Socks and Other Unmentionables
I've been meaning to write a post titled, "I'm Doomed! Doomed, I Tell You!", but, you guessed it, I died before I could do so. Oh, well. Just to clarify, I'm talking about Sock Madness, and once again, I made it through to Round 2, but didn't make the next cut. The cool thing about SM, though, is that you get all the patterns, no matter when you get knocked out. AND the community is fantastic! A great bunch of people. Definitely worth the two down days that always follow getting knocked out of the running. And this time, I'm almost done with the socks, whereas last time, I had picked poorly for the yarn, and ended up frogging what little I had managed to do before my untimely demise. The one pic I have of the socks-in-progress is pretty bad; I'll wait until I have the pair finished and can take a good shot of them. The second round socks were Reversai: socks that look the same, inside and out. A cool concept, a great pattern. I will be happy with these when I finish them.
On to other things! I've made great progress on the leg warmers, though I'm stalled out on them, in favor of more challenging items. (And I forgot how SM speeds up as the rounds progress: I'm not yet done with my Reversai, and the lace weight sock will be released on Thursday! Yikes!) But I do a little on it, here and there; it's good for the treadmill, since it's not on tiny needles, and I really don't have to pay much attention to it. They're so late already, not sure a little more matters. Will have to get around to dying the red soon, though. I've GOT to remember to pick up some KoolAid......
I finished Barbie's sweater, almost in time for her Easter birthday (finished it up that morning), and made the hat later, but ran out of yarn on the pants. This puzzles me extremely, as I doubled what the recommended yardage was, as I was going to be holding the yarn doubled, only to later realize that the yardage given was for holding yarn doubled. Do I really knit that loosely, that more than double the yardage wasn't enough, by more than half the pants? I find that difficult to believe. Never had this trouble with Nickey Epstein's Barbie book before, but I guess there's always a first time....
Outside of competitive sock knitting, what I have been spending most of my crafting time on is the costumes for Costume Con 26, which starts April 25. I'm cautiously pleased with my progress, and hope I'm not tempting Murphy to mess with me by saying that I think I will get the costumes done with time to spare. I have assembled most of the pieces of Sam's Kayleigh costume, though I have to do some modification of some of the pieces I bought. I have everything I need for her Edna costume, except the fabric for her tunic, which I should be able to get Friday. The tunic itself isn't too difficult, except for the sleeves; thank goodness little girls have small arms! Our nightgowns are almost done (hems, buttons and button holes, and one structural seam); I still have to make our nightcaps, and decide if I want to do the wrappers or not. And my dress for the historical Masquerade is probably about half done, not counting the hand-rolled hems on the skirt and the sleeves. It will be drop-dead gorgeous, if I do say so myself, and I can't wait to post a pic. If I can get most of the rest of the historical gown done on Friday--or--clean house on Friday, so I can sew on Sunday, I should be down to handwork by next week. Please, please, pleeeeeeeeeeeez make it so!
Oh, I did get one body blow recently: remember all those scarves that I made for the flea market at my daughter's school? A dozen hand-made scarves, some knitted in fun fur, some loopy ones crochetted in Homespun? They never made it to the sale; they were put, instead, in the donation box, to be sent to the school on the poor side of town that we help out on a regular basis. I was really bummed; I know it's not particularly admirable, but I was looking forward to the "ooh!"s and "ah!"s that I would have overheard, to seeing how much they were selling for, and how fast (and if!) they sold out. Disappointing.
Still have several old projects in progress: the sweater coat (though I heard of a great trick to soften it up, so I won't worry about finishing it up and having the recipient not like it, so THAT's a good thing. Thanks, Ellen!); the Red Carpet convertible (keep going back and forth on that one. I think I've finally resolved to finish it in a short length and maybe try a corset version of it later on, maybe in chenille); the second sock of the pattern I designed for SM2; the (shudder) embroidered tablecloth. There's also a blankie for the Hubster that I bought the yarn for, but have not yet picked a pattern. And the Farm Blanket that I keep forgetting about, for some reason. Have cast on socks for Kate's birthday, but have not made much progress yet, and have asked for the measurements for the German Stockings I'm making for a friend. (Is it rude to write to a woman and ask, "Is it O.K. if I knit these socks for your husband?" Shall have to ask Miss Manners. From Kate and Belle's responses, I was apparently not thinking clearly, in that their husbands and they themselves need these socks. We shall see.)
