This project is what I would call a jumper, and it’s basically a tunic with straps instead of sleeves, meant to be worn over a shirt and some tights or leggings. Since moving up to where winter is a real season, I’ve found I really love wearing leggings and boots in the winter, so that I feel warm, but can still run around freely and remember that spring is coming.

I have converted the pattern to be knit in the round, since I’m not too keen on the side seams, and I think it’ll have a better line when it drapes over the hips.  It’ll get a bit heavy, but I’m OK with that.

I’ve started swatching, like a good girl, and it makes me feel all wholesome.  The pattern has two different needle sizes, and the gauge swatch for one is in stockinette, and the other garter.  So if my first attempts don’t work, I will have to continue making two gauge swatches at a time.  Ah well.  I even washed the swatches and let them dry overnight!

The stockinette swatch and the bottom half of the garter swatch I knit “in the round” by moving the work back to the other end of the circular needle, and leaving a long piece of yarn behind the work.  Sort of like how I-cord is made, but without pulling the yarn tight across the back.  Since some of the garter stitch work will also be knit flat (the bodice above the armholes) I knitted the top half of the garter stitch swatch back-and-forth.

You may be wondering whether I have achieved the correct gauges.  Well, I haven’t yet screwed up the courage to measure.  That will be something to do after coffee and breakfast this morning.  :)

Here’s a link to my project page on Ravelry if you’d like to take a look there.

I spent the first couple of days with a breaking heart, hoping against hope to see my Mom peeking out from around a corner, or from behind another knitter.  Rocklywold Deephaven Camp is just such a Her kind of place, and she would have been so delighted by all the workshop folks who were there.  Not to mention that the natural surroundings are within about an hour of where I was born and spent the first 9 years of my life or so.

New Hampshire is magical in the summer, in a very Fae kind of way.  The natural beauty dazzles, and the insects are truly impressive in their voracity.  And yes, I ate the faery food.  It was delicious.

After the first couple of days, I began to feel a strong connection and camaraderie with my cabinmates, and one evening’s entertainment related the bittersweet joy, sadness, growth, and humor of one woman’s experience with losing her own mother.  It was cathartic, it ripped out that painful little ball I keep shoved down inside, and it forced me to notice that other people hurt too.  Losing a person with whom you shared an uncanny connection happens to other people, and I hadn’t realized just how inconsolable I had been feeling for all this time.  And that’s OK, but the last thing my Mom would want me to be is miserable.

The following days I dwelled on her absence less, and enjoyed myself in the moment more.  I found that cliche, my happy place, in a very real way.  I learned about geometry and the rhythms of designing interesting patterns, other creative women shared wine with me, I communed with the lake and the sun.

I learned how to sew French seams, and an invisible zipper, and made friends everywhere I went.  I talked to strangers and tried new foods.  I had dessert at least once each day.  I was gentle with myself and listened to others’ stories and giggled and smiled and cried.  I dipped my toes in the cold, cold water, so recently snow or ice on the mountains.

I marveled at the beauty of the Luna moths that seemed to be everywhere, and at the tiny faery cities in the moss and lichen on stones and stumps.

I wore ridiculous outfits and accepted compliments graciously.  I gave compliments liberally.  I gave away a hat I made to my roommate, because I like her, and she lives in Boston, and OMG her head is going to be cold and I don’t want that.

I met the Yarn Harlot, mostly because I wouldn’t shut up about her and how I don’t do well meeting people I admire, and my roommate finally dragged her over to meet me, and we had a fun conversation where I didn’t refer to myself nervously as “we” a single time, and she showed me how to knit right from the stack of dyed silk cocoons I had just purchased.

Magic.

Here was the result, which is oddly hard to photograph:

Pretty pleased with how dark it turned out!  And I also love the microwave method, I just wish I could cram more yarn into my microwave to do larger batches.

The acid dye was also interesting!  I got separate tools for the dye, and a reusable face mask for mixing the powder, and here’s the result!  (more technical notes later!)

