Round Peg In a Square Hole-crafts

Of Socks and Games and Other Things Yarny

2010-04-05T22:44:00.000-07:00

Sock Madness has started and I have once again made it to Round 3, woot! First two rounds weren't my favorite socks, but they're done:

Simple Side-to-Side Socks

Knitted with Love Baby Og Hosegarn gotten in a swap, on size 0 needles. This pattern involved a LOT of grafting, which I didn't mind all that much, and a LOT of picking up of stitches, which I found I really didn't like. I've been wanting to do a sideways sock, though, and I'm glad I've done one, so I know what I like and what I don't.

Cool Beans

Done with Knit Picks Harmony dpns in size 1; yarns are Elann Baby Silk (black) and Bernat Sox in Crazy Hot (variegated) I'm always up for colorwork, particularly after perfecting my two-stranded throwing technique that I developed during the colorwork pattern from last year's Sock Madness, so I didn't mind that aspect of this pattern. However, the gusset was much too large for my foot, even though I was spot-on for gauge, so I will either have to frog these to the start of the gusset and knit again, or just give them away. Leaning towards the latter.

Frankly, wasn't really happy with either of these patterns, though in both cases the pattern problems were exacerbated by things that I did (on the first socks, I picked up the stitches funny for the cuff; on the second set, I went overboard on trying to make sure they weren't too tight (used larger needles AND knitted them inside out AND loosened the tension) without realizing that there was a fourth variable having an effect: the contrast color yarn (the variegated), thought nominally the same weight at the black, was markedly thicker). All in all, since the first socks were too small and the second socks were to big, I'm hoping the third set will be Just Right(tm)......

Also, now have three new designs that I am working up for next year's game; the only hints I'll give are: shadow knitting, buttons and why?

In addition to the above-mentioned socks, I have made some good progress on some projects in the recent past: finished a baby blanket for my nephew and niece-in-law, who are expecting their first baby in early May; an adjusted version of Everlasting Bagstopper for a charity auction; baby surprise jacket for a former co-worker; quite a few bow-tie scarves; almost finished with Barbie's My Fair Lady Flower Girl outfit. In addition, I have done some work on the eternally-in-progress tablecloth (one corner is done, one more is probably 35%); dyed up some yarn with left-over Easter egg dye,

which my daughter has claimed for socks for her; finished my brother-in-law's camp shirt (ya know, the one that should have been done for Christmas?); acquired many pieces for a villain costume needed for July; made the hoop, carrying bag, shoe and cosmetic bags and bum roll for a friend's Christmas/birthday present.

So what is still on the agenda? Hubster's camp shirt; one part of one villain costume, and prototype and actual costume (including headpiece and staff) for another; ruffled Victorian petticoat (to go with above-mentioned hoop, etc.; and which, unfortunately, has gone feral); transfer the drawing of a truck to the iron-on sheets, then iron them on to two sweatshirts; Chris' German Stockings; my Muppet. Previously unanticipated projects include DD's new socks; several more sweaters like my Fibinachi Tubey (hmm, thought I had a pic of that one, but don't seem to); another Barbie dress. And, frankly, I didn't expect to have made it to Round 3 of SM, so didn't really think I'd be knitting under the gun again for a while. Who knew? And what I really want to be doing is test-knitting my three new sock designs.....

The Pledge--Conclusion and New Christmas Notes

2010-01-06T08:21:00.000-08:00

First, the notes:

-OK, you got the sleep shirts done early. Now, it's time to make sure the camp shirts are done, too. Try starting in September this time.

-Candace, Dave and Tom like the cider.

-Having guests is an excellent reason to buy a new bottle of Bailey's.

-Custard pie cooked slowly carmelizes on top, mmmm. 10 min high temp, 20 min lower temp with foil, 20 min+ without foil.

-Either start Christmas shopping earlier or decide not to get everybody something AND make sure not to beat yourself up about it. If starting early, how about right after Convergence?

Now, The Pledge.

I have to say that this was a total, unmitigated failure. Of the five items listed, one got finished, one got worked on, and the rest lay just as fallow this year as they have been in the past. I really thought that this sort of challenge would help. I'm tempted to blame it on not getting a house. This is partly true, as not having a sewing room makes it much harder to work on two of the items. But the other two unfinished ones are portable, so that excuse doesn't hold. Not sure where the real issue is.

So, I won't repeat the exercise this year. I have several things that need to get done this year; in particular, two villain costumes I want to make for Convergence. But, I'm just going to work on them--no promises.

In the meantime, a pic of the only thing on the list that I did finish (albeit on Boxing Day, and I never did get it wrapped), the 20+-year-old-sweater-coat:

And she really liked it, and wore it that weekend. Yeah!

Alphabet chart

2009-10-29T12:14:00.001-07:00

For the Sock Madness folks, I have built a seven-stitch-high alphabet that can be used with the practice pattern recently released. However, I'm unable to get any form of it posted here; not sure why. If you want it, let me know and I'll email the PDF to you. And any hints on how to post it here would be appreciated.

The Pledge--Update

2009-06-10T15:36:00.000-07:00

I had meant to do this on June 1, but that's how this year has gone. So, rather than put it off any longer, here is my evaluation of where I am on the 5 Things I Pledged to Finish in 2009:

Nowhere.

Yup, that's right, I have done no work whatsoever on any of the projects mentioned in that post on January 1. I knew it was an ambitious project, but really thought I'd do better than this.

Oddly enough, a project that was deemed insufficiently overdue to make the list did get finished, however: the Rainbow Leg Warmers.
Now, that they're done, I actually like them. Heck, I liked the yarn (all but the thrice-bedeviled red) when I dyed it. And they went quickly (stockinette in the round) and the jogless joins worked as advertised. But the agony of trying and trying and trying to get the red dyed right will always overshadow these for me, I'm afraid. Can't wait to see the pix from my step-great-niece's dance recital where she wore them, though. Also have to remember to hunt up the address of the woman on Ravelry who was collecting small amounts of DK weight yarn for some project or other. I disposed of several of the earlier failed-attempts-to-get-red to her; I'd like to get rid of the rest of them.

Of the subsidiary list of things I was going to be working on in tandem with the Dreaded 5, I'm pleased with my successes there:

scarf and hat for a friend's daughter's school's auction

grocery bags for my daughter's school's auction.

belated Christmas presents
-scarf for my brother

-socks for my mom, and three friends These I have done no work on, alas.
-slippers for my sister and brother-in-law

one pair done

one almost done

-Barbie's holiday dress
6 freakin' corsets for sale Another no-progress, I'm afraid.
Mini-Muppet sweater for Samantha's American Girl doll Samantha

That one's done

And one for my mother, as well

a camp shirt for the Hubster

In addition, I've started and finished two-almost-three more grocery bags, a test knit of a sock for Jenel Laidman's new book, two and a half pair of socks for Sock Madness, and half a pair of socks for the latest Sock War. And we won't even talk about all the man-thongs, especially as I have an order for two more of them......

Here's hoping I make more progress in the second half of the year than I did in the first!

Severe Case of Start-itis

2009-02-23T15:40:00.000-08:00

I have seriously been trying to move a few UFOs to the FO column, but I backslid badly this weekend, worse even than for the Superbowl. While I did finish one project that's been on the books for a while, I managed to start seven.

First, the FO:

Really like these Baby Fern Rib socks, that were a test knit for someone on Ravelry. I finished the first one fairly quickly, to evaluate the pattern, but hadn't finished the second sock, because Christmas intervened. However, I now have them to wear and am very happy with them.

Now, we come, in no particular order, to all the things I started. I have no pictures yet of the third Muppet, which will be for my mother, but it'll look a lot like the one for my daughter

and the one for her doll.

Mine, when I get around to it, will at least be a different color, and may be a bolero/shrug-ish version. Maybe.

Also with no pix is a chemo cap for a friend who just finished her radiation treatment and is almost done with her chemo. Better late than never, I'm thinking, and it's being done with a lovely acrylic/mohair blend called Divine, in a soft purply-pink that I think she will love. It should knit up quickly.

Last with no pix is another pair of felted slippers for my sister. I really seem to have some resistance to making these: I've lost the yarn several times and forgot the pattern at knitting the other night (thank you again, Ellen, for mailing it back to me!) Hoping to get these done quickly, so they can actually be used this year. (Have another pair to do for her husband, but have yet to cast those on.)

Now, we come to some "cheater pants" projects, as my daughter would say, in that they were both started and finished this weekend. I was going over to visit with family at my nephew's house, and I had never been there before, so I thought I'd bring a hostess gift. Their kitchen is a bright, dark red, so I whipped these up on Saturday:

Haven't made many dish cloths, so I was pleased with how they came out, but my neice-in-law said they'd have to keep them up high, or the dogs would eat them. Oh, well.

Next is a KAL that I'm doing with the Lesser of Two Needles group (fans of the Patrick O'Brian Aubrey/Matchurin books). They decided to do a red scarf, because it is mentioned in _Desolation Island_, and picked The Not-Quite-Straight-Scarf. I was just charmed by it, so I had to cast on:

My original intention was to make this for the Red Scarf Charity project, but I may have trouble letting go of it.....

And lastly, we have one of three bags that I am knitting from a lovely organic cotton, to donate to the auction at my daughter's school. I'm doing the first one from Knitty's Everlasting Bagstopper, but squaring the bottom and using different straps:

Haven't decided if I'll do all three the same, or do different patterns or different sizes. We shall see; I have some time, as I don't believe I have to have these finished until April-ish.

This is totally ignoring all the WIPs I already had on the needles, and we won't even talk about housework. I plead temporary insanity.

Sock Madness III design

2009-02-20T16:14:00.000-08:00

Since I just found out that neither of my designs made it into Sock Madness III, I'm releasing one of them here. I'm still looking for a test knitter for the second, because I hope to sell it.

***********************************
Tessellation

I love colorwork, and this slipstitch pattern is one of the easiest ways to do it. The original stitch pattern came from a tea cozy pattern, but I used it to make a sweater for my daughter, converting it to circular for the sleeves. I thought it might make a cozy and colorful sock. Hope you think so, too!

Materials:

fingering weight: 70g main color (MC); 15-20g each of two contrasting colors (A and B) –OR- 70g MC and 30-40g painted or highly variegated; I used Elann’s Peruvian Baby Silk, in Sapphire (MC), Parchment (color A), and Cornflower (color B)
set of 5 dp needles, size 2, or size to get gauge
stitch markers (optional)
yarn needle

Gauge:
9 stitches/inch in stockinette

Terms:

dip stitch(dpst): Insert needle into stitch three rows below next stitch; pull through a loop of working yarn and place it on left needle. Knit this loop together with the next stitch, through the back loops.
wrap next stitch (purling): bring yarn to back, slip next stitch from left needle to right, bring yarn to front, slip stitch back to left needle
wrap next stitch (knitting): bring yarn to front, slip next stitch from left needle to right, bring yarn to back, slip stitch back to left needle
w&t: wrap and turn
kfb: knit in front and back
m1: make one by lifting bar between the last stitch knitted and the next stitch using the left needle and going from the front; knit this stitch through the back loop

Notes:
Just a few hints that may help:

-When doing the short-rowed heel, you can place a stitch marker each time you slip the wrapped stitch back to the left needle; this makes it easier to see where the next wrap should go. This uses a blurt-load of stitch markers, but it’s a lifesaver, if you have to put your work down in the middle of the heel! When working the wrapped stitches, take the stitch markers out only after the stitch and its wraps have been knit; slip the marker and the stitch when you do the second wrap, then slip both back.

-A very useful way to hide the wraps on short rows is shown in two Cat Bordhi YouTube videos:
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yVikAvPuE4
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFrVqx-iN7k

-To avoid having a bazillion ends to weave in, you can just carry the colors not in use up the side of the sock at the beginning of the round, running the working yarn behind the others on one round, then in front on the next, and twisting them all together when changing colors.

Toe:
Using a figure 8 cast on, (http://www.knitty.com/issuewinter02/FEATtiptoptoes.html), a Magic cast on (http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEspring06/FEATmagiccaston.html), or your preferred method, cast on 16 stitches. Knit one round, making sure to k tbl on the twisted stitches, if you used the figure 8 cast on.
Round 2: (kfb of first stitch, k6, kfb in next stitch) twice
Round 3: (kfb, k8, kfb) twice
Round 4: (kfb, p10, kfb) twice
Round 5: k

Repeat rounds 4 and 5, increasing the number of stitches between the kfbs by two each increase round (so round 6 would have k12 between them) until there are a total of 64 stitches, 32 for the instep, 32 for the sole. On the following round, k16, m1, k 32, m1, k to the end of the round. There are now 66 sts., with 33 on the instep and 33 for the sole. Knit 3 rounds with no increases.

Begin pattern:

Round 1: with A, (sl 3, k1, dpst, k1) 5 times, sl 3; k1, (sl 1, k1) to the end of the round
Round 2: with A, k1, (sl 1, k5) 5 times, sl 1, k1; k1, (sl 1, k1) to the end of the round
Round 3: with MC, (k3, sl 3) 5 times, k3; sl 1 (k1, sl 1) to the end of the round
Round 4: with MC, k4, (sl 1, k5) 4 times, sl 1, k4; sl 1 (k1, sl 1) to the end of the round Round 5: with MC, k4, (sl 1, k5) 4 times, sl 1, k4; k to the end of the round
Round 6: with MC, k
Round 7: with B, (k1, dpst, k1, sl 3) 5 times, k1, dpst, k1; sl 1, (k1, sl 1) to the end of the round
Round 8: with B, k4, (sl 1, k5) 4 times, sl 1, k4; sl 1, (k1, sl 1) to the end of the round
Round 9: with MC, (sl 3, k3) 5 times, sl 3; k1, (sl 1, k1) to the end of the round
Round 10: with MC, k1, (sl 1, k5) 5 times, sl 1, k1; k1, (sl 1, k1) to the end of the round
Round 11: with MC, k1, (sl 1, k5) 5 times, sl 1, k1; k to the end of the round
Round 12: with MC, k

Repeat these 12 rows until foot measures 2” less than final desired length, ending with row 4, 5, 10 or 11.

Begin short-row heel: (done with MC)
(worked back and forth over half the stitches)
Round 1: Work in pattern for 33sts (note the round number); k 32, w&t
Row 2: p31, w&t
Row 3: k30, w&t

Repeat rows 2 and 3, decreasing the number of stitches worked before the wrap by 1 on each row until there are 9 stitches left unwrapped, ending with a wrong side row.
Row 4: k9, knit next stitch along with its wrap, wrap next stitch (there are now two wraps on this stitch), turn
Row 5: p10, purl next stitch along with its wrap, w&t
Row 6: k11, knit next stitch with both its wraps, w&t
Row 7: p12, purl next stitch with both its wraps, w&t

Repeat rows 6 and 7, increasing the number of stitches worked before the wrap by 1 on each row, until all heel stitches and wraps have been worked, ending with a wrong side row and turning, then knitting across the heel to the start of the round.

You still have 66 sts.

Leg:
Begin leg pattern on the round following the round you noted when you started the heel.

Round 1: with A, (sl 3, k1, dpst, k1) 11 times
Round 2: with A, k1, (sl 1, k5) 10 times, sl 1, k4
Round 3: with MC, (k3, sl 3) 11 times
Round 4: with MC, k4, (sl 1, k5) 10 times, sl 1, k1
Round 5: with MC, k4, (sl 1, k5) 10 times, sl 1, k1
Round 6: with MC, k
Round 7: with B, (k1, dpst, k1, sl 3) 11 times
Round 8: with B, k4, (sl 1, k5) 10 times, sl 1, k1
Round 9: with MC, (sl 3, k3) 11 times
Round 10: with MC, k1, (sl 1, k5) 10 times, sl 1, k4
Round 11: with MC, k1, (sl 1, k5) 10 times, sl 1, k4
Round 12: with MC, k

Repeat these 12 rows 5 more times, for a total of 6 runs through the pattern on the leg. Tie off colors A and B as you finish with them on the last run-through of the pattern.

Cuff:
With MC, (Ktbl, p) to the end of the round. Continue until ribbing measures 1”. Bind off loosely.

Finishing:
Weave in loose ends.

Supporting Our Troops

2009-01-22T14:27:00.001-08:00

O.K., I left a few provocative comments here and there in recent posts, and promised to tell the tale, so here it is:

Once upon a time on Ravelry, a knitter, who is married to a Marine stationed in Iraq, told the story of the beanie she knitted for her husband. One of his buddies ribbed him mercilessly about said beanie, and eventually confessed that he was jealous, and wanted a beanie, too. So, she agreed to make him one BUT since he had been mean to her hubby, she made it in pink. With little piggy ears. He was not fazed by this; I believe he is quoted as saying, "I'd f*ing rock a pink beanie!" when he was told. And so, to prove this, they sent a picture of the husband and the friend in their beanies, which the knitter posted to a thread on Ravelry.

And here we come to a point that many men don't know: when women are in a predominantly female environment (and yes, I know there are lots of men on Ravelry, but the overwhelming majority of the beta testers are female) they act differently than when the numbers are more equal. Not all, but some. And so, we got to talking, like you do, and admiring, like you do, and someone said she'd happily knit a beanie for any one of those guys IF she could knit a matching man-thong and get a picture of him wearing them--and nothing else.

I imagine there was much coffee and tea spit on computer screens that day. However, the idea began to take hold, particularly when we were assured by the original poster that the individual in question had no shame and would probably gladly model such. And all this time, she is forwarding the choicest comments to hubby, who is sharing them with his friends. And that is how we ended up with an order for FOUR man-thongs, along with the measurements needed to make sure they fit.

The response was immediate; I imagine they could hear the squeeing all the way from here to Iraq. So, several of us signed up to knit for soldiers (I had been meaning to do socks or balaclavas, but how could I resist?), me partly because I knew I already had a skein of the cotton and elastic yarn that was needed for the pattern and because we were assured that we would not have to work on them until after Christmas.

Come Christmas and the Great Christmas Flu, and man-thongs went right out of my head. Fortunately, the original poster, who was organizing this, emailed everyone early in January, to remind us. I then proceeded to tear the house apart looking for the yarn. And not finding it. Now it is really getting late, and I need to get started on this thing to get it to her by the deadline. So, I'm frantically searching the internet for a local yarn store that stocks it, since I know I can't get it in the mail in time. The Hubster asks and I foolishly tell him all about it--and he stuns me by saying he wants one, too. After a pause for blinking and rearranging my internal world to incorporate this new data, I suggest that maybe I could make the one for the Marine first, and then work on Hubster's, and he agrees.

I finally find a store that is "local" by the Los Angeles definition of the word, but know I won't get a chance to get down there before the weekend. This is when Hubster stuns me again, saying that he's willing to drive to the store and pick up the yarn; that way he can pick out his at the same time. He does and I get started and rapidly finish the man-thong, entertaining the WeHoS&B enormously in the process, then pop it in the mail.

Ha, ha! But then, one of the other ladies had a serious attack of life, and was unable to finish hers. I found this out on the day we were supposed to have them to the organizer, and I waited to see if anyone else would volunteer. Crickets chirping. Sigh. I know I have the second skein that Hubster bought, so I say that if she can wait until the following week, so I have the weekend to work on it, I'll step in. So, for a second week, I'm knitting a man-thong at WeHoS&B, and those who weren't there the previous week get to join in the merriment. So, I finish this one and boil it in coffee (it was stark white and I thought ecru would be more attractive) and send it along, with notes to the recipients of both, to sort of personalize it. (As a friend said, "Yeah, 'cause a hand-knitted man-thong is such an impersonal, generic gift....")

Oh, and did I mention the photos? We, of course, all wanted to show off our work, but also wanted to avoid controversy. The first woman who finished photographed hers on a stuffed unicorn. I was fortunate enough to have a LARGE bear (he is seated, and is still about 20" tall) on whom to photograph these items (though, of course, since the bear was anatomically incorrect, stuffing was required).

And so, I give you Thong 1:

And Thong 2:

So, there you have it. The story of how I came to support our troops.

Jane Austen 2009

2009-01-21T15:57:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to post a few pix of the Jane Austen Ball. Unfortunately, my friend Molly was sick and so didn't attend, so you'll just get pix of me:

That's me on the left, in gold; the other two are my friends Corinne and Cat, fellow costumers. (Sorry, Corinne, not the best shot of you.)

And the Hubster got a good candid shot of the back of the gown:

The amusing thing about this gown is that it was all done from stash! The fabric (lovely golden silk) was bought for a science fiction costume for Nasfic in 1999, but the woman who was to wear it couldn't make the event, so the outfit was never made. The trim was all bought (and the wide stuff beaded) for our Chess costumes, but was leftover. The underdress was made from bits and pieces of white poly-satin that I had left over from other things (the word "remnant" takes on a whole new meaning when you're making Victorian gowns, which run to 8+ yards for just a plain skirt). That's why the sleeves have those little puffs on them; I had to piece the sleeves, and thought I'd make it look "on purpose" by putting in the sheer ruched piece. And the turban was one scrap and one shawl, twisted and safety-pinned together with more of the leftover Chess trim and a Christmas-decoration-clearance-sale beaded tassel. (Thanks, Kate! You threw that together 4 or 5 years ago, and it's still going strong.....) All in all, not too bad for being sourced from my sewing room.

Status

2009-01-14T11:14:00.000-08:00

Realized that, though I've been updating stuff on Ravelry, I haven't posted a Project Status here in a while, so here we go:

Things recently finished:

Man Thong for an Unknown Marine: Oh, yeah! That'll be getting it's own post here, shortly. Especially since I agreed to do a second one for another unknown Marine AND my husband asked for one. Weird.
Barbie's Christmas dress: This was supposed to be done (as the name suggests) by Christmas, but I didn't even finish it for New Years. But it's done now, and my daughter was thrilled with it.
The Curly Scarf and the Curly Lacey Scarf, which you saw yesterday.
San Diego Chargers Scarf for my brother. Bought nice, expensive, custom-dyed yarn for this--then couldn't find a scarf pattern that played nice with it. May use that yarn for a hat, though I'm now leaning towards a pair of socks. Started again with a basic bi-color brioche stitch, with Vanna's Choice--and finished it just as the Chargers ended their season AND the cold weather went away. Sigh. Will ship it off to him anyway, just as soon as it comes out of the laundry.
Cheshire Cat Tea Cozy: (face; side) the Hubster specifically asked for this for Christmas. Because of the Great Christmas Flu, I didn't finish it for the day, but got it done on New Year's Day. Not happy with the smile; have, in fact, taken that one off and am making one that is skinnier, pointier, and curvier. We'll see how I like that. I like the fact that I made the head removable; originally, it was so that the cozy itself could be washed w/o destroying the felt eyes and smile, but I also realize it makes for some great practical jokes.....
Another silly tea cozy: was going to try to sell the pattern for this, but it didn't come out nearly as cute as I wanted. I finally realized that the same proportion disconnect that made the tail on the Cheshire Cat look wrong was at the heart of my unhappiness with this one, as well. Have had some other ideas, so I may end up posting a picture of this one, since I don't think it would sell well.
Not a knitting thing, but I finally got a graphic made for things that I can't yet post pictures of, because I'm selling or entering the pattern in contests. This is to distinguish them from those projects where I simply forget to take a picture. (Why is this an important distinction? Dunno.)

Things recently (or very soon to be) started:

The second Man Thong: this one is being knitted in white, and I will cook it in coffee so that it comes out beige or khaki. However, if it is for the hottie with the pink piggie beanie, I'm definitely dying it pink! Just cast on today, but they don't take very long...
A sweater to match the Muppet that I knit for my daughter for Christmas. The new one is for the American Girl doll Santa brought her. Am about 70% done with it, and I like how it's coming out.
Finally got both the yarn and the go-ahead on the pattern for the hat-and-scarf combo I'm making for my friend's daughter's school's auction basket. (I'm definitely saying "NO!" next year; but, that's what I said last year.....) It's supposed be to the school by Feb. 1, so that means it has to be to her before that, which means it has to be done before that. Yipe. I'm a little concerned, because it takes a lot of knitting, and it is slow knitting (like lots of ribbing) as it is reversible cables. Fleet be my fingers!
Chris' German Stockings: Lovely Cookie A pattern that I'm itching to get into; kind of on the back burner, because I've missed so many (self-imposed) deadlines for it. Hope to finish these before Sock Madness starts, or possibly while waiting for Round 1 to end and Round 2 to begin. (We all went a little nuts at that point last year, as I recall.) I'm doing them in Knit Picks Bare Fingering weight Superwash Merino, and I think they will be lovely. (Also have two more pair of these to do, one in Knit Picks Bare Fingering weight silk and merino, the other in the same Superwash Merino, this time dyed, purple, probably. But the Lady only knows when those will get started.)

O.K., now that I've scared myself, I think I'll stop......

Curly Scarf Patterns

2009-01-13T15:59:00.000-08:00

Not being very good at crochet (I always say I need a weapon in each hand), I've been meaning to work out a knitted pattern for those lovely curly scarves that are so easy to make in crochet. I actually found a free pattern on Ravelry (where else?), but didn't like how it was working up, so I went ahead and made up a pattern on my own. Then I made up a different one. (That's just how I roll, I guess.) So, I thought I would make them available to others; no need for others to re-invent the wheel. They knit up pretty quickly; about 3 hours, I'd say.

Curly Scarf

Materials:
Lion Homespun (less than one skein; I haven't tested this, but you can probably make two scarves out of one skein)
size 11 36" circular needle
size 17 needle for bind off
yarn needle for threading in ends

Terminology:
kf&b: knit front and back

Finished measurements:
about 60" long and 4" wide

Note: this is NOT how I made the scarf in the picture; this is how I would make it, were I to make it again.

With size 11 needle, cast on 110 sts, placing stitch markers every 10 sts.
Row 1, 3,5,7: k
Row 2: *kf&b, k4; repeat from * across (132 sts)
Row 4: *kf&b, k2; repeat from * across (176 sts)
Row 6: *kf&b, k; repeat from * across (264 sts)
Row 8: kf&b across (528 sts)
Row 9: bind off, using size 17 needle

Curly Lacey Scarf

Materials:
Lion Homespun (less than one skein; I haven't tested this, but you can probably make two scarves out of one skein)
size 11 36" circular needle
size 17 needle for bind off
yarn needle for threading in ends

Terminology:
yo: yarn over

Finished measurements:
about 60" long and 4" wide

With size 11 needle, cast on 110 sts, placing stitch markers every 10 sts.
Row 1: k
Row 2: k1, yo, *k5, yo; repeat from * to last 4 st; k4 (132 sts)
Row 3: k
Row 4: k1, yo, *k3, yo; repeat from * across to last 2 st; k2 (176 sts)
Row 5: *k3, yo, k1, yo; repeat from * across to last 3 st; k3 (264 sts)
Row 6: k
Row 7: k1, *yo, k2; repeat from * across to last (396 sts)
Row 8: *k1, yo; repeat from * across to last st, k1 (791 sts)
Row 9: bind off with size 17 needle

Other variations I haven't had the time to try, yet:

fun fur held double with the base yarn on the last row
increasing the size of the needle every row or every other row
another novelty yarn, such as a metallic, on the last row, in place of the base yarn

Other suggestions?

(BTW, for those of you who are nerds like me, the whole point of the stitch markers is error detection: after finishing a row, there should be the same number of stitches in each segment marked off by the markers. Also, it helps in error prevention, since you will be doing your increases in the same spot in each segment, thus allowing you to catch errors as you make them. It also helps speed things up, if you don't have to count from one every time, when casting on a bazillion stitches.)

Oh, And Did I Mention?.....

