You shouldn’t though. Shaking babies is bad.
My manager at work is due in December, so we had a shower for her at work last week. You may know my anti-pastels-for-children policy, so I jumped for joy when I found a baby hat designed to be made with Noro!
My poor camera is on its way out, so I took these with the not-great camera phone:
Cuffed and uncuffed. (It’s amazing how similar my Magic 8 Ball is to the size of a newborn baby’s head.)
This hat has such a HUGE payoff for very little work. I started it during a web design meetup presentation on PHP and the crown shaping is really easy to keep track of in your head. Well, I’ve had a bit of lace knitting practice, so it might not have been so easy for me a couple of years ago.
Mama and Daddy loved it and I think were both relieved by the pretty colors. I didn’t get a chance to take a picture of the wrapping paper, but it was white with photographs of chimps wearing party hats. Again, compliments. I love how being my quirky, unusual self surprises people. I also love that their surprise surprises me; I so often live in my own little bubble world.
Posted in Knitting.
I got into a conversation on Ravelry with a woman in Wyoming looking to barter for some of the yarn I’m not using anymore. She’s going to make me slippers! I did warn her about my amply-sized feet, but she’s up for it.
Go say hi to her if you’re on Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/people/AuntyM
Posted in Knitting.
I’ve enjoyed Marnie McLean’s patterns for a while now, and when she recently released her Alsace Le Monstre hat pattern, just in time for me to whip it up for a late-summer baby shower, I was really pleased. The hat is just adorable, and the construction is really well thought out.
Here’s an in-progress shot. You may have noticed a lot of green yarn lately. Yep, all from that very skein of Cotton Ease. Very nice cotton/acrylic blend. I decided to use the green for the teeth because I liked the lower contrast.
Here’s a detail of the horns. The one on the left is stuffed. Isn’t that cool? I love twistie horns.
The eye is crocheted, and I only had 100% wool, so I felted it before I sewed it on.
On the left, unfelted. The hardest part was getting the horns to line up and twist the way I wanted them, but they’re pretty forgiving once they’re sewn on. You can smoosh them and twist them if you really need them the be symmetrical.
All wrapped up and ready for the shower. I’m philosophically opposed to pastels for children. An interesting side effect? Compliments on the wrapping since it tends to stand out. Cool.
No action pictures yet, but he’ll grow into it soon. His mama tried to put it on, but alas, her head was too fully-grown. Still, a high compliment indeed.
Posted in Knitting.
Blogging is hard! But, I have lots to share, and I’m going to try to queue it all up and publish it over time. Getting into the writing mode is new for me, but I’m digging it.
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…
Posted in Geekery, Knitting.
I must have this fabric:
Mermaids Aqua ~ Mendocino
That is all.
Posted in Inspiration, Sewing, Supplies.
First, before I get ahead of myself, next year I am going ALL OUT for Halloween. This year we won’t be around for it, so I just can’t really get in the spirit. Although I do have some ideas for decorations next year.
Photo by w_dinkel on sxc.hu
I’ve started planning and budgeting for winter holiday stuff, which gets me thinking about the most efficient, elegant way to do things.
- I don’t really do the Santa/Christ thing.
- I’m a Unitarian and that means I can pretty much do whatever I want as long as I’m not infringing on anyone else and it enlightens me.
- I like fire, trees, snow, and ornaments. Especially birds!
- I LOVE giving presents!
- Getting them isn’t bad either.
- An excuse to tell people how much you love them is always a positive thing.
So, I’m converting to Solsticeareanism this year. I just made that word up. You can use it too. We Solsticeareans surround ourselves with bright, warm, pretty things and share our blessings with others. Made by hand, if at all possible.
Join my cult of awesome.
Posted in Inspiration.
I’m heading up to visit my family tomorrow, and of course today I am obsessing about what projects to bring.
The top-of-brain projects:
- Brain Slug – a birthday gift
- Toe-up Jaywalker socks – are being difficult. I can’t find a gauge, they’re taking a long time with the tiny needles I chose, so I’ll probably leave them at home.
- Fibonacci Cowl – (Ravelry link) The one I’m making is loosely based on this. Mine isn’t Moebius-like. I’m just not that cool. One math reference is enough for now!
- Prickly fingerless gloves – I don’t think I have any yarn for these but they’ll come in handy.
- A trio of floopy berets: Rose Red, Star Crossed (Ravelry link), and Bounce – I can’t decide! I might have to make them all.
- Carillon - A cropped cardigan whose pattern isn’t quite written yet – go look at the picture though! If you’re on Ravelry, please encourage the designer to finish writing the pattern! I told her I’d be happy to help her size it up to a large.
