Not Knitting

As my family was growing up, my mother would always make us the most amazing costumes for Halloween. She was also smart about it so she tried to talk us into long sleeved or heavier fabric for costumes because we tended to live in the frozen north. I don't have any good pictures online unfortunately, but my sisters and I became things like Robin Hood in felt, long sleeved Jane Austin heroines, a knock-off Queen Amidala in heavy robes, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and so on. All were beautifully made and functioned in our hard-used dress up box for as long as we could fit into them.
I've never quite grown out of dressing up. We can debate the merits or concerns about that at another time, but suffice to say I enjoy what has become known as cosplay (def: costume play, a costume and accessories to look like a specific character), historical reenactments requiring historically appropriate attire (NOT costumes, my sister C-2 would like to assert), and renaissance faires which tend to be more in the fantasy realms.
Just like with normal day to day clothing, two points arise. #1: while you can get by with one outfit for a lot of these events as (in theory) they are special events rather than day to day wear, it is more fun to have options. Think having a uniform vs. business casual. #2: if you want to have multiple outfits, you can either buy the pre-made outfits or you can make your own.
All of this is to lead into my latest project: I want to learn how to sew properly, both to be able to make options for my different costume things (especially since some pre-made things either don't exist or are prohibitively expensive) and to eventually make costumes and clothes for my own kids.
My dear darling mother (DDM) was on board to help with this, but our process was a sorry one. The plan was originally for me to learn through doing with her guidance. Unfortunately, the first project I needed or wanted done was this:

Yeah...

That is a Civil War-era ballgown, to be worn with Sister C-2 to the Midwinter Ball. We were also on a little bit of a time crunch as we started in November for the ball in February. First problem we had was cutting out the wrong size pieces for the bodice. Not by accident, we just didn't realize how different the proportions were. We got fairly far along, but by the date of the ball we still had a lot of tweaking to do and so we set it aside as we were thoroughly sick of blue silk.

It's going to be gorgeous when we do go back and finish it.

Next I decided it was time for a cold or poor weather look for my renaissance faire character. My main look was a peasant costume:

I was the designated shield-herald-person for a knight, who picked me out because of the drink in my hand. :)

As you can probably see, it is great for sunny and warm weather, but really cold if it's anything not that. Mom was again on board for helping with a new project and we picked out this pattern:

Cute, right?

In true sewing fashion, I set about changing a whole lot. We did the base gown in green and I decided I didn't like the pumpkin sleeves (still debating with those). I did all the cutting out for both pieces, but as soon as we got into the construction of the top of the dress, Mom pushed me away from the sewing machine and I was relegating to pressing duty. The sleeves on the overdress turned out to be the biggest pain in the tuchus and we were running out of time again, so I won the debate (for now) and we left them off in the final product. It turned out really cool. Tall Hubby made me tip-less arrows with coordinating green fletching and I felt so badass.

The only hiccup was I HAD to wear my new outfit, which if you recall was made for cold weather conditions, and the weekend turned out to be perfectly sunny and in the 90's. Tall Hubby in his leather armor and me in my long sleeved silk-like dress were VERY warm. Worth it though, and now it's in my repertoire.

My next challenge to Mom was investigative and reverse-engineering sewing. My friend A wanted to go to a convention as this character:

I had to find a picture in a suitably action-filled pose.

It's Princess Yona from the anime Yona of the Dawn (or Akatsuki no Yona if you're into the original). There was much debate and decision making and everything.

Friend A on the left and my DDM (dear darling mother) on the right, setting out the fabric for the obi.

Friend A hard a work.

It was also decided that I should go as Lili, Yona's friend from the Water Tribe that is in the existing manga but not the anime yet. She looks like this:

Isn't she cute?

Question for you sewers and sewists out there: how do you get fabric to drape along a lady's frame without apparent seams and enough volume at the bottom to be able to walk?

Answer we came up with: you don't. We did pleats at the top for volume at the bottom, a few princess seams to make it a little more form-fitting and then added a not-image-correct waist sash so I didn't feel like I was wearing a purple choir robe. Here are our final cosplays:

Friend A as Yona

Me as Lili of the Water Tribe

With sister C-2 as Yun, the Boy Genius

We had such a great time at that convention, despite the convention not actually being that great.

SO that's all my sewing adventure so far, and I did...maybe 40% of any sewing actually done? Great for my costuming wardrobe, bad for me actually knowing how to sew. I decided something needed to be done. None of my upcoming cosplays needed any further sewing, so I could actually knuckle under and learn how to sew. From the beginning. 

I found this book in my DDM's stash:

It's an older code sir, but it checks out...

