Blades and Tunic

We've been busy in other ways around here besides just knitting. I talked my husband into joining the local Dagorhir group, and with that means we both need to learn a few more skills (or spend more money to have others make things). So he's been learning how to make weapons and I've getting re-acquainted with my sewing machine. I'd been wanting to do more with it anyhow so I could make more clothing for myself so this works out perfectly.

First up, these nice weapons my husband finished.


The longer one is primarily his and the shorter one primarily Miss Kid's. Since these were made the smaller one has been failed by the head weapon maker due to weight but now we know exactly how to fix that and have already made a couple more, I just need to sew up the cloth coverings for the blades.

While he was busy with that I made Miss Kid a tunic. Garb is required at practices and Lynn had his own. At that time I wasn't planning on really getting on the field and fighting so I wasn't thinking about me. Of course since then I've requested weapons for me and come up with a character since watching the fighting makes you really want to jump in. I made a simple t-tunic for Miss Kid.



It's not fantastic work and I see where I can fix several things, better fabric for one. But! I'm thrilled with it considering that it's my first ever fully sewn work. The only other thing I've ever done was add in panels in a pair of jeans to make them bell bottoms when I was 16 or so.

All in all ... it was fun, we learned a lot, and we have plans for bigger and better. Currently, Miss Kid is very ready to get out on the field and do a lot of foam weapon fighting.

WIP Wednesday: Chocolate Socks

Knitting:
With my Knitting for Other People queue currently empty I'm working on a pair of socks, all for me! I picked up the yarn nearly a year ago and knew that it had to be socks for me. It's been patiently waiting in my stash for me. I grabbed it as soon as I cast off the last project I was working on.



Book:

Dune by Frank Herbert. I passed that magical point of the story were things start making sense and the new words he uses finally mean something to me. I'm getting drawn into the story more each time I sit down to read a bit. I'm very glad I stuck it out through the rough beginning.

More Piano!

After finishing the first piano scarf I was worried that nobody would buy the pattern or queue it up in Ravelry. Boy was I wrong! It's been a thrill to watch it pop up in queues or to get notification of sales. Each time is like a secret gift that randomly appears in my inbox. It's awesome!



So when Amy asked me to make her a piano scarf I was glad to do so. This time around I popped it into my bag and carried it with me if I knew I was going to be sitting somewhere for several hours.



Apparently, seeing somebody knitting in public down here isn't that common and pair that with something as large and striking as a giant black and white piano scarf and you get lots of questions. I love questions though since it gives me a chance to share a little of my passion.

Sometimes sharing a passion that's not the normal is seen as silly. But that's okay, because the people I knit for come to me to have help in sharing their passion. And in this case I'm glad to take cues from my husband, who doesn't mind being a little silly at times if it means helping somebody with what they need.



I mean, how can you not laugh at somebody doing this? And he's such a good sport, allowing me to drag him out into the sun after a long day of work and an hour drive home to drape wool around him for pictures. I'm glad he puts up with me and supports me in my passion.

Pattern: Piano Scarf
Project Page: Ravelry

WIP Wednesday: Bear Sweater

Knitting:
Mr Bear's sweater is almost done. All the parts are knit up, now I need to give a border to each one, connect all the pieces, and give it a neckline and a waist. Huh ... it sounds like a lot when I actually type it all out. *laugh* Oh well! I didn't want to give a single overall shot just yet, since it's so close to being done. So instead you get a few pictures of parts.



You may recognize some of the colors from various other projects. Dragon only wanted me to use left over yarn.



And to try lots of different things with the yarn.



Reading:

Dune by Frank Herbert. It's a little rough to get into but the story is starting to pick up and move me along. This is one of those books that I feel everybody (particularly those interested in science fiction) should read.

Triforce Pillows

I can't believe I nearly forgot to post about these! Better late than never I guess.



I learned a lot while making these. I had originally looked at these and estimated the yardage needed based on knitting. I quickly figured out though that crochet takes a 'lot' more yarn; as easy a crochet is, I can't crochet without looking like I can knitting . It was a nice little thrill finishing each triangle so quickly as it made me feel like I'd finished something, even though it was a piece of a larger project. And I somewhat figured out how to crochet blind as I crocheted the last little bit of seams that I could reach from the inside, after I'd already turned it.

