(Spoiler Alert!  Friend for whom I am making the Butterfly Bloomers with Bows!  There will be pictures further down!)

So, the Velveteen Vest.  Velveteen is a bit of a pain to work with, but having fought epic battles with velvet before, it wasn’t quite as bad.  Sure, it squirms its way out of the places you want it to stay, but much less so than its silk/rayon fully napped cousin.  And I can iron it quite safely on the wrong side at high heat, and I use a damp little towel as a pressing cloth for the right side, and so far no ill effects.

It’s looking pretty good!  I still haven’t figured out why the side front piece has that odd join at the underarm.  Don’t know if it was a cutting error on my part, could be a dart miscalculation on the pattern drafter’s part, but I’m not overly worried about it.

It’s a BurdaStyle pattern, and with their new site design, there doesn’t seem to be a way to comment on the patterns anymore.  I’ve had some big problems with them and their new site, but maybe that’s because I know a little more about the behind-the-scenes web design and development work than their average user.  There were some really dumb mistakes, which I gently pointed out to them, and which after weeks they still haven’t corrected.  It’s sad, really.  I had a lot of respect for the old site and community.

Anyway, I also finished up the Butterfly Bloomers with Bows!  I drafted the pattern to my friend’s measurements using this tutorial, which is very straightforward and easy to follow. She picked out this fabulously soft and cute (although wrinkly, I had JUST ironed them and folded them when I decided I should take a couple of pictures) white-on-white butterfly print.

My friend and I both have a similar sensitivity to having elastic around the backs of our knees, so she had the idea to leave a small gap in the elastic at the back, and tie it shut with a bow.  Here’s a detail where you can see, if you look verrrrrry closely, how the 3″ gap is tied shut with the ribbon:

Love that Venetian lace!  It was surprisingly easy to work with.

We watched most of the episodes of Legend of the Seeker while I worked, and it’s not the Best Show Evar (B says they’ve departed wildly from the books), but it’s got great characters, beautiful scenery, lighting, and cinematography, and of course, delicious costumes!

I particularly love Kahlan’s Confessor dress (she can really get that thing flying in the fight sequences), Zedd’s Wizard’s robes, and of COURSE the Mord Sith’s highly impractical yet somehow utilitarian leather getups.

Jane Holland is the costume designer for the show, and if it’s got a familiar feel, well, she did Xena and Hurcules back in the day.  But more recently, she did the costumes for Underworld, and I see a new level of sophistication and detailing in her work on this show that I didn’t notice before.  I think part of it is thematic – Xena and Hercules were both often tongue-in-cheek, but B has been forcing me to watch Xena (yay Neflix watch-it-now!) and I’m enjoying it more than I thought I would.  And I did catch myself lusting after a kimono-style dressing gown she wore in a dream sequence.

1. Goooood Yarn…, 2. Footless Sock, 3. Doing the Happy Tilli Thomas Yarn Dance, 4. Stitches Loot

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

Mom and I got a little high on yarn fumes.

The Stitches Yarn Market took up most of the top floor of the Cobb Galleria Convention Center in Atlanta.   This was probably the same size as all the Dragon*con vendor rooms put together.  Gi-gantic.

Unable to pass up a costuming opportunity, I dressed as Second Sock Syndrome.  (Viva la Single Sock Liberation Movement!)  Still haven’t finished casting on the second footless sock, but I wore my single sock proudly.  Only one person, the genius behind Creatively Dyed, commented.  She was awesome.  The lack of comments I chalk up to 1. visual overstimulus, and 2. polite knitters.

I particularly love that Mom and I apparently wore our favorite colors and then proceeded to buy things that matched what we were wearing, inadvertently.  Creatively Dyed’s SeaWool roving is spectacular.  Zoom in on my photo to really get into the goodness.  The photos on her website are very good, too.  I started spinning it up last night and it’s sooooo soft.  A little slipperyer (yes, that’s a word now) than the coarse Swalesdale I practiced on, so I’m having to get used to it, but the yarn has a gorgeous sheen.

