LoopTangle

It seems I always feel like taking a picture of my knitting when I’ve settled down somewhere with a beverage.

I’m not sure what it is.  Maybe having a beverage means it’s time to relax and enjoy the scenery for a few minutes.

I’ve started a few other projects lately.  One of them is a super secret birthday gift!  The other two are a slouchy beret I’m making from some handspun my Mom gave me, which is about the same color as the turquoise in the footless sock above.  You may notice that there’s really just one at the moment.  And that Stitches South is this week.  Well.  That’s what happens when you decide to suddenly start knitting with size 00 needles.  Stuff takes longer.  Did I get the memo?  No, I did not.  That’s ok though!  With legwarmers footless socks this crazy, you can wear them however you want.

The other is an experiment with no real expectation for the outcome, other than playing with yarn scraps.

Spiral knitting!  It’s all done with carefully orchestrated short rows, and I dig it.  I think I may be able to work it into all sorts of things.   The pattern is called Ten Stitch Twist and it’s on Ravelry as a free download.

Oh!  It’s so exciting!  It started out with a gigantic box:

And here’s a photo collage of the unpacking and assembling process:

1. Opening the Box!, 2. The Ladybug Emerges, 3. Little Box of Accessories, 4. Detailed Assembly Instructions, 5. Accessories Unwrapped, 6. Double Treadle All Sunggled in its Blanket, 7. Double Treadle Yin and Yang. Kinda., 8. Getting the Wheel Out of the Box, 9. Getting Ready for Feet, 10. Unwrapping the Mother of All, 11. Am I Missing Pieces?, 12. Attaching the Treadles to the, um, Thingies. Footmen., 13. Attaching the Bobbin and Flyer.

I had so much fun taking each piece out and trying to figure out what it was.  The instructions are very detailed and have fantastic pictures to help you figure out what they’re talking about.  The lingo reminds me of sailor jargon.  “Stow the jib in the fo’c'sle, Matey!”

I was a little worried that I was missing some parts, as I matched up what I had with the list, but it turned out that they had already assembled one of the pieces of hardware, which was a relief.

Then I got to spinnin’!

I can’t believe how much faster this is.  I mean, sure, intellectually I understand the idea of gear ratios, etc.  But the wool, nay the YARN flies through my fingers.  It’s so fast I can hardly see it happening.  And I’ve worked on the long-draw drafting method a bit.  It definitely takes a leap of faith from inchworming.

I do want to get a Woolee Winder eventually.  The hooks are kinda annoying, but only because I get hypnotized by the spinning and get a giant lump in one place before I remember to switch hooks.

I’ve since plied the two bobbins of natural gray Swalesdale.  I’ll post pictures next time.  Next up – the dyed roving!  The Swalesdale wool is fairly coarse, so I haven’t decided what I’ll do with it yet.  It may make a pretty and sturdy knitting bag…

The wheel arrived and is gorgeous and I can’t wait to share my pictures with you! I’ve had a slight snafu with my home laptop, but all the data should be intact. So! Pictures soon, and yarn!

I also received my 7 pounds of wool to begin making dreadfalls, and it is SO SOFT.

Lastly, I have 3 new scents to play with for the lotion bars and I’m also working on a kitchen salt scrub (gets the onion/garlic smell right off) and a scalp massage oil. Wool dreadfalls are really light and soft, but I always have to pull my own hair pretty tight, and I thought a muscle-relaxing scalp massage oil would be just the thing after I take out the dreads. And if I like it, I bet some of you will too!

Breaking News! I have completed my taxes.  Boring.  I have received my refund.  Less boring…  I have ordered my Schacht Ladybug spinning wheel and am now anxiously awaiting its arrival!  Exciting!

I think I wish the vendor had given me a tracking number, but then I would have slashdotted the mail carrier’s site with my compulsive page refreshing.  It’s just as well for all concerned.  Friday is when I’ll start to expect it on the doorstep.  Tomorrow!

In the meantime, I’ve been amusing myself with my new Noro Sock yarn, by making some, ahem, “footless socks.”  Yes.  They are indeed legwarmers.  I ride public transportation!  I have to stand outside a lot!  No one will see my cheeto-colored stripey legwarmers!

