Black and blue

Yesterday, the BC15 told me he was still going to need a vest made for his costume for the Hoggetowne Medieval Faire… which opens Saturday. Yes, he said “still.” Why did he say that? Um, probably because he told me two months ago that he was going to need it.

Oh, yeah… that. Now I remember… Um… oops?

Luckily for the boy, I had a pattern already (in fact, the same pattern that included his new med-faire pants), although I’d have to strip it down a bit to make it suitable. After all his character is a Viking ship’s captain,not a courtier, and the pattern is a bit high-class for a relatively humble fella. Still, the bones of the vest/doublet were good, and it was pretty easy to adapt, by the simple expedient of not adding in the frou-frou parts. Heck, I didn’t even need to put hooks or buttons or other closures on it, as it will be worn open to the waist, then held closed there by a wide belt. Easy-peasy, no? Yes.

The vest needed to be black and/or blue and, as providence would have it, the hubs had a length of black microfiber suede to donate to the cause. (He’s used it in the past as a photographic backdrop.) And I had a piece of blue polyester lining material that I picked up a while back on a clearance table and stashed away. There’s always black and blue thread here, so I literally paid nothing for this doublet. All it cost me was about six hours today.

And of course, I had help:

Open your eyes, silly kitty, so we can see your li'l face!

Josie holds down pattern instructions like a pro, doesn’t she?

She also holds down the project pieces while they’re being worked on, to keep them from floating off, don’t ya know. In case there’s a failure in the local gravity field or something. Observe her technique:

Who has pretty green eyes? You do! Yes, you do! Yes, you do have pretty green eyes!

Here’s the result, in the obligatory on-a-hangar photo:

(Not too) fancy vest/doublet

I hope to get a photo this weekend of the boy in his whole costume, so you can see it in context. It does look a little silly hanging there by itself and unaccessorized.

My sewing adventures are, for the nonce, finished… at least as regards this year’s faire. Looking back on my FO lists for previous years, I see that this is entirely normal for January. (Nice to know some things are consistent in this madcap world, doncha think? Of course you do. Me, too.)

I also put a bit of lace on Cupcake’s hat, so it will stay on while she’s out strolling in the lanes of Hoggetowne tomorrow and Sunday. It’s not really a FO, per se, but it is done… unless I change the lace to sheer ribbon, in which case it will be done tomorrow morning on the fairgrounds.

Next up: purple fingerless mitts (long) for Tira McSue, one of my sister wenches. I hope to get them done before next weekend’s performances. I’m not even going to entertain the idea of doing them this weekend.

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Don’t expect any updates from me over the weekend (not that you would, given how irregular my new-post non-schedule has been lately). I’ll be out playing the wench and singing from 10 a.m. till 6 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday, which will leave me exhilarated and flush with performing joy… and too exhausted to do much more than veg and crash. Of course, on Sunday night, I will stay awake for as long as possible, as I force my sleep schedule back to my regular hours, preparatory to working Monday and Tuesday nights. Perhaps I’ll post an update then.

If you’re local (your definition of which is possibly not the same as mine), please come see me as Cupcake with my wench troupe, Just Desserts. I’d love to see you!

 

The better to match the corset, my dear

So, I’ve been sewing a bit, as you can no doubt tell from the FO 2012 list. The reason? The Hoggetowne Medieval Faire is nearly upon us and that means costume time!

Regular readers know that my alter-ego Cupcake has been a regular character at the faire for the last 14 years (yikes, 14 years?!). Last year, I upgraded her costume… with mixed results. I love her new corset, but the underdress and lack of overskirt left the look, well, incomplete. I definitely needed to do something.

And this year Cupcake has a new gig at the faire: she’s the head of a wench troupe* called Just Desserts**. Each of us wenches (Cupcake, Ginger Snap, Tira McSue, Cherri Tart and Molly Lickalolly) will have a color theme to our costuming… and Tira wanted purple. So, in keeping with the gold of Cupcake’s corset, I decided to make Cupcake’s costume in golden hues. To do this, I had to make a new chemise (underdress) and a new overskirt.