It's really well designed and put together, taking you through key core sewing techniques with a series of projects that build on the skills you learn in each project.

Project number one was "Fancy Napkins". Now, a part of me that likes to cut corners said, "But you've made a quilt before, and sewn a simple skirt, and surely you can skip something so basic." The gung-ho part of me replied, "Shut up, you! We are doing this properly for once, no matter how stupid it seems or how not-useful these projects are. Start to finish, we're doing this book!" And that was that. My new house would get some new fancy napkins for all of the super-fancy dinner parties we throw (absolutely sarcasm). 

I bought quilting cotton fabric as directed: 

Our plates are all bright turquoise, so I wanted something with a pattern in a similar color.

Used high school geometry and a fair amount of fudging to cut it out, along with the pieces for project #2:

The striped fabric and darker blue is for Project #2, coming soon-ish.

And sat down at my station to start sewing. 

No matter how good your intentions, a crafter's workstation is never truly tidy.

Or, I wanted to start sewing. What actually happened is I spent 45 minutes arguing with my machine.

I'm looking at you, Singer!

My DDM didn't want me ruining her good machine with my feeble attempts to learn this craft, so we went in together on this model. So I had to figure out tension and stitch patterns and why the gold thread I had picked out was NOT a good idea and all sorts of things. Fun.

Anyway, I was finally on to sewing. First, over-stitching. Using zig-zag stitch to edge the fabric to keep it from fraying. Some of it went well:

Look at the nice neat partially rolled edge.

And some of it did not:

Look at the gappy mess. 

My name is Inconsistency. But it was also my first napkin. Then we moved on to mitering corners. Some went well:

Nice, neat, looks even, right?

And some did not:

Yeah, that didn't quite line up, did it?

Moving right along, next we sew down the edges just behind our over-stitching, pivoting at the corners. Some went well:

Fairly square, nice point, fairly even lines, I guess.

And some did not:

I don't even know what happened here. Actually, I do :/

By this point I had been working on a single napkin, from cutting to figuring out the sewing machine to actually sewing for nearly three hours. I just wanted to complete ONE FREAKING NAPKIN before I had to leave for a previous appointment. Things started getting a bit messy, obviously, but you know what?

It's done. And I did all of, from start to finish.  

I have seven more to do, which will help with the consistency in edging and straight lines and pivoting. Practice makes perfect, or at least better, and I know that I will actually be making strides because I will be the one properly doing all of it. Pretty cool, huh?

Things Unfinished

So I made the mistake of signing up for NaNoWriMo. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's a novel-writing challenge where the goal is to write 50K words of a brand new novel. I failed last year and am expecting to fail this year. But I'm already at 10K words more than I wrote last year so progress, I guess?
In any event, this means all my other hobbies have been mostly put on hold as I've been trying to focus my time on writing. However, the knitting needed for attention-holding never stops.
This is where we're still at with top-down, afterthought heel sock #2:

Pretty sure it looks much the same as it did last time.

I kind of fell off the knitting with this one because I think I'm at the toe decreasing bit which takes attention. So when I needed a mindless knit for a 2 hour long team meeting, I cast on this:

Aren't the colors kind of crazy?

Exact same pattern because the meeting was at 7 am and I have the start of this sock pattern memorized. In my size at least. I'm getting to the same point of toe decreases however, so I should probably push on through to finish. Maybe if I can get both done I can call them a mismatched pair and just start wearing them rather than knitting the two socks it will take to complete them. 

Also on my oh-shoot-I-forgot-about-this-and-the-deadline-is-coming-up-FAST parade is the sweater I started for Baby M who is due to be born to Friend A in December. If you recall, I was madly in love with this sweater for Baby O and Friend M:

I still love these colors together!

Well, I finished that and handed it off to Friend M in September, I think? I of course finished it in a hot hurry in order to get it to Friend M without having to drive a million miles out of my way, and so neglected to take any finished photos of it. But, when Friend A announced she was pregnant with already-named-and-announced Baby M, I had to get on some knitting stat. I already had the pattern and yarn, I knew I liked the pattern and yarn, and so I got down to a second of the exact same sweater, just a size up. 

I think I have learned, folks, that knitting for newborns, even newborns due in December, is kind of a dumb idea. From SIL H and her Twins K and B, I know that little little babies live in onesies which are just easier to don, doff, and wash. Knitwear, not so much. So I am finishing up Baby M's sweater as a one year size because by then he will hopefully be needing things that are a little warmer and a little more outfit-like. At the moment it looks like this:

It's kind of a sorry sight, isn't it?