2009-01-12T15:53:00.000-08:00

...that I finished cleaning out the sewing room? No? Well, I did.

Over four months ago. And I'm only now posting? How did that happen?

I'm not quite sure. I was determined to get the sewing room cleaned out before my daughter went back to school BUT I also wanted it to be early enough so my husband could get his stuff moved out of her room and into The Secret Lair, as we are now calling it. So, late in August, I took time off work and set to it. (I have a vague memory that I was ill, too, but that may just be from being sick at Christmas and remembering just how exhausted I was when I finished cleaning out the room.) I managed to pack the last boxes I took from the sewing room into every nook and cranny of the house: in the garage, under the bed, under the bedside table, stacked in my closet, behind the couch in the living room, even stacked on a dolly in the one remaining spot in the storage unit. Still have not found a place for my two dress forms, nor a storage spot for my sewing machine and serger, nor for my tool box; those all still live in the middle of our bedroom floor. However, the point was that I was able to clean everything that the Hubster was not using (I left him a book shelf, a TV and VCR, a table and a trash can, all at his request; I had intended to dump or donate them.) out of the room, and vacuum the floor, the walls, the louvered doors to the laundry room, and the window, window sill, and vertical blinds. Them as has visited the former sewing room, even in its best days, would be astonished by this feat.

And the Hubster, Lady bless him, stepped up to the plate: he moved all of his stuff out of Sam's room before school started, despite having Sam available to help him, and me being back at work. We even managed to get all of her furniture re-arranged, and the new furniture bought, though I admit she didn't get the desk until just after school started. I was so happy! I really wanted her to have her own space, and she's been much more interested in having things neat and clean, now that that's more doable.

The bad news is, of course, that it is extremely hard to sew, now. I managed to make a camp shirt for my BIL, and the nightshirts for Sam and my mom and me, but at the cost of having the dining room table laid waste to for several days. Got to find a better way to do things.

And in better news, the closet in Sam's bedroom that did not get cleaned out earlier got (mostly) cleaned out this weekend! Sam was able to hang all her clothes, even some of her costumes, in the closet, as well as storing boxes of toys in there. She was so happy! The only thing left is the shelves at the top of the closet, on which I would like to keep her linens; Bruce still needs to organize stuff in his Lair to find space for the stuff still on the shelves. But it's such a big improvement!

So, there you have it folks! One huge task, that has been hanging over my head for literally years, and when I finally complete it, it drops off the radar so fast, I forget to even post about it. Weird, I tell you.

Heather's-Mittens-to-Socks Conversion Kit

2009-01-09T15:45:00.000-08:00

In the Little Needle Lovers group on Ravelry, someone suggested a KAL for Heather’s Mittens (about halfway down on the right). Since I’m not particularly fond of mittens, and I live in Southern California, so don’t need them very often, but LOVED the color pattern, I decided to convert the mittens to a sock pattern. Other folks expressed interest, so I promised I would make it available and here it is. I have made several options available, since that will allow people to do whatever they’re most comfortable with, and I am nothing if not accommodating and complete! ☺

So! The variations will be as follows:

gauge: 10 st/in or 7.5 st/in
toe-up or top-down
short-row vs afterthought vs forethought (a la Charlene Schurch) heel

Terms:
wrap next stitch (purling): bring yarn to back, slip next stitch from left needle to right, bring yarn to front, slip stitch back to left needle

wrap next stitch (knitting): bring yarn to front, slip next stitch from left needle to right, bring yarn to back, slip stitch back to left needle

w&t: wrap and turn

kfb: knit in front and back

ktbl: knit through the back loop

Notes:
Just a few hints that may help:

-When doing the short-rowed heel, you can place a stitch marker each time you slip the wrapped stitch back to the left needle; this makes it easier to see where the next wrap should go. This uses a blurt-load of stitch markers, but it’s a lifesaver, if you have to put your work down in the middle of the heel! When working the wrapped stitches, take the stitch markers out only after the stitch and its wraps have been knit; slip the marker and the stitch when you do the second wrap, then slip both back.

-A very useful way to hide the wraps on short rows is shown in two Cat Bordhi YouTube videos:
Part 1:
Part 2:

Toe-up, 10 st/in:
Using a figure 8 cast on, a Magic cast on , or your preferred method, cast on 20 stitches. Knit one round, making sure to k tbl on the twisted stitches, if you used the figure 8 cast on.
Round 2: (kfb of first stitch, k8, kfb in next stitch) twice
Round 3: (kfb, k10, kfb) twice
Round 4: (kfb, p12, kfb) twice
Round 5: k

Repeat rounds 4 and 5, increasing the number of stitches between the kfbs by two each increase round (so round 6 would have k14 between them) until there are a total of 80 sts.

Begin Chart B from Heather’s mittens and continue following the chart until work measures 2” less than final desired length.

Toe-up, 7.5 sts/in:
Using a figure 8 cast on, a Magic cast on, or your preferred method, cast on 16 stitches. Knit one round, making sure to k tbl on the twisted stitches, if you used the figure 8 cast on.
Round 2: (kfb of first stitch, k6, kfb in next stitch) twice
Round 3: (kfb, k8, kfb) twice
Round 4: (kfb, p10, kfb) twice
Round 5: k

Repeat rounds 4 and 5, increasing the number of stitches between the kfbs by two each increase round (so round 6 would have k12 between them) until there are a total of 60 sts.

Begin Chart B from Heather’s mittens and continue following the chart until work measures 2” less than final desired length. NOTE: you will only work needles 1 through 3 of the chart.

Short-rowed heel, 10st/in:
(done with MC only)
(worked back and forth over half the stitches)
Round 1: Work following chart for 40(note row number of chart); k 39, w&t
Row 2: p38, w&t
Row 3: k37, w&t

Repeat rows 2 and 3, decreasing the number of stitches worked before the wrap by 1 on each row until there are 10 stitches left unwrapped, ending with a wrong side row.
Row 4: k10, knit next stitch along with its wrap, wrap next stitch (there are now two wraps on this stitch), turn
Row 5: p11, purl next stitch along with its wrap, w&t
Row 6: k12, knit next stitch with both its wraps, w&t
Row 7: p13, purl next stitch with both its wraps, w&t

Repeat rows 6 and 7, increasing the number of stitches worked before the wrap by 1 on each row, until all heel stitches and wraps have been worked, ending with a wrong side row and turning, then knitting across the heel to the start of the round.

Short-rowed heel, 7.5 st/in:
(done with MC only)
(worked back and forth over half the stitches)
Round 1: Work following chart for 30(note row number of chart); k 29, w&t
Row 2: p28, w&t
Row 3: k27, w&t

Repeat rows 2 and 3, decreasing the number of stitches worked before the wrap by 1 on each row until there are 8 stitches left unwrapped, ending with a wrong side row.
Row 4: k8, knit next stitch along with its wrap, wrap next stitch (there are now two wraps on this stitch), turn
Row 5: p9, purl next stitch along with its wrap, w&t
Row 6: k10, knit next stitch with both its wraps, w&t
Row 7: p11, purl next stitch with both its wraps, w&t

Repeat rows 6 and 7, increasing the number of stitches worked before the wrap by 1 on each row, until all heel stitches and wraps have been worked, ending with a wrong side row and turning, then knitting across the heel to the start of the round.

Forethought heel, 10 st/in:
Note the last row worked on chart. With MC, k40st. With waste yarn, do a provisional cast on of 40 st, then k across these sts with MC. Follow directions for Top-down toe, 10 st/in.

Unpick provisional cast on, placing live stitches back on the needle. Continue on foot, starting with the row of the chart following the row noted when you started the heel, and ending when foot length is 2” shorter than final desired length.

Forethought heel, 7.5 st/in:
Note the last row worked on chart. With MC, k30st. With waste yarn, do a provisional cast on of 30 st, then k across these sts with MC. Follow directions for Top-down toe, 7.5 st/in.

Unpick provisional cast on, placing live stitches back on the needle. Continue on foot, starting with the row of the chart following the row noted when you started the heel, and ending when foot length is 2” shorter than final desired length.

Toe-up Leg(either gauge):
Return to working chart B on the row following the row you noted when you started the heel. Work until leg is 1” shorter than final desired length. NOTE: you will only work needles 1 through 3 of the chart for the 7.5 st/in gauge.

Toe-up Cuff(either gauge):
With MC, (Ktbl, p) to the end of the round. Continue until ribbing measures 1”. Bind off loosely.

Top-down Cuff, 10 st/in:
With MC, cast on 80 sts. Work in (Ktbl, p) to the end of the round. Continue until ribbing measures 1”.

Top-down Cuff, 7.5 st/in:
With MC, cast on 60 sts. Work in (Ktbl, p) to the end of the round. Continue until ribbing measures 1”.

Top-down Leg(either gauge):
Begin Chart B from Heather’s mittens and continue following the chart until work equals the final desired leg length. NOTE: you will only work needles 1 through 3 of the chart for the 7.5 st/in gauge.

Top-down foot(either gauge):
Return to working chart B on the row following the row you noted when you started the heel. Work until foot is 2” shorter than final desired length. NOTE: you will only work needles 1 through 3 of the chart for the 7.5 st/in gauge sock.

Top-down toe, 10 st/in:
Using only MC,
Round 1: (k1, ssk, k34, k2tog, k1) twice.
Round 2: k to end of round.

Repeat these two rounds eleven more times, ending with 36 st. Repeat Round 1 only four more times. (20 st.) Kitchner stitch remaining stitches together.

Top-down toe, 7.5 st/in:
Using only MC,
Round 1: (k1, ssk, k24, k2tog, k1) twice.
Round 2: k to end of round.

Repeat these two rounds eight more times, ending with 28 st. Repeat Round 1 only three more times. (16 st.) Kitchner stitch remaining stitches together.

Afterthought heel, 10 st/in:
Work following the next row of the chart for 40 sts. With waste yarn, knit across 40 sts. Go back to beginning of waste yarn, and work across those same stitches, following the remainder of the chart row. Continue on to foot and toe.

To insert heel, carefully unpick waste yarn, putting each stitch on a needle as it is freed. Rearrange sts for knitting in the round, attach MC and follow directions for Top-down toe, 10 st/in.

Afterthought heel, 7.5 st/in:
Work following the next row of the chart for 30 st. With waste yarn, knit across 30 sts. Go back to beginning of waste yarn, and work across those same stitches, following the remainder of the chart row. Continue on to foot and toe.

To insert heel, carefully unpick waste yarn, putting each stitch on a needle as it is freed. rearrange sts for knitting in the round, attach MC and follow directions for Top-down toe, 7.5 st/in.

The Pledge

2009-01-01T22:51:00.000-08:00

O.K., I said I'd do it, so here it is:

FIVE THINGS I WILL FINISH IN 2009

The bleeping sweater coat! Thanks to Ravelry, I may have found enough of the 20 year old yarn to finish the sucker. If not, I've thought of a few ways I can rob Peter to pay Paul, so to speak; it should be enough. There isn't really all that much left to do on it, but the lack of yarn and the bulkiness of the front pieces meant I had to put it on the back burner for a while.
Linda's table cloth. I've talked about this before, as well. (I'll put the links in later.) I've almost finished one corner, which means that most of the design decisions have been made, so it should go faster from here on.
Samantha's space quilt. Really feel bad about this one; it was supposed to be for her 1st birthday, and she turns 8 this month and it's still not done. cringe This will involve some re-work, as it is no longer big enough, but mostly I just have to figure out when and where I can work on it, without rubbing off all the chalk lines for the hand-quilting. (You can see why it didn't get done, perhaps....)
Samantha's Disney Princess quilt. I've had all the Princess squares crosstitched for more than 4 years, and have not yet put the thing together. I think I even have all the fabric, including the batting, and this one will be machine-quilted, so there really is no excuse.
I've been a little stuck on what I should do for item 5. I owe my step-great-neice a pair of leg warmers from last Christmas which will only take about 3 hours to finish, if I can just get the darn yarn to stop bleeding OR find a good source of superwash DK weight yarn in a good, primary red that looks the same as Knitpick's Bare, so it will blend with the other colors. However, I since that one is not yet quite a year overdue, I think I'll go with the black beaded purse I started for Kate, lo these many years ago, when I was making period purses for the sewing circle. I don't know why it is taking so long; I used the same smocking technique on the sleeves for Sarah's wedding dress, and those went quite quickly. I guess it's because I'm smocking and beading at the same time; maybe if I separate the two steps it will go faster? Hard to say; in any case, since that is nearly 8 years overdue, I think that will have to take slot #5.

So that's it; these are the things that I want most to finish this year. I will be working on these while I am also working on the following:

scarf and hat for a friend's daughter's school's auction (I know; she really should be some sort of professional donation-gatherer. Her talents are wasted on the homefront!)
grocery bags for my daughter's school's auction. Already have the organic cotton, just have to decide which pattern to use
belated Christmas presents
-scarf for my brother; need the yarn
-socks for my mom, and three friends; have the yarn, and have even started two of the pairs
-slippers for my sister and brother-in-law; have the yarn
-Barbie's holiday dress; didn't get finished, due to the Great Christmas Flu, but should be able to finish it in the next day or so
6 freakin' corsets for sale
Mini-Muppet sweater for Samantha's American Girl doll Samantha
a camp shirt for the Hubster (fortunately, his birthday is a few months after Christmas, so things that don't get done for Christmas just slop over)

This does not include socks remaining from last year's Sock Madness, nor those I'll get for this year's round, though I'm really hoping both my designs get into the contest this year.

And just so I don't get totally discouraged, things I've finished since my last update post: two tea cozies (neither came out nearly as cute as I wanted them to, due to proportion issues; will post a pic of the Cheshire Cat soon); camp shirt for my brother-in-law (of which, once again, I did not take a picture; I blame the Great Christmas Flu); two more sleepshirts (one for my daughter and one for me); and a knitted version of the ruffled scarf (I tried a free pattern, and didn't like how it was coming out, so I made up my own).

So that's where the Queue stands, as of January 1. Pretty daunting! Wish me luck!

Post-Christmas Notes

2008-12-26T10:52:00.000-08:00

Just a few things I'll want to remember either next Christmas or at some other point:

Nightgowns: Until/unless Samantha goes through a HUGE growth spurt, I really only need 5 yards of stretch velour for the nightgowns. Really. Honest. However, it would be good to remember that I need two small spools of Gutterman thread and two large spools (one for the sewing machine, one on the far right spindle on the serger). Ask me how I know (the Monster Joanne's on Christmas eve shudder). And two bobbins works fine. Also, double-check Sam's neckline; dark green one is too big, but aqua one is a bit small. Last technical point, they really don't need to be that long; remeasure, so they don't come down below the knees.

Remember that, even with serger hassles, it only takes 2 hours to make one of the nightshirts, from cutting out through final hem. So, next year, make a weekend of it; shop, buy and wash on Saturday, then take 6 or fewer hours on Sunday and just FINISH THEM!

The Muppet: it makes absolutely no sense to leave live stitches on the underarms for later grafting if one is working with fun fur. Just bind the suckers off and sew the seams. Much less of a headache. Also, remember to allow more ease in the body; putting the buttons right on the edge helped some, but not enough.

And, in general, having margin in the schedule is a good thing. This horrific flu threw the schedule all to hell-and-gone; if I'd been beforehand, I could have slept, instead of staggering through the remaining tasks.

God Bless Ravelry!

2008-12-18T07:31:00.000-08:00

You know that 20+ year old UFO that I've been whinging about? The one where I ran out of said 20+ year old yarn before I finished? Turns out, someone on Ravelry has some of it in her stash and was willing to trade! There isn't much, but some is better than none! Woot! Here's hoping there's enough!

A Few Pix and A Few Updates

2008-12-17T06:55:00.000-08:00

Finally got a few pix of The Muppet, though it doesn't photograph all that well. Here are the sleeves, in progress:

And the (all but) finished project:

Very simple garter stitch pattern, with the sleeves knit in the round to the armpits, and the front and back knit as one piece to the pits. The whole thing was then knit as one piece from there up, including the the little Peter Pan collar (which you really can't see in the photo). Should make finishing it a snap, though the first few inches after the armscyes is a PITA to work. (Using the "two circulars" method, as if knitting in the round, with the fronts to the middle of each sleeve on one needle and the rest on the other, seems to work best.) Sam picked out somewhat expensive buttons, but she was absolutely right, they are the only ones that could stand up to the rest of the jacket. The kid has a fine sense of style/taste.

The idea came from this coat I knitted for her Barbie; Sam liked it so much, she wanted one for herself. (I'm leaning towards wanting one, myself! So soft and fluffy!) I made up the pattern and if I had to do it over again, I would make the body a little bigger around. I also did not make it full length, as Barbie's is, so I might make it a little longer next time, too.

Forgot to mention in my most recent post that I also have two camp shirts to make before Christmas. And in the interim, I have a good start on the first draft of a silly tea cozy. Thought I'd be finished with it by now, but.....

Holi-daze

2008-12-15T09:35:00.001-08:00

Why am I sitting here blogging when there are so many Christmas presents waiting to be done? I suspect for most crafters, that question answers itself.....

I have come to terms with the fact that not everything will be done in time for Christmas. These include, in no particular order:

1) Cookie A's German stockings for a friend.

2) & 3) the other two pair of Cookie A German stockings that I was asked for, when I showed two other friends the pattern.

4) the slippers for my sister who felted the first pair. (Well, I actually felted them, but she further felted them, so that they no longer fit.)

5) the slippers for my brother-in-law, her husband. He did NOT felt his further, but wears them all the time and would like a second pair to wear in bed (the others are always too dirty from being walked in).

6) socks for my mom

7) a scarf for my brother, in his team's colors. (This won't get done partly because I'm not liking how the colorway and the pattern are playing with each other. I've tried a second pattern, but don't like that much better. May have to use this yarn for something else, and buy separate skeins of the colors and do something completely different for this present.)

8) the blasted sweater-coat from 20 years ago that I swore I would finish this year. I made a valiant effort, but ran out of the (20 year old) yarn, with about 10" left on the fronts. I was so close! Of course, they don't make the yarn anymore, and the yarn they suggested isn't nearly close enough. Have been cogitating on several possible solutions.....

This does not mean, dear reader, that I have been idle, nor that I have given up entirely! Far from it! I have all but finished my daughter's Christmas sweater, for which she picked out the yarns and colors and buttons. I have only to seam the armscyes at the bottom (knitted it as much as I could w/o seams), attach the buttons, and weave in the ends, so that will definitely get done. Also, Barbie's Christmas dress will be finished (it's a freaking tube, half of which is knitted flat, and two sleeves) and two tea cozies (both specifically requested) will be designed and finished. And the night shirts for at least my mom and my daughter will be done, though the Lady only knows if mine will be.

One thing that might end up on either list is a sweater for my daughter's AG doll, to match the one I made for her. We'll see how that goes.

Really need to get some pix taken......

Stuff and Nonsense

2008-06-12T15:55:00.000-07:00

I have gotten a little draconian with my projects on Ravelry: anything that isn't really, actively being worked on is being listed as "hibernating". This leaves me with only two active projects:

The Farm Blanket

This has been something of a challenge, but I think I'm getting on top of it. Was a bit more expensive than I had hoped, but I think Kate is going to do the assembly (for which I am truly grateful!) and chip in some money (for which I am even more grateful!). The idea is that the finished product will be less a blanket than a play mat, and will represent a farm: there is a vegetable garden, a hay field, a wheat field, an oat field, a sheep pasture, a horse pasture, even a pond. The squares are knit individually, with two strands of worsted weight, so it goes pretty quickly, but there are some issues with the pattern (and you know how I feel about that!). Yet another feral project, between the miscues between the eventual recipient and I, the high cost, and the pattern deciding to get lost, but I will persevere! Have six and a half out of twelve squares done, though the half might have to be taken out and redone, as the second batch of yarn came from different dye lots and the color of the one green was very different. (You wouldn't think it would matter, with so many greens, but it does, it does....) Anyway, here's what I have so far: wheat field, sheep pasture (this is the one that may have to be frogged), hay field, vegetable garden, barn yard, cornfield, and the flower meadow.

As I said, they go pretty quickly. I could probably finish the rest up in a day, if I had a day to devote to them......

Lace-weight Socks

The other project being actively knitted on at the moment is the lace weight sock from Round 3 of Sock Madness II:
Absolutely love these socks! Especially now that I have the yarn all wound up properly, and they go pretty quickly. (This is a pic of the first sock before I finished it; I am now almost this far on the second sock.) Have the yarn to make two more of these, one as a gift, one for me, during Summer of Socks and am really looking forward to it, as I paid to have that yarn pre-wound! (Remember! Make new mistakes!)

However, in addition to these projects, I have six? seven? polar fleece capes to cut and assemble. Kate and Belle and I are doing them for the sewing circle ladies and since I don't crochet, I drew the task of cutting and sewing them, while Kate and Belle will crochet the collars. They are really quite fun, and the cutting and sewing won't take me long. Again, I could finish it in a day, if I had a spare day....

The thing that will take me much more than a day are the 5 corsets I need to make. My friends at Z'Ettiquette have sold another 4 corsets for me, which means their stock is sadly depleted. Since each one takes on the order of 6 hours to make, that's at least 3 long work days, if I had them; more likely, it will take a few months for me to get them all done. Oh, for the joys of a working sewing room and time to myself.....

The stuff that went into hibernation recently are the ancient sweater coat (I really need to finish that this year.....), the scarf I started on a whim, the pants to a Barbie ski suit, the second sock of my Sock Madness pattern, a sock and a half in the revised version of the pattern, the test knit of the Red Carpet Convertible, and the blasted rainbow leg warmers.

Those last deserve a paragraph of their own. How can something so simple (it's freakin' stockinette in the round, for pity's sake!) go so wrong? Dyeing five of the colors went just fine, but the red refused to play nice. Then, when I ordered another skein to try dyeing again, the first half-skein didn't work well (KoolAid failed me!) and the second half-skein went missing! And the pre-dyed red yarn that I bought (just in case the dyeing went badly) turned out to be a) the wrong color and b) way too scratchy to use. I finally admitted that I would not find the second half-skein, so I ordered another skein--and forgot that it was supposed to be superwash. Sigh. I have mailed the non-superwash skein back, and ordered yet another skein. In addition, I have found several colors of Wilton's cake decorating dye that I had been looking for, so I can try several things on the first half-skein. And, if all else fails, I will, by the Goddess, go out and buy myself a carton Rit to dye the sucker, because I am SOOOOOOOOOO ready to be done with this!

Addendum

2008-05-21T13:42:00.000-07:00

Sigh.

I thought I had hit the high points, but I've left out a lot. For example, I forgot to mention that I finished the Round 2 socks for Sock Madness II:

These are Reversai, a completely reversible sock, for those who get dressed in the dark, or who turn their socks inside out when they take them off. Made the second sock mirror image of the first, and I like how they came out, but I ask you: does that yarn look like something that could be called raspberry? Looks more like burgundy, to me.

As for the Round 3 socks, the one done with laceweight, I'm halfway down the foot on the first sock. No pics, yet, for some reason. I'm loving these socks, but they go slowly because I did a lousy job winding up the balls of yarn and they keep getting knotted. Infuriating, since the actual knitting goes quite quickly. Oh, when will Sam be old enough to press into service untangling knots?!?!?!?!?

Been collecting sock patterns by the score, in preparation for Summer of Socks. This, in and of itself, is fairly harmless, as I will not actually purchase any non-free patterns until I am actually ready to cast on those socks. However, the several trips to online vendors of yarny goodness have not been benign. Oh, my aching credit card! But I should have lots of lovely new yarn to work with in the near future; am so looking forward to that! Especially the two skeins I bought from Jo, which she said are already in the mail. We'll have to see if the package I sent her arrives before hers to me does.

Clearing the Decks

2008-05-21T08:43:00.000-07:00

Joined another sockalong, this one called Summer of Socks. It starts June 21st and runs through September 1, and only socks that are cast on and finished between those two dates are eligible. Thus, I have a lot of things to finish up, both so that I'm freed up to knit more socks during the game, and also to keep me from casting on any more socks before the date, which would disqualify them.

So, what are all these things you need to finish? I hear you cry. Come and I will show you....

First, an FO, Kate's birthday socks:

This is Cookie A's Baudelaire, and a very nice pattern it is. A little tight at the ankle when going over the heel, but fits fine once it's on. (To be fair, this may be my issue, not the pattern's; I have had this trouble in the past, particularly on my own patterns.) Knit with Knit Picks Gloss in Concord Grape, they came out very well and were a fairly quick knit. Even finished them in time for Kate's birthday, though I have yet to deliver them.

Next, we have the WIPs:

Rainbow leg warmers:

I'm really happy with the way these are turning out, if only I could finish them! The dyeing went well on 5 of the six colors, but I'm having a devil of a time getting the red to work. These are both done except for the red; less than 2 hours work left, if I could just get the right color....(Will do a post on this specifically, once I solve the problem.)

Woven Cable Eyelet Socks:

O.K., I PROMISE that I will give future patterns more creative, less pedantic names. Really. I will! In any case, I like how these are knitting up, and am LOVING Celtic Memory's merino/tencel blend yarn. Subtly variegated, it does not interfere with the pattern, and is lovely and soft to work with. Promised these socks to my mother, but have just bought more of Jo's yarn, plus some I already had, that I am keeping for ME. (Well, at least some of it....) Just at the heel turn of the first sock; really want to finish them soon.

Scarf:

Why, if I'm trying to finish things, did I just cast on for a new scarf? Especially when it was over 100 degrees here this last weekend? Why, because I can, of course! Seriously, I left my knitting at work that day and, rather than work on one of the other projects I had at home, I cast on for My So Called Scarf. I had won some bulky acrylic in pink, blue and green, and thought it would do well in that scarf. Having a little trouble with tension, which is unusual; don't know if that's due to the stitch or to the yarn, or both. A quarter to a third of the way through the scarf. I like the pattern, as it is interesting on both sides, yet simple to do.

Delayed Destruction:

Finally had someone take me up on my offer to knit socks for any who didn't get theirs in the first two Sock Wars; good for you, Ann! However, bought a new yarn for this, and am not happy with it. Luxury Merino Superwash from Elann is very thick for a dk weight, and I don't like the way this is knitting up. Will go back to one of my stand-by yarns, Knit Picks Elegance, despite the fact that there is little color choice. At least I know it knits up well in this pattern. Had hoped to be able to work on these this weekend, as I will be on the road to Baycon in San Jose, and Belle is doing the driving. But will have to wait for the order to arrive, (O.K., I guess I have to actually order it, huh?) so instead I will be working on the other thing that needs to be done soonest, the Farm Blanket, for which I have no pics, as yet. Not really happy with this one, either. Got the pattern from the magazine Living Crafts and I have several concerns: the shown squares don't match the directions, which offends my anal-retentive soul; it takes a LOT of yarn (I originally thought the amounts were for 12 blankets (it was knit by 12 people, each doing 12 copies of the same square, then sharing), and this was confirmed by an email from the magazine folks; however, I've knit two of the squares, (they're knit with two strands held together) and each one took nearly a whole skein. This means I didn't buy nearly enough yarn, and this is going to be a bit more expensive than I had planned....); there appears to be an error in the pattern. Also, I realized that there isn't a lot of direction of how to assemble the pieces, which always makes me uncomfortable; these "cook until done" types of directions just bug me.

The good news, though, is that this means I get to, I mean have to, order more yarn. And, as long as I'm ordering, there a few more things that I need and.... You get the idea. I see more Harmony dpns in my future.....

Yes, I know that I have lots more WIPs that I didn't mention. Well, these are the only ones I think I have a prayer of actually finishing in the near future.....