Josie the pussycat was a big help throughout the sewing process.

Here she is, helping me lay out the chemise fabric (a light cream polycotton blend):

Josie calls this part "smoothing out the fabric."

And here she is helping me sew it:

That black blob? Yep, that's Josie.

With her diligent assistance, I managed to make this chemise (cropped about thigh level):

The time-honored dress-on-a-hanger shot!

You can see some details about it on its FO page.

Today was all about two things: 1.) switching my sleeping schedule from days to nights, so I/Cupcake can stay awake to work the faire, and 2) finishing the overskirt.

As for the sleep-hours-switching thing, so far so good. I’ve been awake for 24 hours so far (worked 12 of them, and have been shopping, sewing, photographing, blogging since). I expect I’ll sleep well tonight… in the actual night. You know, the dark kind. (Weird, but I think I can deal with it for a few days/nights.)

And the overskirt, you ask? Well, Josie helped with that too.

How would I manage without her? (You wouldn't, says she.)

I got the embellished-taffeta skirt panels cut out and sewn together Tuesday night (actually, it was early Wednesday morning, but you know how confusing that gets when you work nightshift). And today I made the waistband with self-ties and hemmed the skirt. As you can see, Josie made sure I sewed it correctly.

Wanna see some pretty bad on-a-hanger pictures of the chemise and overskirt? Sure you do.

Full length, with the skirt pinned in approximately the right place on the chemise.

Here’s a closer view of the two:

Look at the pretty stitching on the skirt fabric! It's golden yellow.

But the final test (and all that really matters) is putting the underpinnings with the corset that will tie them together. How will they work as an outfit?

Well, forgive the bad and too yellowish photos, but I think the chemise and corset combo works.

So far, so good...

And when we add in the skirt? Let’s see…

... Oh, yes! Cupcake will be stylin' this year!

Next up, a vest for the BC15′s costume (a final touch) and then decorating a straw hat to shade Cupcake’s, um, crumpets and match her outfit.

After that? I sure do hope to get some knitting done. (Really, Tira, I will make you some long fingerless mitts for next weekend’s faire! Thank goodness we shouldn’t need them this weekend.)

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* Those of you who have never seen a show by a wench troupe may not know that “wench troupe” is not a synonym or euphemism for “bunch of skanks throwing themselves at random men”. No, indeed. A wench troupe is a singing comedy troupe. We sing some traditional tavern songs, as well as some newer-but-traditional-sounding songs, almost all of which use innuendo and double entendre to be flirty and naughty and funny (especially funny), but not explicit. And the comedy also takes the form of improv, as the wenches (it’s a title we bear with honor) interact with the audience members between and around the songs, usually by embarrassing men accompanied by girlfriends and/or wives (much to the genuine delight of these girlfriends and wives, respectively). Rest assured that none of the wenches really wants to take anyone’s man away… not even for a few minutes. It’s all in the name of fun. And, ohmygoodness, is it ever fun! If you have the chance to attend a performance, do yourself a favor and go. You may surprise yourself by having a blast!

** If you are the type to support something you’ve never actually seen in person, based on a virtual friendship with one of the involved parties, you can Like our wench troupe on Facebook at this link.

And, if you’re at all interested in Cupcake, here’s her FB fan page.

POIDH, right? Fine.

As they say on Facebook and “the Twitter,” POIDH**. Okay, okay, if you need proof that I did indeed finish a red feather-and-fan cowl, I have the pictures. And I’m gonna share them now.

I’d have taken and posted them sooner, and indeed snapped a couple of the cowl after I wetblocked it. Here’s one of them:

It's red, not pink, no matter what you see here. Promise.

You have no doubt noted a lack of blocking wires or pins, etc. That’s ’cause I used a gentle “pat into desired shape and size” blocking, which nonetheless took the length from 27 inches (pre-blocking) to 31 inches (above). And at 7 inches wide, it’s already the right size there.