This is the one I am most disappointed went by the wayside with NaNoWriMo. Baby M is due in December and I'd love to get it to Friend A before that. All the pieces are knit and are being held together by three rows of stockinette stitch neckband knitting. I need to finish the neckband, knit the buttonbands and button holds, stitch on buttons, and seam up the 4 seams on the sides of trunk and down the sleeves. Sounds like a lot, but if I knuckled under it wouldn't be too bad. But I am the Procrastinator Extraordinaire and so am unlikely to do so. Especially while also trying to write a novel in a month. And keep up with laundry. And keep my house moderately clean. And work 40+ hours a week. With Thanksgiving coming up. And Christmas on the radar. Oh, and that other project that I started in on last night...

Here we go again :)

Catching Up

I realized as I was finishing up my last post on my latest pair(s?) of socks, I had unfinished business. Knitting I had completed but not blogged about. We can't have that, now can we? So, here are 3 projects that, with my other post this evening, should catch me up to the present.

1.) I don't think I ever posted a picture of my finished antler hat:

There it is. 

Ended up just slightly too long for me, but with a turned up brim we're all set. 

2.) Next up, a set of baby hats I made for Cousin C and B's Baby Reptar, as she's known online. When I was knitting, Cousin C was still pregnant and stalwartly not finding out the baby's gender. Being gigantic nerds, I knew I wanted to knit something nerdy for their baby but everything is so very, very gendered right now, especially for babies. It's irritating. Anyway, I hedged my bets. 

I knit this one in case it was a girl:

Space Princess!

I'm actually pretty proud of this one. I redesigned the buns on the side because I decided I didn't like the English braid variation that I seemed to find everywhere, including this one that was the basis of my pattern. English braiding, by the way, is the 3-strand plait braiding you see little girls wearing. Think classic Anne of Green Gables braids. Leia's buns are much more like flat rosette buns, just twisted hair wrapped into flat bun shapes. Doing that with yarn or hair is super hard to keep flat, so in the interest of better screen accuracy but also my sanity, I did rope braid buns instead. 

That's quite a lot of rope braiding. 

The finished bun, ready to be sewn on. 

Probably just a style choice, but it gives Baby Reptar's gender-appropriate hat a little more flair. 

In case Reptar was a boy, I made this option:

The simple-est ear hat pattern I could find.

Pretty sure it's this pattern, but I'm not 100% on it. Knit in chunky yarn it was super fast and the biggest conflict was trying to find the right green. 

And last but not least, I have a lot of non-gender-binary friends so out of my respect for them and to support Baby Reptar in her earliest life to choose her own way, I made a non-gendered option:

Not the prettiest entry in the series, but it was still fun.

A modified version of this R2D2 pattern, without the 3D elements, I think I got the gauge wrong, given how stretched out it ended up. I understand the point of the duplicate stitching to fill in details (you can see it in the gray lower chunk on the R, the black dot, and the gray stripes at the top), but it was irritating to complete and for bigger sections I really don't like how the look turned out. So next time I'll know to just knit it in Fair Isle/intarsia form instead. I think it'll look cleaner. 

3.) Along with the socks as my carry-along project, I finally cast on for Coworker M's Baby O. He was born in May and I decided knitwear in May would not be as appreciated as later. Added to the fact that most new parents I've talked to are overwhelmed by newborn sizing and don't get as much 6 months and older clothing, I decided to knit for Baby O's first winter. I posted this picture of my original concept swatch:

This was going to be the Fair Isle edging. 

I wanted to use up my warm brown yarn from the "Space Princess" hat seen in the last set. I bought the light yarn in the middle because I thought it would look tan next to the brown. I liked the Fair Isle pattern, I still like the brown, but the light yarn ended up looking too gray next to the brown, so I ended up scrapping that plan. 

Looking through my stash, I found the light gray yarn from the R2D2 hat and a dusty blue intended to be a Baby Sophisticate for another cousin who had their first baby last year but ended up not deserving a hand-knit gift (I do reserve the right to not bestow my hard work on those I don't respect or who lose my regard. My time, my skill, my love, my right). I checked with Coworker M, a hardcore Michigan State fan, that blue would be okay, and picked a new pattern. Readers, it's turning out so much better than I could ever have expected!

The completed back.

Seriously, could those colors be any better?

I'm in love. I think the colors are great, I like the stripey pattern that keeps things interesting, and it's a pretty simple knit. It's my current taking-over-the-side-table sit-down project. 

I keep expecting my Tall Hubby to complain, but he hasn't yet.

I think that's it. I think that's caught up with all my current knitting. 

More Socks! Finally!

