The Jig is Up

So November and December have now passed me in a blur. There will be LOTS of crafty pictures to follow after this weekend so I need to upload a lot off of the trusty old camera.

I find myself looking at 2012 in a completely different place than I pictured at the beginning of 2011, but it’s a good thing. God does know better what I truly need even when I’m trying to make things go my way. I just need to learn to trust more. In that sense I’m looking at 2012 round the corner with a new boyfriend (here fore referred to as Jack, courtesy of one of his coworkers that now likes to call me Sally as well), looking a going back to school, and still looking for a job that will take me with my limited experience. Also, Jack knows about the blog and did a bit of prodding about why I haven’t been posting lately so I’ll have to remedy that.

And it can’t be New Year’s Eve without some resolutions, but these are a few that I’ve worked up.

1) Read the Bible in a Year completely and chronologically. Here is a pdf of the plan I found and will be trying to follow. Although another good reference I found using a wide variety of versions you can read online can be found here.

2) Exercise! I’ve really been slacking on this one since the move and earlier this year when I got sick and had a bad reaction to the antibiotics they put me on. I need to get my yoga ball out and reinflate it since it’s been hanging around empty since the move and with that I haven’t really been sticking with my yoga/pilates routine. Hopefully my Mom will be joining me in this one as I work on my core and try to get back into running.

3) Waist Training. I love corsets, and I’m currently in the research phase but I hope to be making a waist training corset for myself and begin work on cinching down a bit. I am not going to become what is known as a “tight lacer” because that is way too extreme, I just want to cut down a couple inches to help give myself more of an hourglass shape. So I may start posting about that when I start.

And that’s all for now, I’ll see you all next year. Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas Hat

So 25 days until Christmas, and I don’t think I really want to look at my to do list. One thing I’m plowing through right now is the hat my sister requested. All she really asked for was a hat with ear flaps, preferably in black and grey. So I chose this Norwegian Star Earflap Hat(Rav Link) by Tiennie. I think it’s gorgeous, never mind that color work tends to always give me a swift kick in the rear end.

I’ll post a picture once it looks more like a hat and less like a black circle with two black triangles attached. I just hope she likes it.

Tattooing? No, Tatting.

Saturday IM conversation with Guy. I was making a tatted ornament sleeve.

Guy: What ya doing?
Me: Tatting.
Guy: Huh?
Me: I’ll send you a link to see it.
Guy: Tattooing? *
Me: No, tatting. With a shuttle and thread. **
Guy: Ahh.
Me: Not what you expected, huh?
Guy: Nope, cool though.

*(Pretty sure he was picturing me with a needle trying to tattoo myself at home before finding out what shuttle tatting is.)

**(Here is where I added the link of an ornament I was getting inspiration for. I’ll post the pic later of my finished object.)

I’ve been officially tatting for a few years now, clearly not full time or one would think the Guy would have noticed a bit sooner. The knitting thing he couldn’t miss at least, considering he has a pair of knitted socks I would hope not anyway, lol.

October…

Basically kicked me in the rear end and left me in a mud puddle. Won’t really mention any of it, but this is a post to say that I will now resume posting of whatever crafty bits I come across. Starting with my cousins costume if I can manage to get the picture off my phone…

October 4, 2011

Just spreading the word today but the Lady ShuttleMaker is doing a Random Monday giveaway. This one is for some photo software that looks really cool and she reports it to be easy to use. The link is here. You can find the rules and how to enter by clicking on her button on my left sidebar or by following the link she has in the giveaway post for people who are new to her blog and giveaways.

Learning something new (double knitting)

I was realizing today that most of my knitting is really just comfort zone knitting. I can cable, knit blindfolded, entrelac, lace has gotten to be rather simple enough that I don’t have to watch every stitch anymore either. Until I thought of trying to knit a pantyliner.

This is not the most common knitted object by far, but I have an attraction to anything that will result in less plastic and less waste going to the landfills. In my little mental world if something can’t be burned into decomposition faster, it shouldn’t really be going to a landfill because it’s just going to sit there and dirty the earth. So I’ve been looking at sewn reusable (read: machine washable) pantyliners and I even found a knit pantyliner recipe but it was a 1×1 rib pattern. I knit a swatch but it didn’t really seem to be what I was looking for, the texture was too uneven for a delicate flower such as me (and I was only testing the swatch with my fingers, I knew it would be more uncomfortable once in use).

So I thought about what the best texture could be, well, plain stockinette would be a nice smooth finish, right? Yes, but there were a few problems with that idea. First of all stockinette curls, a lot, especially when it’s something small that can’t have a lot of patterning to help balance it out. Second, one layer of fingering weight cotton made it really thin, and sort of hole-y when it gets tugged out of shape, thereby defeating it’s true purpose. I suppose I could sew a fabric liner to it, but that seemed like it wouldn’t fix the curling issue. And then I had my A-ha! moment. Double knitting. The stockinette sides would balance each other out, I’d get my smooth texture, and it would be thick enough to do it’s job, while still compressing and being thin enough to not be a bulky uncomfortable mess.

But then my new problem, I’ve never done double knitting. No clue how to even start until I found this wonderful woman:

She’s very detailed and by far had the clearest, easiest to follow instructions. I could have hugged her when it clicked (videos work best for me, I’m a tactile learner so I watch and pause as copy the movements).

Now I’m off to work up a swatch and pattern. But I’m also curious, how do you learn best? Reading text, listening to instructions, or by actually doing it yourself?

And as a sidenote, five posts in one month. Not what I was aiming for but much better than my old rate. At least I’m improving.

The Drapes are Done!