The towel and cowl are lying on our café-style dining table, one the kitties stay off of, but I moved them before I went to work last Thursday night, so the Hubs and the BC15 would have a place to sit and eat. Yep, I moved them to an 8-foot folding work table that has taken up residence in our tiny living room and is the current resting place of my sewing machine. It’s a big table, with plenty of room for the cowl to finish drying. “What a terrific idea,” I thought, as I set out blithely for work.

Here’s what the towel looked like 12 hours later, when I got home from work:

Holy shedding, Batman! (Or, more accurately, Catman.)

I had already snatched up the cowl, folded-over and creased by some villainous kitty who sat on it until it dried that way. In fact, before I calmed down enough to take that picture, I had rewet the creased part and laid it out to dry, far from the reach of any of the cats. I had also worked a couple of pulled threads (yes, snags!) back into the knitting and used an adhesive roller to get the not-shockingly whitish cat fur off it. (And yes, there may have been unamused cursing on my part, but I think you’ll agree it just might have been called for.)

A few minutes after I took the towel pictures, the not-so-big mystery of which kitty had polluted embellished the cowl was solved. To wit:

"Who are you going to believe: me or your lying eyes?

On Saturday morning, the cowl was finally dry and uncreased and ready for photos, so I took a few.

The cowl is designed to be wearable two ways, depending on the wearer’s sartorial choice and needs.

Here’s the “fits closer to the neck and tucks neatly into the coat collar” way to wear it:

See? It's red.

I had a shot of this view taken with the flash on, but I like how the natural light/shadows here show off the texture of the feather-and-fan stitch pattern. And it’s so dramatic like this, doncha think?

Here’s a shot of the cowl styled as a continuous loop:

With flash enabled. Not so dramatic, but still quite nice, yes?

And my inner artsy-fartsy photographer insisted on a shot without flash, and here’s the best of them:

Ah, shadows, how I love your effect!

The buttons were a real find. I went to the Evil Empire*** to check their very limited selection, as they are open 24/7 and my LYS is usually closed when I’m up and able to shop. I had little hope of finding anything acceptable, but I lucked out. (Gotta give cred to the Hubs for spotting these. And at 3 buttons to a card, each card costing $2.97, the buttons were almost a steal!)

Wanna see a closeup of the buttons? Sure you do!

A little bling for the MIL!

Check out my FO listing for details, such as they are. I didn’t take notes, not thorough ones, so YMMV**** if you try to follow my “instructions/notes” there.

I know some of you have been hoping I’d get off my duff and block the Aeolian shawl already, but I’m not at all eager to find it covered in cat hair, ya know? Gotta find some alternative way/place to block it, or the results might be another messed-up FO… or a dead kitty.*****

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** POIDH = pictures or it didn’t happen

*** Wal-mart (shudder)

**** YMMV = your mileage may vary

***** Nah, I’d never hurt my purry furries. I loves my kitty babies!

Mmmmmmm…. sofffffft….

I started 2012 with some of the softest yarn I’ve ever used: Mmmmmmmmalabrigo! (OK, so there’s only supposed to be one M at the beginning of the word, but it’s just so yummmmmmy that I can’t resist editorializing.) And for the record: not scratchy/itchy at all, even with 50% wool content!

Lookee what I made:

Imagine how great it will look after I block it!

Not to worry, I fixed the wonkiness in the cast-off row (at the bottom right of the photo). But not until after the photoshoot (obviously). And the photo seems to emphasize the taupe-ish shades of the yarn, but the maroon segments are a bit more dominant in person.

The pattern is called the Seaweed Cowl and it’s a free pattern by Elizabeth Blake. The blog itself is beautiful, with gorgeous photographs. If only it were updated more often… sigh!

My notes/mods here.