I was surprisingly diligent with knitting the last few months. Granted, it's been summer and wool is not the best in the sweaty humid heat we've had going on this summer.
After sitting in a continuing education class for 3.5 days (dear...God...), I got a full-sock-and-a-half completed! Much to the amusement of my nearby classmates, I might add. They were amazed by the whole process and by my progress. I argued that I was out of town, didn't know anybody in the area, and dislike drinking alone, so I went home from class, read on the porch of some restaurant for an hour or so, followed by returning to my hotel and knitting in front of reruns of "Top Gear" or "Sherlock" on Netflix. Not great for my social life, but good for knitting progress! They started saying things like "I expect that heel to be done by morning!" or "You're going to be done with the whole sock tomorrow, right?" Charming.

They did turn out mostly nice. I loved the sunset-colored rainbow.

Plain knitting socks are really a gift when it comes to long boring classes or meetings. As long as I was past the ribbing, toe, or heel bits, I didn't even have to look at my hands. It kept me focused and interested and awake, AND I was productively making something besides another blot of knowledge in my brain. Great times.

Toe turned out well. 

Anyway, I lost the ball band somewhere in my luggage, but Google tells me it's Berroco Sox Padarn, superwash wool and nylon. The pattern is Basic Self-Striping Socks by Amy Klimt off of Ravelry. Top down, with an afterthought heel.

Afterthought heel. 

 Not going to lie, I mostly really liked the afterthought heel. I liked the way it preserved the self-striping pattern of the yarn, and I like that with other yarns you could do contrasting heels and toes easily. There was one part of this that I did not like at all:

See the problem?

It's not exactly subtle. 

 As my mother-in-law hurried to assure me, I can always darn holes closed, but I don' wanna. I am a big fan of minimal finishing up, so an extra step after weaving in ends is not appreciated. But this was clearly not a big enough problem to keep me from casting on another pair.

They are fast.

I lost the ball band for this one as well and can't find the yarn anywhere. 

It's my current in-purse carry-along project.

Still New Projects

So far I am four months behind on my project to finish UFOs in order to clear the way for a big new project I want to start, and I'm not looking much better. SO MANY BABIES Round 2 is about to start. I guess I'm just in that time frame.
Anyway, here is another look at my new favorite baby sweater pattern, In Threes by Kelly Herdrich for CoWorker A's little girl L.

I really like this candy apple green.

I added the side panel detail this time. 

Still really liking this pattern.

Made out of some sort of basic cotton, it was super soft to work with but shed everywhere over everything. I was pulling green fluff out of my bag and off of my clothes for a week.
I also quick whipped up hats for my Nieces K and B for their Easter-themed 5 month pictures:

Pink ear highlights, finished according to the pattern instructions.

White ear highlights, finished according to my sensibility.

Aren't they so cute!

I used this bunny hat pattern which went pretty well. As I said previously, I tried both the included instructions and my own interpretation to sew up the ears. If I were to do this again, I would knit the ears in the round rather than as individual flat pieces to be sewed up. I am all for simplicity in projects.

There is another larger project that was finished in the meantime, but it's epic enough to get it's own post. As for now, I owe a baby...something to Coworker M and his wife for their new Baby O. Swatching has begun:

Brown is a nice fall color for a baby boy, right?

I was also gifted knitting needles and sock yarn for my birthday, and the yarn was so fun I couldn't help but dive in:

I love the muted-rainbow colorway.

It's Berrocco superwash/nylon sock yarn and I'm working through my list of socks and heels in particular to try. This is an apparently simple self-striping sock pattern with a peasant heel...whatever that means. We'll find out!

Start-itis, or The Appeal of New Things

I started this year with making a goal to complete all of my UnFinished Objects list. It's in my bullet journal and everything, guys, so super official and legit. There are ten items on this list, containing everything from shawls to purses to lace to felting. Confession: they have all been on this list for a long time. I made the list up in 2016 sometime and it has gone unchanged since then. I have some big cohesive projects I want to complete, knitting-wise, as blog fodder and just for fun but I feel awkward starting these without finishing my poor abandoned UFOs.
But the problem is that these items are UFOs for a reason. I got bored (in the case of the cream lace bag), or didn't want to do the finishing up (in the case of the silk ribbon purses my mom turned out in droves), or got scared (in the case of all the felting projects I knit up but didn't actually get around to felting). Turns out time has not helped with any of these problems. The thought of lace knitting a white bag is still boring. Felting is still scary. Colorwork chevrons are still too complicated for normal knitting.
So despite good intentions, I started in on new, different projects.

A good winter project, no?