Tomorrow I’ll be visiting Halcyon Yarn! So I’ll have some supplies to look for there, as well as try out their spinning wheels. I don’t know how many are available to store visitors, but they carry wheels from Ashford & Kromski; Louët, Majacraft & Schacht. Dangerous. I have only tried Mom’s Hitchiker and a Louet S-15 which was damaged. I didn’t really care for either, but I think everyone’s preferences can be wildly different. I’ve been lusting after the Majacraft Suzie and Little Gem for forever. Thanks to our failing US Dollar, their price has been going up and up. The Louet company has a couple of base models which are really reasonably priced, so I’ll definitely try one of those out. They come unfinished, but it might be fun to do a little trompe l’oiel painting.
Wish me luck and keep an eye on my Flickr account for some good ole fashioned cellphone photo blogging!
Posted in Knitting, Spinning, Supplies.
Whew, that was a long pause.
Life has been pretty busy, and all of a sudden it got COLD. I just want to post real quick while I’m taking a little break from work. While I was sewing up the Polonaise, I managed to finish off two other great projects that I’ll blog about shortly.
1. I finally made a duct tape double! You saw her peeking out from under the mini-bustle!
2. I made a really cute monster hat for the little one who was growing inside one of my duct tape double partners.
Those will get their own posts. Other than that, I photographed all of my stash, except for the two balls of chenille yarn I used for the steampunk hairpieces. I have a stupid amount of yarn. Stupid. Having pictures of all of it will really help me “shop the stash” and actually use the stuff I’ve already paid for. In theory.
I recently started a little minisweater/shrug based on the free pattern from One Skein Wonders. Many people have many problems with this project. First, it’s only one size. I guessed and sized it way up to accomodate my larger frame, but it definitely is no longer a One Skein Wonder. I’ll take some pictures soon and you’ll see what I mean.
I tried out a new technique! I inserted cables in between the raglan yarnover increases, and it is a fantastic detail. Not too showy, but sophisticated. I’m really in love with this idea lately. You’re going to be fussing with the raglan shaping anyway, why not put a delightful little detail in there while you’re at it?
This weekend I’m going to a webmaster convention in town, and next week I’m visiting my parents up in Maine. I’m really excited. I’m going to bring lots of knitting and take lots of pictures. Mom got us an alpaca fiber spinning gig at a fall festival and I am really excited about that. I’ll be spindle-spinning as I don’t have a wheel, but if there’s a wheel there, you can bet your something-you-don’t-normally-bet that I’ll be trying it out.
Posted in Knitting, Spinning.
We make an odd but stylish couple!
Also, I owe you a picture of the bustle itself:
Something about that dark teal is really hard to photograph. But you get the idea. It needs real boning, not the plastic bendy stuff. It’s already getting droopy in this picture at home on the duct tape dummy. Which doesn’t have legs for the back panel to brace against and be not-droopy, so it’s a combination of factors, but darn it’s cute.
It turned out way too big, and it needs something to make the front cuter. It’s a work in progress. Very comfortable to sit in.
On to the dreadhawk:
I made these myself from wool roving, a few strands of yarn, chinese wooden beads, brass coins, etc. Up top is my tiny top hat mounted on a headband, which is not comfortable, but very secure. Then come the shorter dread combs that I use for bangs. Then two bunches, one larger one as a base, one smaller one as an accent on top.
Getting my hair prepped to install the falls was interesting. I used B’s spiking spray to glue the twists and it did a wonderful job keeping everything in place. Here’s a little montage:
And a detail of the makeup – copper and deep aqua.
I’d like to get some better photos in a photoshoot sort of situation. It’s hard to capture the shinyness of the fabric when you can’t control the lighting!
It was a really fun Dragon*Con and I wish I’d been feeling better so I could have worn the costume a second night. Next year I hope I won’t get sick the day before the con!
Posted in Sewing, Steampunk Polonaise, Supplies.
This week I had a sewing buddy! Lindsey is in town for a couple of weeks and we got a lot done on our costumes.
Here, Lindsey is doing her best Stella impression, “I like to sew with lethuh…”
I started The Pleat Strip From Hell, but messed it up and decided to call it a night. The next day, after spending the morning making buttonholes, I headed over to Heidi’s place for a sewing day, which was really low-key and fun. Lots of good advice and especially some good, aggressive egging-on from Kate. She pretty much shamed me out of my whinyness. I do get pretty whiny sometimes. If you’ve ever dealt with me in whiny-land, I hereby apologize and thank you for putting up with me.
Are you ready for the onslaught of pictures? Hold on to your butts! Here we go!
Yes! It’s a bustle! The color is really hard to photograph. The yellow bits are my boning channels. Kasper was interested in the ruffles. He knows I instinctively avoid them, but as I mentioned before, Kate was adamant, in a good way.
I learned a cool tip on making quick ruffles without any special equipment other than your sewing machine. Simply crank the top tension up to 11, set your stitch length as long as possible, and sew away. MAGIC!
I forgot to take a picture of the bustle finished (I was exhausted after sewing all day), but here are some pictures under the polonaise!
I love my mini bustle so much. I’m going to wear it just like that, with pants underneath. It’s really comfy and I’ll practice sitting in it next time I try it on.
Posted in Sewing, Steampunk Polonaise.
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