War is H-E-Double-Hocky-Sticks

2008-05-21T08:22:00.000-07:00

Once again, I've been meaning to write a post about my imminent sock death, but delayed too long. So, again I am posting post-mortem, to tell you about my experience with Sock Wars this year.

One of the major rules I live by is "Make new mistakes": that is, learn from what you've done, don't make the same mistake repeatedly, try new things, even at some risk. Julie Gardner, the inventor of Sock Wars could stand a little of that in her game. A veteran of all three Sock Wars, I was sad to see that several things had not changed: there was still trouble getting the pattern and the dossieres out to folks in a timely manner; she's still trying to run it with little or no help, despite corporate sponsorship; the pattern still needed a test knit by someone else, or even just some proofreading. Unfortunately, she also made new mistakes: some arbitrary decisions on disqualification; pattern written w/o a lot of ribbing, so the socks don't fit on smaller feet, even if the length is right; switching platforms yet again, when the Yahoo group seemed to work fine last year.

My specific gripe is that I had lowered the gauge on the socks, (i.e., made more stitches/inch) because I thought they would be too big around done by the pattern and I wanted my target to get wearable socks. Please note, this meant I had to do MORE work than others, knitting more rows, and adjusting the shaping, so it did not give me any advantage in the game. However, because of a ruling by said Supreme Commander, I had to rip out what I had done on the socks (about a sock and a half) and re-knit them, knowing that they would now not fit my target, but not wanting to be disqualified. It was very de-motivating, and the lost time cost me my one kill--I died while the socks were still on the needles. Unfortunately, my death socks are also too loose around to fit, so I didn't even get useable socks out of the deal. Still haven't decided if I will give the socks away, or frog them and re-knit them, in the same or a different pattern. However, my assassins (plural; it took two to kill me!) included some goodies, so all is not lost.

All in all, I had less fun this year than in the past. I will probably still sign up for future Wars, but will have to lower my expectations or risk being disappointed again.

More Pix!

2008-05-05T10:30:00.001-07:00

Thanks so much, Jack!

Sock Madness Optional Round--It's me! (sort of)

2008-05-02T09:06:00.001-07:00

I had a sneaking suspicion from the very beginning that the optional round was going to be the redeux of my pattern entry, for a number of reasons: first, it was the only sock listed that only had one recommended yarn, and second, one of the organizers had said that she was reworking the design. So, I'm not quite sure how to feel about it. I mean, I'm excited that they're using my idea, but it isn't really my pattern. It does, however, retain the part I loved best about it, the seamless cabling around the leg. I'm really anxious to see how others' versions come out, as I don't think that either my original choice for yarn, or that used by the adapter were the best choices for the pattern. I'll be doing it in a solid fingering weight, in a silk-alpaca blend, in cream, mauve, or lavender, which should give me the stitch definition that my original lacked, and not obscure the pattern with varigation. Just for reference, here are some shots of my original design:
You'll notice that the sole is done in reverse stockinette; this is what Charlene Schurch calls "princess foot", as it is more comfortable to walk on the smooth, instead of the bumpy, side of the stitches. I think this is more important in heavier weight yarn, which is why I used in in this original, DK weight version. Have got a neat idea for an inside-out sock for next year's competition, that will yield a princess foot without requiring all that purling. We'll see how that goes. I also have a colorwork sock entry planned for next year, but there are some logistical problems with that that will need to be addressed. Stay tuned for more cryptic hints!

Sucess!

2008-05-02T08:38:00.000-07:00

Yesssssss!!!!! One of my friends, Jack Krolak, an excellent photographer, is going to funnel me his pix, so I can show off a little. Here's the first:

Awwwww! Ain't we cuuuuuuuute?

CC26--Preliminary Report

2008-05-01T09:58:00.000-07:00

O.K., my mommy points for finishing my daughter's costume get taken away because I took NO pictures at CC26. Sigh. Will have to rely on the kindness of others, that is, those who have posted their pix to the CC26 group on Flickr. Not much of me and mine in there, but here is what we have, so far:

First, we have a pic of the infamous Pink Muff, and the hat that went with it, just in case you were wondering what they looked like. They were for my version of Erte's Symphony in Black. Also on the table are my tea cozies, some purses I made for my sewing circle friends, and a fan made for me by a dear old friend. (Hi, Sherry!)

Next, despite the gazillions of folks who took our pic, this is the only one I could find of me and Sam in our nightgowns. You can see she's sans hat, so it must have been from later in the evening.

And that's it. Sigh. Here's hoping I'll be able to get more later.

In the meantime, I can tell you about our Historical Masquerade entry! Picture a dark stage, with Carmina Burana playing, and something large and dark on the stage. Cloaked figures file in, holding candles, and form a semi-circle around said dark item. Suddenly, the music changes to salsa-esque rhythms, and the cloaked figures fling off their capes to reveal costumes of various historical periods, in various colors, all made of satin. The central figure is last to uncloak, revealing a man in a carioca shirt (sleeves covered with ruffles) in all the colors of the other figures. The drapery falls off the alter, revealing bolts of satin, and the central figure steps forward, shaking his maracas. The music changes to a conga, and all proceed to conga off stage, with each getting a moment center stage to show off their outfit. As the last person leaves the stage, the MC announces, "That was, of course, an Evil, Satinist Cult."

We're sick, I know.

The groans can be heard on the DVD for a full minute. What can I say? One should always do that at which one excels...... We even took two awards: the Spazzy (basically, given for the worst joke) and one for excellence in working with evil fabric.....

For reference, this is the pattern that I made my gown out of, in dusty pink silk satin. The others were in 1920s, 1930s, 1760s (men's) and 1650-ish Korean woman's attire.

In other news, my daughter covered herself with glory in the Science Fiction/Fantasy Masquerade, as Edna Mode. Not only was she very patient and well-behaved backstage, she stayed in character the whole time. (At one point I told her how adorable she was, and she replied, "I know, dahling, I know." She also went around telling everyone backstage, "You look mahvahlous, dahling!") In addition, there were tech glitches (part of which was our fault, I must admit) in her presentation, and she stood patiently, waiting for her cues. I have seen many older folk (including myself!) go to pieces in such situations; while she was nervous, she did wonderfully well. (Maybe I need to consider theater camp, instead of Girl Scout Camp for her this summer....)

Will be trying to get more pix; will let you know how that goes.

Sleeves. Why Did it Have to be...Sleeves?

2008-04-24T14:07:00.000-07:00

(You may have to be above a certain age to get that joke....)

Spent Sunday down at Kate's, working on our Super Secret Historical Masquerade Entry. This involved a carioca shirt and the ruffling thereof, so by the end of the day, I was pretty much sick of sleeves. (And ruffles. And satin. But I digress.) Anyway, the shirt was well on it's way by the time I left, so I'm confident that Kate was able to finish it and the pants pretty easily. (Right? Right, Kate? You were able to finish, weren't you? *crickets chirruping in the distance*....)

The bad news is that I came home to yet MORE Sleeves From Hell(tm). Much as I love "The Incredibles", right now I want nothing more than to take the animators out and SHOOT them! What possessed them to give Edna those sleeves?!?!?!? Are they insane? Don't they know that some of us will be compelled to try to render in 3-D what can, really, only exist in 2-D? And that we would drive ourselves insane in the process? Not to mention not getting any packing, cleaning, or knitting (not necessarily in that order) done in the meantime.

O.K., I admit that it is partly my fault. First, for telling my daughter, "Sure, honey, I'll make you an Edna costume." I mean, I had planned to make one for myself, after all; I could just use hers as a prototype. Secondly, when it became clear that the pointed strips I had cut would not work with the originally-intended amount of overlap, I did make the decision to cut more strips, instead of cutting all new, wider strips. But that is no excuse for the freakin' thing to go all feral on me! It was clear from the images that the points in one row lined up with the dips in the previous row; thus, when I realized that I had to add rows, and added them in the middle (had to be done that way, because of the shape of a sleeve, to make the lengths work), the fact that I added an odd number of rows meant that the points on all the subsequent rows had to be moved. And then, somehow, I miscounted (don't ask me; triple-redundancy failed me) and had to add yet another row, in the middle, then re-adjust all the rows above, because by now the ones below had all been sewn down. (And after finding out it was a stretchy fabric the hard way--when my strips all grew loooooonger during the working and the pressing--and thus having to ease them back to the right size, requiring another pass through the sewing machine for each of 16 freakin' rows PER SLEEVE, I wasn't ABOUT to rip them out again.) So, we're talking about 32 point strips, each of which had to make 4 passes each through various sewing machines, and it's no wonder I'm out for blood at this point.

However, there is good news: the sleeves. are. done. There, I said it. They're done, they're ready to be put into the tunic (which, oddly enough, went together much more easily than I had anticipated.....what is it planning?.....). I was working on the tunic this morning, and it, too is now ready for the sleeves, plus a final fitting and a little handwork. My promise to my daughter will be fulfilled, and even if it kills me, I can die happy, with the knowledge that I am a Good Mom. Whew!

Geeky Crafter or Crafty Geek: You Decide

2008-04-18T09:52:00.000-07:00

O.K., to quote Hailey Mills in the Parent Trap, I've had "a scathingly brilliant idea" (in more ways than one). Let me tell you about it.

While I grew out of the little girl stage where I loved unicorns and rainbows, I have always loved the color progression of rainbows, and have often included it in my knitting. However, it has been increasingly hard over the years to find washable, affordable, soft yarn in the requisite colors. In fact, I was recently reduced to dying my own to make the rainbow-striped leg warmers that my step-great-niece asked for as a Christmas present. Since the dying was not entirely successful, I was whinging about it to myself last night, when I had a thought: once I get the final color dyed, I could dye up sets of yarns to sell that had all the appropriate colors! If I got it down to a science, I could just buy lots of different weights of yarn, and dye them up the way I did for the legwarmers, especially now that I know how it's done. I might even do kits, or self-striping sock yarn, or.....

And the "scathingly brilliant" part? I was trying to come up with a name that conveyed the idea without sounding too sappy or cutesy, when it finally hit me: Roy G. Biv Yarns.

CC26 is Fast Approaching.....

2008-04-17T14:02:00.001-07:00

...and, for once, I actually feel almost ready.

But what, you may ask, is CC26? It is Costume Con 26, and it is hard to believe a) that there have been 26 Costume Cons, and b) it has been on the order of 10 years since I've been to one. Used to go every year, both CC and Worldcon. But then, DD came along, and the Hubster quit his job to stay home with her, and luxuries like cons on the other side of the country and cable TV went by the boards. But, for the first time in umpty-ump years, CC is within driving distance of the old homestead, so I'm packing the Hubster and the DD into the car and we're off for a wild weekend of ogling other peoples clothes, and showing off our own.

May write a more complete summary of What to Expect When You Attend Costume Con at some point (or may just post the article I wrote for our costuming group's newsletter), but a short summary would be wise. It is a 3 to 4 day event, where the days are filled with panels about how to wire your costume for electricity, how to glue without asphyxiating oneself, how to research both historical and science fiction/fantasy costumes, how to run a Masquerade, how to be a good Masquerade participant, how to document a recreation or historical costume, how to herd costumers in a large group entry, truth and fiction about corsets; you know, just about what you'd expect. It's the evening where the fun starts. There is a Friday Night Social, and there are two costuming competitions : the Science Fiction/Fantasy Masquerade and the Historical Masquerade. There is also often a Single Pattern Contest, where everyone is free to take the listed pattern and put their own twist on it, then enter it in a fashion show. And there is also the Future Fashion Competition, where people submit costume designs well in advance, they are judged and the winners are printed in a booklet that is sent to all the con members. The designers have the right to reserve their designs for themselves to make, or they can open it up so that anyone can make them. These are then also entered into a Fashion Show. Oh, and there's also usually a doll contest, and sometimes an additional competition: one year it was a cod piece competition, the next year the guys demanded equal time, so there was a bra competition. This year, there is a props competition, with a somewhat loose definition of what constitutes a prop. (I, for example, have been requested to enter some of my tea cozies and an enormous muff, mentioned in an earlier post.)

The Friday Night Social usually has a theme; this year, the theme is Victorian Underwear. Now (as I believe I said in an earlier post) I think I can lay claim to a larger wardrobe of Victorian underwear, corsets in particular, than pretty much any other rocket scientist in the world. However, I also have a 7 year old daughter, and while I'm not shy about wearing a corset in front of her, a friend came up with a fabulous idea, for herself and her two daughters: Victorian nightgowns. I thought this was a great notion, and so made them for myself and Sam: (unfortunately, Blogger is being a pain, and not allowing me to post pictures, so you'll have to follow the links: mine, Sam's, both.)

I'm very happy with how they came out, and even happier that they are done more than a week before needed, thankyouverymuch. Mine needs some adjusting, since I was faking the pattern, but it is wearable, and Sam's has a foot-deep hem, so that I can let it down as she grows. (She doesn't grow so much as telescope; she gets very little larger around, just lo-o-o-onger. With this hem, she should be able to wear it until she fits mine.) The only thing I don't like about them is that they are so thin. I'll have to wear my regency slip under mine, and I'll find something for Sam to wear under hers, so that we can be seen in public. And I was sad to hear that the woman whose idea this originally was (hi, Denison!) has been unable to make them for her and her girls, which is too bad; I thought we'd have made an adorable picture. (Oh, I forgot to mention that I also made nightcaps for us, (no pix, yet) and you've already seen the slippers.)

My lunatic friends and I are entering the Historical Masquerade with an amusing entry. (The costumes are serious (well, most of them), but the presentation is not.) Can't show you any more about that until after the con, but I promise to take good pics and blog about it right afterwards. Suffice it to say that it involves several different historical periods and a conga line; let your imagination chew on that for a while. The good news is that my dress is all but done: I have to hem the sleeves and put in the snaps and hooks, make loops and sew on buttons, and have Kate trim the hem, then hand-turn it. But all of that is handwork, and I should get the sleeves and all the fasteners done tonight at WeHo S&B, and Kate will trim the hem on Sunday, so I should have that done as well before we leave.

Where I am a little behind is on Sam's costumes. It might appear that a girl who already has two Disney princess costumes, a fairy costume (including at least half a dozen sets of wings to choose from), a mermaid costume, another fairy costume, a ballerina costume and a hula girl outfit might not need anything more. There, you would be wrong. There are two other costumes in the works for her, one at her instigation, and one at mine. Though she has never seen the TV show Firefly, I just have to dress her as Kayleigh; most of it is purchased, but have you ever tried to find a jumpsuit for a kid? I'm having to improvise, fortunately with sale items. It won't be exactly right, but she'll look a lot like Kayleigh's kid sister, especially if Belle gets the parasol painted. I've taken the sleeves off the shirt; now, I just have to sew them on to the pants (well, I suppose finding the pants would be the first thing) and deconstruct a shirt that's too small for her, for her to wear underneath. Other than that, we're good to go.

The one she asked for was Edna Mode from the Incredibles. Since I had already planned to make said costume for me, I kind of knew what was involved, and have been slowly assembling the pieces needed though I had a bear of a time finding a cheap wig small enough for Sam. The one I have is too big, but it will do. Sunglasses with the lenses popped out give the huge black frames, and though it was surprisingly hard to find black full-length leggings in her size (there were capris everywhere), I finally did, and found black tights and black flat shoes (well, ballet slippers) as well. Now, all I have left is the tunic and those @#$%@! sleeves, which I had planned to do this past Sunday and just didn't happen. Time is running out, but I think I can do it. Wish me luck!

Socks and Other Unmentionables

2008-04-09T15:18:00.000-07:00

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.)

Cubic Closest Packing, as Applied to Storage Units

2008-03-20T22:16:00.000-07:00

I keep threatening to show pix of my storage unit, to brag about how efficiently I've used the space. Well, today is the day!

My main interest was to pack as much stuff into the 5' by 10' space as humanly possible while still having everything remain accessible. Clearly, those are diametrically opposed ideas, but I fancy that I have found a good compromise. Also, I have both costume pieces (including hats and props) and fabric (cut and uncut, and some on bolts) as well as trim, patterns, and shoes and other accessories to store all together, which made things more difficult.

After much heartburn and lots of puzzling, I set up 5 shelving units in the space: two 18" by 4' on the left, as you walk in, and three 16" by 3' foot on the right. This left a corridor about 2 ft wide down the center, and a 18"space between the two long shelf units on the left. (I know that the math would indicate a similar, smaller gap on the right; however, in actual fact, I had to work to get all three shelving units in. Either the storage unit is smaller than advertised, or the shelf unit is larger than the box said, or both. Sadly, I always forget to take a measuring tape with me.....) It also allowed me to somewhat standardize my storage by using empty copier paper boxes to store stuff in. These boxes have the advantage of being sturdy and having good tops, allowing them to be stacked. In fact, I stacked them in the space between the shelf units on the left, all the way to the top of the racks. The bottom ones aren't as accessible as those on the shelves, but nothing's perfect, and I couldn't see that space go to waste. There is enough room between the tops of these boxes and the bottoms of the shelves above so that I can slide shoe boxes in on top, maximizing the space usage. I also put a small galvanized steel trash can all the way at the back of the unit, to store rolls of fabric, as well as parasols, swords, etc. Then, lastly, I put two rolling garment racks into the corridor, which are easily rolled out into the hallway when I need to access the shelves.

One thing I hadn't counted on, but was just a very useful accident, was that the shelves are sturdy and very close together, allowing me to use them as a ladder, to more easily reach the top shelves, and the boxes stacked three high up there. Not easy to do when I'm in a narrow skirt and heels, if I stop off before or after work, but definitely doable, and readily so when in jeans and tennies.

So, now you have some idea of the layout, let's get to the pictures. This is the sight that greets you when you open the door:

. You'll note, there is a little space available, right in the front, say an 18" square footprint. I do have plans for this space: I'm looking for a tall, narrow chest of drawers, the kind you usually see sold for bedrooms, Goddess only knows why. If I put that on a small dolly, I'll be able to keep the stuff I use most often in it: corsets, gloves, purses, fans, snoods, shawls and scarves, those sorts of things. Those things currently live in boxes on the shelves, so that would free up the space there for some of the stuff that is still back at the house.

Moving the first garment rack out, you see this:

Moving that rack out, you can now see the back of the unit, with the trash can:
You begin to get a feel for just how claustrophobic it can be, with those 6 ft tall shelf units on either side, and the top shelf of each stacked to the roof of the unit:
BTW, that pink blob near the top of the second picture is the fanny of a stuffed pink standard-size poodle, which has wheels on it's feet so that it can be pushed along on a stiff leash. This was made to go with my rendition of an Erte drawing, Symphony in Black. Me, being me, had to add my own twist to it, so I made it all in pink, and the pink seemed to demand a poodle, rather than the racing hound of the original. The enormous muff that goes with it is just visible in the third picture, a little above and to the left of the black and white striped hat box. (Don't know why I thought you needed to know that, especially since I don't have a pic of the poodle or the muff.....)

The view from the back of the unit gives you a different perspective:

but any way you look at it, there ain't much space left. There are times when I pull a box off the shelves and have to back out with the box in the same orientation, as there is insufficient room to rotate the box in the isle. However, I am able to get at nearly everything fairly quickly; only those things on the bottom of a 3-tier of boxes on the top shelf, or far down in the one stack between the two left units requires a lot of work. And, I will admit, since I have several non-standard boxes, there are a few where I need to take a middle box out when I want an end box, because the end box is trapped by the L-shaped corner post of the shelf unit. Fortunately, this is somewhat self-correcting: less-frequently-used boxes tend to be sorted into the less-accessible spots. So, all in all, I'm pleased with the result and find it pretty workable. Obviously not nearly as good as having it all stored at home, but an acceptable compromise.

Sock Madness 2--Made it to Round 2!

2008-03-18T22:44:00.001-07:00

The first round of Sock Madness 2 had a lovely sock called Zombies. It's a ribbed pattern, which means it goes slower than a stockinette (which was what the first pattern was last year), but I managed to finish faster in absolute terms (Sunday night this year vs. Monday lunch last year, both with a Thursday release), though I think I spent more actual knitting time on these. (I cheated, somewhat, by taking Friday off.) There were lots of hints at the last minute about it being a "scary" sock, but I went ahead with the yarn I had originally picked for this sock anyway. I like the result better than I was afraid I would, but not as much as I wanted to. Though I will admit that when I was finally done, had taken the picture, uploaded it, sent the required, qualifying email, I looked down at my feet and said, "Huh, those are quite nice, all in all." So, I would say that's a good thing. And despite being in the fastest division, I made it in to the next round, so yeah me! My goal this year is to make it further than I did last year; since I got knocked out in round 2 last year, I submit that this is a modest enough goal. Stay tuned to see if I can acheive it!

On to other projects!

Rainbow legwarmers: I tried taking the color out of this "red" yarn that ended up mauve, using all the suggestions I got from folks: baking soda, Oxyclean, and bleach--nothing worked. Will try overdying it later, but I think I have to admit that I blew it, and buy some more yarn to get the red I need. In the meantime, I started on the leg warmers, but since I can't finish them until I reorder the yarn, etc., other things have edged it lower down in the queue.

One of those "other things" are these socks from Knitty.com. I'm using Knit Picks Gloss in Concord Grape to make them, and have only just started them, but they will give me something to keep me limber between SM2 rounds.

What has really become number-1-with-a-bullet is the ski suit for Barbie: sweater, ski pants, and hat. My daughter informed me the other day that I promised to make these for Babs, and Oh, by the way, Bab's birthday is on Easter. You know, less than 5 days away? I cast on this morning, but forgot to bring them with me to work tonight, so we'll have to see how much gets done before Sunday. Along with work. And sleep. And driving to Grandma's house on Friday (with me driving, so no knitting time, dang it!). Gauuggh! I told her I would try.

On to some older stuff: (Drum-roll, please) I have FINISHED THE TEA COZIES! I have! The last two are done! Both of these definitely fall into the feral category. The green one is my second try at that pattern; I finished a full version in a much heavier weight yarn, which meant many fewer rows of ruffles which looked STUPID! Gave that one away to someone who actually liked it (Goddess bless Ravelry!) and started again with fingering weight, after first spending too much money buying laceweight that I later realized wouldn't do. The final result is quite nice, and were I to do it again, it would go much faster and easier this time, but I doubt I will make the effort. Not the pattern's fault, just a little too much PTSD around the whole project. But it's done, done, done!

The pink one is even more so: I have tried no fewer than three yarns and at least 4 different needle sizes. I also tinkered a little with the pattern, but really like the final result; only I realized after I had given this to it's recipient that she had said "any color pink EXCEPT dusty". Ooops. May make her another in some other pink, now that I know how.....

My daughter also recently requested an evening gown for Thumbelina, a 3" doll that she got several years ago at Micky D's. Not sure that a gold metallic evening gown with a split up the side is appropriate for a little girl doll, but then, I wore some pretty inappropriate things when I was a kid, too. And it went pretty fast, and my daughter liked it. I call it a win.

And, finally, we have the lace scarf that I knit for my mom's birthday. Also from a knitty pattern, I again made an inappropriate yarn substitution, but ended up with a reasonable product. Not sure why lace patterns seem so much harder for me to remember than color or cable or other texture patterns; I memorized very quickly the pattern for the fisherman knit sweater that was the first sweater I made, lo, these many years ago, but even at the end of this lace scarf I was still checking the chart for every row. Weird. Is it because I can read textured stitches so much more easily than lace? Maybe. Maybe I just haven't done enough lace? We shall see.

That's enough for tonight.

Project Statusess(Stati?)(What is the plural for status?)

2008-03-12T15:38:00.001-07:00

{Insert obligatory apology for not posting more often and traditional whine about not having enough time.}

Now that that's done, let's take a look at what I've been doing:

(Huh. I seem to have run up against a limit to the number or size or total volume of images you can post at once. How odd; I don't recall this happening before. May have to do this in two or more pieces.)

First, we have a project that has been around quite a while:
I started this sweater-coat for Candace about 20 years ago, the last time sweater-coats were in fashion. It's made with purple worsted sayelle held double with grey wool-ease worsted. I made one, low these many years ago, and started this one for Candace immediately after finishing the other, but somehow I got sidetracked, and it was never finished. This is a close-up of one of the sleeves; they're done, as is the back, so all I have left to do is the two fronts. Really want to get this one done this year, as I have decided that this is my year to clean out the backed-up queues in my various crafts. I'll post about another one later.

O.K., next we have some scarves that I made to be sold at the Family Flea Market at my daughter's school. I gauged my interest just about right; I was only getting really annoyed with them on the last two or three out of a dozen. Six were fun fur knitted on huge needles, and six were these loopy scarves that are crochetted, and were in style a few years ago:

Next we come to some fabulous slippers that I made for my daughter and myself. I don't usually do the "mother/daughter matching" thing, but we're going to a costume convention in April at which the theme for the Friday night social is Victorian underwear. Now, very few rocket scientists can boast as large a collection of Victorian-style undergarments as I can, but my daughter is only seven, so I stole an idea from a friend in the same situation (she has two small daughters and is going to the same con) and am making us matching Victorian nightgowns to wear. Of course, we must also have nightcaps, wrappers and slippers; nightgowns are about 90% done, wrappers and nightcaps aren't yet started, but the slippers came out great, if I do say so myself. I started with a period pattern (well, period-esque; it's from 1916, which is a little late, but I doubt that slipper styles changed all that much), but wandered away from it in a lot of ways. The result looks like the picture on the pattern, though, and we both like them and they're done; what's not to like? :-)

The final picture is my latest foray into dying with foodstuffs: my sister-in-law asked me to make some rainbow-stripped leg warmers for her granddaughter/my step-great-neice. Very frustrating, because it is almost impossible to find yarn that is a) affordable, b) feels nice, c) is machine washable, and d) comes in all the requisite colors. I finally gave up and bought three skeins of Knit Picks Bare, in DK weight, and dyed them with Wilton's cake decorating gel, in my crock pot. Five of the six colors came out quite nice, if a little uneven (in the trade, they refer to that as a "semi-solid" or "mostly solid" yarn), but the red just wouldn't work. The first time out, it ended up way too "tomato", so I put it back in with a little blue in the bath. At one point, the color was perfect; however, fearing that it would all come out in the wash, I left it in longer--and got mauve. It's not a bad color, but it certainly doesn't complete my rainbow. And since I intended to start with the red, I'm having a devil of a time getting myself to start the knitting while I ponder what to do about the red; I keep feeling I'm going to be knitting them upside down.....

You might ask, why this flurry of finishing? BECAUSE SOCK MADNESS 2 STARTS TOMORROW! Not that I'm anxious or anything. Just because they freaked me out by saying the first sock requires a solid or semi-solid yarn, but think "scary"; what the heck is that supposed to mean?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Calm. Breathe. I'm going to my happy place now.....

A Night of Dancing

2008-01-20T13:02:00.000-08:00

This was my gown at the Jane Austen Ball in Pasadena, Ca last night. The inspiration for it came from all those paintings of the period with filmy gowns with nearly no sleeves and minscule bodices. It's a polyester silky, and the overskirt is made from a spangled and beaded bellydance scarf, with a hole cut in the middle and hung at the bottom of the bodice. I made this ages ago, so there are several non-period aspects: the bodice slants down to the back, instead of up, I used eyelets to lace it up the back, instead of buttonholes, or having it button, the beads on the bodice swing free instead of being stitched down. But it has worn well, and has a certain something, and apeal that garners a lot of attention. I have to admit, it's one of my favorites.