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I know you’ve all been expecting me to show you the red item I was knitting in December, but it has stalled out at the “needs buttons, blocking and photography” stage. Once I get it back on track (i.e., finished for real), I’ll post pics.

FO: one more for 2011

Look what I made:

All together now: "It's great... to be... a Florida Gator!"

I was a crafty Secret Santa for work this year, making this bicolored version of the Chilly Podsters by Glenna C of Knitting to Stay Sane. They are in the recipient’s favorite color (blue) with the natural contrast color (orange) for this particular shade of blue… well, the natural contract color for those of us who are diehard fans of the University of Florida Gators! I accept (although I don’t fully understand) that there are some people out there who are not as drawn to this color combo as the recipient and I are, but trust me when I tell you that Beth is a much-envied woman at our workplace. And I expect that will become even more true as she wears them out in the real world, given that she and I live in the home of the Gators, where orange-and-blue items are highly desirable. Not that Beth seems inclined to part with them, that is.

Details about my particular mods with these mitts are available here. These mitts aren’t difficult to make, but they are a bit fiddly, especially when joining the convertible parts to the body of the work. Still, they’re totally doable. And unique enough that even those of us with other fingerless mitts or gloves can find a use for them. Yes, they’re a novelty item, but a useful one.

Yay for an Honorable Mention!

Fantasy author Nicole Peeler celebrated an author friend of hers, Juliet Blackwell, on December 2nd. The cause for the celebration: Juliet had a book (Dead Bolt) coming out and Nicole wanted to let us all know about it. Juliet writes “cozies,” those mysteries with the sometimes painfully punny titles that let you know the book may have murder in its pages, but it also has pathos and humor and likeable characters. Cozies are often set in parts of our world that we don’t normally associate with murder, and there are usually multiple titles in that same setting ( i.e., a yarn store, a bakery, a restaurant, and – in this case – a home-renovation site).

What you don’t normally find there is much sex. Romance, yes. But the erotic? Not so much.

So Juliet and Nicole decided to run a contest in the comments section of that post, soliciting hypothetical titles and an equally hypothetical sales pitch for a new genre: erotic cozy mysteries.

Four people were chosen to receive prizes: 3 honorable mentions and one winner.

And, yep, I was the first honorable mention!

Here is my prize-winning submission:

Rub One Out: A Massage-Parlor Mystery (A mafioso’s feckless nephew is found dead, but smiling, in a massage parlor run by a competitor… and new masseuse Touchée Yourbum has oil on her hands. It’s up to her fellow masseuse, amateur detective Happy Ending, to prove there’s no blood on those delicate-but-strong digits, too.)

I can’t wait to see what the prize is! I’m hoping for a copy of one of Juliet’s books.

I came up with a second entry in my massage-parlor mystery series, but it didn’t win a prize. Wanna see it?

Sure you do!

So here’s the non-prize-winning entry:

Unhappy Ending: Another Massage-Parlor Mystery (Happy and Touchée team up to find out who tainted a batch of erotic oils with LSD, after a pair of tripping and very naked frat boys run out of the parlor, screaming about evil succubi… and right into the path of a city bus. The bad publicity – who said there’s no such thing? – threatens to close the parlor permanently and seriously shrink the girls’ income stream, unless they can solve the case pronto.)

It was a lot of fun coming up with these concepts and, who knows, I may have to undertake one or both of these naughty tales one day. Do ya think there’s a market for them? (Massage-parlor lobbies probably don’t have a lot of non-picture books in them, so that’s one place I wouldn’t think to find them.)

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On the knitting front, I’m 16.75″ done with a 24″ project. It’s red and lovely, knit from JaggerSpun Zephyr. Pictures when it’s done, I promise. Till then, shhhhh! It’s a Christmas surprise for someone special.

An exception to the rule

The “not doing the whole Christmas-knitting thing” rule, that is.