I call it Brushfire.  I wanted to get some dark browns and reds with some bright shots of orange and yellow and sky blue!  I think it turned out pretty great.  Spinning shots to come!

Stuff I already have:

• jingly coin belt.
• Yeah, that’s pretty much it.

Stuff to make:

• Tunic dress
• Lightweight harem pants / pantaloons (I have a pair made with a crepey cotton, but they are quite warm…)
• Tassel belt to layer under the coin belt
• Coin bra top
• Flowered headband

Stuff to buy:

• Chinese flats for dancing on not-smooth surfaces

Here’s my color palette:

Materials I’m using:

• Dark purple swirly batik cotton for belt, bra top and headband
• Dark purple cotton shirting for pantaloons
• Bright teal rayon jersey for tunic dress
• Bright magenta, dark purple yarn plus spicy-gold accents for tassels
• Spicy-gold flowers with a touch of deep magenta
• Random beads and bits of trim to add that tribal look

Should be fun!  I’m going to work on stuff over the long weekend, so I’ll have some pictures to share next week, hopefully!

The combination of dropping temperatures and rapidly receding daylight make Fall and Winter pretty rough for me.  I get up, it’s dark.  I admit I do like to watch the sunrise as I ride to work.  I leave work, and the sun is setting again.  And if I’m not careful, I go home and fall asleep right after dinner.

So, what does a normally cheerful and enthusiastic person do to keep warm, stay healthy, and keep her spirits up in the crushing bleakness of Atlanta’s (comparatively) Arctic Winter?

• Layering is not just putting on more t-shirts!  Here’s what I wear to work on a given Winter day:
  1. Cotton blend tights (wool would be better, but it’s pretty expensive) or thermal leggings
  2. Knee socks and/or legwarmers
  3. Dress pants
  4. Long sleeved layering t-shirt
  5. Animal-fiber sweater (wool, cashmere, silk, blends thereof)
  6. Cardigan – I take this off when I take off the coat
  7. Wool-cashmere blend lined coat from the menswear dept (good prices at Marshalls!)
  8. Knitted scarf (sometimes I wear the one my mother made me AND the one my boyfriend made me AT THE SAME TIME)
  9. Knitted hat
  10. Gloves (my friend gave me some gorgeous stretchy ones with beads!)

  Once I’m all suited up, I just have to remind myself that even if my face feels like it’s going to fall OFF, the rest of me is warm, really.

• Winter makes everything really dry, which is another unfamiliar condition. I’ve been experimenting with:
  1. Humidifiers – we got a second one this year, and it’s been helping a LOT.  The only problem is keeping them filled!
  2. Lip balm in my coat pocket, always.
  3. Skin Oil – hot showers are dehydrating, but if I apply a nice massage oil in the shower, scrub with a pouf and body wash, and then apply moisturizer as soon as I dry off, good things happen!  I’ll probably just use the oil once or twice a week to save time.

  The only thing I haven’t perfected yet is the damage my frequent hand-washing is doing to my nails and cuticles. But I kind of don’t want to get H1N1 more.

• Projects broken into babysteps are keeping my brain from going into hibernation.  Each night I have a plan for dinner (or ask B to plan for dinner), and 3-4 goals to achieve for different projects.  I’ve been getting a lot done!

So that’s it.  I’ve been keeping myself busy with these experiments and dreaming of what I’ll do when Spring comes.  What do YOU do to cope with the cold?

God I love that kimono fabric.  I couldn’t find my underbust corset to wear with it, so to balance out the expanse of black from the overbust corset, I made a little obi with a black grosgrain ribbon to break it up a little.  Yes!  I wore an obi OVER a corset OVER a kimono.  I’m still trying to get some better pictures of the ensemble – I know more pictures were taken!

You can see B’s amazing light and sound reactive jacket with el wire running down the lapels and sleeves, too.  He couldn’t get it to do everything he wanted, but it was a fantastic prototype.  He’s going to start a blog to record his work with el wire, since it’s sort of a new and strange technology.

