I am kind of enjoying doing these in captionless updates every four days. I think I am going to keep this format up. Also, my son and I are updating his photoblog once again, I feel a little behind since moving, but am back on track with it now.
A new knit! And finally a personal project completed. I finished it last night during the State of the Union Address. I have been so busy with commissions (no complaints, anything that helps me survive in this world is wonderful!) that I have narrowed my personal knitting time to a little slice before bedtime (that is, if I am not taking a break from knitting with Skyrim… or Borderlands or The Blackest Night comics…)
I used a pattern I found on Cravings called Future of Forestry. I needed to used slightly larger needles (10.5) to obstain the gauge I needed since I used a homespun yarn. I am really pleased with how the hat turned out and recommend the pattern, which is beginner simple but looks adorable when finished. I did have to learn to do a three needle bind off for it, but even that was quite simple once I watched a video about it.
As for the yarn. I am pleased enough with it. I purchased it on etsy from Hungry Hill Farm, the colourway was called Cotton Candy. It was the only blue and red yarn I could get in 100% wool (my prefered fiber for personal knits.) I like the rougher homespun nature of it – not all a uniform diameter – which gives it a texture I love. I did not really like how often it caught on itself rather then running smoothly through my fingers while knit and it did have the occasionally little twig in it I needed to pick out (though honestly, I have come to expect that from homeshorn, homewashed, homecarded, homespun, small business yarns…) Ultimately I feel it was worth the little hassels for the colour I wanted. It is both plenty warm and soft when knitted up too. Why everyone things wool needs to be itchy is beyond me.
I’m calling this my Khajiit hat, because when I was playing Skyrim rather then knitting it, I was usually playing my khajiit (which is an bipedal cat species in the game.) Playing the game is kind of what made me want a hat with cat ears to start with… Anyhow, I still have about 200yds of Cotton Candy left, so I am thinking for my next next personal project (my next being warmers for my daughter) I might make myself a matching set of wrist warmers.
What’s on your needles?
I have a little site stats thing on this website that tells me a variety of things. Which posts get the most hits, how many pageviews I have had to were that day, and how people find this site. A lot of the stuff makes sense to me, but occasionally I look down the list and just go, buh???
If you blog do you track your stats like this? What are some of the weirder ones you have had?
I had enough extra fabric from the knitting roll I made for Shannon to use on a couple more of them (one for myself and one which I will be listing in my Etsy shop soon.) More importantly though I had fabric scraps! I love these because they force me to be inventive.
About a year and a half ago I made my son an apron, and recently my daughter has started wanting one of her own… Maybe for more then a little while, I admit I have been procrastinating on it a bit. When I saw these rainbow scraps while working yesterday though, I knew it was time. I put this together in less then an hour. I love quick little projects like this that make my children’s faces light up with glee.
I have a friend who is pretty much awesome in every way. She gives great advice and emotional support, dyes my hair and also loves to knit. Oh and she loves Science! What is not to love? I’ve been searching for awhile for a way to tell her how incredibly fantastic she is, when I heard her griping recently about having nothing practical to store her growing collection of knitting needles in. I knew I had found the perfect gift idea.
So I looked at a few different tutorials, as well as needle rolls for sale online and with a quick trip to JoAnn (honesty moment: there is nothing quick about me and a trip to that store) I had the supplies I needed to make this. (Many thanks to the wonderful person who recently gave me some birthday money!) I am really pleased with how it turned out, I hope she likes it.
Shannon you are one of the most amazing, giving and gifted people I know. Thank you so much for being you.
One of my personal goals this year is simply to attend SpoCon. As it is looking at the moment, it seems likely I am going to be getting a booth with one of my friends where we will be selling our geeky handknit items (like Tardis hats and warmers.) Even though going will be partly for work, I am not giving up on my desire to go in a Green Lantern costume. (Honestly I have wanted to make a costume ever since I read my first Lantern comic, this is just the best excuse I have come across to do so.)
I’ve never cosplayed before so this will be a whole new experience for me, one that apparently invloves quite a bit of planning. The collage to the left are just some of my ideas. I am not worried about replicating the exact costume of any one female Lantern because, as you can see, there is quite a wide range in how much (or little) they wear. There are a few more or less standard things with any Lantern’s suit though:
Most, but not all, Green Lanterns wear primarily black and green body suits, this is the style I am going with. (Sorry Lantern in the middle, I’m not cosplaying you.) My basic plan at the moment is to buy a black unitard and add the green detailing to it. I do not think it should be too hard. I think I am going to be calling on the skills of my friend, Kim Stewart, at least a couple times though as I have pretty much no experience working with stretchy fabric.
Have you ever cosplayed and made your costume? How did that go?
It is snowing today! Time to get our snowsuits on and go back outside. Weeeeeeeeee!
(Also that hat is for sale in my new etsy store.)
On Friday I was at the park with the children. On Saturday I was exploring Hillyard. Today was groccery day. Tomorrow… It might start finally snowing? Sounds like a good few days to me.
Aside from my adoration of that fluffy white cold percipitation that comes from the Winter skies, we do desperately need the snow, otherwise we’ll have a drought. We have had so little I think we technically already are in one actually.