The Loot:

• 8oz Creatively Dyed Seawool roving in the SR3 colorway
• 2 hanks Tilli Thomas Pure and Simple in Jade
• 1 ball Yarn Place Graceful in Violetta
• Pattern for a twisty artsy beret from MissBabs
• Ebony spiral shawl pin
• Magenta felted flower zipper pouch, made by artisans in Nepal

So now I’m obsessing over what to make with my goodies.  I have a few shawl ideas for the Graceful.  There’s 900+ yards in one ball, so there’s lots of it to play with.  I’m thinking Spring Things or Aeolian.

The Tilli Thomas came with a pattern for a fishnetty stole made on big needles.  I started casting on and got annoyed, but it was very hot, and I may give it another try.  The drape on that yarn!  It’s so smooth and soft.  And I LOOOOVE the color.

Earlier in the day I had seen a few booths with a sister yarn to the Pure and Simple, except with beads and sequins, in the same colorway, but I decided I’d rather put the beads into the knitting myself.  So when I found the little kit of Pure and Simple tucked behind a display in another booth, I pounced on it!  And then I wondered if someone else had hidden it there and wanted to come back for it.  The shop ladies teased me that indeed someone had, and that I’d probably have to fight her if she came back and found me buying her yarn.  I’ll have to try to remember where I bought that from, all the ladies there were very funny!

I had no idea how much fun it would be to spend the entire day in the market.  So many ideas, so many sample knits to feel and analyze, so many pretty colors!  I was pretty exhausted by the end of the day.

I did manage to finish my handspun beret around dinnertime though.  I think the Guinness 250 helped.  Yum.

So, conclusion?  It’s definitely worth $6 to get into the Yarn Market at Stitches South.  This was my first fiber convention, and I think one of the bigger ones would be a really fun weekend trip.  Might be even more fun if there are people to chat with at lunchtime, but who wouldn’t mind if we broke off into smaller groups to browse.  It would be way too difficult to wrangle more than 2 or 3 in a group with all the shiny around.

I’m starting small. Here’s a picture of a Ballband dishcloth/swiffer cloth I made recently:

It was really fun to knit. I love the slip stitch pattern. Mine didn’t really end up fitting my swiffer all that well, but I may just use it as a scrubbie in the kitchen anyway. It took hardly any yarn, so the most expensive part of it is the labor. It did take longer than I expected, but that always happens to me with garter stitch. It’s really sturdy and I like the colors. I think mixing multi-colored yarn like the pattern suggests will be fun next time around.

Another small project:

Yoda! It’s a great little pattern (Ravelry link), so much fun to make. Lots of tiny pieces, but it goes so quickly that it didn’t bother me at all.  The birthday boy loved it.  Who doesn’t love getting Yoda for their birthday?

Stay tuned…

So, no, no pics today. Here’s what I’ve been up to:

• Need to get me some wires to block out my Forest Canopy Shawl – yay! It’s sooooo soft. I just want to huddle under it until Spring remembers it’s late for something.
• I’ve signed up with The Kitchn’s 8 week Kitchen Cure challenge. Yes, that middle photo on their post is, indeed, my kitchen! I took a ton of before pictures. It’s keeping me fairly busy.
• Yesterday I spent most of the day working on painting my Skorne Hordes army. I’ll take some pictures when they’re all done. I’m painting their armor peacock turqoise instead of the red they’re shown in, which is part of the fun of these figures. My elephant-like Titans are the palest shade of pink, because what is scarier than a rampaging pink battle elephant?
  • In case you aren’t sure what the heck this is all about, it’s a game that is sort of like chess in the sense that there are figures with different moves that you play against an opponent’s army. But unlike chess, there are several different factions and the rules get pretty complicated. Still a lot of fun though.
• I’m eyeing several different projects to begin soon. A couple of friends are pregnant, so I may work on some baby booties for real.
• Just for fun, here’s the stuff currently at the top of my Ravelry queue:
  • Urban Aran man’s cardigan – going to KAL with Mom
  • Saartje’s Booties – I hear good things
  • Arbor – a woman’s short sleeved sweater
  • Spring Things Shawl – I would totally jump right into this one except I haven’t blocked Forest Canopy yet and I don’t know how often I’ll use it. I’m also chomping a the bit for the Icarus shawl.
  • Ophelia - a sleeveless summery lacy cardigan. I’m still kind of on the fence about this one. I might try to concentrate on more mittens over the summer to prepare for our trip up to Victoria, Canada in November. We are going to freeze to death.

That’s about it for now. I’ll try to post some tasty pics this week.