Catch-Up

We are entering the busy, busy, busy season at work ... now until Xmas. Yikes!

I admit, I have been cheating on knitting this month. Shamelessly. Learning to sew has been far less frustrating than learning to knit, but I'm still not great at it. Mr. Fury ordered this as my Xmas present. Honestly, the reason I want to sew is so I will have adorable garments to coordinate with my knitting. Those fetching little tops and eyelet dresses and whatnot in all the books ... I do not own those things and I don't know where to buy them. Hence, the sewing.

The result of this sewing is some serious, hardcore UFO action. Endpaper Mitt #2 and the cardigan are languishing. (The cardigan? I am not knitting a bulky-weight sweater again.) I started the Yo! Drop It! scarf with my souvenir yarn from DC, so I'd have something to knit on the way to Dallas last weekend. I did realize I need a more diverse array of "indoor" scarves -- ones that I can wear indoors. That means lace!

Tonight I went to a Ravelry meetup at the Knitting Nest. It was awesome! I met some really cool people and won a super cool skein of sari silk in the White Elephant. (I was sneaky. I quietly kept it in my lap wrapped in its tissue paper so nobody else would take it.) I've never used sari silk before -- it is stunning. The depth of colors, the texture ... wow. While I was there, I bought a skein of Lorna's Laces sportweight and Malabrigio laceweight for imaginary indoor scarves I will make someday. Everyone was funny and clever and it was a great time.

We are about to get a serious cold front tomorrow night. Finally, weather for my Clapotis!!

In other random news: Mr. Fury and I celebrated four years of marriage yesterday. He puts up with a lot of "yarn-related nonsense" and I love him for it (and many other reasons!). :-)

Sew What?

So it turns out that the sewing machine works best if you have the presser foot DOWN and the feed dogs UP. Who'd've thunk it? I've been successfully sewing semi-straight lines on scrap fabric today. The zigzag stitch makes me happy.

This foray into sewing has led to a revelation: learning to knit changed the way I learn everything. It wasn't until my third attempt that I was able to figure it out. What made the difference was stick-to-it-tiveness. I really, really, really wanted to knit. Once I decided to do it, it wasn't even about the process or the finished product or anything besides not getting beaten by this stupid needlework that four-year-old Scandinavian children can do in their SLEEP.

And man, did I make mistakes. It probably took about 200 attempts before I was able to knit a full row -- and that's with dropped stitches, accidental YOs, and whatnot. But I once it clicked, it really clicked. It was the same with crochet. And I'm hoping it's the same with sewing.

So I'm keeping all this in mind as I slowly figure out the sewing machine on my kitchen table. It still sort of blows my mind that I will be stitching together pattern pieces, instead of creating the fabric, loop by loop. What a crazy shortcut to a finished garment!

Progress

Last night I finished the body of my short-sleeved cardigan. It is longer than I expected it to be, but I'm not surprised. I'm going to do the button bands before the sleeves; hopefully I will have enough yarn to lengthen them. If not, it isn't the end of the world, but it would be nice.

Today I went out to my mom's house to get her sewing machine ... I've always sort of wanted to learn how to sew, but was never motivated enough to learn. Obviously my mom won't be using the machine for awhile, so she said I could borrow it. So far I haven't done much except a few test lines on scraps to make sure the machine works. I am really, really bad at sewing thus far. :-) Then again, I was really, really bad at knitting four years ago, and it didn't take long for me to get better.

Boo!

Wow, what a Halloween! Our costume this year was post-nuclear-apocalpyse goat-demons. Horns, ears, hooves -- the works! I'll link to more photos when I have them. And that's the fishnet scarf I made few days ago to match the outfit.

(Secretly, I knew in my heart that I was a cashmere post-nuclear-apocalypse goat-demon. Would a cashmere post-nuclear-apocalypse goat-demon wear a nylon boucle scarf?)

It was a chaotic, exciting, bittersweet, amazing show. I love Halloween.

Happy Halloween!!

My favorite holiday is here!

I'm almost done getting ready -- just taking a few minutes to chill out before my ride gets here. We worked very hard on our costumes this year, and I can't wait to see what people think.

Happy Halloween, everybody!

Three Days ...

It's crazy ... I slept 10 hours both Friday and Saturday nights, and I'm still exhausted! October is just a crazy month. We are almost done with our Halloween costumes for the big show. It's very exciting!

Yesterday I whipped up a simple scarf to go with my costume. I used one skein of Moda Dea Cheerio and just fishnet-stitched until I ran out of yarn. The idea was for it to look sort of uneven and distressed -- the yarn worked well. I'll post an "action shot" of it with my whole outfit after Halloween.

I think I need to make more "indoor" scarves. It's finally gotten a bit chilly here in Texas, and I find myself wearing openwork scarves in the office all day. Good, good stuff. I think I will use that lone skein of souvenier yarn from DC to that end.

The first Endpaper Mitt blocked beautifully. I will focus on the second one after Halloween.

Stranded

Last night while watching Freaks, I finished the main part of my first Endpaper mitt. This morning I wove in the ends and did the thumb ribbing. Right now it's soaking in a Eucalan bath; this is my first time using Eucalan, which is appropriate since this is a project of many firsts. Usually when I make a pair of something, I block them together, but I'm very anxious to see the finished product.

My tubular bind-off does not look so hot. But it's the first time I've ever done it, so I am cutting myself some slack. The tubular cast-on, on the other hand, is absolutely beautiful. The three should-be-gray-but-are-pink stitches are barely visible; I haven't decided if I will fix them or not.

I didn't have a ton of time to work on them this week, which is probably why it took so long to complete this first one. The color pattern makes sense to me now, though -- so the second one should go faster.

If I make a second pair, which is highly likely, I may shorten the palm a bit. These are a little longer than most of the armwarmers I've made, so I don't know if the extra fabric around the fingers will bother me or not. Usually at the office I wear my Fetching mitts. We'll see. I do like how narrow and flat they are, and the double-stranding makes them so very warm.

Tonight we are performing at the Goodwill Halloween ball. Should be fun and interesting.