Overall, I am not engaging in frantic, ruin-the-holiday-’cause-I-don’t-have-a-time-machine-to-give-me-extra-hours-to-finish-all-my-projects, not-really-sure-it’ll-be-appreciated-anyway Christmas knitting. Two exceptions: my MIL and my FIL.

In years past, I’ve made them both scarves and fingerless mitts, which they love and use still. This year, I thought of their poor, neglected heads and of how cold those noggins must get up there in Tennessee every winter. So, of course, hats!

Except my MIL rarely wears a hat (exception: baseball caps when she’s fishing), ’cause she cannot abide the dreaded hat-head. (I hate that, too, which is why I stick to a beret or slouchy hat when I absolutely must wear one. In fact, I’m thinking of trying a smoke-ring/cowl thingy soon… for me, that is. I don’t want to risk it for the MIL this Christmas.)

So no hat for her.

The FIL does indeed wear hats. And he’s always cold, especially his head, so I wanted to make him an extra warm one. My solution: a double-layered hat.

I searched Ravelry’s index and found a free pattern, then headed to my LYS and bought some Noro.

The hat design makes it truly reversible, so I made the two sides a little different from one another, to give my FIL options. And he can further vary the look by choosing brim-up or brim-down.

Option one:

The mostly-solid side, brim down

Option two:

The same mostly solid side out, brim up

Option three:

The striped side, brim down

And option four:

The striped side, brim up (of course)

Obviously, it’ll look a little different on an actual head, rather than plopped onto the pommel of a sword, but my options for modeling the hat were pretty slim when I took these. ( +1 for innovation?)

The yarns, Noro Silk Garden and Noro Retro, should keep my FIL’s head very warm, doubled as it is throughout. And by simply rolling up the brim, my FIL will have 4 layers of silk and wool to insulate his ears.

Projects notes here.

Next up: a secret! (Sorry, but my MIL occasionally reads my blog and I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise. One hint: red.)

Free pattern: BC14′s k1p1 fingerless mitts

The other night, while digging through some papers in my knitting bag, I found the hand-scrawled “design” and modifications for these mitts:

BC14's k1p1 fingerless mitts

Most of my notes were written in pencil and were, um, fading away. So, purely to preserve those notes, I typed them up.

And now, I share them with you, with this big caveat: the pattern has not been test-knit using these instructions, except by me. My notes should be pretty accurate, as I didn’t do my usual (i.e., knit both mitts simultaneously), and the two mitts came out the same, but I didn’t write them down with the intention of posting them.

In other words, I did my best, but I’m not sure if there were tweaks I made while doing the original design but didn’t scrawl on my “pattern.”

In other other words, if there’s a mistake, you are on your own to figure it out. These things aren’t really that complicated and you should be able to work it out. (ahem)

One more photo, this time of the mitts in progress:

Pretty!

So, without further ado, here’s my “pattern” for the BC14′s k1p1 fingerless mitts:

Cast on 28 st in bulky yarn on US size 8 circular needle. [NOTE:  You may need to go up a size or two if you knit tightly. I knit loosely and usually have to us a needle two sizes smaller than the recommended size to get gauge**.)

Join to work in round. (28 stitches)

Rounds 1-21: *k1p1* around
Round 22: k1 m1 p1 m1 k1 p1 [*k1p1* to end of round, which is 12 times]   (30 st)
Round 23: k5 p1 [*k1p1* to end of round]   (still 30 st)
Round 24: k1 m1 k3 m1 k1 p1 [*k1p1* to end of round]   (32 st)
Round 25: k7 p1 [*k1p1* to end of round]
Round 26: k1 m1 k5 m1 k1 p1 [*k1p1* to end of round]   (34 st)
Round 27: k9 p1 [*k1p1* to end of round]
Round 28: k1 m1 k7 m1 k1 p1 [*k1p1* to end of round]   (36 st)
Round 29: k11 p1 [*k1p1* to end of round]
Round 30: k1 m1 k9 m1 k1 p1 [*k1p1* to end of round]   (38 st)
Round 31: k13 p1 [*k1p1* to end of round]
Round 32: k1 m1 k11 m1 k1 p1 [*k1p1* to end of round]   (40 st)
Round 33: k15 p1 [*k1p1* to end of round]
Round 34: k1 m1 k13 m1 k1 p1 [*k1p1* to end of round]   (42 st)
Round 35: k17 p1 [*k1p1* to end of round]
Round 36: Cast off thumb stitches, [*k1p1* to end of round]
Round 37-52: *k1p1* around (24 st)
Round  53: cast off in pattern.