There were a LOT of very flashy gentlemen there, and my husband took a shot of three standing together:

Feral-ville and Its Environs

2008-01-16T10:22:00.001-08:00

O.K.! Now that I finally have 5 minutes to breathe, I'm going to try to get caught up on my recently finished projects, recently started projects (sigh) and more, with special attention to those dear friends, the Feral Projects.

When last we spoke, I believe I had just finished the Lobster Pretzel scarf (which, BTW, has still not been delivered to its intended recipient, through very little fault of my own) and Kate's pumpkins, and was set to frog Sam's Christmas sweater yet again (I thought of it as my own private low-impact workout, for a while there). Yes, that sweater was a charter member of the "Let's annoy Bridget" club: frogged the body three times, and the sleeve twice, before making it all work out. And then I couldn't find buttons I liked! I found something that would do, finished it at West Hollywood Stitch & Bitch the week before Christmas, and here it is:
I'm very pleased with how it came out, considering I didn't have a pattern and was making it up as I went along. But Sam liked it, and has worn it, and it fit, though I think I need to get some bigger buttons, as these don't seem to hold. But I like it. However, as we know, the traditional reward for a job well done is another job--I now have to make this sweater for Samantha's doll Molly, a soft-sculpture about two and a half feet high. Sigh. I hope I took good notes on how I made this thing....

Next up, we have a corset, of which I have no pix, that a friend ordered from me this summer and I really wanted to get it to her (and off my list!). It's a lovely grass green slubby silk, trimmed in white, (just like this one, but in a different size) and I was very pleased with how it came out, as well. I finished it in November, and it covered the last of what I owed myself for my little jaunt last summer.

Next, we have Yet Another Tea Cozy. This one is for my friend Suzie, and, surprisingly, did NOT give me much trouble. Oh, O.K., I didn't like the flowers that were given in the pattern, but I borrowed Nicky Epstein's Knitted Flowers from a friend, and made a few of those to mix in and that did the trick. And Suzie loved it, which is the important thing.

Now, we come to my recent foray into Fun Fur land! Those are just four of the dozen or so skinny Fun Fur scarves that I made over the holidays. I even tried a new trick: I used two colors of eyelash held together, which makes for an interesting look. (No pix of those scarves, unfortunately.) These things are great, and work up very quickly. The bad news is, requests for these breed: every time I thought I was done, I thought of more people who needed them, or got requests for more. But I got them all done in time, without much rush. Even got some yarn to make a few more for myself!.....

Finished up Barbie's coat, also in fun fur, and Samantha helped me wrap it, then "helped" Barbie unwrap it on Christmas morning. More Nicky Epstein patterns; the coat worked well, but the hat didn't. shrug

Made a chemo cap for a Ravelry knit along. Not as happy with this as I wanted to be. It's hard to get gauge, it's hard to measure gauge, with this yarn. Might stick to things like scarves, where one size really does fit all.

Enough of the fuzzy stuff! I forgot that I never did a final report on Teo's jeans:
(must have blocked it out, because of the pain....) This is the pattern from Knitty called Blu and it was great. Not sure about the whole purpose behind the dropping the stitch all the way down, then picking it back up, since I don't think it looks all that much like a seam, except on the reverse stockinette "cuff", but no big deal. What was a bigger deal was that I bought the recommended amount of yarn and came up an inch short AND Elann was out of that color and not expecting to get any back in. Grump. I guess that's what I get for substituting yarn; will have to remember to check yardage as well as weight, in the future. However, Ravelry came through for me, and I was able to trade for enough yarn to finish them up. In all, I'm very pleased with how they turned out, and they fit Teo, so it's all good. (In a "any landing you can walk away from" sort of way....)

What next......a quick hat that I made for the Hubster for Christmas.
Don't think he really likes it, but I'm pleased with it, and he was looking for a hat recently, so I thought he might get some use out of it.

What was MUCH more successful were the camp shirts I made for the Hubster and his brother for Christmas:
The fabric is FABULOUS! I call it "Space Babes", though the selvedge says Futurella. (Think generic Barbarella figures and poses.) This is the first "stereo feral" project I've done in recent memory (don't ask about SWAT and Chess) and it had it in SPADES. To start with, I bought the fabric two years ago, which means, of course, that it is no longer available. O.K., technically, it is "available": on ebay, as fat quarters, for $10 each. (Just for the record, a fat quarter of this fabric would be virtually USELESS--the pattern is just too big to get a reasonable segment of it in that small a piece. You'd be lucky to get one whole space babe.) And they even offer to sell it to you uncut, at the same price. You do the math; it comes out to $40/yd, and you need more two yards/shirt for this width. (Ask me how I know....)

In any case, two years ago when I bought it, I only thought I'd make a shirt for the Hubster, so I think I bought three-ish yards, but I forgot that when I went to cut. O.K., so the first thing to go was the collars; I figured those could be made in black cotton w/o impacting the impact (as it were) of the shirts. Still not enough, so I made the second facing in the black, as well. )First one was already cut.) STILL not enough, especially when you have to juggle the front to place the pattern felicitously AND be able to cut a matching pocket. Then the real death blow: the fabric was too narrow to cut the sleeves together, I had to open the fabric out and cut them one at a time, and even spaced that way, I could only get most of three sleeves. Finally decided to shorten the sleeves by 2", extend it with the black, then cover the extension with a black cuff. Still had to piece one sleeve, but was able to match the pattern, so it's not too visible.

And you know what? The black collar and cuffs made these shirts. They look much more sharp and put together than they would have otherwise. So I guess you never know. Hubster liked his and BiL LOVED his; too bad he can't wear it to work w/o drawing a harassment suit. I suspect he'll have fun with it, anyway.

Was also able to finish a Hawaiian shirt for Thomas, and design and test knit a sock for Sock Madness. They were desperate for patterns, thinking they might not get enough to run the game, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. I like the pattern I designed, but I chose poorly on the yarn. Ah, well, things to learn. Fortunately, they got enough patterns, so the game will go on. If my sock gets used, great! If not, that just means the pattern will be posted here sooner! :-)

I suspect I've forgotten some projects, but that's the gist of finished things. Currently on the needles are the second sock for the Sock Madness design, the final two tea cozies (both TOTALLY feral, so look forward to hearing me gripe about those, soon, I hope), a test knit of Annie Modesitt's Red Carpet Convertible, plus all the things I had in work last year, that I haven't finished. I'm getting exhausted just thinking about it......

Irony in Parenting

2008-01-15T10:31:00.000-08:00

I know I owe a post on feral projects (and I have collected a few more since my last post), but I had to share this with you. Do you remember this and this and this and this? Then why is the well-dressed Barbie at my house wearing this:

Yes, those are facial tissues tied with scrap yarn. Maybe they're having a spa day? Why do I bother?......

Waaaaaaay Overdue Update

2007-11-09T08:51:00.000-08:00

For some reason, I don't feel that I can update well if I don't have pics, and since the digital camera went belly-up a month or more ago, I've not been posting. However, I HAVE been knitting, so I finally borrowed a friend's camera and shot (most of) the things that I've been working on. So! On to the updates! (I'm keeping this post to finished items, as I didn't realize until just now how many things I've got going....)

First, the pumpkins came out fabulous, if I do say so myself.
The one in the back is the one I did with three strands of fingering weight (Knit Picks Palette) in three different oranges. The pix don't really show it, but the three different colors of yarn give the surface a lovely, mottled appearance. Also, interestingly, this one knitted up the same as the two in worsted weight, but didn't shrink nearly as much during the felting. So, I ended up with one big one and two smaller ones, which was what I actually wanted, even though I knitted three big ones. Life's funny, sometimes. Will write a more detailed post on these shortly, with a review of the pattern.

Next, we come to the next in the (seemingly endless) parade of tea cozies:
This one came out well, the pattern is good and quick, but it is a little underwhelming. Ah, well, it is the one she picked, and as close to the colors she asked for as I could get. (I even tried over-dying the blue, to get closer to what she wanted, but no soap.) The pic is before I wove the ends in or did the loop on top, but this is pretty representative.

Next is not really my project, but my Death Socks in Sock Wars II. (I felt the need to document my death.) They are lovely, well-knit, and fit great. My assassin also sent along some lovely stitch markers that I am using in Sam's Christmas sweater. Thanks so much!

Now, we come to my present for my hubby for our most recent anniversary. Oct. 13 was our 16th wedding anniversary, and when I tell you we dated for 9 years before we were married, you can understand that I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel for gift ideas. However, the Hubster is a gun nut, so when I saw this, I knew I had to do it. Good pattern (I only made two small alterations to it) and a quick knit, I was very happy with my Luv Gun.

Next up is an item that is mostly a failure. My daughter has this tiny (about 4" high) doll that she asked me to make clothes for last year. So, I took some leftover sock yarn and knitted Thumbelina up several dresses. Then I got creative, and added a sweater to one and a bonnet to another. Well, Thumbelina has been wearing the same three dresses for a year now, and she needed something new, so I tried my hand at designing a summer outfit for her. (Yeah, right before the real fall weather finally kicked in; my timing, as always, is excellent.) Honestly, in my head, these were much cuter: a pair of drawstring bell bottom pants, a camisole, and a bell-sleeved cardigan. However, the reality didn't quite match my concept. It didn't help that T went MIA while I was making these, leaving me with just a drawn outline to try to get the sizing right. Still not quite sure how I would change these to make them work, but I did explore a technique to knit a sweater with as few seams as possible: back and fronts knit together, including the button bands, sleeves knit in the round, then the whole thing knit as one piece from the armholes up (raglan), with the armpit stitches of the sleeve and the body grafted together. Leaves only some small holes under the arms to be sewn, and some fudging at the back of the neck. Am using the same technique on Sam's Christmas sweater; will say more about that in my "in progress" post.

And lastly, the list of FOs concludes with the freakin' Lobster-Pretzel scarf:

Tried to get close-ups of the various stitch patterns I used, but was not as successful as I would have liked. (This is one thing I will be looking for, when I finally replace the dead digital.) However, the important thing is that this sucker is FINALLY DONE! I finished the knitting ages ago (despite my agonies of running out of yarn TWICE), but hadn't blocked it because I didn't have a piece of cleared floor big enough to lay it out (it's quite long). But, I finally pushed enough stuff around in the sewing room (yes, it's still the sewing room; no progress made there, unfortunately) to clear enough room to block it, and now it's done. The info about the lobster is here; the rest of the scarf is basically sampler blocks, working in from the lobsters on each end: basketweave of my own design, this block, and a block from a Barbara Walker stitch treasury. Am pleased with how this came out, just hoping the wool I picked (Wool of the Andes from Knit Picks) isn't too scratchy. Am very pleased with the pretzels, though, and they're very simple: using a provisional cast on, knit an i-cord "long enough" (for worsted weight done with 5 sts and size 7 needles, this came to about 8", I think) to twist into the required shape. To attach to the edge, cast on until you get to the place you want the pretzel, knit the live stitches off one end, cast on 3 more stitches, pick up and knit the bars between stitches along the long curve of the pretzel for 4* stitches, cast on 3 more stitches, take the waste yarn out of the provisional cast on and knit those live stitches. (Sounds much more complicated than it is to do.)

So! Those are my FOs for the time being. Next, I will document several feral projects that have been plaguing me: Teo's jeans, Sam's Christmas sweater, and the Flower Basket Tea Cozy. (That post may not be suitable for sensitive readers.....)

*In the picture, you can see I picked up more than 4. In retrospect, I think picking up fewer stitches would have worked better, which is why I wrote this the way I did.

Feral Projects

2007-10-18T16:16:00.000-07:00

Did you ever have a project go feral on you? Something that should have been easy, basic, simple goes wrong in multiple bizarre ways? Teo's jeans are like that.

First, I'm terribly afraid they will be way too big. Better than too small, it is true, as he will only get bigger, but I had hoped the would fit reasonably well. We'll see, once they are washed and shrunk.

Second, I bought the suggested 3 skeins of yarn (plus one of contrast), and ran out of yarn with only about an inch and a half of one side left. Annoying, but I was doing an order anyway (since I had also run out of yarn for the pumpkins) I just ordered what I thought was the right color. Of course, it wasn't, but the reason I thought it was was because they don't have any of the color I need, nor do they know when they will be getting some. Have a message in to a fellow Ravelrian who appears to have the same color in her stash (and lives in the same state as me!) to see if she'd be willing to trade/sell/barter/whatever. There are several folks in Ravelery who appear to have the right color of this yarn in their stashes, plus the Elann site has a swap section, so I should be able to get some. However, the part that I need to finish will not be seen (it's the inside of the waistband) so I'm not sure it's worth all the fuss. We'll see what comes up. Drat it all! I wanted to finish it soon, even though it's for Christmas. Besides that, I didn't realize the whole color thang until I was already at the gym AND I forgot to load my latest recorded book onto my Nano, so I had NOTHING TO DO on the treadmill this morning!!!! Darn near died of boredom. Harumph.

I'm Dying in Sock Wars

2007-10-18T16:00:00.000-07:00

Received email from my assassin that my doom is on it's way. Here's hoping that my target gets her SIP to me before I finally succumb.

And, even though I managed to download the pix from my cell phone, the only ones I took of my weapons before I put them in the mail, the pix are dreck, and not even worth posting. Here's hoping that my target will be kind and send or post pix when she dies.

Ah, well. Couldn't hope to have as good luck as I had last year, I suppose......

Gaaaaagggghhhhhh!

2007-10-17T08:10:00.000-07:00

I got annoyed this morning when I went to read a blog I follow, and it hadn't been updated since the 5th of October. Don't these people know I need my entertainment? Then I came here and realized that it had been even longer since I had updated. Sigh. We deplore the flaw in others of which we, ourselves are guilty.

So, on to the updates!

Sock Wars II has begun, and I have fired off my first shot. Lovely pattern, quick to knit, with a stitch pattern similar to that used in Sam's mermaid costume, so I felt right at home at once. Took longer than I expected, what with going to Disneyland the day the pattern came out. (Should have figured out how to check my email on my cell phone; could have been knitting on the socks hours before I actually started. As it was, I finished all of the body of a pumpkin while in the car, in line, etc.) Also, went to a ball the next night and, despite sitting in my lovely period-ish evening gown knitting between dances, I was too tired to sit up after we got home, so I lost both late-night-knitting sessions. This meant that I didn't finish until late Monday night, and mailed them early yesterday morning, along with some goodies to soften the blow. Hope she likes them! And hope she's quick about sending along SIP! I would love to kill again before I die, though I'm still listed as "alive" in the database. Don't know if that means that my assasin is slow, or stealthy.

Speaking of pumpkins, have all the knitting on the first three done, though I think I'd like to try a few of the smaller ones. Am sewing the *%$#@! pieces together, which takes forever, but I am almost done and will soon be ready to felt. I think I have enough plastic bags to felt all three at once. At least I hope so!

Have made a little more progress on one of the Sock Madness socks. Unfortunately, my digital camera has gone south, so I am unable to show progress pics at this time. (Maybe I actually need to read the instruction manual for my cell phone, since it has a camera......) Am up to the heel turn on the second sock, so I should finish it well before Christmas.

Got the yarn to finish the baby jeans at the same time that I got the rest of the pumpkin yarn, so I should be able to finish those quickly, now that I'm in waiting mode in Sock Wars. They are very cute, and will also be done well before Christmas.

Have decided to completely redo this tea cozy, as it doesn't at all look like the original design. Have the yarn, but have yet to cast on, and I've already missed the birthday it was for, sigh.....

Oh, and my husband liked the Luvgun! It's too silly, really, and a quick knit. May need to use the rest of the yarn to make a holster, though.

No progress on anything else. Frustrating, but there it is.

In other news, I am approaching cubic closest packing density in packing stuff into my storage unit, while still retaining accessibilty. Really need to get pix, as I have been rather ingenious about it. Need to do a post on that saga, RSN.

Feast or Famine

2007-10-04T14:17:00.000-07:00

Many years ago, when I first got the spinning bug, I went to an SCA art retreat weekend. Had a fabulous time, in part due to the quality of the teachers, in part due to the Baroness's excellent cooking and need to feed people. ("I bought and prepped for 40 people, I don't CARE if only 17 of you showed up! YOU WILL EAT!" And really, with fresh bread at every meal, and fresh scones every morning, this carb-addict took very little persuading.) I hemmed and hawed, but finally, a few weeks later, I ordered my spinning wheel, knowing that most of the next year at work was going to be pretty laid-back, so I would have time to build it (it was a kit) and learn to use it. (The work I do is quite sporadic: some weeks are hell, involving (literally) 18 hour days, weird hours, and complex analyses; other weeks, let's just say I explore the furthest reaches of the 'net.)

In one of those situations that are not uncommon with businesses both big and small, the proprietress and I had a little bit of miscommunication, a little bit of resentment, and a series of letters that escalated in nastiness, resulting in a delay of more than a year in my receiving my kit. This, of course, coincided with a dramatic upswing in the density of work, ensuring that I didn't have time for another year to build the darn thing, much less learn to use it.

When work finally slowed down again, I had lost the forward momentum on the whole thing. Add to that the bad feelings left over from dealing with the businesswoman, and I just didn't want to touch the wheel, so it languished in it's box. For over 4 years. (I did, eventually, make it. But I have yet to work on it regularly. I'm used to my drop spindle. My daughter, however, loves to use the spinning wheel as the wheel of a pirate ship.....)

Unfortunately, I'm afraid something of the same thing has happened again. Had I received my Ravelry invite earlier this summer, I would have had plenty of time to input my projects, fill my queue, even get off my duff and get my stash sorted and photographed. But, nooooooo, it had to arrive just when I took on a project of stunning dullness, whose tediousness will require many days work to explore, then more days to make sure the boredom didn't lull me into error. AND I have more high-priority work that needs to be done, as well. Meanwhile, I've only been able to get some of my projects into Ravelry (I haven't even started on the socks) and despair that I will ever get my queue filled out in a timely manner.

Sigh. Feast or famine. Ain't that always the way.

Ravelry At Last!

2007-09-27T16:05:00.000-07:00

FINALLY got my invite to Ravelry! Went right in and signed up, but just browsing has confirmed what others have said--this is going to be an INCREDIBLE time-sink! I was able to put up my knitting library (though I just remembered a book that I forgot to add) because I don't have many knitting books. Cataloging my stash ain't gonna happen soon. WIPs and FOs have a little more hope, as I had already had a Flickr account and was documenting my work there. Will have to wait for a less-busy day, though, to get started on that!

I did, however, take the time to join the Sock Wars group! (Details for armament should go up any day, now!)

Just a quick projects update: the baby "jeans" from Knitty are about 70% finished, the newest bobble scarf is about 85% along, and I have made some more decisions regarding my sewing room. The last tea cozy sux (more about that, with corroborating evidence, in a later post), so I'm rethinking that, and the yarn arrived for Kate's pumpkins. I'm also about 40% finished with my secret project, which I will be able to blog about shortly after Sock Wars kicks off. And how did I end up with so many felting projects?

Progress!

2007-08-23T13:38:00.000-07:00

I have FINALLY made some progress on mothballing my sewing room!

I know; this is not something that most crafters are actually excited about doing, but for me, it's a big deal.

For a lot of personal reasons, this is what needs to be done at this time, but I have been, understandably, I think, dragging my feet on it. Over a year ago, I rented a storage unit and started moving boxes of fabric into it. The idea was that I would take everything off of one of the 5 free-standing metal racks that are/were in the sewing room, dismantle the rack, tote everything to the storage unit, rebuild the shelving unit, and re-stack everything on it. In the end, I hope to end up with a nook in the main part of the house (the current sewing room is off the garage) where I could store essentials: notions, patterns, corset hardware, fabric and trimmings, as well as either my costume shoes or my hats, or possibly some of each, depending on how things fit into the space.

I hit the first snag when I had emptied the sewing room of everything that was not on the racks or in drawers, which, unfortunately, filled a large part of the storage space. I really wanted to have access to what was in storage, but I was kind of stuck. Finally, a friend (thanks, Trina!) suggested that I needed to buy more racks, and set these up in the storage space, so that I could leave two or three of the other racks at home, for use in the eventual nook. That enabled me to do another spurt of moving, and I even managed to clear off one of the old racks, move it and reload it, but then I got stuck again. I couldn't seem to clear off any of the three remaining old racks, so I could dismantle it. But this weekend, I finally got the last rack that had to be moved into storage cleared off, broken down, transported, re-assembled, and refilled, DESPITE getting to the storage place after the office had closed and so having to move all the pieces of the rack on a rickety luggage carrier, instead of their flatbed cart. I was on a roll! I would not be defeated! Even by the idiots who pulled the stop button on the elevator! (Who knew that pulling that wouldn't sound an alarm?)

Anyway, I'm hoping that I'm now on the home stretch for this. There is still a lot of work to be done (a LOT (shudder)) but I'm hoping that I can get this done soon, since the only time I can really work on it is on Sundays and football season starts soon!

Yarn Monkey Found!

2007-08-22T10:53:00.000-07:00

Somone (Thank you! Thank you! Thank you, Sandysays!) on the Sock Madness list posted a new blog address for Yarn Monkey! Apparently, she managed to delete her own blog, and even though she immediately signed back on to try to rebuild it, someone else had taken the address/name in the intervening minutes. So, now she is here and says there will be sign-ups for the new Sock War in the next few weeks! I'm so excited! And so glad I found her in time to sign up! Squeeeeeee!

A Very Nicky Post

2007-08-09T14:20:00.001-07:00

Turns out that all the pics I have to post today have to do with Nicky Epstein, in one way or another. Most are out of her book Knits for Barbie Doll., but the poncho has two different pieces out of her edging books. So! On to the updates.

First, the poncho. I had recently bought Sam some new clothes, which she picked out, and they were all in the green-brown-orange-Earthish-tones group. Which is fine, except that the only sweaters and ponchos she had were white, black, and pink. Now, she doesn't care, but *I* do, so I picked over what I had in stash in acrylic (hey, she's *6*, it HAS to be washable!) in that color range. Came up with quite a few browns, tans, two different oranges and several creams. Sam and I then went through Nicky Epstein's first two edging books (because putting fringe on the first poncho I made for her took longer than knitting the freakin' thing and I wasn't going through THAT again!) and she picked out a lace edging, then fell in love with the kitties, so I said I'd do that, too.

Those were mistakes number one and two. Turns out, that trim doesn't knit up at all the way it looks in the book. Maybe I need to block it? Dunno. Anyway, when I had a few repeats of the pattern done, I showed it to Sam and asked if she still liked it, or if she wanted something else, since it didn't come out the way it did in the book. She was cool with it, though she picked up immediately on the same thing that I did, the huge gaping hole in the pattern that was NOT obvious in the picture in the book. Weird. Have sussed out how to fix it, should I ever need to do this trim again, but was too far along to frog when I finally had figured it out.

Mistake number two was to do color work that was not Fair Isle on a project done in the round, which included decreases on every row. Pain in the patootie, but I got it figured out, both the wrapping at the end of each row before turning and how to make the decreases slant the right way done both from the right side and from the wrong side. And I am pleased with the way the kitties came out; they kind of make the whole thing. I even managed to weave all the ends in, by doing it while on a telecon.

Perhaps mistake number 0 was to make it out of, as Ellen says, "crunchy acrylic". Sam dislikes "itchy yarn" (read, wool, including the two pair of hand-knit socks I made for her) but this stuff isn't all that much softer. She likes it, but I'm going to see what chemistry will do: I intend to dose it with some serious liquid fabric softener, and see what happens. Stay tuned.

On to Barbie! I have certainly gotten my money's worth out of Knits for Barbie Doll! And Sam still has a long list of things she wants out of it, after I finish the other thing I'm working on for her (more about that, later). First, let's see a pic of the poncho that I showed in progress some time ago:
Pleased with how it came out, except that the fringe won't lay flat, even after steaming, so I'm not quite sure what to do. Also, I've got to try to work the patterns over, so that I'm knitting in the round more and seaming less. (Hey, I'm lazy.)

Next, we have the sun dress:
Done with crochet and pearl cottons, held double, it's quite nice, and knitted up pretty quickly. Think I need to move the snaps, though, if Ms. B is going to stay decent.

Next, we have the Christmas sweater, which also knitted up very quickly in doubled pearl cotton. Was tedious as all heck to assemble it, but at least I had the sense to put all the beads on before I assembled it. (The story of getting the star-shaped sequin off the bottom of the bottle in which I had transported it to SnB I will leave for another time.....) In any case, it is quite cute and is almost-instant gratification, which is important for the first grade set.

Finally, we have the skating outfit:
Again, pleased with the looks, but wish I had knit the yoke in the round. Will try that next time it is practical (The next two Barbie outfits in the queue are a bathing suit and a strapless evening gown, so it doesn't apply.) Also, the bottoms of the sleeves are a little tight, which makes it quite an operation to get the silly things over her permanently-stuck-out thumbs. As always, Sam picked the colors, and I am always pleased to note that her color sense is different from mine, but what she chooses does work. She has quite an artistic eye. (Not that I'm biased, or anything....)

Now, for the upcoming projects. Currently on the needles is another tea cozy (another green-and-green one, this time for Corinne) and a wig in bright yellow. Am hoping that this will satisfy Sam's desire to go to school as Hannah Montana, but I'm not holding my breath. Had to cut down the wig pattern, for two reasons: the original is written for adults, and I knit so loosely that I nearly always have to drop down two needle sizes to get gauge. Tried that with this, but the fabric came out so stiff that I just wasn't happy with it, so I used larger needles and cut the stitches down by a third. Will have to recalculate when I do these for adults; I think that Kate and Belle and I need to wear these to a con, at some point.

Oh, and I finished the last corset in time, but only sold one, with one additional special order. Sigh. Really had hoped to sell more.....

Summer Work

2007-08-02T14:43:00.000-07:00

O.K., got some pics and finally found the cord to download them, so let's recap What I Did On My Summer (non-)Vacation:

First up, I have to confess something: I have a side business making corsets. I have no plans to quit my day job, as I couldn't afford the cut in pay, and I really wouldn't want to do it all the time (despite what I said in my last post), but it brings in pin money and makes it possible to go to cons and such. I rarely remember to take pics of them before I hand them over to the folks who sell them, but managed to get some of them this time:

That's silver satin trimmed with white; cafe-au-lait heavy taffeta trimmed in cream; grass-green slubby silk trimmed in white; and pale blue satin trimmed in cream. There were three more delivered before that, but can't remember the fabrics or colors (will update later). And I still have one in black satin trimmed in black and red that needs about 45 min. more work done on it. Should get that done tonight or tomorrow, and deliver it tomorrow evening. (There's a small costuming conference in LA this weekend, Costume College, which has as it's theme this year the Civil War Era, so I'm desperate to get as many of my corsets there as possible, as it is exactly the sort of folk who are interested in them.)

In addition, I've got one more tea cozy done:

I'm pleased with how it came out; the fabric is very thick, and I'm thinking of adapting it to make hot pads. Got the pattern here, but have made some modifications to it.

What else?.... I've made some progress on Sam's poncho, but have gotten to the point where a) it's pretty awkward to work on, unless I'm sitting down, and b) I'm putting in a row of kitties, so I have to read a chart, which means I have to pay attention, which means it's going slower. Hope to get the kitties done fairly quickly, so I can go back to the mindless stockinette-in-the-round. (No pic, yet.)

Made a little progress on the Barbie stuff, but have been concentrating on corsets this month. Should be able to get back to the original Material Girl, now.

Oh, and have turned the heel on the Mash-up Madness socks. They seem a little tight over the instep, despite the fact that I picked up double the number of stitches recommended. It's O.K. once you put it on, but it is hard to pull them over your heel. Oh, well. (Again, no pic, yet.)