I really believe that brighter colors make you feel warmer.  Or heathery gray.  I know that makes no sense.

And the narrow striping of a yarn with long color changes really is addictive and interesting.  I’m not 2×2 ribbing’s biggest fan, but I can knit on this for an hour or more and not get bored.  The yarn definitely has a rustic feel to it, which may be why it gets mixed reviews on its Ravelry page.  There’s lots of thick and thin going on, and odd little knots  and twists sometimes, but I think it gives it character.

It bores the crap out of the dog:

But he’s not much of a knitter.  And who asked him, anyway?

Last weekend, while I was casting on the Noro footless sock, again and again and again (I finally looked up the length trick for the long-tail cast on.  1/2″ – 1″ per stitch you’re casting on.) I popped over to TribalCon to sit at the Shimmy-A-Thon booth for a few hours.

That’s my bellydance teacher, Kira, on the right.  She is much more relaxed having her picture taken than I am!  I’ve learned lots and lots from her, and I’m really happy to be involved in Shimmy-A-Thon.  It’s a weekend event in September, with workshops and shows and a shimmy endurance challenge that raises money for Cystic Fibrosis.

Stay tuned for spinning wheel unpacking action!  I’ve always been curious about how they ship them, so I’ll be taking pictures as I unpack it.

Now with New and Improved Pregnancy capabilities!

Kate, Jo and I assembled a few months ago to create our doubles out of an old Tshirt and, you guessed it, duct tape.  It’s pretty straightforward, and it’s not dangerous to the baby (I’ve seen him, he’s doing great!) because you don’t wrap the victim tightly.  It’s not overly pleasant to be inside the duct tape, but only in the sense that a tight leather jacket is uncomfortable sometimes.

Kate went first.  She had a great sense of humor about it.  I was very nervous about taping her belly since I don’t have much experience with pregnant people, but it turned out great.

Left: The obligatory boob shot.  You just have to laugh.

Right: All wrapped up.  We put cling wrap around Kate’s neckline so we could get the duct tape right up there without any discomfort.  And what a cute belly!  She mentioned she’ll probably save it as a souvenir.

I was next.  It feels weird.

Left:  I got a little silly when it was Jo’s turn.  Arrrr!  Duct tape pirate!

Right: Kate drew a center line on each double, with a bellybutton marking.  Very handy for fitting purposes.

Lessons:

• A second layer of duct tape would be a good idea.  I don’t know about Jo’s but Kate’s and mine both seemed to stretch when we stuffed them.  I solved that by putting my corset on it, since I was working on the Polonaise (to be worn over said corset) anyway.
• Kate suggested the “old hanger through the neck, then stuff” method.  Very handy.  I hang mine in the doorframe of the studio, so the waist is around eye level.  Use your imagination to picture the plastic store hanger at the top…
  
  
• It’s interesting to see your shape from the third person vantage point.  Stuff looks different, sometimes better!

I forgot to take pictures of the final fitted mockup, but I’ll suit up tonight and take a couple for posterity. Let’s just say that I live in Hotlanta and staying in a corset was broiling my insides. Trying not to think about wearing it at Dragon*Con.

I sewed up the new darts, being an expert at this point at darts. The new ones between bust and shoulder are nearly perfect and I am so much happier with the fit. The original bust-waist-hip darts ended up a tad smaller than I wanted, but A.) that’s OK because I had to guess a little on them and try to flow the new width back into the same vertical points and B.) I’ve lost some weight between now and when I started, so a “perfect” fit will never be achieved, but I’ve gotten damned close.

On to 1.0! The copper fabric is beautiful, but it curls and shreds like a bitch. This realization may have been the point at which I made the decision that if a well-made, on-sale formal gown were to dangle itself tantalizingly in front of my face, that I would indeed buy it to save myself from having to do this a third time. Ann Taylor had a sale. The gods were listening! I picked up a nice cocktail length medium sky blue dress with beautiful details for about $100, which is probably how much I would have paid for materials for a third polonaise. So I am concentrating on headwear and warm clothes for the November wedding now. Whew!