On to other things! I've made great progress on the leg warmers, though I'm stalled out on them, in favor of more challenging items. (And I forgot how SM speeds up as the rounds progress: I'm not yet done with my Reversai, and the lace weight sock will be released on Thursday! Yikes!) But I do a little on it, here and there; it's good for the treadmill, since it's not on tiny needles, and I really don't have to pay much attention to it. They're so late already, not sure a little more matters. Will have to get around to dying the red soon, though. I've GOT to remember to pick up some KoolAid......
I finished Barbie's sweater, almost in time for her Easter birthday (finished it up that morning), and made the hat later, but ran out of yarn on the pants. This puzzles me extremely, as I doubled what the recommended yardage was, as I was going to be holding the yarn doubled, only to later realize that the yardage given was for holding yarn doubled. Do I really knit that loosely, that more than double the yardage wasn't enough, by more than half the pants? I find that difficult to believe. Never had this trouble with Nickey Epstein's Barbie book before, but I guess there's always a first time....Outside of competitive sock knitting, what I have been spending most of my crafting time on is the costumes for Costume Con 26, which starts April 25. I'm cautiously pleased with my progress, and hope I'm not tempting Murphy to mess with me by saying that I think I will get the costumes done with time to spare. I have assembled most of the pieces of Sam's Kayleigh costume, though I have to do some modification of some of the pieces I bought. I have everything I need for her Edna costume, except the fabric for her tunic, which I should be able to get Friday. The tunic itself isn't too difficult, except for the sleeves; thank goodness little girls have small arms! Our nightgowns are almost done (hems, buttons and button holes, and one structural seam); I still have to make our nightcaps, and decide if I want to do the wrappers or not. And my dress for the historical Masquerade is probably about half done, not counting the hand-rolled hems on the skirt and the sleeves. It will be drop-dead gorgeous, if I do say so myself, and I can't wait to post a pic. If I can get most of the rest of the historical gown done on Friday--or--clean house on Friday, so I can sew on Sunday, I should be down to handwork by next week. Please, please, pleeeeeeeeeeeez make it so!
Oh, I did get one body blow recently: remember all those scarves that I made for the flea market at my daughter's school? A dozen hand-made scarves, some knitted in fun fur, some loopy ones crochetted in Homespun? They never made it to the sale; they were put, instead, in the donation box, to be sent to the school on the poor side of town that we help out on a regular basis. I was really bummed; I know it's not particularly admirable, but I was looking forward to the "ooh!"s and "ah!"s that I would have overheard, to seeing how much they were selling for, and how fast (and if!) they sold out. Disappointing.
Still have several old projects in progress: the sweater coat (though I heard of a great trick to soften it up, so I won't worry about finishing it up and having the recipient not like it, so THAT's a good thing. Thanks, Ellen!); the Red Carpet convertible (keep going back and forth on that one. I think I've finally resolved to finish it in a short length and maybe try a corset version of it later on, maybe in chenille); the second sock of the pattern I designed for SM2; the (shudder) embroidered tablecloth. There's also a blankie for the Hubster that I bought the yarn for, but have not yet picked a pattern. And the Farm Blanket that I keep forgetting about, for some reason. Have cast on socks for Kate's birthday, but have not made much progress yet, and have asked for the measurements for the German Stockings I'm making for a friend. (Is it rude to write to a woman and ask, "Is it O.K. if I knit these socks for your husband?" Shall have to ask Miss Manners. From Kate and Belle's responses, I was apparently not thinking clearly, in that their husbands and they themselves need these socks. We shall see.)
Labels: embroidery, games, knitting, projects, sewing
posted by Bridget @ 3:18 PM
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