Pedal to the Metal

2007-07-02T11:02:00.000-07:00

I had no idea how much I loved sewing, until I returned to it this weekend after a long hiatus. How could I have forsaken this friend that has done so much for me, helped me work through so much in my life, to say nothing of providing me with costumes, clothes, gifts, and pin money? I am appalled that I let it get away from me like that.

I know why it happened. For a variety of reasons, I have been trying (for over a year, sigh) to mothball my sewing room, but it has been very slow going. I was trying to force myself to complete the process by saying that I could not sew until I had made the switcheroo. (Ideally, and eventually, I will have a sewing "nook", or at least a place to store my sewing essentials (thread, interfacing, elastic, plus all the stuff to make my corsets: two buckets of fabric, twill and bias tape, laces for trim, the mondo grommetter, etc.) in the house.) I have broken that once or twice, but I really haven't done much, particularly compared to my normal output.

But what I had forgotten was how much it feeds my soul. I can't really explain it, any more than I can explain why I must dance to stay sane (haven't been doing much of that lately, either; can't you tell? :-). I just know that my spirit needs this, and I forget that at my peril.

Oh, not all of it is a religious experience; to be frank, I dislike the cutting-out part. In fact, one of the things I like least about the type of sewing I do (designing my own things, mix-and-matching pattern pieces, having to make muslins to try out new patterns, that sort of thing) is that I can't get the cutting out of the way up front; I so often have to go back and cut a waistband or facing, or re-cut a piece, that I can't say until the very end, "Well! At least all the cutting is done!"

Yes, I'm one of those who does the unpleasant part first, if at all possible. (Since I dislike bread crusts, it's quite entertaining to watch me eat a sandwich: I eat all around the edge, saving the good inner part for last. I'm certifiable.) So it was that I spent much of the weekend cutting corsets. Since I've made a gazillion of them from this set of patterns, I can be pretty sure that I know what pieces need to be cut, so once the one remaining one is cut, I can sit down to the part I really enjoy, to wit, the actual sewing.

And if I actually even enjoyed the cutting this time, imagine how much happier I will be when I get to sit in front of the machine and just sew.......

Projects update

2007-06-06T13:52:00.000-07:00

Okie-dokey, we got (some of) the camera problems ironed out, so here we go:

Barbie sweater; Barbie poncho

These are both from Nicky Epstein's Knits for Barbie Doll.

And here are the pix for Sam's mermaid costume from New Knits on the Block:

skirt; tail close-up

Also, got my Knit Picks order, so I can finish the lobster-pretzel scarf.

That's it.

Been Busy.....

2007-06-04T11:21:00.000-07:00

...but, of course, have failed to take any pictures, yet. (Hey! It's not my fault! The camera went wonky!) Decided to post anyway, and update with pics when I can.

First off, I have taken a trip into Barbie-land! My daughter Sam, who has been a girly-girl from the day she was born, recently asked me to knit some clothes for her Barbie. I had knit for one of her smaller dolls last fall, and I came up with a few things for her, but Barbie is a whole, 'nuther (44D) thang. So, I ordered a book of Barbie knitting patterns and told Sam that I had to wait until I got the book to get started. She was amazingly patient, and didn't even bug me every day for updates. The book arrived, and we had two lovely times: first, picking out the patterns she wanted, and second, picking out the yarn to make them. Again, she was very patient, not complaining when I kept saying, "No, dear, that yarn is too big."

I must say it is fun to do these, but it isn't as fast as I expected, from the size of the items. Unfortunately, a sweater still has sleeves, a front and a back, sometimes a collar and cuffs. And doing fringe on a teeny-tiny poncho is every bit as tedious as doing it on a full-sized one, with the added complication of the teeny-tinyness of the stitches, making it hard to thread the strands through. But I was able to make a whole sweater (with collar and cuffs) in one evening, and that's saying something. Once I finish the fringe on the poncho (which I can only do while sitting down, not moving, which means working on it in the car or on the treadmill won't work), I just have the second sweater and the sun dress to do. It's wonderful having the patterns all done, so all I have to do it knit them, no alterations needed. I did, however, have to substitute yarns; I priced (online) the recommended yarn for the first sweater, and I'm sorry--if I won't buy a $45 sweater (or the makings thereof) for myself, I'll be switched if I will do so for a doll! But I was able to find some creative solutions, and I think they are coming out really cute. Sam likes them, and that's the main thing.

The other thing I've been working on is also for Sam, out of New Knits On the Block. It's an adorable mermaid costume that I also had to substitute the yarn for, but is almost done. Wonderful stitch that looks like scales; Belle is planning to use it to make herself a scarf. Sam also picked out an Egyptian costume, though I did manage to convince her that she'd get it quicker if I made the dress out of cloth (it's just a shift) and only did the collar and headpiece from the book. I had got the book out of the library, but there are enough cool things in it (including a set of bowling pins, Kate!) that I ordered it when I put in my recent Knit Picks order.

On the Sock Madness front, I finished up the Mad Weaves, and the first Mad Fair Isle Batik sock, and have just started on the second of the pair. Really like the Fair Isle, but it takes a lot of concentration (no TV watching!). Still have yet to start on the Mad Dances, or the Mashup Madness, or the redo of the Mad-tinis.

Oh, and I made some of those fluffy scarves in purple fun fur: one for my mom and one for Sam. Have a lovely pink to do one for me, RSN.

Ran out of the red yarn for the lobster-pretzel scarf, prompting the above-mentioned Knit Picks order. Hope to finish that shortly after the yarn arrives, as I've got less than half of the smocked blocks to do, and should be able to get away with just one more, central block.

Kinda stalled out on the tea cozies; not sure why. Will have to get back to it, pronto.

All the things I haven't worked on, that I also need to jump on: the embroidered tablecloth, the grey lace shawl (for me!), dying and knitting the self-striping socks for Belle, other socks for my mom, Vicky's scarf, either a Jayne hat (from Firefly) or the faux-jeans for Mateo, at least two corsets for sale, probably more like 5 or 6....

You get the idea. And that doesn't even count the on-going dismantling and mothballing of the sewing room. Definitely need a time-turner.....

Fair-ly Hooked

2007-05-07T10:48:00.000-07:00

Hello, my name is Bridget, and I'm a Fair Isle addict.

(Hi, Bridget)

We knew in advance that the 6th Sock Madness pattern was going to involve Fair Isle. This caused some trepidation on the part of some of the players, but I wasn't all that worried, as I had done color work before. But, it turns out that what I had done before was intarsia and this was to be Fair Isle and the two are VERY different, at least for me.

Basically, in intarsia you are doing blocks of color, and each block (roughly) has it's own ball or bobbin of yarn. Where colors meet, you twist the old and new color yarns together, to connect the two portions of knitting. It is harder to do in the round than flat, so isn't used in sock knitting all that much. Fair Isle, on the other hand, has the colors mixed on every row (say, 2 sts of color A, 3 of color B, 1 of A, 2 of B, etc.) so you carry both yarns continuously, making strings of yarn or "floats" across the back of the work with the yarn not currently in use. (As I child, I hated Fair Isle sweaters and socks, because I was always catching those floats on my fingers or toes or a button or something when I was trying to put it on.)

So, the pattern came out on Friday, and I immediately decided that the yarns I had planned to use wouldn't really work, as they didn't have enough contrast, so I decided to use some (eye-searing) lime green and pink (left over from Death by Socks) to do my Mad Fair Isle Batik socks and cast on for them immediately. (This, despite not having finished the Round 4 socks, nor even started the Round 5 socks! That should have tipped me off right then.)

As a "thrower" (I hold the yarn in my right hand and drop the needles to "throw" the yarn around the working needle to make a stitch) who can, though not as fast, knit "continental" (holding the yarn in one's left hand and "picking" it with the working needle), I was intrigued by the other Sock Madness folks discussion of doing Fair Isle by holding one yarn each way, and I did try to do this, but it just wasn't working for me. So, I went back to my standard intarsia technique, dropping each yarn to pick up the next one. But, somewhere along the line, I evolved a double-throwing technique, where I hold one color between my thumb and index finger and the other between my index and middle fingers and use a twist of the wrist to present the proper color at stitch-making-time. And, outside of a worry about getting an RPI, it has been fantastic! I can keep my tension pretty even, and go at a much greater speed than anticipated; I just never want to stop, which made me late to bed last night, up early this morning and STILL late for my workout, all because I had to do "just one more row". Amazing! Addictive after just one hit!

The other thing that I have found is that this would be a good pattern to knit both socks at once, alternating one row on each sock; this is because, once you get the pattern for a row in your head, it doesn't take nearly so long to do the following repeats. Unfortunately, I prefer double-pointed needles to two circulars or Magic Loop, which means that to do both at once, I would have to buy a second set of size 0 needles (I know the pattern says size 2, but I almost invariably need a needle two sizes smaller to get gauge). Since I had already decided that I couldn't afford a new set, even though I broke one of the 5 needles in my current set, buying a second set just to speed things up doesn't look to be in the cards. Ah, well.

In any case, I am thrilled with my new skill, and already plotting what else I can make with it. Hmmm, graph paper, yarn, needles, mumble-mumble mumble.....Be with you in a minute!

Projects Update

2007-05-04T09:33:00.000-07:00

Despite my recent trip and illness, I have managed to get some work done.

First, I haven't made any progress on the table cloth, but at least I took some pics:

The pattern; close-up There's one of these designs in each corner of the table cloth.

Current progress; close-ups 1 and 2

And, if you're really interested, I posted pics (1, 2, 3) of the back of the work, too.

I've also made some real progress on the Lobster-Pretzel scarf; edging.

(Sorry for the out of focus pics.) Why lobsters? Why pretzels? Why together? Hard to explain. Old friend, old jokes. But I do like the way it's coming out. It's interesting, though; I've always heard that knitted stitches aren't square, so you need special graph paper to make charted designs. Turns out that in this, as in so much else, I'm odd: my lobster, taken off someone's Flickr site and run through this (totally cool and free!) program, is oddly squashed. Looks like I would have been better off w/ standard graph paper, after all. (Too late, I remembered that I've done a lot of designs in the past involving color work that I charted out on regular graph paper, and never noticed any distortion. Weird.)

The other important thing about this scarf is that it represents a turning point for me as a designer. I had almost finished one lobster, using a pretzel-esque (boy! I didn't think when I got up this morning that I would be using a word like that!) trim that I got from one of Nicky Epstein's edging books, and I realized the trim just wasn't pretzel-y enough. Add to that, the fact that I couldn't do math (hey! I was getting sick!) and had not centered the design and I was unhappy enough to just frog the whole thing and start again. In the past, I would have let it lay, despite my tendencies to perfectionism, but being willing to do this, I think, means that I'm starting to understand the whole knitting design thang in a way I hadn't before. (Still wasn't willing to frog again, so I could re-chart the lobster, but hey! It's progress!) I'm now about 2/5 done with the second lobster, and hope to finish it this weekend. After that, it'll just be knitting from both ends towards the middle, making textured sections for the rest of the scarf, with maybe some more simple colorwork (like stripes) included, if there's enough of the black left. Will keep you posted.

Next, we have Sock Madness. Metal 00 needles not withstanding, I have finally finished my first Mad Weave. You know, the Round 4 socks. When Round 6 starts today. Sigh. Really hoped I could keep up, but it was not to be. Still, I will have all the patterns, and have already bought all the yarn, so they should all get finished. Eventually.

What else? Have not made much progress on the tea cozies. Finished the one in circular brioche stitch, but it came out way too small, plus I mis-read the start of the pattern, so I think I will just pitch that one (or maybe give it to my daughter; might fit her other toy tea pot) as there isn't enough yarn to worry about frogging it. Next time, I'll try the two-color brioche, as I think it will make it a little more interesting. And, sigh, I was actually supposed to have given out the first tea cozy, to Kate at her party last weekend. But the party was cancelled and I forgot to take the present (tea cozy and socks) to the dinner that replaced it. Aren't I a little young for senility to be setting in?

Other than that, I made a little progress on Sam's self-striping socks to match a pair I made for me, am almost finished with the re-do of this tea cozy in reversed colors (with pattern corrections), and have realized that I probably have enough left-over brown and associated color yarns to do a poncho for Sam. (Realized that we had bought her new clothes in brown and orange, but she had no jacket/sweater/wrap to go with them. Figure I can do up a quick poncho in stripes of brown, tan, and white. I even have about half a skein of a varigated brown. Cool! Stash rules!)

Got one more project that I haven't decided if I'm going to try to sell to knitty.com, so can't blog about it or show pics. Will probably decide that selling it would be too much work, but am not there yet. (Plus, I hate keeping secrets!) Interestingly, I dreamt that I had tested the one thing that will have to work to make the project successful, and, in the dream, it worked. Here's hoping!

However, what I REALLY need to be working on is getting something to wear at the tea party that we're throwing at BayCon over Memorial Day weekend. (Eeep! Con starts 3 weeks from today!) This year's theme is the movie Bladerunner, which means Hispanic-Asian fusion futuristic retro-40s. (Got all that?) Fortunately, I probably only need period shoes, as I'll be wearing a lab coat over the rest. With luck, I'll be able to shop online. Wish me luck!

Oh! I forgot to mention that Yarn Monkey has announce a new Sock War for this summer! Ye-haw!

Round Three Socks Done

2007-04-13T08:52:00.000-07:00

Finished my Round Three socks for Sock Madness. I'm finding that, not only do I knit slower, now that I'm no longer in competition, I also am not in such a hurry to post the pics. (It is pretty funny how many people note on their pics "These socks don't fit me, but my feet were the only ones available at 5 a.m.....")

I'm thinking that Knit Picks Memories yarn comes in infinite skeins. When I knit the slipper socks, I used 4 skeins of it (as recommended in the pattern), and had plenty. I then used the leftovers in my first pair of Mad Cows, as my new Knit Picks order hadn't arrived yet. THEN I used what was left from THAT to knit a pair of Mad Cows for my daughter. And there's STILL yarn left! What I have left from the Painted Madness socks also looks like plenty for a pair of socks for Sam, even with the cuffs, which seemed odd to me. But the Painted Madness socks are a gift for a friend, so don't know if I will do the same pattern for my daughter, since we wouldn't be "matchies". Have to think about that.

Almost finished with tea cozy number three, which is a re-do of the first one, with corrections to the pattern. Hope to start the one in brioche stitch today or tomorrow, though with the Round 4 pattern coming out tomorrow, not sure that's such a good idea. Have finished one sock of the self-striping pair for my daughter, but want to try it on her before I cast on the second one.

Oh! My mom loved her cabled silk and alpaca socks! And she said that the "princess foot" (term coined by Charlene Schurch in _Sensational Knitted Socks_; it's reverse stockinette on the sole, so you are walking on the smooth side of the stitches) was markedly more comfortable. I guess that means that I'm doomed to a lot more purling than knitting in the round would usually involve, but I suspect that the comfort will make up for the inconvenience. And, really, it's changing back and forth from knitting to purling that slows you down; I can purl almost as fast as I can knit.

Socks and Stuff

2007-04-03T11:25:00.000-07:00

O.K., I guess when I got knocked out of Sock Madness, I kinda took it hard. I didn't stop doing stuff, I just stopped writing about it. So, now I guess it's time I got caught up.

First, for some reason, the second pattern for Sock Madness and I just didn't gel. I love the yarn I picked, but it wasn't the right one for the pattern, and I knew it fairly early on. I had already decided to knit the second sock in the "pair" out of fingering weight yarn, as someone else in the game had already done a mis-matched pair, but I got beat before I could implement that plan. And, because of the confusion about the amount of yarn needed for the socks, I ended up ordering WAY more of that yarn than I would have needed, even if I had finished the socks in that yarn. Some of the socks in the Flickr group looked quite nice, but I can't help thinking that the pattern would show off to much more advantage in a solid yarn. I'll keep the pattern around, and may do it, or a modified version of it, at some point.

On the lighter side, I'm looking forward to seeing what Pattern #3 looks like when it comes out tomorrow. I have a sneaking suspicion that it will be lace, but have no data whatsoever to back that up. Well, we'll all know in about 15 or so hours. (Am having second thoughts about this; lace in a varigated? Not sure that appeals.)

In the meantime, I ended up using the leftover yarn from my Round #1 socks to make a matching pair for my daughter. She likes them, and I would have been quite happy with them if I hadn't run out of the red yarn with, literally, 2.25 rows left to knit in it. (I ended up scavenging the red yarn pieces out of the purple colorway, so I had a about a bazillion ends to weave in, but it worked O.K., and saved me buying another skein of yarn, at $11 per, to use less than a yard of it.) It was the first time I had knit socks for her, so there was knitting and frogging and re-knitting involved, but I think I now have a good pattern for fingering weight yarn socks for her, so I am pleased (as is she).

To round out the sock news, I finished the cabled socks for my mom, a pair of self-striping socks for myself, and started on a matching pair of self-striping for my daughter. Am also planning to use the left-ever DK weight from my mom's cabled socks to make a pair for DD, but as that will require another new pattern (different yarn weight), it may be a bit before I get to that.

I have also recently taken a trip into tea cozy land. I have an idea for a silly tea cozy, and I had never knit one, so I've been looking for (free) patterns, so that I can learn what they are all about. Have worked these two from other's patterns, then DD decided her tea pot needed one, so I invented one for her. Have two more patterns to explore, and then I will do a grand review of the patterns, and What I've Found is Most Important in Making Tea Cozies.

Have done a little more on the embroidered tablecloth....What embroidered tablecloth? I hear you cry. Well, several years ago, my sister-in-law asked me to embroider a tablecloth for her. It was from her mother or her grandmother (can't remember now, which) and was from England and very old. Unfortunately, all she had was the tablecloth: no floss, no diagram, not even a picture of what it was supposed to look like. Just the stamped design, one in each corner of a small, square tablecloth.

Now, those who know me know that I have an INORDINATE respect for rules, which includes directions of all sorts, and that I don't do real well if I have to "be creative". (Well, I do, but only in certain, very circumscribed realms, and this ain't it.) So, between having a long list of things ahead of this project, and, literally, not knowing where or how to start, I agreed to do it, with the caveat that it might take "a while".

Three years later, I realize that I really have to at least start the darn thing. (I had, in fact, planned out colors at one point, even to buying the floss, but foolishly forgot to write down what colors I planned to use where, so that only advanced the process so far.) I decided that the leaves were pretty basic, and started with those, then moved on to the small, Margeritte-type flowers, which also seemed pretty straightforward. But, eventually, I got to the point where I had to start on the big flowers, and couldn't decide where to put the darker color, foreground or back; so I did one of each, and asked the Monday Stitching Group for opinions. Their opinions were unanimous (and counter to what we all expected, oddly enough) and jived with mine, so I feel I'm on pretty safe ground at this point. It's going faster than I expected, but it is difficult to find time to work on it, because I can only do it with excellent light and with a minimum of 20 minutes to work, as it takes so long to haul it out and get started, then tear down and put away. (I foresee many early morning hours spent on the floor of my bathroom (the heat lamp gives wonderful light) just as I did with the dragon cross-stitch (no pics) and the one for my mother.) But I am happy with the progress I am making, and even have some hopes that I will get it done in time for Christmas. (Wish me luck!)

Oh! And I finished the re-do on the cowl for my mother's friend! I had finished the knitting some time ago, but, as I used scrap yarn, I ended up with a lot of ends to weave in. I was not completely happy with how the new shaping had turned out, and I hate weaving in ends, so there was a lot of procrastination going on, but I finally took one evening of the Tuesday S&B and finished the darn thing. I'm happy it's done, and I can deliver it when I go down to my mom's for Easter this weekend. Whew!

Rarely finish a project w/o several more mugging me, so I'll just list the new ones briefly: poncho for Sam, sweater for Sam (need to use a stitch pattern I learned from one of the tea cozy patterns), bobble scarf for Vicky, DK weight (cabled? faux cabled? other?) socks for Sam, faux cable socks for mom, something for me to use all the sport weight yarn that I didn't use on the Sock Madness Round #2 socks, oh, and all the tea cozies for the sewing circle ladies.

Sigh! Isn't finishing things supposed to make the list shorter?

KnitPicks Slipper Socks--A Review

2007-03-21T09:58:00.000-07:00

The promised review of the Knit Picks Slipper Socks pattern. And I apologize in advance for my dreadful photography on this project.

Finished slippers: Women's size 8, Men's size 10

I made one pair of these as a Christmas present (no pics, alas), and two more (links above) as post-Christmas gifts, so I have some experience on which to base this review. Overall, it's a good pattern: no errors that I found, the felting (O.K., technically, it's "fulling", but if you say that, no one but extreme knitters or anal retentives will know what you're talking about) worked as advertised, and I didn't even have much trouble sizing it up to make men's slippers (the directions are only given for women's sizes). I used Knit Pick's Memories yarn, (Red Hat and S'mores colorways) which worked quite well, and didn't cost all that much, considering you needed four hanks for each pair of slippers.

Slippers are worked holding two strands as one, and the resultant, pre-felted slipper is HUGE, REALLY HUGE! Remain calm! It will be fine! Knit up the cuffs in a standard K2-P2 rib pattern, also using two strands. (I even tried the experiment of trying to match the color patches of the yarns, but actually preferred the random-ness, which is saying a lot from me.) You then run the slipper foot only (not the knitted cuff) through the washer (directions are given in the pattern) and you get something much more reasonable and sane. I will say that it took twice through my washer to get results, so don't panic if the first wash doesn't do much. And don't worry if you over-shoot a little; the blocking process after the felting can bring it back up to the right size.

They say to also make and felt an I-cord, and I did do this for the first pair I made, but I ended up not using it, as I used yarn to sew the cuff to the slipper, and the stitches weren't noticeable. For the next two pair, I did not make the I-cord, and sewed the cuff to the slipper with regular sewing thread, as recommended in the pattern; then, I was sort of wishing I had made the I-cord, to cover the stitches, but it didn't look too bad, and wouldn't show at all, if you made these in a solid, rather than a varigated, yarn. In short, decide how you are going to sew the pieces together (I will say that sewing through the felted slipper with a tapestry needle and yarn was HARD, which was why I shifted to the sewing thread on the second and third pair), and only do the I-cord if you are going to use a varigated yarn and sew them together with thread. (BTW, I recommend using 4 or more threads at a time when sewing; this seam is going to take a lot of stess.)

One caveat: if the person who will be wearing these walks on a lot of uncarpeted floors, consider adding a suede sole, or suede sole patches, or even fabric paint to the bottoms of these slippers, as they are quite slick. I think they even sell, in liquid form, that rubber stuff that is on the bottoms of kids jammie feet, but I don't know, off-hand, where to buy it. On carpeted floors, they are fine as-is.

In summary, I was pleased with the results, though I still think that the idea of knitting something AND THEN FELTING IT SO THAT NO ONE CAN TELL IT IS KNITTED is just short of insane, but it does do a good slipper, and I can see why you might want it for a bag. But in that case, why not just felt the yarn or the roving, and save yourself a lot of time? I guess the knitting makes the shape more reliable, and gives you an even thickness to the fabric; it's just not my gig. :-)

The good news is that they arrived safely at their destination, they fit, and the recipients LOVE them. AND they may even get to wear them a little before spring and summer really set in, and they have to be put away until the cool weather returns. Wins all around.

Footie Stuff

2007-03-16T11:14:00.000-07:00

It is entirely possible that I'm just a weeeeeeeee bit more competitive than I thought. (I know, you're shocked.)

Seriously, Sock Madness has really brought it out in me. Somehow, knowing the socks would have to be mailed made Sock Wars a little less frantic. In this game, there is no time for anything--I didn't wash a dish this weekend, nor any laundry. I only cooked because I had to, and let my daughter watch videos, which I ordinarily don't do. I was a woman obsessed/possessed; it was kinda freaky. But it was fun, too, and I'm really glad I made it to the next round. Doubt I will make it much farther, given how fast YarnMagnet (my opponent in the next round) finished her first pair, but will still probably knit along with everyone else. I mean, I bought the yarn already, wouldn't want it to go to waste......

In the meantime, I've FINALLY finished the felted slippers for my sister and brother-in-law! I should be able to mail them off today; have before and after pics, this time, and will soon post them, along with my review of the pattern.

So, I just need to finish the cable socks for my mom before Easter. Almost to the heel on the second sock, so should be fine, since Round 2 of Sock Madness won't start this weekend. It sounds as if they've made a good compromise between wanting to move the game along, and giving folks time to recover from one round before starting another.

In for Round 2!

2007-03-13T15:57:00.000-07:00

I made it to the next round of Sock Madness! Have even left a taunting note (well, a note, at least) on the blog of my Round 2 opponent. Can't wait for the next pattern!

Well, actually, I CAN wait; I stressed out a bit this weekend about this game; here's hoping they wait until next weekend (March 24th) to release the next pattern! I could use the break. Also, it would be nice if my Knit Picks order would get here--I fudged the first pair; not sure I can do it again, as I don't have that large a selection of sock yarn.

On another note, I had been hoping to submit a few patterns I have for conseration of publication at Knitty.com. However, I just read the guidelines, and by posting my patterns here, I have made them inelegible for publication at Knitty; bummer! I understand why they have that rule, but I'm sad that my wish to share with others may have cost me publication at Knitty. I do have several other ideas in the works, though; had meant to blog about them, but will now have to keep my mouth shut. Not an easy task!

Sock Madness--Update

2007-03-12T14:22:00.000-07:00

DID manage to finish my socks at lunch, and post to Flickr. By my calculations, there were 4 slots open when I posted, but I'll wait for official notification before I rejoice too much. :-)

Just glad they're done!

Also-Rans

2007-03-12T10:15:00.000-07:00

Not looking good for my making it to the next round in Sock Madness. As of about an hour ago, there are only 6 slots left in my division, and I still have more than an hour to go until lunch, with 2 more pattern repeats and the cuff on my second sock to do. And, even if I finish, not sure I'll be able to post a pic before I get home tonight. Sigh! I'll keep my toes crossed (can't cross the fingers and knit at the same time!) but it's not looking good. Still, they're nice-looking socks, even if I can't take a good pic.

It occurred to me that, now that I know they are not using my sock designs for Sock Madness, I can post the pics and patterns here. So! Without further ado:
****************************************************************************
Bridget's Madly Cabled Socks

on foot

These socks are worked from the toe up, because that’s how I like to work socks ( ☺ ) and have a short-rowed heel, because I think it looks nicer than a heel flap. Purling the sole stitches is what Charlene Schurch calls a “Princess Foot”, because it is more comfortable to walk on the knit side of the stitches than the purl side.

Materials:
100g/190yds dk yarn
set of 5 dp needles, size 5, or size to get gauge
16 stitch markers (optional)

Gauge:
22 stitches/30 rows to 4 inches/10 cm

Terms:
wrap next stitch (purling): bring yarn to back, slip next stitch from left needle to right, bring yarn to front, slip stitch back to left needle

wrap next stitch (knitting): bring yarn to front, slip next stitch from left needle to right, bring yarn to back, slip stitch back to left needle

kfb: knit in front and back of next st

pfb: purl in front and back of next st

k tbl: knit through the back loop, resulting in a twisted stitch (I do all my ribbing with a twisted knit stitch; it seems to make for a springier ribbing.)

Toe:
Using a figure 8 cast on, (http://www.knitty.com/issuewinter02/FEATtiptoptoes.html) cast on 16 stitches.
Round 1: p8, k8
Round 2: pfb of first stitch, p3; take up another needle, p3, pfb in next stitch; take up another needle, kfb, k3; with free needle, k3, kfb. Stitches are now evenly distributed on 4 needles, 5 stitches on each.
Round 3: pfb, p8, pfb, kfb, k8, kfb
Round 4: pfb, p10, pfb, kfb, k10, kfb
Round 5: p14, k14

Repeat rounds 4 and 5, increasing the number of stitches between the inreases by two each increase round (so round 6 would have 12 st between them) until there are a total of 48 stitches.