So as I was sitting down to my computer tonight I opened my desk drawer and saw my camera sitting there, and then something clicked. I never posted the picture I took of the giant drapes that I just finished and spent days cursing at sewing.

So here they are in their giant sized glory:

They’re the biggest drapes in the house only beaten by my parent’s master bedroom window that is a whopping 91 inches across. Sewing-wise they are very very basic, just straight stitch, hems on 3 sides with the top fold over for the bar to be encased. My dad had to use a closet hang bar (no idea what it’s really called) at the opening since we used the fabric to replace the old badly warped doors that were abandoned in the garage since who knows when. My mother and grandmother came up with the idea and fabric and I just did the sewing.

The fabric was my main concern, my Grandmother picked out a rather thick fabric, cotton, but with the feel of canvas almost. On the edges when the hems overlapped I actually had to hand walk the machine through and even then I was a little worried I’d bend/break a needle or ruin the motor on my sewing machine. But thankfully all survived including my fingers, despite a couple deep pokes when I’d be pushing a pin through hard when it would suddenly poke through and into my finger. I’m just glad this is done, there was so much fabric my sewing desk was covered each time I’d sit and sew, worse than when I was sewing the skirt of my sister’s wedding dress.

I’m happy with it though, and I hope she will be too, even though I finished these almost a week ago my Grandmother hasn’t been here for her weekend visits yet to see them both hung and finished. Now back to even more sewing, but with much thinner fabric thank goodness!

Invasion

It’s someone’s birthday today, and this little fellow decided to show up to celebrate. He’s on his way to surprise that certain someone (who I’m hoping doesn’t read this blog anymore or that she’s distracted at a certain casino she’s supposed to be at).

But never fear, this invasion is of the fiber-y goodness kind, and he bears good will gifts.

Happy Birthday Aunt E. Live long and Prosper.

*I know Star Trek doesn’t have any aliens that look like this but it’s the closest I could find to a knittable alien life form, at least unless I decide to knit a Tribble but I didn’t have any fun fur on hand.

Aeolian Strikes Back

Finished a second Aeolian Shawl this time sort of for myself. Not really sure if I’ll gift it, but it’s likely. This one I used my own handspun that was a 50/50 Merino and Tussah silk blend that I purchased somewhere in Oregon (Jacksonville I think). It was vacation fiber in a gorgeous jewel tone palette. I turned it into a 2 ply which muted the bright gold into the purples, teals and blues. Partly intentional and partly because I was a rather new spinner at the time and I didn’t understand how plying and spinning affected the colors in the roving.

It knit up beautifully and I finally conquered my fear of nupps, now I simply dislike them because they seem a waste of yarn and time. But the rest of the lace worked out wonderfully. I even sort of devised a simple little beading hook since I don’t have a crochet hook smaller than a size 8, which I think I’ll make a little tutorial for since it helped speed up the beading.

I’m half tempted to make a second with the same yarn as I have the 2nd half of the skein left over. I wrote on a card that I had 828 yards come out of the roving but after knitting up the shawl I either have at least another 400 yards or I miscounted and I had more yardage than I assumed. The 3rd picture is closest in color but unfortunately the tussah silk loved reflecting all the light in the room and from the camera so it made it a bit of a pain to take pictures of, I’ll have to see what it looks like outside since I blocked it today and didn’t pull it off the pins until nightfall.

About the pattern, I love it. It was such a fun knit and clearly after doing 2 of them I’m still not sick of it. That and I’m on a pretty big lace kick this summer. Now off to sewing and paid work, le sigh. I need to figure out how to make knitting pay more, lol. Alas, a recession is probably not the best time to find customers looking for custom work.

Back to Life

So after a mental health break I’m back, and with actual knitting content! So look a FO!

I’m calling it my Purple Victorian Scarf because the name it has in the pattern book is “Scarf or Shawl with center pattern” it’s from the book Victorian Lace Today by Jane Sowerby. Guy actually bought me the book over a year ago and I initially planned this particular project as a gift for his mother, but I think I’m keeping it, for now at least. As for the yarn I lost the ballband some time ago but I do recall it being Knitpick’s laceweight in a purple heather colorway.

It was a very simple knit as lace goes, the knitted on border was fun to do since I’ve never done one like that before and it was a way to get my feet wet.

I’ve been busy knitting a lot more lately, as well as a lot of sewing since I’ve sort of self employed myself since my typical luck has applied itself to me finding a job, which I’m still in the process of looking for. I’ll probably start to add sewing projects to the blog since at least then I’d have something to post about on a daily basis. Sewing goes so much faster, in one day I can say “Look what I did” versus knitting which tends to go along the lines of “Look at the 20 rows of the shawl I did” which makes sewing much more photographic on a daily basis.

And what have I been up to in the last 4 months? Well, I’ve moved to the beautiful city of Riverside, Painted so much of the house that paint rollers make me a little nauseous, helped my Dad put in a new laminate wood floor (see under the purple scarf), and other home renovating things around the house. There are honestly too many to really list, and my brain likes to not think of the condition of the house when we got the keys, it’s really so much better now.

Guy and I also got back together 3 days after my last posting. I have his big brother to thank a bit for giving him a shake and telling him he was being silly. But unfortunately that means my boyfriend is in Japan now and will be until summer of next year it seems. I have a whole new respect for army wives and girlfriends. Though besides this I’m not entirely sure if I’ll really be posting much else about this. I’m going to try to keep this as a strictly craft blog. At the very least so I can organize some of my thoughts.

Next on the Agenda, no clue really. I’ll see what I get done tomorrow, I have a shawl that’s getting close to complete but as it’s lace it really looks like cat yak at the moment since it’s not blocked. So probably sewing…