All in all it was a fun project and I enjoyed making them. Explaining to people what they were on the other hand ... let's just say that apparently very few people I talked to have every heard of Zelda, Link, or Final Fantasy.



Pattern: Triforce Pillow by Pam Gabriel
Project Page: Ravelry
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft
Modifications: None intentional

WIP Wednesday: Creative Freedom

Knitting:
I'm working on a sweater for a bear ... a stuffed bear. I have no direction on making said sweater, other than it is to be made completely from scraps. So, I get to play around with the color book I got last year for my birthday and try out new ideas. Currently I'm planning for the sweater to be made in pieces and seamed together, with black being the uniting factor. We'll see how that works out. So far, this is the back. I could change my mind though and do something else, or Dragon could ask for something different.



Reading:

The Dragon DelaSangre by Allan F. Troop. It's written in first person which is something I haven't read all that often. It's also a take on dragons I haven't seen anywhere else, other than in my own novel that I've been working on for several years. It's a very interesting read and you get to see the main character struggle a bit with his heritage versus how he's been raised. I'm looking forward to seeing how that spins out.

WIP Wednesday: Think Spring

Knitting:
The Piano Scarf is still in the works. It doesn't look much different from last week, other than being longer. I'm over halfway done with repeat 5 of 6 so it should be done fairly soon. So instead of showing pictures of that again I'll share my current traveling socks.



These are the socks that are worked on in the car or in line. I've about an inch left before I begin the toe. I tried them on last night and I'm thrilled to report that they fit me. *grin* I probably wouldn't have started these now but when I finished my last travel project I pointed Lynn at the stash and said pick my next project. He sifted through things a bit and came up with one of the skeins of Paton's Grace. The other skein is sitting in my purse waiting to be called for the second sock.

Reading:

Left Behind by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I knew going into it that I probably wouldn't agree with parts of it but it's been sitting on the shelf for a few years now. Lynn and I collect various religious books, though generally not of this type. While cleaning out our shelves I decided to finally read the first book of the collection, particularly since we've managed to collect the first 6 or so of this series, all through free boxes of books. I don't know if reading this will change my religious views .. but at least it's readable and I'm not feeling beat about the head and shoulders with religious ideology as I have in a couple other books.

WIP Wednesday: Piano Scarf Part 2

Knitting:
The scarf grows. I've finished 2 repeats of the pattern so only 4 more to go plus an additional 8 rows. I'm not quite as far along as I'd like to be but spending the weekend with Dragon here was well worth the lost knitting time.



Reading:

A Caress of Twilight by Laurell K. Hamilton. I do love my silly romances and this one has fey of all kind in it. I've read it once before but not as part of the series, so now I'm trying to read the series in order. This, the second book in the series, is just as much fun as I remember it being.

WIP Wednesday: Piano Scarf

Knitting:
Since I have a pattern for this and I know how to juggle my yarn more effectively it's going much faster this time around. I've already finished the first repeat of 7. I should be able to get a lot done this weekend as weekends are high movie watching times for us.



Reading:

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury. I'm not sure what I expected ... but this isn't it. It's not a bad book, it's a very well told story. I suspect I simply would have appreciated it more at a different time.

Circles ... Going in Circles

I finished my travel socks! These have traveled with me to various stores, 2 seperate geeky conventions, a movie, and 3 plays, not to mention uncountable hours in lines, doctor's waiting rooms, and driving around town (I was the passenger, promise).



The second one simply flew by as I worked Space City Con and ran around helping my amazing volunteers out as they assisted patrons with directions and played tour guide a couple of times. I even managed to get the stripes to line up almost exactly!



You can tell on the heels and toes that it was a bit off but I think that's partially because on the second heel I was trying to go by memory and didn't start the turning at exactly the same spot. Either way I don't care, I think they're perfect!



I don't think I'm a huge fan of the star toe, but I had to at least try it. The heels are eye of partridge and that doesn't really bother me, though I didn't get the slightly raised diagonals I read should appear .. perhaps I did it wrong. If I do this pattern again, which is a possibility, I'll change the numbers a bit and only add one repeat at cast on, decrease a bit before doing the heel, and do a different toe. This pair though? I'm in love! 

Pattern - Circle Socks by Anne Campbell
Yarn - Knit Picks Felici in Caprica
Ravelry Project Page
Modifications - Added 16 stiches to the cast on as the original was way too tight for me.