For this problem, I have the solution. Eventually. I’m not cutting out the pieces with the pinking shears because I think it would add to the complexity of the sewing, and I am definitely in keep-it-simple mode. I think it’ll be a good seam finish though.

Again, my trusty team of pattern weights are on parade.

No, as a matter of fact, there isn’t anything left in the cupboards. Thank you for asking.

See? I know how to mark darts now! The fabric really is pretty.

The saving grace for the fabric will be the interlining that gets sewn to each piece before I sew them together. I’m just going to use some tightly woven cotton, or that bedsheet I saved but who knows where. A lot of sewing with bedsheets is going on at the Truly Victorian forums. I love reading the posts there.

So, I expect there’ll be a lot more cutting tonight with the cotton interlining, and hopefully some flatlining (Sewing the copper to the cotton. Not having heart attacks. Knock on wood.). I swear two thirds of sewing is cutting and ironing. They should really tell you that when you first start.

I don’t have pics of the Corset Day, but everyone had fun and I learned a few things:

• I have a bit of a longer torso than the Laughing Moon underbust corset pattern predicted. I’ll add an inch around the bottom of it to get the waist up into the right spot and still get a tiny bit of hip coverage.
• I sew pretty fast!
• I am not the only anal-retentive sewing-person in the world. There is something so satisfying about ironing each seam flat.
• There is still lots for me to learn.
• I need a dress form.

So I’ve got a nice little mockup and a point to get to before the next Corset Day. I will have my actual outside fabric cut, lengthened, and sewn together. I think my pattern also calls for flat lining – sewing lining and fabric pieces together prior to construction. Not to be confused with flatlining!

I enjoyed it so much. It reminded me a lot of the costume classes in college, or even the concentrated camaraderie of my studio drawing classes. Everyone’s got their own project, we joke back and forth, time seems to go more slowly. It’s one of the few situations when I’ve been able to completely give myself over to the moment.

Polonaise

I think I was still high from Corset Day when I started on the Polonaise mockup-mockup. Yes, I caved. The pattern insists that you make a mockup of the bodice of the piece, and I did. Thank goodness. You’ll see why.

First, I nearly suffocated under the weight of all those (real paper!) pattern pieces. They have you cut out different sized fronts and backs, depending on your measurements, which I thought was really brilliant.

Then I got out my Good Sewing Scissors (shining like justice!), used my trusty pattern weights to keep the pieces in place (sun dried tomatoes and salt, delish.) and proceeded to cut out the pattern pieces. AND THE DARTS.

Ugh. That was dumb, and I knew in the back of my head I was doin’ it wrong. I sewed it up anyway, to get the gist and learn from my mistake, etc.

Not bad! I’ll probably unpick the darts, patch them a bit, and resew them fairly close to the cuts. Or I might just recut those pieces, and end them just below the hip. You can’t see them here, but the fronts go below knee level and I just can’t justify wasting that much fabric.

I may finish off this mockup one day, the fabric’s color is kind of meh, but I could dye it, and I love the lacy flowers.

Next week: repair/recut the front pieces, fit the darts, cut out the copper fashion fabric for the Steampunk mockup. Maybe even sew it up!

I also need to make some trim decisions. I’m thinking just ribbon on the edges and maybe another farther away from the edges. I’ll probably try my hand at knife pleats using the cool Truly Victorian fork method (video).

I took some pictures! Lucky you! The composition is not my finest, but to be fair, I was taking pictures because I was too sick to read or knit. There were some thoroughly horrifying self-portraits, but I’m not sure I’m ready to unleash them on the world yet.

First, I honor my tools. I hang my resting circular needles from a floor lamp for some reason. I like the soft clicking the honey-colored needles make when I touch them.

Then, I took a partial picture of my giant fiber shelf. I told myself I’d arrange by yarn weight, but I just couldn’t help grouping all the colors together.

Closeups are available on Flickr, if you’re curious. The googly eyeballs are attached to a tiny little bat-shaped bag who likes to perch here and there. Unless you were referring to the Grumpy CareBear someone gave me. You can see that I’m only partly done with the shelf organization. It’s getting there though!