 This is the Antler Toque that was originally for my brother-in-law J. I underestimated how big his head was though and made the adult small size. Given average male head circumference, I should have known better. Therefore, this is probably my new winter hat :)
I did make a mistake one of the rounds as seen below.

Can you see it?

The third cabled Y from the bottom was miscounted and is about a stitch too far over to the left. I am not a Type A knitter. I can barely see it...and I know it's there! Hence, I didn't care enough to fix it (plus fixing cables after a few rounds is a ginormous pain in the arse). 

My old foe hit again though. I am ready to start the decreases, but decreasing in the cable pattern requires sitting in front of my computer to read the pattern. I needed something I could knit on the go, especially as we were going to see a movie I did not want to see and so needed distraction. 

So I started this little number:

Not great lighting.

This is my new favorite little girls sweater In Threes. It is so simple and is knitting up so quickly. I am still a little disappointed in my color choice. I was in a hurry and in the mood for something not-quite-so-wintry. I think I've already stated before I don't like pastels, period, and I'm not fond of pink, not even for little girls. Again, since I was in a hurry, I went for this pale, pastel lilac color for my CoWorker D's little girl A. I knit her a blanket when she arrived but nothing since. She's a year old this week and so it was time. I don't know what her mother's preferences for clothing are so I had to hedge. That's my poor excuse for the more 'girly' sweater, even though I usually try to avoid this. 

What a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon. 

Anyway, the point is that it's often more fun and feels more rewarding to start something new rather than finishing up old things. But I imagine the sense of reward will be all the greater for completing a dreaded task and conquering it. I just have to get there first. 

Last but not least today, I want to do a tiny bit of product sharing. My dear darling Tall Hubby reached into my Christmas list and pulled this little number out of Etsy:

Isn't it gorgeous?

It's a fabric knitting needle case or organizer by Lena Brown Designs. It's got a fantastic amount of pockets in different widths for different gauges. I'm not sure it's supposed to work with circular needles, but I just balled up the wires and went with it. It rolls up nice and tight to keep everything together:

I think my longest needles stick out a bit on top, but no big.

And look at that fabric!

Gorgeous!

I like it a lot, and it's already helped tidy up my work space (the floor by my side of the couch and under my side table). I can find all my needles without digging in a floppy denim bag and can keep track of sizes I have so much easier! Recommended by Stephanie over at Yarn Harlot, this is such a great idea and I am so grateful to Tall Hubby for the excellent gift. 

Scale

The adventure post-So Many Babies has involved knitting...for a baby. Our friends Fish and H had their second baby in June and I realized that I hadn't ever finished knitting him anything. Baby R is getting big, the little chunker, and he's been hand-knit nothing by that weird Friend/Aunt/Person Erin. Not to be allowed!
So I sat down and did some planning. Now, we live in Red Wings territory. It's a fairly large territory, I'll grant you. Fish grew up in Chicago and so is a Blackhawk fan. I once ruined his life by coming to help paint his bathroom on the night the Blackhawks played the Blues and informed him that I used to be a Blues fan when I lived in St. Louis and had even been to a game or two. The Blackhawks lost with dispatch and I was ordered from the house, never to return. Until the next game night.
In any event, he is a Blackhawks fan in enemy territory. I have no doubt he is raising his sons to be the same. So I started thinking about winter hats (a necessity in the northern Midwest) that would be so-called 'subtle' Blackhawk-themed. Perfectly acceptable hats to a Red Wings fan that were actually more in line with the Blackhawk themes and colors.
I even texted Fish to tell him of my plan and to ask for some design advice, being the graphics-person that he is. This is what we came up with:

Red for the main part of it and the turned-under sweatband, and then 3 equal stripes in black and white on the outside of the ribbed sweatband.
Now the problem was one of scale. I had three boys of varying ages and head sizes, but I wanted them all to look proportional. I needed a 1- year, 2-3 years, and adult size.
What I ended up doing was adding the requisite stitches to go up in circumference and added one rep to each line of striping each size up. The result:

The adult hat isn't sewn up yet.

I think they turned out rather well. Fish thought so too:

He even wore the right color shirt to coordinate.

Here's the one downside to color work:

It looks like a rubbish fringe.

One end each at the top and bottom, 3 stripes each with 2 ends, yarn held double for the black and white stripes, times 3 hats... More or less 48 ends to weave in. My thoughts about this:

Okay, that might be a bit melodramatic. And once I found my tapestry needle it wasn't so bad. But trying to weave in all those ends with a regular knitting needle was rubbish. 

The result was worth it though. 

Look how happy they all are!

Fish said he's going to buy Blackhawk patches to put on the hats, which will make them less subtle. Ah well. That's his problem now.