Begin pattern:
Round 1, 2, 4, 5 &6: p24,* p1, k6, p1* repeat to end
Round 3: p24, *p1, sl next three stitches to cable needle and hold in front, k3, k3 from cable needle, p1* repeat to end

Continue with these 6 rounds until the foot of sock is 2 inches shorter than desired final foot length, ending with Round 6.

Begin short-row heel:
(worked back and forth over half the stitches)
Row 1: p23, wrap next stitch, turn
Row 2: k22, wrap next stitch, turn

Work rows 1 and 2, decreasing the number of stitches worked before the wrap by 1 on each row until there are 8 stitches left unwrapped, ending with a wrong side row. (If you like, a stitch marker can be inserted each time you slip the wrapped stitch back to the left needle; this makes it easier to see where the next wrap should go. This uses a blurt-load of stitch markers, but it’s a lifesaver, if you have to put your work down in the middle of the heel!)

Row 3: p8, purl next stitch along with its wrap, wrap next stitch (there are now two wraps on this stitch), turn
Row 4: k9, knit next stitch along with its wrap, wrap next stitch, turn
Row 5: p10, purl next stitch with both its wraps, wrap next stitch, turn
Row 6: k11, knit next stitch with both its wraps, wrap next stitch, turn

Repeat rows 5 and 6 until all heel stitches and wraps have been worked, ending with a wrong side row. (If you inserted stitch markers, take them out only after the stitch and its wraps have been knit; slip the marker and the stitch when you do the second wrap, then slip both back.)

Leg:
Purl across heel stitches then, continue the pattern as established on instep stitches. On next round, continue the pattern across the heel stitches to establish the pattern.

Work the 6 rounds of the pattern until leg is 3.5 inches, ending with Round 6.

Cuff:
Round 1: (k tbl, p1) repeat until end

Work until cuff measures 1 inch. Bind off loosely.

Finishing:
Weave in loose ends.

BTW, if you want to make my anal-retentive heart sing, on the second sock you will make the cables twist the other way by holding the needle in back, k3 off the left needle, then k3 off the cable needle. I'm just sayin', is all.
*******************************************************************************
Mad Bridget’s Faux Cables

on foot

These socks look cabled, but there is no changing of the order of the stitches, and hence no need for a cable needle, or the “guts” method of just dropping a stitch off the needle, working the next one, then picking up the dropped stitch on the correct side of the work. They’re worked from the toe up, because that’s how I like to work socks ( ☺ ) and have a short-rowed heel, because I think it looks nicer than a heel flap. The stitch motif comes from Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch.

Materials:
100g/190yds dk yarn
set of 5 dp needles, size 5, or size to get gauge
16 stitch markers (optional)

Gauge:
22 stitches/30 rows to 4 inches/10 cm

Terms:
wrap next stitch (purling): bring yarn to back, slip next stitch from left needle to right, bring yarn to front, slip stitch back to left needle

wrap next stitch (knitting): bring yarn to front, slip next stitch from left needle to right, bring yarn to back, slip stitch back to left needle

kfb: knit in front and back of next st

Toe:
Using a figure 8 cast on, (http://www.knitty.com/issuewinter02/FEATtiptoptoes.html) cast on 16 stitches. Knit one round.
Round 2: kfb of first stitch, k3; take up another needle, k3, kfb in next stitch; take up another needle, kfb, k3; with free needle, k3, kfb. Stitches are now evenly distributed on 4 needles, 5 stitches on each.
Round 3: kfb, k8, kfb twice, k8, kfb
Round 4: kfb, k10, kfb twice, k10, kfb
Round 5: k

Repeat rounds 4 and 5, increasing the number of stitches between the kfbs by two each increase round (so round 6 would have k12 between them) until there are a total of 48 stitches.

Begin pattern:
Round 1: (p1, YO, ssk, k1, YO,ssk, p2) 3 times, k23,p1
Rounds 2, 4 & 6: (p1, k5, p2) 3 times, k23, p1
Round 3: (p1, k1, YO, ssk, k2, p2) 3 times, k23, p1
Round 5: (p1, k2, YO, ssk, k1, p2) 3 times, k23, p1

Continue with these 6 rounds until the foot of sock is 2 inches shorter than desired final foot length, ending with Round 5.

Begin short-row heel:
(worked back and forth over the St st stitches on bottom of foot)
Round 1: (p1, k5, p2) 3 times, k23, wrap next stitch, turn
Row 2: p22, wrap next stitch, turn
Row 3: k21, wrap next stitch, turn

Work rows 2 and 3, decreasing the number of stitches worked before the wrap by 1 on each row until there are 8 stitches left, ending with a wrong side row. (If you like, a stitch marker can be inserted each time you slip the wrapped stitch back to the left needle; this makes it easier to see where the next wrap should go. This uses a blurt-load of stitch markers, but it’s a lifesaver, if you have to put your work down in the middle of the heel!)

Row 4: k8, knit next stitch along with its wrap, wrap next stitch (there are now two wraps on this stitch), turn
Row 5: p9, purl next stitch along with its wrap, wrap next stitch, turn
Row 6: k10, knit next stitch with both its wraps, wrap next stitch, turn
Row 7: p11, purl next stitch with both its wraps, wrap next stitch, turn

Repeat rows 6 and 7 until all heel stitches and wraps have been worked, ending with a wrong side row and turning. (If you inserted stitch markers, take them out only after the stitch and its wraps have been knit; slip the marker and the stitch when you do the second wrap, then slip both back.)

Leg:
Round 1: (p1, YO, ssk, k1, YO,ssk, p2) 6 times (this establishes the pattern on the stitches coming out of the heel, and continues the pattern on the instep stitches)
Rounds 2, 4 &6: (p1, k5, p2) 6 times
Round 3: (p1, k1, YO, ssk, k2, p2) 6 times
Round 5: (p2, k2, YO, ssk, k1, p2) 6 times

Work these 6 rounds until leg is 3.5 inches.

Cuff:
Round 1: (k tbl, p1) repeat until end

Work until cuff measures 1 inch. Bind off loosely.

Finishing:
Weave in loose ends.

At some point, I will post a reverse of the pattern stitch, so that you can make the second sock mirror the first, as I suggested for the cabled socks. Really. Real soon now.

New Game Starts Tomorrow

2007-03-09T10:13:00.000-08:00

Sock Madness kicks off tomorrow! Finally starting to get excited about it; hope I have as much fun as I did in Sock Wars!

I'm kinda behind in gathering my supplies, though. I missed the call for sign-ups, and when they opened the first round up to anyone who wanted to join, it didn't occur to me that I needed to look into the materials list. Hence, I have now broken my vow of Knit From Your Stash, and can't even use my one get-out-of-jail-free opportunity, since I made online orders from two different stores. Sigh! How did $60 fly out the door so fast? And then, since the yarn wouldn't arrive in time for me to start on Saturday, I had to go to the LYS for one skein, even though I was cheating and using scraps for the varigated. My first pair will be the KnitPicks Memories colorway Red Hat, paired with a solid red.

Have to say I was a little surprised that the very first sock involves color work (or maybe it's just striped? But then why specify one varigated?) That seems pretty complicated for a first sock in such a competition. Makes me worried about where we will go from there! Besides, I'm more into stitch patterns than color work; I love cables, twisted stitches, lace, etc. Hope at least some of them are like that!

Really glad they changed the rules so that all who are interested can play, at least in the first round. Like many others, I'm just in it for the sock patterns and the comraderie!

Update: Just re-read the rules for KFYS, and sock yarn is specifically excluded. Cool!

Pacifica--Last Steps

2007-02-11T21:16:00.000-08:00

Finished knitting last week, and finally had time (mostly required to find the floor in the sewing room) to block the beast. A friend and I decided that it doesn't look nearly as good when laid flat as it does lumped up a bit, so Kay, remember that when you're placing it into the basket.

Cowl

2007-02-08T14:23:00.000-08:00

as worn, as square

I use ktbl for my ribbing, because it seems to give a tigher ribbing, and it also goes faster. Feel free to change the dimensions of the pattern to suit the intended wearer; the one pictured here had to be given to someone else and a new one made, as the original recipient felt it was just too tight. If you increase the number of stitches cast on, make sure you end up with a multiple of 4, and place your markers for the increase rounds at the quarter marks, or the increases will be not be spaced symmetrically#. Also, you may have to fudge the first row of the ruffle, if your final total number of sts is not evenly divisible by 3.)

Materials:

two 6-oz skeins each, Lion’s Homespun and a worsted weight yarn
size 13 24” circular needle (you can use dps for the neck, but you’ll need the circular once you start increasing, as there will be too many sts)
yarn needle

Gauge:

18 sts/14 rows=4” in ribbing
10.5 sts/15 rows=4” in garter stitch

Terms:

ktbl: knit through the back loop
kf&b: knit in front and back of st
kb&f: knit in back and front of st
pf&b: purl in front and back of st
pb&f: purl in back and front of st

Neck:

Cast on 52 sts, using one strand of each yarn held together. Join to work circularly, making sure not to twist work, and placing marker at beginning of round.

Round 1: *(Ktbl, p); repeat from * to end of round.

Repeat round 1 until neck measures 17”, or length from hairline in front to base of neck, going over the top of the head.

Collar:

Repeat Round 1 once more, placing markers every 13 sts. (52 sts)

Round 2: *Kf&b, k to 1 st before marker, kb&f of next st, slip marker; repeat from * to end of round. (60 sts)
Round 3: *Pf&b, p to 1 st before marker, pb&f of next st, slip marker; repeat from * to end of round. (68 sts)

Repeat rounds 2&3 for a total of 19 rounds, or length desired for collar, ending with a round 2. (204 sts)

Ruffle:

Round 4: *P3, yo twice; repeat from * to end of round.
Round 5: *K3, (k,p,k) in first yo, (p,k) in second yo; repeat from * to end of round.

Bind off loosely.

Finishing:

Weave in ends.

# To make the collar hexagonal, follow the pattern as written, with the following changes: cast on 54 sts (or some other multiple of 6), and place the markers 9 sts apart (or 1/6th of the way around) for the increases. Leave out the increases on every third row. To make it octahedral, again, follow the pattern as written except: cast on 56 sts (or some other multiple of 8), and place the markers 7 sts apart (or 1/8th of the way around) for the increases. In this case, only do the increases every other round. Both of these options will give a more rounded collar.

Hard Times

2007-01-26T10:09:00.000-08:00

Under the heading of "no good deed goes unpunished" lies the project I am currently knitting.

Let me first say that I love the woman for whom I am making this. She is a dear old friend, and we've known each other since dinosaurs roamed the Earth. We were fellow "Star Track freaks" in middle school, thus bonded similarly to the way that soldiers in fox holes do. (If you don't remember middle school as a war zone, then either you were extraordinarily lucky or you're in deep denial.) However, it is always a risk to sew/knit/craft for someone who does not do these things, as they really don't know what is possible and what is not, what is easy and what is amazingly difficult. This sometimes results in being outrageously thanked for simple, almost silly things. (I once impressed a whole skating team I was making costumes for, not with the elegant style of the costumes I chose, which looked good on most of the "mature" women on the team; not with the personal fittings; not with the speed with which I whipped them up; but... (wait for it)....because there were hooks at the top of the zippers!)

Unfortunately, the other possibility is that they ask for something which is fiendishly difficult, without even realizing it. While that is not exactly the case in this case, what she wanted (which I found out after I had said I would do it; my bad for not getting all the details beforehand) was something that was 1) much harder to do in knitting than crochetting (which I don't really do), and 2) something that was stylistically difficult for me, personally. And, it's not even really fair to blame her; once she explained what she wanted, *I* was the one who decided it had to be done this way. But I need to grumble a little bit, because the whole thing is further outside my comfort zone than I like to stray.

Kay's original request was for a shawl. I told her that, as long as it could be done on big needles and with bulky yarn, I could finish it in the timeframe allotted, and sent her links to sample shawls, to show her what I meant. Shortly after that, it morphed into a blanket; it was going into an auction basket, and she wanted it to be attractive to men as well as women. Again, back and forth with links to pics, but she never picked one. Her only input was that it was supposed to represent the ocean, and she wanted the other room mothers to go "Ooooh" when they saw it.

The first snag came when we got together to buy the yarn. When Kay had said "ocean", I began imagining chenilles in deep blues and greens. Kay was adamant that it should NOT be acrylic yarn, only natural fibers, dontcha know, and picked things in pale blues and whites. I argued for washability and economy, and we finally ended up with quite a few skeins of mixed-fiber yarns in four different colors. (Because she hadn't picked a pattern, I had to guess how much yarn to buy, and didn't want to run out. As it was, I ended up buying another skein of the darkest blue, just in case I needed it.)

It took me a long while to start the blanket, partly because I had other projects in the queue, partly because, not having a pattern, and only having a vague idea about what I was going to do, I didn't really know where to start. I finally just dove in and ran through one repeat of the colors; using two strands at any one time, it shades from dark to medium to light to white with sparkly bits. I am using short-rows to create shaped color patches that simulate waves, with the wide parts of one row hitting at the thin parts of the next row, and vice-versa. I've even borrowed a technique from sock-knitting book I have, to keep there from being holes where I turned, because I am not wrapping the stitches (that would be a nightmare with these yarns and these needles!).

What's really annoying me about all this is that it's not perfect. Now, I understand that nothing is perfect; and I tend to leave errors in projects, if they're not too egregious, for a lot of different reasons: humility, lowering my stress level, and increasing the probability that the freakin' thing will actually get finished are some of the top contenders. However, I only figured out the "not leaving a hole" trick well into the second color repeat. And, the more I think about it, the more I think that the first dark row should only have had half the shaping I put into it. And the two lightest color rows don't fit together spatially at all, but this is so big and bulky that I'm hoping that will all smooth out in the blocking.

Will eventually post the pattern As It Should Have Been here, so that some other anal soul doesn't have to go through what I went through. But it's also a case of "it's a really simple pattern that is a pain in the patootie to write down", and the no-hole trick is even harder to explain in writing. So, it may be a while.

Oh, and one more thing: it is really weird to go from knitting socks on size 0s to knitting this monstrosity on size 13s. Really.

Gaming Update

2007-01-18T14:10:00.000-08:00

So, both Headgames (knitting hats) and Death by Socks (Sock Wars by another name) have started, but I don't seem to be as excited by these as I was by Sock Wars. Is it because there are many fewer participants in these games (less than 50 in each, while Sock Wars had nearly 800)? Dunno. But, my first hat is in the mail, and I've turned the heel on my first sock, so I'm doing pretty well (even if I did steal the color scheme for my socks from Jan-Knit's first strike in Sock Wars). I think I'm even getting to like knitting with size 0 needles and fingering weight yarn. It's not like the lace shawl (lace weight yarn and size 5 needles); that's like knitting cotton candy. This is a little more substantial, but I've already poked myself several times, once or twice quite severely, with the darned pointy things. But I think I will make myself a pair with the extra yarn I bought (ordered online before we found out how much we needed), and try one of the reticulated patterns from _Sensational Knitted Socks_; they'd look better in fingering weight than in DK, I think.

As for Sock Madness, which starts in March, I think, I submitted three patterns, then had to retract one; I tried to knit it up and it simply wouldn't work at that gauge. (Have an idea for how to fix it, but no time to try it out. Another time, perhaps.) However, the Faux Cables and the True Cables do seem to work, so I'm hoping that one of them makes it in. Had a brainstorm, re: testing the pattern: my mom loves the socks that I knit for her, and wants another pair. (Silk and alpaca; what's not to love?) I am testing out the cable sock pattern by knitting them for her. Two birds with one stone! It seems to me that you could get a good chunk of your Christmas knitting done by knitting your Sock Madness socks for other people. We'll see how that goes.

I'm (FINALLY!) dead!

2007-01-18T13:36:00.000-08:00

Yeah! Finally got my Sock Wars International Socks of Doom! (They came late last week, but I haven't had time to post.) They're mostly light cream, with pink and yellow and green flecks. They're thick, probably cotton or a cotton blend (they passed through several assasin's needles, and the ball band got lost along the way). I'm so happy to finally get mine!

Bobble Scarf

2007-01-12T09:23:00.000-08:00

Materials:

7 oz. worsted weight yarn
set of size 7 (US) dp needles
yarn needle
polyfil pillow stuffing

Gauge:

not really important, but I think it’s about 20 sts k5, p5 rib=3”

Terms:

kf&b: knit in front and back of stitch
psso k st: pass slip stitch over knit stitch
k3tog: knit three stitches together

Bobbles:

cast on 10 sts, leaving a long tail; join and work in the round, being careful not to twist the sts

Round 1: kf&b around (20 sts)
Rounds 2-11: k
Round 12: (sl 1, k3tog, psso k st) around (5 sts)

Place all sts on one dp needle and continue these 5 sts in I-cord (or this) until cord measures 5”; break yarn, and leave live sts on st holder or single-point needle.

repeat, making second I-cord 3” long, and transferring live sts to same holder or needle.

repeat, making 3 of the long cord bobbles, and 2 of the short ones. Do not break yarn on last long bobble.

Scarf:

knit across the 5 sts of last long bobble; cast on 5 sts; knit across 5 sts of a short bobble; cast on 5 sts. Repeat with remaining bobbles, alternating short and long bobbles and ending with final long bobble. (45 sts)

Row 1(WS): (p5, k5) 4 times, p5
Row 2(RS): (k5, p5) 4 times, k5

Repeat rows 1 and 2 until scarf measures half the desired length, approx. 24” (not including bobbles). Leave live sts on holder.

Repeat making bobbles and scarf for second half of scarf.

Finishing:

Graft two halves together.

Stuff a small amount of fiber fill into each bobble, then thread the tail through the cast on stitches, cinch tight and secure. Weave in ends.

Alternate method:

Grafting the two halves together is a pain in the patootie, since you have to go from grafting knit stitches to grafting purl stitches and back again. An easier method might be to knit the bobbles, knit the whole scarf, knit the second set of bobbles, then only graft the bobbles on, binding off the purl stitches. Or, if you were worried about running out of yarn, you could make both sets of bobbles, then knit the scarf until you reached the desired length, or ran out of yarn, whichever came first, then graft the bobbles on.

Knit From Your Stash 2207

2007-01-03T10:04:00.000-08:00

Some folks have started a KAL designed to use up stash yarn. I think this is laudable, and am going to try to do the same. Their rules are:

Knit From Your Stash 2007: Guidelines for L-B and Wendy

1. The Knit-From-Your-Stash-a-Thon will start January 1, 2007 and run through September 30, 2007 -- a period of nine months.

2. We will not buy any yarn during that period, with the following exceptions:

2.a. Sock yarn does not count. What? You think we are made of stone?

2.b. If someone asks for a specific knitted gift that we really and truly do not have the yarn for, we may buy yarn to knit that gift.

2.c. If we are knitting something and run out of yarn, we may purchase enough to complete the project.

2.d. We each get one "Get Out of Jail Free" card -- we are each allowed to fall off the wagon one time.

3. We are allowed to receive gifts of yarn.

4. Spinning fiber of any sort is exempt.

My first modification to this concerns Headgames (like Sock Wars, but with hats): while I have bought some yarn for it, and have lots of acrylic in worsted weight, I know from my experience with Sock Wars that I might end up having to buy more natural fiber worsted weight yarn, if one of my targets flakes or my target specifically hates the color I bought. Also, I have offered to knit up ISoDs for Sock Warriors who remain sockless, and have very little DK yarn in my stash; however, I might be able to weasle this one out, as the yarn would be for socks, so could be considered "sock yarn". And, lastly, I have several "specialty" yarns that I may end up needing to buy other yarn to put with it to be able to use it up.

Also, I ordered yarn yesterday, but I didn't hear about KFYS until today, so I think that's O.K. (I suspect, though, that when I use the "Get Out Of Jail Free" card, it'll be a humongous order from KnitPicks or Elann..... :-) )

2006 Wrap-Up

2007-01-02T10:01:00.000-08:00

Whew! Got a lot more done over this holiday than usual, so let's start documenting:

First, something that turned out almost as good as I had hoped: the Cocktail Monkey Purse:
original; mine; mine.

I'm pleased with how it turned out, though this stuff is a bear to knit with. The author was right that metal needles were the way to go; you needed both the strength and the slipperyness of metal needles to make this work. Unfortunately, I usually need to use smaller needles than those recommended to get gauge, so I ended up using size 4s, instead of the size 6s called for in the pattern. The problem came in that size 4 dpns don't come in the longer lengths, and I was having trouble keeping the stitches on the needles. (Since the yarn had no give, nor any "smoosh", I couldn't find a circular of the right length, either.) For once, though, my packrat nature saved the day: I was using two partial sets of dpns, so I was able to distribute the stitches on 5 needles, and work them with a 6th, which was just enough to solve the problem. Had something of a shock when I went to block it, though; I was convinced that I had made the purse half as big as it should have been, since I only needed one stack of CDs to block it. Double-checked the pattern for the dimensions, puzzed 'til my puzzler was sore, then finally realized that the two stacks were supposed to be inserted into the purse short end first, and that you only needed the second stack if you had made it a little taller than I ended up doing. As it was, I stretched it over one stack of 8 CDs using long stitches of dental floss over the top to tension it. (The handles were pinned to the carpet on the floor of the sewing/laundry room, my usual blocking techinique.) Came out pretty well, and I was able to do the finishing work while watching the Rose Bowl yesterday. (Go USC!)

Next, we move on to a project that I promised my mom I would do for a friend of hers last year, then completely spaced. This friend is always cold, so I made her one of the cowls that I make for our Viking household at the Estrella War: on form, square, flat

The first picture shows how it is to be worn, the other two give some better idea of how the piece is shaped. (That last pic just makes me laugh! It looks like a cartoon character showing off it's muscles! But it does give you an idea of how full the edge is. Pattern will be posted here RSN.) I'm pleased with how it came out. However, after buying BOTH Nicky Epstein's knitted edging books (Knitting On the Edge, Knitting Over the Edge), I ended up inventing the design that I used for the bottom edge; go fig.

Up next, I have finally framed my mom's cross-stitch! (detail, detail) Got the mat cut some time ago, but finally had the time, inclination, and room to do the assembly yesterday. Forgot to take pics; will take some when I give it to her, if not before. Came out quite nice; the mat is the same bright green as in the stitchery, and really makes it pop! Frame is beveled white, which sets it off nicely.

And, finally, we have the scarf I designed and made for my step-great-neice: full, detail

I'm a little undecided about whether or not to give it to her. She's a tweeny, and a friend of mine thinks the scarf is a little too anatomically correct to portions of the male anatomy for a kid. Have asked the kid's grandma (my sister-in-law) for an opinion. We'll see. (Have several people, including myself, standing in line for this, if I don't give it to her. Pattern on this forthcoming, as well, though it's pretty straightforward.)

In addition, I finished a pair of stockings, a pair of mitts, got halfway through the last pair of mitts, finished my Christmas Eve sleep shirt (O.K., I only finished it yesterday, but I was still on vacation then, so it counts!), finished two loopy chenille scarves that I had started ages ago, started verifying my design submissions for Sock Madness, started diddling with a design for a scarf I saw in a store over the holidays, came up with an idea for a friend that involves both preztels and lobsters, finished the first and got almost halfway through the second of three pair of felted slippers, AND came up with a recipe for rice milk eggnog that is pretty darn good! (That will be posted over at my recipe blog RSN.)

Whew! I hope I can keep this momentum through the new year!

Post-game socks for Artsy Gal

2006-12-13T14:37:00.000-08:00

These are the socks I made for my umpty-ump down the line target in the post-game Sock Wars world. I envisioned them as pink and purple, but they're almost a mauve-y red and purple. They look nice, though.

Did the heels with duplicate stitch, as opposed to the last pair, which were done Fair Isle. Have to say, I prefer Fair Isle--it's cleaner. Also, since I was doing this after picking up the gusset stitches on the heel flap, and holding it upside down (to the way it was knitted) I ended up with one fewer stitches to work with, and couldn't figure out a way to squeeze Sock of Doom in w/o having it run into the gusset, which I thought would look funny. C'est la vie; I like them anyway. Hope Artsy Gal does, too.

I found Purple Monkey Fabric!!!!

2006-12-12T21:29:00.000-08:00

I realize that this isn't what floats most people's boats. And I realize that, as I was out looking for purple monkey fabric, it is not altogether surprising that I found purple monkey fabric. But even in my wildest burst of optimism, I never dreamed that I would have two purple monkey fabrics from which to choose!

But why (I hear you cry) do you need purple monkey fabric in the first place? Ah, isn't the internet a wonderful thing? It made it possible for me to find this. This thing was MADE for my friend Belle, and thus I was chosen by destiny to make it for her. Besides, her birthday is coming.

Using the links in the article, I ordered the cocktail monkeys and the cordage online, but balked at doing so with the boa. I mean, after all, I live in LA, just a hop, skip, and a jump from the garment district, who's highways and byways I have trodden many a time. (I guess I shouldn't blog at night, particularly not when I'm hungry. It seems to make me loquatious, not to mention purple.) So, having a little time tonight after running a few errands, I sallied off to the Monster Jo-Ann's.

Since Belle likes purple, and since I am constitutionally incapable of following a pattern w/o adding my own inimitable tweaks, I decided that, even though there were probably no purple cocktail monkeys (haven't gotten them yet, but they said they came in 4 colors; I'm betting blue, red, orange, and green, but they might surprise me) I would trim the bag in purple boas and line it in something purple, as well. I was lucky enough to find kids dress-up boas in lavender and white for a buck a pop at Big Lots (formerly Pic 'N Save) so I picked up two, but was still hoping to find a darker purple. It being Christmas time, I haven't had time to go Downtown, but thought I might as well check out MJA, as I only needed about a quarter of a yard of fabric, (so their outrageous prices wouldn't hurt that much) and they might have the boa, as well.

Well, they had a dark purple ostrich boa, but it was $9, and I couldn't really justify that when I already had two that would work that I only paid $2 total for. Then, I got the bright idea that a purple maribou boa wrapped around the lavender and white ostrich one would do the trick. Tried it on one they had in the store and like the way it looked, and the maribou was only $4. Cool!

Now, I'm feeling kind of cocky, so I set off to look at the "novelty" fabrics, looking for lining fabric for the bag, with a faint hope of finding purple monkeys. Found a couple of nice quilting fabrics that would work, even one pre-cut in a fat quarter that would be quite nice. But, I thought I might as well do the thing right, so I cruised the isles, even the flannel, when what to my wondering eyes should appear but PURPLE MONKEY FABRIC! I was stunned; I really didn't expect to find it, thought I'd have to go Downtown to have any chance of doing so. The monkeys are lavender, though, so I keep looking (what could it hurt?) and there was the SECOND piece of purple monkey fabric! Dark purple monkeys with a space motif in the background. Do you believe it?!!? I almost didn't, so here is my documentation:

(The colors didn't reproduce well, but I promise you, they're purple.) Can you say stoked? Bought all they had left (2.75 yards) as the rest of it has to be made into something for Belle at some point, oh, and it was 40% off. Just need to wash it and decide if I'm going to give the remaining fabric to Belle or figure out something to be made out of it.

NOW I just have to find the time to knit the thing!