In September I decided to make a dirndl to wear to Oktoberfest, which turned out pretty cute:

B helped me with some fitting issues I had with the pattern (from Burdastyle.com) and we actually removed about 5 inches of excess from the top of the center back of the bodice…  I don’t know what that says about my posture, but we got it to fit like a glove in the shoulder and bust area.  I wish I’d been able to nip the waist in a little more, but I wanted to leave room for BIER!

Right now I’m working on 2 more kimonos, these ones from a commercial pattern.  It’s kind of funny to work with Westernized pattern pieces after sewing my own drafted rectangles for the punk rock kimono.  They’re coming along nicely and I’m glad to be working in cotton again.  Those long seams would be a bit nasty with slippery fabric.  I’m already pinning the edges to death!

Upcoming projects include some travel pieces for our springtime trip to Belgium (eee!  Art Nouveau everywhere!), a red tweed sweater for myself, some solstice gifts that I mustn’t talk about here, and I have an idea to knit some large gauge cowls for a craft fair in Dec. with 3 or 4 strands of yarn held together to make it super bulky and get a tweedy color effect.

I’m saving my pennies to get another camera.  I’ve been really upset with myself for losing it.  I miss all the good pictures!

(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.

Good Stuff I Did:

• Got the Punk Rock Kimono to a fitting place.  It doesn’t fit the way I’d hoped and I am really, really disappointed.
• Got a pattern drafted and supplies for a friend’s costume and had a good time doing it.
• Cleaned up my new work area and assembled all existing pieces
• Went to the best fabric store this side of NYC, according to Yelpers, and got a few items (stretchy black knit, velvety patterned knit, and black Russian millinery veiling).

Bad Stuff I Did:

• Poked around on the internet, looking for more ideas
• Slept
• Added more projects to my list
• Didn’t take any pictures

The current list is:

• Punk Rock Kimono (which I may break up with for a few weeks while I figure out how to save it)
• Punk Steampunk (whose elements change weekly)
• Steampunk Bellydance (probably the closest to finished, mostly need to adorn the coin bra and make the brass dangle chains, and get the scrappy skirt going.)
• Daytime psychobilly comfortable ensemble (hence the knits and veiling purchases)

I may strike Punk Steampunk and reprise last year’s Polonaise ensemble.  I really like the idea of exploring the punker side of steampunk, but I’m just not finding the fabric I want for the pants, and I think boldly patterned pants need time and consideration to do well.

I’m hoping I can find the joy in this again soon.  I think I’m just stuck in the midpart between the fun planning and supply buying stage, and the point-of-no-return you-just-cut-your-fabric-to-pieces stage.

It is exhilarating.

You can’t tell me I’m doing it wrong!  There are no directions!

So, I began with the binding, because I have a particular way I want it to sit off the shoulder.

Working with the muslin is really informative.  I can see through multiple layers to add seam allowances.

It’s also really soft and fun to rip along the grainline!

I draped/drafted the front panel first:

Looking at it again, I think I need to nudge it up a little and carve out the armscye a bit, instead of the traditional straight lines.  This is Punk Rock!  I don’t have to be traditional unless I want to.

It’s a little hard to tell in the pictures, but this is also a knee-length garment.

Next I drafted some sleeves.  Very blocky sleeves.  I’m not really sure how modern Western sleeves work, I’ve just cut them out and fitted them into bodices.  They can be tricksy.  In this project, I’ve decided to be OK with the idea that the underarms may not connect with the sides.  This is not entirely untraditional, and definitely is Punk Rock, and might be nice if I get a little warm!

I also discovered a great place to put pins.  Can you see where in the pictures above?  No?

In my dressform’s neck!

Next time, I will show you how the back works, and I’ll work on a distinctly non-traditional obi.  It’s a hybrid between a corset and an obi, and is designed to enhance rather than hide curves.

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.