WIP Wednesday: Tri the Force

Yeah yeah .. horrible joke. Moving on ....

KnittingCrochet:
As I complained on FB earlier 1 pillow takes 1 skein of yellow and 1 of white but 2 takes 3 skeins of yellow and 1 of white? I'm confused. Though, in retrospect, because I did all the triangles first and semi sewed them together before I did the strip around the edge I could be wrong in that. It could require 1.5 skeins of yellow, which would make more sense honestly. I think my issue is desginers not being clear about how much yarn a project requires. But! Enough of that, on to the picture!



We have both front and back for 2 pillows and 1 full strip to go around the outside of them. The other strip is short by a third of the total length. And here you can see the locking markers I've used to hold the triangles together, since I didn't fully sew them together, I just used the ends to join together where available. On the plus side it's been a good (and enjoyable) lesson on peicing things together, getting things to line up, and making sure the right sides are all facing correctly.

Reading:

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury Having just started reading this morning I have not read enough to have an opinion. It's certainly a different feel from the last book so I'm still trying to swtich gears

Blue Eggs Complete

It took quite a bit longer than expected but in the end, as with most things that take effort, I think it came out gorgeous and simply amazing. Now that it's off the needles and blocked I find myself in love with it again ... though not enough to instantly cast on another one. That might have to wait just a little bit so that I can work on a couple other things first.



I am in love with the points ... and how it's so soft and wrappable and yet, the points, they stay. They don't fade back into the shawl to become lost in the pattern.



Pattern: Omelet by Joyce Fassbender
Yarn: Knit Picks Palette in Celesial
Modifications: Did 6.5 repeats of chart B instead of 4.5
Project Page: Ravelry

WIP Wednesday: Triforce Power!

Knitting Crochet: No shawl! I'm hoping to get pictures here today or the next so I can share on Friday. Meanwhile, the next project on the lineup is two Triforce Pillows.I'm suddenly finding the appeal of modular projects as I managed to start and finish 4 yesterday. I get the quick cast on and finish lift really quick from these. I need 12 yellow and 4 white triangles and then 2 strips of yellow. I think these are going to move quickly.



Reading:

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Ben H. Winters, with Jane Austen credited as co-author. I should have known I wouldn't finish this past weekend if only because of working Space City Con. Apparently, not being home for 4 days, other than to pass out, wake up, shower, and change clothes really slows down your reading speed. Who knew! (laugh) Still enjoying the book though and having fun seeing what calamity happens to the sisters Dashwood next.

WIP Wednesday: Eggy Edging

Knitting:
With only 10 rows left on the shawl I'm well and truly into the edge of the piece. I suspect I will get it finished this weekend (yep, along with herding cats, er volunteers at Space City Con).



Reading:

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Ben H. Winters, with Jane Austen credited as co-author. I'm about halfway through and still just loving the story. It has amusing pictures scattered through it. Sea life grows bigger in this world with lobsters that can easily kill a man and jellyfish that find women to be a tasty treat. I'd really recommend it for anybody that enjoys whimsy in their Lovecraft ... or Lovecraft in their whimsy.

WIP Wednesday: Finish Line in Sight

Knitting: It won't be this Friday, since I have physical therapy today and a full check up with the doctor tomorrow. But I'm only a couple rows away from finishing Chart D and then just 37 rows of Chart E and I'll be binding off so I'm hoping for next Friday. I'm really thrilled with how the edge is coming along. I love the pattern that's appearing and I love that I can somewhat predict what my next stitches should be. It's so good to feel like I have a handle on the pattern again.


Reading:

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Ben H. Winters, with Jane Austen credited as co-author. This is such a fun read! The feel of Austen has been captured and alongside it is a twist of Lovecraftian quirkiness that's delightful. I'm really looking forward to seeing where the twists take us in the story.

WIP Wednesday: Blues over the Blue

Knitting:
I skipped posting last week because I was just so frustrated with this pattern and myself. I took the shawl with us to the park to watch 4th of July festivities 2 weeks ago. After a long day of knitting I found several counting mistakes that I simply couldn't brain my way around. For the rest of the evening I worked on my travel socks. Once home I realized that I'd made mistakes so far back that there was simply no answer but to rip everything out and start over. So, by the time last Wednesday rolled around, I was just a little past where I'd previously been the week before.