Live and Learn-Dying with Kool-Aid, part deux

2006-11-29T09:07:00.000-08:00

Notes to self:

1) Just because you’ve tried a technique once, doesn’t mean you really know how to do it

and

2) Red is evil.

Just finished my first set of post-Sock Wars SoD. I had done them in white (with “Sock of Doom” on one heel and “Sock Wars” on the other, in black), with the intention to dye it red with Kool-Aid. Since I had dyed with Kool-Aid before, I thought I knew what to expect, and that it would be easier dying red. Last time, I was a little unhappy with the intensity of the color, so this time I used more powder, and maybe three packages of Kool-Aid (two cherry, one strawberry) were a little much for one pair of socks, because the damn things KEEP BLEEDING!

When I did the green ones, the socks sucked all the color (from two (plus a little) Kool-Aid packages) from the water, and didn’t bleed very much at all. This time, I used the same dish, a similar amount of water, and three packages, but there was still a lot of color in the water when I took them out, and the color keeps coming off in the rinse water. Grrrrrr! Not really sure what I am going to do.

Sock Wars end game and misc.

2006-11-27T16:36:00.000-08:00

Well, the first Sock War is over, and I think it was concluded with a pretty high level of satisfaction. There was a change in the rules in the last week or 10 days, once Yarn Monkey realized how many of us would still be alive by the end--she imagined being inundated with socks, I guess, and a lot of us were unhappy with the idea that we would get neither swag nor socks. YM had the happy idea of choosing the winner by who first sent a letter or postcard to her at an address she posted on Nov. 24, and Heraldis (who was familiar to those of us who frequented the forum) had the brilliant notion of wiring her flowers. Very clever, so she gets the goodies, and with all good will, as far as I could tell from the forum.

Now, the rest of us will just knit the last socks that we were working on, and that should ensure that everyone gets socks. I'm hoping we can keep the forum going until everyone is accounted for.

In the mean time, I finally got SIP to make for my last target, and was able to kill her in the last week of the game. Am knitting more socks for her, though, as the ones I got in the game were a little more "special" than I liked; besides, I had already started them. Finished that second pair today, and will dye them tomorrow, so I should be able to post them by the end of the week. My target was almost finished with the socks she was working on, so it makes sense for her to just finish them and send them on. Have contacted that target, to see if she has socks she wants to finish, or if she wants to send them to me. I may be a warrior w/o a target, but that would free me up to compensate folks who got taken advantage of in the game, so maybe that's a good thing.

The latest on the slipper front is encouraging: the felting/fulling in the washer worked just as advertised! One shrunk more than the other, but I was able to block them both to the correct size, pinning them to the carpet of the sewing room floor. Now, I just have to assemble the pieces: foot, suede sole, knitted and not felted cuff, I cord for trim. Oh, and make the other two pair, too.

In other crafting news, I finished the sleep shirt for my mom (every year I make matching stretch velvet sleep shirts for my mom, my daughter and myself, for us all to wear on Christmas Eve), as well as a shirt I had completely forgotten I had said I would make, so that was one of those "it only goes on the acountability matrix once, and that when it's already done" oddities. Ah, well; someday I will keep better track of my projects. Yeah, right.

Updates

2006-11-06T10:29:00.000-08:00

Still no change in my Sock Wars status. I really hate that some people aren't taking this seriously; it makes it much less fun for the rest of us. I don't know if my latest target is actually dead (she's been listed as dying for about 2 weeks), and I haven't gotten any replies to emails in over a week, so I'm stuck. Fortunately, chaos seems to be reigning above me, as well, so I don't think I'm in immenent danger of dying. Ah, well.

In the meantime, I finished the socks for my mom. Didn't really like them for several reasons: didn't like the pattern (then why did you let Samantha pick the pattern, hmmmm?), didn't like the way they knit up (probably should have used an even smaller needle size), and I grew to like the color less and less as I worked on it. However, they are wonderfully soft, and look great when on a foot, and I was very pleased with the result of my conversions of a top-down sock into a toe-up sock and the heel-flap to short-row heel. Those techniques should be very useful in the future.

Finished the foot of the first slipper for Kate's husband John, and am REALLY hoping the felting process works as advertised: this thing is HUGE! Will have to finish the second and felt them right away, as I have two more sets that I want to work on, so I need to know if this pattern and technique actually work.

In sewing news, I cut out the matching sleep shirts for Sam, my mom, and myself for Christmas Eve; this year, they're raspberry pink! (Sam picked the color.) Also, I finally remembered to pick up my mom's cross-stitch from the French Hand Laundry, so now I need to pick out a mat and get it cut, and buy the frame, then do the framing myself.

What else? Did a little more on packing up the sewing room; this consisted of building one of the two new racks that I bought for the storage space, and stacking it with boxes already in storage. Since the two new racks are shorter than the old ones (3 ft. vs 4 ft.) I'm trying to decide whether to put another of the old racks in storage or put up a pole to hang costumes from between the two new racks. Tough call.

Consulting the old accountability matrix, (spreadsheet listing current projects, their status, their due-date and their priority. Used to send it to a friend, and she sent me hers, to keep us honest and making progress on our projects; that's how it got it's name.) I note that I started the last pair of mitts for the Sewing Circle ladies (Belle is the last) and finally finished Kate's stockings! Woo-hoo! Also, picked out patterns for socks for several people and was intelligent enough to realize that I won't be able to finish them until next Christmas, so I DO learn from my mistakes. AND I finally decided what colors to use where on the tablecloth for my sister-in-law (bought the floss last year, but had forgotten what I had planned) and started stitching! Now I remember why I prefer cross-stitch to regular embroidery: there is no "right" answer in embroidery, there are only many wrong and a few not-so-wrong answers. Sigh. I'm sure I'll get back into the swing of satin stitch soon; I remember enjoying the last thing that I did that was mostly satin stitch. Oooh, that reminds me! I have an embroidery project for my mother that I need to include on the accountablility matrix.....

Update: Sock Wars and other things

2006-10-19T15:02:00.000-07:00

My assasin has officially been listed as dead (woo-hoo!) and has mailed off her SIP (the socks destined to kill me) to her assasin, who is about 3 people above her in the chain. That means I have a little time, as they have to get to her, she has to finish them, then they have to get to me. Since I mailed socks to my latest target on Monday, the same day she mailed socks to her target, and her target already has SIP from her victim, I have a chance to kill again before I die, assuming target's target doesn't finish the SIP today or tomorrow, and is good about getting the SIP in the mail to me. Otherwise, I'll have to wait until target's target's target's target dies and sends SIP to me, assuming she knows to do so. (She should; I imagine target's target will send my info with the socks.)

Confused yet? :-)

The other news is that I have FINALLY finished the cross-stitch for my mother! Hooray! Only a year in the making, it should have been done long ago, but I have this bad habit of stopping working on things if I miss the deadline. Ah, well, it's done now. Next step is to take it to the French Hand Laundry, to have it properly cleaned, then have it framed, so I can take it down to my mom's the next time we go--whenever that is.

Think I might use the yarn I bought to make socks for myself to make socks for my mom, but haven't completely decided yet. And realized the yarn that I bought to make slippers for Kate's husband John for Christmas just won't do; haven't yet decided what to do about that, though.

Oh, and, from traffic on the parents' list from Sam's school, I have determined that, while they want the kids to make their own Halloween costumes, wearing ones you already have is fine, which is quite a relief, as the Halloween carnival is this Saturday. Whew!

Really need to get started on the "making the quilt" part of Sam's Princesses quilt. Finished stitching the Princesses months ago.....

Frome the Archives: Lawn Camels

2006-10-19T14:16:00.000-07:00

This is an article I wrote 12 or more years ago, when I used to visit the Estrella War as a guest of House Alkazar. I intended it for some SCA publication or other, but I never got around to submitting it. I found it this morning, going through some stuff, and thought the techniques described might be of use to some folks.

Those of you who went to the Estrella War may have noticed House Alkazar's new Lawn Camels. (For those who didn't see them, they consisted of two large figures cut from plywood: a standing camel (about 7+ feet at the top of the hump) and a kneeling one (about 4 feet high). As there seems to be a growing number of Middle Eastern personnas in the SCA, I thought I would share how I had built them, in case others were interested.

The Beasts were a 12th Night present for Sahar of House Alkazar. Since she lives in Sacramento and I live in Pasadena, the first constraint on them was that they fit in my Ford Escort hatchback. (I wasn't ABOUT to check them as baggage on a plane! Imagine filling out the claim slip if they were lost...) As my usual medium is textiles and I have little or no experience with wood, I enlisted the aid of a friend and her friend. They had power tools and the knowledge of how to use them, and were willing to teach me and keep me from cutting or sanding my fingers off.

We used 3/4" plywood in 4' x 10' pieces, about 2.5 of them, when all was said and done. The kneeling camel was made of a lower piece and an upper piece which were freehanded on the wood in pencil, then cut out with a jigsaw. The body of the standing one was a made similarly, with the legs added as two separate additional pieces. My tutor then puttied in flaws, uneven grain, and knots in the wood, afterwards sanding the surfaces and all the edges with an electric sander.

To assemble them, we used two 6" galvanized steel hinges per body to hold the top and bottom pieces of both camels together, and the standing one used another to hinge the back leg on. The front leg was attached with a smaller hinge, both because it was what we had, (this was done almost exclusively from stuff my friends had lying around) and because the shape of the piece might not have allowed a larger hinge to be used. We then marked straight lines which passed through the legs and through the higher portions of the body (the head and the hump--O.K., with one hump, they're technically dromedaries, but Lawn Camels is much more euphonious, plus it sounds less pretentious) and attached automobile hose clamps along this path: two on each leg and one per body section per pole, giving a total 8 for the standing one and 4 for the kneeling one. (Attaching the hose clamps was not as easy as it sounds. We finally managed to drill holes in the clamps by placing them on a wooden broom handle, then drilling through to the wood. And, to screw them in, a screwdriver with the head at a right angle to the shaft would have been helpful, as certain logistics made it unwise to completely undo the clamp to screw it in.) We then cut steel pipe into lengths corresponding to the straight lines we had drawn, plus about 2 feet. My tutor then sharpened one end of each pole (using a car body sander), making them into tube knives.

Finishing consisted of painting the bodies and faces in some detail, (including the hinges, to minimize their visibility) using exterior flat paint, and water sealing them twice. (Hey! I've been at Estrella quite a few times! Those puppies needed to be sealed TIGHT!) I then cut floppy leather ears and braided some rope into tails, attaching the ears with a staple gun and the tails with screws.

All of the actual construction could have been accomplished in one weekend. The paint, however, needed a full 24 hours to dry, and each coat of the sealant required two full days. So, overall, we're talking a little more than a week, total elapsed time, with much of that being drying time.

Once on site, all we needed to do to set them up, was to unfold the camel face down, slide the appropriate length pole through the hose clamps, stand the beast up, pound in the stakes, and tighten the hose clamps. (The idea was that you shouldn't need any tools more complex than a dime and a rock to set them up, although it is easier with a screw driver and a mallet or hammer.) We considered the direction of the wind before we placed them in our encampment, facing the head or tail directly into the wind, rather than letting it hiit them broadside. For foul weather, we may need to run guy wires from the poles to secure them, although they seemed fairly sturdy.

Problems: We didn't consider the thickness of the wood or the hose clamps when we decided to hinge them. This required the front leg on the standing camel to be hinged in the opposite direction from the back leg and the head-hump section. Not a problem during use, but it makes it large when folded and more awkward to store than I had wanted. You could solve this problem, partially, by hinging the legs one way and the hump the other way. However, you'd pretty much have to slip cover them, then, to keep the hinges from showing. (Aren't there also hinges where the pins are made to be removable? That would solve the problem entirely.)

Other considerations: make sure that the hose clamps you buy are only just big enough for the poles that you're going to use. Part of our difficulty in attaching the hose clamps was due to them being too big. Also, when first drawing your designs, you might want to do it on a large piece of paper, or scale it up from graph paper. I free-handed each piece separately and, even though the pieces matched up, I ended up with something that looked as if it had been shot in Cinemascope and was being shown with the wrong lens--that is, the horizontal and vertical scales didn't match.

In any case, I think that these techniques would be useful for lots of different applications. How about Lawn Elephants? Or a facade or gateway for your campstie? Or a tower with a light in the window to guide you home at night? The possibilities are endless.......

Sock Wars! Round 3 and Dying with KoolAid

2006-10-17T11:10:00.000-07:00

O.K., I finished the socks Thursday or Friday, then dyed them over the weekend. Let me just say, for starters, that dying with KoolAid is quite easy....if you want a shade of red or orange, or even purple. Blue and green are HARD! Partly, this is because the available blue is kind of turquoise-y or robin's-egg-ish, not a true blue, and partly because it is virtually impossible to find GREEN KoolAid. The one packaged drink mix I found in limeade-flavor was made with natural flavors and colors--THAT'S not going to do me any good! I need artificial! I need chemicals! I need things-not-found-in-nature (besides the blue)!

Anyway, I set up a bunch of cups with water in them, three knitted swatches (I wanted to test the advice of another Sock Warrior, who said the socks don't "wick" very well--and she was right), and several little bobbins of yarn, along with all the packages of KoolAid I had bought. My aim was to get a true green and a true blue, with the intersection of the colors being some combo of the two. Tested the straight blue (bobbin in the middle) and yellow first: yellow was a little light, and the blue, as I said, wasn't a particularly true color. Putting the yellow-dyed bobbin into the blue, produced a green, (bobbin diagonally below and to the left of purple) but not very intense, or true. Tried dying part of a swatch yellow, then putting the whole thing into the blue (middle swatch), which was O.K., but still not really the colors I was going for. Next, I added a little red to the blue, thinking to true it up a little, as well as darken it. WRONG! Got a lovely shade of purple (purple bobbin on right), but since I could have gotten that using straight grape KoolAid, and it wasn't the color I was going for, anyway, I considered that a failure. So next, I added a little orange to the blue. This came out MUCH better, a deeper blue, with greenish overtones. Putting this into the yellow gave a good color (bobbin diagonally above and the left of purple), though not very intense, and I was worried about running out of yellow and orange.

Next, I tried food coloring (blue and green bobbins on the left). The green was a little "grassy" for me, but the blue was much better, so I tried one of my swatches in those cups (far left swatch), with not too satisfactory results (may have needed more color?) Finally, I tried a hybrid of the yellow KoolAid and the blue food coloring, (bobbin in the middle, above and between two swatches) again getting a little "grassy" result, and not nearly dark enough.

So, in the end, I decided to go for straight green, since I couldn't get a good blue to shade into it. I washed the socks in Orvis, then dyed them with two packages of yellow in a shallow glass baking dish with about half and inch of water. Removed the socks, then dumped in two packages of blue and about 2/3 of a package of orange, then returned the socks, making sure to turn them several times to make sure both sides got dyed. Didn't seem like enough, so I added my tester-pot of yellow and the tester-pot of blue/orange. Was happy with that result, though I still wish I could have gotten it just a little bit darker. Ah, well; it was something I wanted to try, and I can see that you could have alot of fun with it--as long as you wanted to dye in the red realm.

Odds and Ends

2006-10-12T09:34:00.000-07:00

First, I finished the cap for the christening gown: profile, front, back
I think it's adorable, and it was cheap and fast to make, once I got the design figured out.

Second, finally heard from target #2 in Sock Wars! She said she sent her socks out right away and she has no idea why they aren't here yet. But she also said that she had only knitted about an inch of ribbing, so I'm not costing myself all that much work by not using her beginnings. Besides, I think I'll use her yarn for myself, as it sounds lovely: black shading into rose! How did she know what colors I normally wear to work out in? :-) So, I will finish with the white wool, and dye it with Kool-Aid, and I think honor will be satisfied and I will be able to kill again.....

Next, got the knitting needles that I prattled about ordering and they are JUST like the ones I have loved for years! Yeah! They're available again! I may replace all my DPs with these, at least in the sizes they come in. Woo-hoo! Good tools are an artisan's joy.

Now, I'm trying to decide whether to bust a gut trying to make a costume for my daughter for a wedding that we are attending this weekend (one of the last of the Sewing Circle Ladies who is still single). Guests are invited to wear historical costume, but Sam has grown out of all of her stuff (except the Viking stuff, and that's not particularly festive), and I had bought a Regency Girl's Dress pattern, which is pretty simple, and I have the fabric, but am not sure that I will have the time, especially when I have a half-finished pair of Socks of Doom staring at me. So, I cut the fabric for the slip this morning, and brought the fabric for the dress to work with me, so I can cut it at lunch. My friend Trina has a sewing machine in her office (don't ask) which I can probably borrow, so I can probably get a good bit of it done after work today, before I head off to my shrink. BUT, would it be better to use that time knitting SoD or rushing to finish the dress? I think I can get the dress with no frills done by the weekend, but I'm also unsure if kids are even invited; I was taking her as a default, as we had no one to sit her, and I'm not sure I am comfortable leaving her at the weekend-daycare place for as long as this will take (long drive to and from, wedding, reception, etc.) So, I'm conflicted.

In the interum.....

2006-10-10T12:20:00.000-07:00

...since I can't be knitting to kill someone, I finished up the christening gown for Chris and Christy's egglette-to-be. Understand that this is, as the one I made for my daughter was, a costume, not a ritual gown. That is, I don't think it will be used for a christening, but worn to various period events. As such, I can't think it sacreligious for a pagan to make it.

Anyway, finished the dress and slip, and have them in the mail. The cap was fighting with me, so it will go separately; I wanted to make sure the dress and slip made it to them in time for the shower this weekend.

First pic is an overall shot of the dress,
then a close-up of the front of the bodice (that's an egg motif in the center front, which is Christy's symbol; I thought it was a nice touch . Click on the pic to get a better look), then a close-up of the back of the bodice, with %$@#@! pleats, that never work right in this gossamer fabric. Lastly, we have an overall view of the slipand a close-up of the back of the slip, because I just love those tiny little heart buttons.

And, being both a mom and an anal soul, I made sure of several things: since most babies spend most of their time on their backs, the buttons are all flat, not shank, and those in the slip are offset from those in the dress, to minimize the lumps. The waist of the slip is below the waist of the dress, so the fullness comes in layers. None of the lace or fabric is scratchy or rough. Also, the gown is adjustable, to accomodate growing babies. And, lastly, it is washable; I washed Sam's in the machine, but it might last longer hand washed.

Sock Wars Update: STILL no socks-in-progress!

2006-10-05T15:20:00.000-07:00

Harrumph! She has to have been dead for DAYS!!! She's only in San Francisco; I could have driven up there and back several times in the time I've been waiting! Gaaaagggghhhhh! I HATE waiting!

(What the hell am I going to do if I ever get a target outside the US? Have a coronary, it appears.....)

It's not as if I don't have other things to do. The cross-stitch for my mom (you know, for her 80th birthday that was in April of this year?) is oh-so-close to done, and I may have found a decent frame for it, so I could be working on that. And the christening gown is started, and has to be in the mail by the middle of next week to make it to the shower, so I NEED to be working on that. And I have stockings for Kate that are on the home stretch, and one more pair of mitts for the one of the Sewing Circle Ladies, AND started the shawl for me that I bought yarn for earlier this year, so I have several knitting projects that I could be working on, if I must knit.

But what I really want to do is kill someone! :-)

Aaaaand OUT the door they go!

2006-09-29T10:50:00.000-07:00

So! Tight tension not withstanding, the second pair of International Socks of Doom are out the door! (Finished them last night, Prioritied them out today; she should be dead by Monday.) I left in the waste yarn that my target put them on to send to me, so that the recipient could see how much each of her assassins had done. I thought it was interesting.

Oh! And my target received her socks and liked them. I think I forgot to mention that she works at Marshall Spaceflight Center and hit me up for a job when she found out I work at JPL. I'm forwarding her resume to folks in the propulsion section (that's what her thesis is on) and think it would be totally cool if she got a job because of Sock Wars!

Now, again the waiting......

Sock Wars! Round Two

2006-09-28T08:27:00.000-07:00

My target, talkingnerdy, was a good egg and sent her in-progress socks Priority Mail, so I got them on Wednesday. She has turned both heels, so I only have the (size 13!) foot to finish. However, she knit REALLY TIGHT! She used worsted instead of DK and size 6 needles to get the right gauge; I had to drop down to size *3* needles to get the same gauge! AND pull the yarn really tight. Yikes! My hands were tired after only half an hour of knitting this way. This is NOT going to go as fast as the first pair! I'm so glad she got as far as she did!

We'll see if I can finish these in time to mail them tomorrow. Otherwise, I'll movie-up Friday night until they're done.

They're on their way!

2006-09-25T11:14:00.000-07:00

Captions: 1) first International Sock of Doom, with the heel turned; approx 3 hours of work; 2) first finished ISoD; 3) the pair

My first pair of International Socks of Doom are on their way to my target even as I write this! This has been a lot of fun, though I think I'll get on the forum and try to work out with the others some way of tightening up the game. I really like the game aspect, but there has to be a way to get around the fact that some folks are flaking.

It's too bad that Gordon had to stick his windy nose into this, but Yarn Monkey did everything she could to try to get the game started despite him. When she finally got power and internet access back, her email was still down, so she just posted the pattern to her blog. When, by the next day, she still didn't couldn't get our target dossiers to us, she posted Assassin-Target pairs, with emails, so we could get the info ourselves. (From the posts on the forum, I'm not the only one who had finished socks and no address to send them to; fortunately for me, I finished them on Saturday night, and there was no postal service on Sunday, so getting the address on Sunday was no real hardship.) Anyway, my target has already sent me her half-finished socks, even though she hasn't received hers, which I thought was sweet of her. I should get them by the weekend, so I should be able to mail the next set by next Monday. (Took me about 7 hours to make this pair (they go REALLY fast), and I would expect that number to only go down, particularly since my target was knitting both socks at the same time, so they're both past the heel and only have the foot to go. )

Looking forward to the next round!

Sock Wars on hold

2006-09-22T13:19:00.000-07:00

So, 'long about 5:00 p.m. yesterday, I started checking my email, looking for the pattern and info on my target for Sock Wars. It's been a very long week, and I had wanted to take part of the day off yesterday, but needed to be available to get the pattern as soon as it was posted. So, I sat and stitched in my office (counted cross stitch for my mother is almost done; I'm down to the last of the backstitch), checking my email occassionally; say, every 45 seconds or so. Eventually, I checked it less frequently, and finally gave up aroun 6:30, quite disappointed.

Much later that night, when I finally got home, I thought about checking for the pattern, but realized that, if it was there, I would be up half the night knitting, and I had a 7:00 yoga class AND an 8:00 meeting I had to run.

Woke up this morning with the horrible realization that she might have posted the pattern to the forum IN WHICH CASE I WAS HOURS BEHIND! Checked the forum, checked her website, checked my email--nada, zip. Harumph.

Checked various times throughout the day, with no results. Finally, I read on the forum that there was a huge storm in the UK last night and many people are without power. Ding! We have a winner--Yarn Monkey lives in Belfast.

So, nearly 800 people around the world are waiting with bare needles and balled yarn, compulsively checking their email, and hoping Yarn Monkey and her family and friends are all safe.

(Is it here yet? I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve.....)

Knitting Update

2006-09-20T10:24:00.000-07:00

The previous post was written some time ago, for the Costumers' Guild West newsletter, Squeals from the Ghodfuzzy. Many other entries here were also written for Squeals, at various times in the past, and there will be more posts from the past, as I dig them out.

That said, I have to say that I am VERY focused on knitting right now, probably because of the Sock War, which starts Friday (although, since the coordinator is in Ireland, which (as I am VERY familiar with from my work) is 7 hours ahead of Pacific Daylight Time, I'm hoping that I'll see the pattern in my email box 'long about 5 p.m. Thursday....). I bought new yarn for it, though I had some DK weight yarn on hand, because those posting to the forum seem to be a bit pickier than I about the fibers they use. I tend to use acrylics, as they wash well, and are cheaper, but I only work with stuff that feels nice; still, I was a little intimidated by all this knowledgeable talk of yarns of various compositions, so went ahead and bought new "good" stuff. And, as long as I was buying, I bought some silk and alpaca to make myself socks, in case I don't like the ones that kill me off in the competition, or in case I DON'T get killed. And, another set of needles, in case the new stuff doesn't knit up like the old and.... (It is just dangerous to allow me to enter a yarn store. I have more self-control where fabric is concerned. Well, at least a little more.)

But the bestest news is what I saw in a new knitting catalog that came yesterday. Don't know how I got on their list, and won't be buying any of their yarn (Yikes! The prices!) but they have the needles I've been looking for for, literally, years. They're made of fake balene, i.e. whalebone and, if they are ANYTHING like the one circular needle I've been working with for over 20 years, I will be in heaven. Its smoother than wood, but not slippery like metal, so the stitches move easily, but don't fall off the needles. It's warmer than plastic or metal, not as brittle (nor NEARLY as expensive!) as wood. It is just a fabulous material, always assuming that it is as my old one is. I'm going to order some (probably DPs) to see what they're like. If they pass muster, I suspect I will be replacing all my bamboo DPs, at the very least. Squeeeee!

Other knitting news: I agreed to make a shawl/wrap/something for a friend to put in the auction basket for her daughters' school class. This HAS to wait for the Sock War, the Christening Gown, and the Christmas rush to be over, but of course, I'm thinking about it now. Want to do something in chenille, both because it is soft and because it knits up fast. Having trouble finding just what I want, however. May have to put an eyelash with something else, instead. I'll keep you posted. Also, I saw the most bizarre thing in Michael's: knitting needles with lighted tips, I kid you not, and they come complete with the first set of batteries. I suspect it would drive me crazy, and not sure I want to pay that much for them, but may have to have a pair, just...well, because!

I was Knitting When Knitting Wasn't Cool

2006-09-15T16:33:00.000-07:00

(with apologies to the country western song)

Apparently, knitting is “in” now. Who knew? A couple of bellwether celebrities take up a craft, and suddenly, it’s big news.

Now, I’m not objecting. It means that there are lots of fabulous new yarns out. It means I can wear some of the things I’ve made over the years and look stylish, while being warm (which, after all, was the original point of making the things). And there are lots of wonderful new patterns out there. (Check out www.knitty.com and www.whiteliesdesigns.com. I’m currently making the sweater on the White Lies homepage, and just finished the corselette and stockings.) And it gives me something to make for my just-pre-teen-great-niece, that I have some hope she might like and wear.

All this is to the good. But I’ve been knitting since I was about 10. I’ve picked it up and (you should pardon the expression) dropped it many times over the years. It stood me in good stead when I was dirt poor—that year, all the women in my (very large) family got leg warmers for Christmas (when leg warmers were last “in”). It kept me awake when I was studying organic chemistry (the bane of my undergrad years). And I took flack for it; called “granny”, getting funny looks on the bus or the bus stop, being dismissed as not serious in graduate seminars. So, it’s a little hard to have these “Julia-Roberts-come-latelies” waltz in and pick up something that has been a part of my life for so many years and suddenly, it’s “cool”. And, while I think it’s great that knitted clothes and accessories are back in fashion, it’s a little sad to see so much of it be so....plain. I think it’s great that there are simple patterns out there that are very accessible to beginners. But where are the challenging stitches in the stores? The patterns are out there, but made-articles with anything more complex than a simple cable pattern are few and far between. There is such complexity and beauty possible in knitting, it’s sad to see so little of it being explored in fashion. And, because so many of these things are being made off-shore, the prices are very low, too low for home-grown knitters to compete.

So, I guess I’m saying I’m of two minds about this new popularity of knitting. Maybe the best course to take is to make sure I get all the patterns I’m interested in as soon as possible, and stockpile some of these amazing yarns. ‘Cuz who knows how long this “new” fad of knitting will last?