Weave in ends.
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** By gauge, I mean “whatever makes the stitch count work for your arm/wrist measurement”. Please don’t ask me to be more precise. Of course, looser/bigger would be better, as this is in a k1p1 rib that will pull in the mitt to hug your hand.

These mitts took me 5-6 hours to knit, total. They just might be the perfect thing to fill out your holiday knitting. (hint, hint)

The yarn in the photos: Lion Brand Tweed Stripes in the Marble colorway.

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You are free to make as many of these as you like and even to sell the mitts, if you like. But don’t repost the pattern or sell it, please. Any of your friends who want it can come find it here, ‘kay? ‘Kay.

Knittin’ needles? We don’t need no steenkin’ knittin’ needles!

You probably already know that knitting needles are prohibited in courtrooms across the U.S.A. You may even have looked forward to a summons to jury duty, knowing that for one day you would be excused from work and home duties. It’s like a “found” day, when you have nothing else to do but to wait to be called for questioning. What a perfect opportunity to knit without guilt! Then you read the list of items that are not permitted in the courthouse and, lo and behold, you see “knitting needles”… right next to knives and guns and drugs. WTF?!

No knitter in his or her right mind would use knitting needles for some nefarious purpose, especially not in a public forum where it would screw things up for the rest of us. Think of the wrath of the knitting community! No way, Jose (or Josie). And in purely practical terms, would you risk getting someone’s blood on your project? Hell, no…. not while pens and pencils and belts and shoelaces are so readily available for your assault-and-battery needs.

Where was I? Oh, yeah, no knitting needles in the courthouse. (There is a point to this, I promise. And here it is:)

I had to spend some time at my county’s civil courthouse yesterday. I was a witness and I had to sit outside the courtroom and wait to be called in for my testimony. Forewarned that I could be there for up to 2 hours before getting on the stand, and with full knowledge that I’d have worked 12 hours the night before my court date, I knew I would need something to do that would keep me awake and focused. I would need my knitting.

So, I needed knitting that wouldn’t require knitting needles or I needed surrogate needles. As I don’t do loom knitting, it was door no. 2 for me. But what to use? I grabbed some pencils (white colored pencils, a mechanical pencil, a regular pencil with a short lead) and figured I’d test them all to see what worked best. I also grabbed a pair of varnished chopsticks that I’ve used in my hair a couple of times.

After a bit of trial and error, here’s the result:

When will finds way.

To be sure, I had to play loose with the tension, as the needles chopsticks taper so sharply, but I achieved a tension that is consistent with my other charity “squares” out of this yarn. This was definitely a time when it was a boon to be a loose knitter. (That’s right: I said it!) If I were a tight knitter, this wouldn’t have worked at all.

Shall we sing an ode to the glories of being loose? Yes? All right, then. You start it and I’ll improvise a high harmony. … Go ahead. We’re all waiting. … OK, maybe next time.

The moral of the story? Improvise and knit on, kittens.

Oh, and could you maybe write us a loose-knitters song. I’m sure there a plenty of us who could sing it loud and strong, if only we knew the tune and words.

Happy VD!**

May all our active duty and reserve military men and women make it home safely and soon.

And my eternal gratitude to those who have given up their lives and wellbeing in serving our country.

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** Only we veterans are allowed to say “Happy Veterans Day” that way. (Yes, even peacetime vets… like me, my first husband and my current husband.)