This Monday I finally gave into my feeling of "there's something not right about this" and counted my stitches. I'd just finished 6 repeats of chart b and a full chart c. I know I'm not the only one to occasionally ignore the inner knitter when something doesn't feel right, even the Yarn Harlot has posted about it. I'd had that niggling feeling since repeat 2 of chart b and yet I'd kept on going. So I give in and count my stitches. 155. Wait ... what? The pattern says that if I did 4.5 repeats of B then I should have 269 stitches and I did 6.5 repeats.  

I'm looking at the pattern, at the charts, at my knitting and slowly I realize my mistake. I'd read each line of the chart (with it's repeated block in the center of each line) as though it went all the way across the row rather than as what to do with the stitches in each of the 4 sections of the shawl. That explained why the outer sides had grown and the two inner sections hadn't. That explained why I wasn't using the yardage I'd expected to use.

Gods bless my poor Husband. He held me, offered me chocolate, and helped to unravel all my hard work and wind it back into a ball. Had this been for myself I would have tossed it into a corner, buried it under yarn, and never spoken of it again until I was ready to deal with it.

The pattern really isn't that hard. I don't want to scare off anybody that's kind of looked at the pattern and thought about knitting it. It's really not that hard. I promise. The reason it's been so difficult for me? I started this in a time of high stress and new medication for pain management, the two combined meant that I didn't eat for practically 3 weeks and I was so brain fogged that I couldn't think straight. I'd been clearer when I started the pattern the second time but I just kind of blindly followed what I'd done previously, thinking that I'd just lost count somewhere along the way. I probably had ... I would have been hard pressed to tell you my name a few of those days.  So, here I am, 3 weeks later, basically exactly where I was before. I'm going to knit my fingers to the bone to get this finished soon as I feel bad about it taking so long when I know it's been eagerly looked for.



The purple line marks the end of Chart A. Previously I did a lifeline for the end of each Chart B repeat .... I think I'll do every other one this time. Please ..... if you see a mistake in the knitting now ... Tell Me. Be gentle though.

Reading:

Stephen King's The Dark Tower Graphic Novel: The Fall of Gilead as written by Peter David. I am a huge Stephen King fan girl. I've been collecting these for a bit now and waiting to read them. Because of their location on the shelves I seemed to always miss them so I started keeping a To Read List that held only the next 4 - 6 books I was going to read. Each of these graphic novels have only taken a couple days to read. I'm in awe of the gorgeous coloring of the art, the fantastically done writing, and the faithfulness to the feel of the original works. I would have loved them for being a part of the Dark Tower world, but it's a delight to also love them for being so incredibly good.

Air and Water Dreamcatcher

 

A 7in ring wrapped in dark blue thread and webbed with light blue. In the middle is a 3in ring wrapped in light blue thread and webbed in white. Freshwater pearls were used in both rings, white for the larger one and dark blue ones in the smaller one. A crystal like prism hangs in the very center of the duo. 

Gloves to Match

The pattern for these gloves are my default pattern, at least that's how it looks after I've made it 7 times. It's just such a great pattern, a fast knit and something I can easily make larger. They can either be ribbed all the way up or not, have multiple colors or not, and have longer or shorter fingers. I had hoped to do a bit of colorwork on the cuffs to make it look like piano keys but the yarn type just wasn't having it. I'll have to try it again with a different type of yarn at some point. 

Pattern Page: Ravelry

WIP Wednesday: Blue Shawl

Reading:

Ganymede by Cherie Priest. I've been really enjoying the Clockwork Century books and the world they're set in. My 'only' problem with them is the referencing of people from Texas as "Texian(s)". I've always heard people of Texas labeled as "Texan". I know there was an Texan army during the time of the Alamo and Civil War that was called the Texians, so I think that's where it's coming from as most of the people in the books we meet from Texas are military. All in all I can deal, it's just a little jarring at times. And really, that's the only nit I have with the stories, everything else has been an incredibly fun read.

Knitting:
It's grown so much! I think this'll be the last spread out on the needles picture I have since it was barely on the needles this time. I almost have 3 of the 4.5 repeats of chart B completed ... and I think I need to add a couple repeats to that for size. I'm looking forward to new charts though, and seeing a new pattern develop in the lace. 

Blue Moon

     A small, 3in brass ring that I wrapped in light blue thread and webbed in dark blue.