Sock Wars!

2006-09-06T14:47:00.000-07:00

O.K., this is just too cool. I don't really have the time, money, or energy to do this, but that isn't going to stop me! It's like the old game of Assasin, but with a twist: to "kill" your "target", you have to knit them a pair of socks. If you receive a pair of socks before you finish knitting yours, you've been "killed", and you send your "assasin" the unfinished socks you are working on, and the info on your "target". They then try to "kill" that person by finishing those socks. This way, everyone except the winner gets a pair of socks, and the winner gets bragging rights. Totally cool!

I doubt that I will win, but it sounds like fun. Gotta give it a try!

Starfleet Uniforms, the Easy Way!

2006-08-17T16:36:00.000-07:00

Diagrams

As this year marks the 40th anniversary of the first airing of the original Star Trek series, there has been a renewed interest in costumes from the series. I’ve been hauling out the old ones, and am finally getting around to making some that I’ve had on my mind for years.

Of course, the quintessential, recognizable-at-50-yards Star Trek costume is the mini-skirted Starfleet uniform. However, you don’t often see this well-done, as it is made in several gazillion non-standard pieces and, to my knowledge, no one is currently selling a paper pattern (though the Starfleet Technical Manual has drawings of what the pieces look like). Those who know me know that I have a very accurate (for being made when I was 13 years old) Medical uniform, made of actual, period polyester double-knit. (I was once stopped at a con when I was wearing it, by someone who demanded to know WHERE I had gotten that fabric and I said “1973”. She was crushed, as this was in the late 80s.) The reason it was so accurate (besides the fact that I’m pretty anal-retentive) is that someone I knew knew someone who knew someone who….whose father had worked on the show and had managed to smuggle one of the patterns off the set. I was able to make my costume, but didn’t have the foresight to make a copy of the pattern, unfortunately, before returning it. Consequently, I hadn’t made a regular Starfleet woman’s uniform since then, despite the availability of the Technical Manual.

Anyway, we decided that we needed to make uniforms for our WorldCon Masquerade entry, and so I was face-to-face with the need to finally draft these patterns, and figured I had two options: take apart the one I had, make a pattern, then re-assemble it, or draft the patterns as shown in the Tech Manual. In the interests of avoiding the inevitable, I spent a good deal of time “doing research”: i.e., watching DVDs of the old series episodes. (This was how I determined that the Tech Manual is WRONG on MANY things, but that’s another article.) I just was not looking forward to drafting that pattern in three very different sizes.

And then, brilliance dawned, if I do say so myself. It finally occurred to me that the easiest way to do this was to make a sheath dress out of some cheap knit fabric (basically, a knit muslin), fit it to the person in question, then simply DRAW the lines where the seams should go with a Sharpie. Then, it would be simple to dismantle the dress and cut along the marked lines, and voila! Pattern pieces! I could either mark which seams needed seam allowance added, or cut new pieces with them included.

And it worked like a champ! I was able to fit three women with very different body types, put the seams, the necklines, the hemlines all in the right places with a flick of the Sharpie and we were golden. Don’t know if I could have done it without having made the one from the original pattern, or if I hadn’t had it there for reference, but I can give you the info to do it yourself.

First, make a sheath dress from some stretchy knit fabric (preferably light-colored, as it is easier to see the marks) and fit it to the body in question without any darting or additional seaming (and that includes set-in sleeves; you’re basically making a T-tunic, with no underarm gussets). Next, mark the neckline and seamlines as shown in figures 1 and 2, including how high up you want the pleat to open, and LABEL YOUR PIECES. Then disassemble the pieces of the dress, and cut along the marked lines. You will be left with a total of 8 pieces, AF-DF for the front, AB-DB for the back.

Lay out the pattern pieces on a single layer of the fabric, right side up, making sure to cut the pieces in the right orientation, i.e., the side with the markings up, and (if you are using the traditional velour) all headed the same way. Now, comes the tricky bit. To make the pleat, you will have to cut piece BF next to piece AF, all as one piece (see figure 3). You must then cut a separate piece BF. Do the same for pieces AB and BB.

The only tricky bit on the assembly is sewing BF to the hybrid AF-BF piece, so that the seam line lies where you originally put the line between AF and BF. (An easy way to do this is to lay BF on the hybrid piece, both face-up, and mark where the edge of BF comes to on the hybrid piece. Then, move over two seam allowances to the left, mark that line, and lay BF face-down with the edge of the fabric along this new line. But there are many other ways to do it; do what works for you.) Sew this seam to the point where you want it to open for the pleat. Then sew CF to BF without catching the hybrid piece into that seam. Finally, sew DF to CF.

Repeat all that for the back pieces, building the back pleat in the same way, then assembling the rest of the back. Sew the back and the front together along the sides and the tops and bottoms of the sleeves. (Note: the originals had invisible zippers under the left arm, but the new generation of velour is stretchy enough that you really don’t need it; you can just pull it on over your head. But you can put one in, if you want to go for authenticity, or your fabric doesn’t stretch that much.)

Next, cut the ribbing for the neckline. There are several options here, as there was little consistency in the original series. You can a) cut the ribbing so it lies flat to the body; b)make the ribbing decrease to nothing at the back point and miter it at the front point; c)make it stand out from the body in the front and lay flat in the back. All of these are defendable from screenshots.

Measure the distance between the front point and the back point in both directions (they should be different lengths). For a), cut two pieces of ribbing which slant from 5” at the front to 3” at the back, one for each of the neckline measurements. Fold each in half the long way and cut the ends as in figure 4. Open them back out and sew the front edges together and the back edges together, pivoting at the point; clip the point. Refold the ribbing the long way with the seams inside (either open out the seam or serge them and lay them to opposite sides of the seam) and pin to neck opening, stretching the ribbing to fit the neckline.

For b), cut two pieces of ribbing which slant from 5” at the front to 1” at the back, one for each of the neckline measurements. Fold as for a), but only cut the front as in figure 4. Open out and sew the back as a straight seam and the front as for a); attach as for a).

For c), cut one piece of ribbing the length of the two neck measurements minus 1”, making it 3” at one end, 5” at a point one neck measurement (minus ½”) from the end, then down to 3” at the other end. Fold in half the short way, then again the long way, and cut only the back edges as in figure 4. Unfold; seam the back and attach as for a).

For all necklines, serge or overcast the seam.

Hem sleeves to be longer than ¾, shorter than full-length; call it 7/8. Hem it to be really short; that’s how they wore it in the show. (Or longer, if your modesty trumps your need to be “authentic”.) Hand hems don’t show on the velour, and there didn’t seem to be any machine hems visible on the show.

The insignia are available online (we got ours from an ebay store) as is the rank braid, or you can sometimes get the insignia at science fiction convention dealers’ rooms. Black knee-high, non-glossy leather (or leather-look) boots can be low or high heeled, zippered or pull-on; again, all those options can be documented in the original series. Buy or make trunks to match the uniform or in black, to match the tights. And make sure you wear hair and make-up from the 60’s; it is really jarring if you don’t. (And there are some classic styles that won’t remind you of childhood horrors or bad drug trips that work just fine.)

Have fun!

Frome the Archives: The Great Pom Pom Search

2006-08-17T16:30:00.000-07:00

This is an article I wrote 7 or so years ago, on the occassion of making the described dress. I believe it was published in Squeals at one point, or possibly the Costumer's Quarterly, when that was still around. In any case, it comes from the past.....

It started with this picture, see? A picture in a book that a friend was kind enough to bring back from Europe. It had some pictures of Victorian gowns that I had never seen before, in any other book, including

THE POM POM DRESS

You must understand that I have this thing about silly historicals. I *DO* do normal historicals, but no one remembers them; all they remember are the warped ones: SWAT (the Strauss Waltz Assault Team) and the Computer Pirate are somehow more memorable than yet another well-done, standard Regency or Victorian gown. And it’s not like I go looking for these Hystericals--they manage to find me. And, I have to admit, they are fun. But this was a PERIOD silly dress--I mean it was actually built that way at the time, a Victorian woman being silly, going to a Masquerade. (Well, maybe she didn’t actually mean to be silly, but I find that hard to believe....)

Anyway, as best I can tell (the book I got this from has no words (wouldn’t help a lot, even if it did, as it was printed in German), which includes no captions (not even dates!) on the pictures) the gown was worn to a Victorian costume party, and was supposed to be a circus performer--you know, one of those women who train little dogs to jump through hoops. Pretty standard late Victorian /Early Edwardian lines on the skirt and bodice, but it was decorated with about a bazillion pom poms, which graded from large at the hem to small at the waist (reversed on the bodice) with huge bows on the shoulders and a small, pointy hat. Since it was a line drawing, I was free to pick what colors I liked (though it was obvious that the bodice was a darker color than the skirt), so I picked rosy pink and forest green, for two reasons: I already had a wonderful net petticoat in those colors; and they were $.88/yd and $3/yd, respectively.

The hitch to all this was that I first saw the picture two weeks (almost to the hour) before the Halloween ball at which I wanted to wear it, and I work full time. (There were also a few projects that needed finishing up (two Halloween costumes for my nephews, and a belated birthday present for a friend), but they only took up about 15 of the available ~50 working hours between the time I first saw the picture and the time I had to be at the ball.) Not only that, I had overtime to do one of those weeks, AND had to get my car fixed. Gaaagh. I hate it when life interferes with costuming......

So, my first stroke of luck was that they sell large bags of all white pom poms with multiple sizes in the bag. (The only reason I knew this is that the first store I went to had an empty hang rack with a label that said “all-white, mixed” and the only way I could think of for all-white pom poms to be mixed was in size....) I bought out all that one Jo-Ann’s had, and called frantically around to all the others looking for more. The bad news was that the largest pom pom in the various size assortment package wasn’t large enough, so I was on the hunt for larger pom poms.

Took me 5 days to get the fabric; built the skirt and bodice in about a day and a half after that. Now, I have a decision to make: start pomming the skirt, and limit myself to the pom pom sizes I know I can get hold of, or take a chance that I’ll find bigger, or more. Kinda took the half-way road--used the largest size I currently had as my largest on the skirt, but assumed I would be able to get more of them.

As luck would have it, I was able to find several more packages of the mixed sizes, as well as enough of the largest size to do. HOWEVER, I had gotten everyone I knew involved in searching for pom poms, and Kate had found a whole nest of an even larger size, and bought out the store. This allowed me to do the top of the bodice and the ones around the neck in these large ones, which was actually pretty correct, according to the picture.

Then, I get this idea that I needed a poodle to carry, so everyone knows what I am (and I was right; no one knew what the hell I was, unless I was carrying the poodle). Fortunately, someone in our sewing circle had just gone on a search for a lamb (she was Little Bo Peep) and so had the names and numbers of several stuffed animal stores (I didn’t even know that such stores existed.....). Only one had any poodles, and they were way more expensive than I was interested in paying (especially after cornering the local market on “albino pom poms of size”....) so, in the end, I borrowed one from another member of the sewing circle. This, of course, increased the work--I now needed a hat, ear ribbons, and a neck ribbon and pom poms for the dog as well. Pant, pant.

We’re up to the Thursday before Halloween. I need to make a hat, but can’t find my hat buckram, and the store was out. Quick call to a milliner friend (Bo Peep) to steal some buckram and extra wire. Hat was built in one evening at the sewing circle.

All this time, I’m looking for gloves and tights to match the skirt and coming up with ZIP! They just don’t *make* them in that color. (Believe me.) So, I finally give in and buy white gloves (I know I have a pair of white tights at home) and Rit dye.

Now, listen to me very carefully: Never dye something you only have one of without testing the dye first. Can we say BURGUNDY?! (I already HAD a pair of burgundy gloves, too!) That was NOT the color of the package! Gaaaggghhh! (Friday night, eep!) I remember that I have another pair of white gloves (which are getting dirty, so I don’t wear them much anymore) and one more pair of new white tights. Off to the grocery store to buy 4 different colors of pink dye. Armed with MANY strips of white fabric, I of course get the correct color on the first shot. (sheesh!) Gloves and tights are subsequently washed and dried and leetle pom poms begin marching their way up the gloves to meet the huge-bow-and-gargantuan-pom-pom-thang which clearly sits on the top of the glove in the picture. (And while the gloves were drying, I whiled away the time making pom pom earrings. I am insane.)

In the end, I (FINALLY!) got my car back on Saturday, all the pom poms on (even on my shoes!), with poms to spare! And no safety pins! The ball was lovely, with some stunning costumes (particularly some of the Comedeia del Arte-types!), but almost no one really “got” the dress. Sigh! But it is very silly---and PERIOD!

By the way, if you need white pom poms of just about any size......

Hooped Petticoats

2006-08-17T16:00:00.000-07:00

This was a reply to someone asking a question about making a hooped Victorian petticoat, but the construction information is useful for other periods, as well.

If you're looking to make a Victorian period hooped petticoat, poly boning will not be stiff enough. What you need is called hooping or hoop wire: two strips of spring steel wrapped in buckram. You need pretty heavy clippers to cut it, or you can do what I do: just bend it until it fatigues and breaks..... I don't know where you are, but there are several catalog/online sources for it: Amazon Drygoods, probably Greenberg and Hammer as well. (Check out Civil War recreation groups/sites for other links.) I _have_ seen coat hanger wire used, but the hooping is more flexible and makes it easier to get through doors, in and out of cars, in and out of bathroom stalls.....(I recommend using the handicapped stall....)

As far as fabric goes, I made my first one out of some cheap, ugly upholstry lining (it was actually quite nice when I washed all the sizing out of it) and it has seen quite a lot of wear. Any sturdy, mid-weight fabric (cotton, poly cotton, rayon) will do. I usually use twill tape to make the casings. To secure the hoop, thread it through the casing, poke two holes (about 3 inches apart) in each end of the strip of hooping, overlap the ends of the hooping so that the sets of holes line up, thread a short piece of shoe lace through the holes, and tie in a square knot. (This allows you to take the hoops out when you need to wash the fabric, but you need to allow for the overlap when measuring the hooping lengths.)

I would recommend a drawstring, rather than a waistband at the top, both for ease in loaning it out to others, and because you often want it to ride a little lower on your hips so that not EVERYTHING is around your waist.

And, PLEASE! put a petticoat over the hoop. It is quite sad when someone has obviously worked very hard on their gown and VHL (Visible Hoop Line) ruins the whole shape of the gown. A quick and dirty non-period solution is a net petticoat. A more historically accurate petticoat would have anywhere from two to eight fabric ruffles (and is consequently a LOT heavier).

Continuous Bias Strips: Trick from the Quilters’ Bag

2006-08-17T15:58:00.000-07:00

Pictures will be forthcoming.....

Quilters often use a bias strip to bind the edges of their quilt. Usually, they don’t want to use the commercially available ones: either they’re the wrong color, or the wrong size, or they want something with a pattern, or they want 100% cotton, etc., so they often have to make their own. I don’t know who invented this technique, but it was a huge boon when I was making a Victorian gown with applied decorative bias strips of velvet 5” wide. I needed a whole lot of this stuff, and had to go back twice to get more velvet, but it worked like a charm, and I now use it quite often to bind the tops and bottoms of corsets when I have trouble matching the color in a purchased bias tape.

The basic technique is this: a) take a true square of fabric and cut it on the true bias (corner to corner), giving you two right triangles. b) Slide one triangle past the other so that instead of the bias edges being next to one another, the straight edges abut. c) Now, flip one triangle over, laying it on top of the other, with the straight edges still aligned and right sides together (the other edges won’t line up; they’re not supposed to). Sew the straight edges together and press open or serge and press. d) Now, open your fabric out; you now have a parallelogram, with two edges on the bias, and two edges on the straight of grain. e) Determine how wide you want your bias strip to be (including seam allowances) and call it w; draw chalk lines parallel to the bias edges and w apart. (IMPORTANT: when you measure to put on these lines, make sure you measure perpendicular to the bias edge, NOT parallel to the straight-of-grain edge. Otherwise, your bias tape will be narrower than you intended. ) It may not work out evenly and the last strip may be too narrow. If this happens, simply trim off the last partial strip.

Now comes the tricky bit. f) & g) You need to fold the fabric so the remaining straight-grain sides are together (right side to right side) BUT offset by one width of your tape. This seam will have one width of tape hanging off each end of the seam. (Make sure you line them up so that the marked lines cross on the seam line, not the edge of the seam allowance.) Sew and press (or sew, serge, and press) this seam. h) The marked lines should now describe a spiral around your tube, roughly meeting up across the seam you just sewed. Cut along the marked lines and voila! You now have a continuous piece of bias tape. (Note: you have just repeatedly cut across two seams; those short seams will separate, if treated roughly. Also, you can easily stretch the strip out of shape (it IS a bias strip, after all), so treat it gently. Wind it onto a card or roll until used and try not to manhandle it when applying.)

The remaining question is, of course, if I need L inches of w-inch-wide bias tape, how big a square do I need to start? Turns out that the answer is pretty simple. Multiply the total length you need in inches (L) by the width (including seam allowances) in inches (w), then take the square root of that product. The resulting number (a) is the length of one side of the square you should start with (also in inches). (I’ll spare you the mathematical proof I did to convince myself that this is true.)

The trouble comes when a is larger than the width of your fabric. You then have to either break it down into several squares, (the most you can get out of one square of fabric of width W is (WxW)/w; you can then figure out how many of these squares you’ll need) or sew several widths together to make the required width. I think the second approach could rapidly get unwieldy and out of hand, so I would recommend the first approach, even if you don’t like the math. (I suspect there are spreadsheet programs out there that can do this calculation fairly easily, and make a chart of width versus total length. I know that there are such charts in various places on the web (don’t know where, off-hand, though quilting sites would be a good place to start looking).) But this method will give you the answer. (Remember, if you use the first method and you need a square of side a, and your fabric is only half that wide, you’ll need 4 squares of side (a/2) to make the same amount of bias, not 2 squares.)

I would also recommend that you assume you will need a little more than you think, and cut accordingly. While mathematics is exact, this method loses a little in the seam allowances, and in those instances where you end up with a partial strip in figure e). It would be a shame to come up 5” short, when you could have made your square just a little bit bigger to start with, with very little effort.

Random notes on sequins

2006-08-17T15:48:00.000-07:00

This was a reply to an online question regarding how to add sequins to an item.

There are a few basic ways to attach sequins: glue (hot or cold), sewing from the hole over the edge (I usually take at least two stitches, so the sequins don't flop over) and sewing up through the sequin, through a bead, then back through the sequin. Given these techniques, pick your design (fairly simply designs like those in coloring books are good places to start), choose a technique, color, and size of sequin for each area, and get stitching!

A few refinements:

I usually separate or outline sequined areas by lines of beads. Looks sharper and more detailed.

Work on a piece of buckram, rather than directly on the item it is to be applied to. This allows the applique to be removed so the garment can be cleaned.

Overlapping the sequins fills the area more completely. When using the sew-over-the-edge technique, I will often come up in the center of the first sequin, go down on the left edge, come back up through the center, then through the center of the second sequin (from the top), continuing down at the right edge of the first sequin, up at the right edge of the second sequin, then through the center of the third sequin (from the bottom) and down through the center of the second sequin, back up through the center of the third, etc.... This make most stitches work for two sequins, which speeds things up a bit.

Recommend using waxed or other heavy beading thread, as sequins will cut through lighter threads.

Corset Notes

2006-08-17T15:44:00.000-07:00

This is not a “how to” article, but some tips that I have learned in making a blurtload of corsets over the years. Some apply mostly to Victorian corsets, but most are good for any kind of corset-ish support garment.

Note: Tips for the advanced seamstress/costumer/corsetier are noted with *

General fit:

-Some corsets are designed to just come to the nipple, not fully cover the breast. Be aware which type you’re making before you fit it.

-Note that your waist may lie in a different place in the front and the back. Check this very carefully when fitting.

-Past Patterns #213 and #708 tend to both be short-waisted. Laughing Moon tends to be long waisted in the back, but normal in the front. Moral of the story--ALWAYS MAKE A MUSLIN when you use a new pattern.

Fabric considerations:

-It is easier and faster to flatline your fashion fabric layer (ffl) with muslin or kettlecloth/heavy broadcloth than it is to use bone casings. It is also less lumpy. This assumes that you are making a lining and an outer layer. If you flatline all the layers together, then you do need bone casing, though you’ll probably want to face the front and back pieces.

-If using a brocade for your ffl, choose one with a small enough pattern. Larger patterns don’t show on the small pieces, and just look funny.

-While it is possible to stabilize a very fluid piece of fabric with interfacing, and so use it for the ffl, I’ve found that flatlining with muslin or some other midweight, tightly-woven fabric works better.

-When cutting, if you don’t take the fabric off the pattern pieces in between cuts, (I know you’re supposed to, but who does?) cut the heavy inner fabric, then the interlining, then the fashion fabric. This will make the lining just a hair smaller than the other layers, so it will end up taking the strain.

General assembly:

-*When sewing, make the seam allowances just a hair over standard on the lining, and a hair under standard on the fashion fabric layer. (Note! Standard seam allowance on most historical patterns is 1/2”, not the modern 5/8”! Check your pattern to be sure you know which to use!) This will ensure that the lining will be just a tad smaller, and so will be the part that takes the strain. BUT don’t go overboard with this--a difference of 1/16” in the seam allowance on each seam adds up to a 1.5” difference in size, overall. With corsets, it pays to be consistent.

-*I don’t bother to back up/tie off the beginning and end of any seam which will later be sewn across, e.g., the seams between pieces. The only places I do are for the right front, at each of the openings for the busk tabs (where I forward-and-back twice, for a total of 4 rows of stitching, to reinforce those openings); and in binding off the top and bottom, and sewing the trim on. All the other seams are later sewn across, and so are stabilized that way.

-I don’t serge the seams between pieces; rather, I press them open. This gives more sturdiness to the casings on the seams, and evens out the bulk.

-Before putting the lining and the ffl together, sew a band of twill tape to the inside of the fashion fabric layer, right at the waistline. This reinforces the waist, which is where most of the stress is going to be.

Busk:

-If you must use a busk which is too short, put a 1/2” bone of the correct length in the casing with the busk. Thus, if you require a 13” busk and only have a 12” one, putting a 13” long, 1/2” wide bone into the casing with the busk will allow you to use it. (Doesn’t do much for those of us who are short waisted!) Thank you to Sherri Jerneka for this tip.

-*When sewing the busk seams, cheat the ffl just a little, so that the seam allowance on that piece is a little smaller (no more than a 1/16th of an inch) than on the lining. This allows for the extra distance the ffl will have to go over the busk when you sew it down.

-Busk piece with tabs goes on the wearer’s right side, tab side out.

-To mark the gaps for the tabs, lay the tab side of the busk on the wrong side of the fashion fabric layer, tab side down, then mark on either side of the tabs with a chalk pencil or air-erasable marker. Then sew that seam, leaving gaps between the chalk marks, and reinforcing on either side of the gaps. The gaps will then be slightly bigger than the tabs, allowing for easy insertion of the busk. NOTE: busks used to be made with the tabs spaced equally apart, but the lower two tabs are now often closer together than the others are. If you are having trouble inserting the busk, make sure that you are trying to put it in in the same orientation that you marked and sewed it.

-Examine your zipper foot. If the heel is wider than the toe, you might want to look for one that is a constant width. This will make insertion of the busk much easier, allowing you to get much closer to the busk to lock it in.

More general construction:

-After sewing the inside to the outside, but before turning right side out, cut two 1.5” wide strips of heavy duck the length of the back of the corset. Serge (or trim and zigzag) the center back seams, and the edges of the two duck strips. Butt the edge of one duck strip up against the seam allowance along one center back seam, and zigzag across the gap, to hold it in place. Repeat for the other side with the other duck strip. Once the corset is turned right side out, this extra piece will lie between the inner and outer layers of the corset and will reinforce the back where the grommets will go, giving the grommets something more to hang onto, without adding a lot of bulk.

-Of the 4 seams connecting the lining and the ffl, the only one you need to press open is the front seam on the (wearer’s) right side. This allows for easier insertion of the tab side of the busk. The back seams will be serged or zigzagged closed, (see above) and the (wearer’s) left front seam allowance should all be under the busk, so you only have to poke the posts of that side of the busk through the ffl.

Bones and grommets:

-To determine the length of bones required, put in the channels, then completely finish one edge of the corset, including any trim or lace that will be put on by machine. Measure from the innermost line of stitching, to the other raw edge, then subtract 1”; that will give you the length of bone you need for that channel. (This assumes that you’re using 1/2” bias tape (extra wide double fold) or 1” twill tape (folded over the edge) to finish the edge. If not, take the width of whatever edge finish you’re using, and add 1/2”, to give you some room.) If you are in-between bone sizes, choose the shorter one. If you put in a bone which is too long, it will have a much higher probability of wearing through, since there is more pressure on it.

-For larger cup sizes, you might want to put a 1/2” bone at the outer edge of the breast, and possibly additional 1/4” bones over the breast. This will provide more support for the breast without flattening the bust too much.

-There should be a bone on either side of the grommets; however, unless you are upwards of size 20 you should only need 1/4” bones there.

-Instead of cutting a hole for the grommets, cut two crossing slits, in the shape of an X. This gives the grommets more to hang onto.

Trim:

-I often combine two pieces of lace for the top of the corset, one long and one short. I set them flat-edge to flat-edge and zigzag over the flat edges, producing a very nice trim, which can then be zigzagged onto the top of the corset.

-If you’re intending to wear the corset only under other things, make sure that the trim isn’t bulky.

Final notes:

-A properly fitting corset does not meet where it’s laced; there should be anywhere from 1” (for smaller sizes, e.g., size 6) to 4” (for larger sizes, e.g., size 20) open. This allows both for size variation and for movement while wearing the corset. The gap shouldn’t be much outside that range, though, even if you are significantly smaller than the small size or larger than the large size.

-Be aware that you may be BIGGER with your corset on, than without. What you are looking for is the correct historical shape, as well as support, not only for the body, but for whatever gown you are putting over it. Thus, you should not fit your bodice until you have built your corset. (Indeed, you should fit your bodice after you make your skirt, and with all appropriate underpinnings (petticoats, bustle or hoop, bum roll) as the waistbands or other masses may affect the fit of the bodice.)

Tassle directions

2006-08-17T15:43:00.000-07:00

Made these as Christmas gifts for my sewing circle one year, each in their own signature colors. Since I couldn't know in advance how many they might need, I made each one 5 or 7 (it's been a while; just remember that it was an odd number), but also included both these directions and the color number of the embroidery floss that I used, in case they needed to make more. One woman needed more, and her mathemetician-husband made them from these directions, and complimented me on their clarity. *blush*

1- Cut one 16” piece and one 8” piece off the skein of embroidery floss
2- Wrap remainder of skein around an audio cassette box, the short way
3- Cut the floss along one side of the cassette box
4- Tie strands together at the center with the 8” strand (use either a square knot or a slip knot)
5- Fold strands in half, moving the tie-together strand, if necessary, to get the two sets of strands even in length
6- Fold 16” strand in half, wrap it around the tassel about half an inch below the tie-together strand, slip the two ends of the 16” strand through the fold in its middle, and cinch tight
7- Wrap the two strands of the 16” strand around the tassel, making sure to cover the lump where the ends go through the loop on the wind-around strand
8- Slip the end of the two strands under the last wind-around, leaving about a 1” tail
9- Slip a large-eyed needle under the winding threads, thread the wind-around tail through the needle, and pull the tail down into the center of the tassel
10- Trim tassel so all strands are the same length