planned for the near future (birthday present for boyfriend, capelet that I’m designing as part of a Halloween costume (and also just to wear) but for which I also have to dye some yarn). Stay tuned!
Stitch, Brinn, Stitch! 