Sew busy I can’t knit

The Hoggetowne Medieval Faire is this weekend and next, and I will be appearing as Cupcake both weekends. (Yay!)

Cupcake is a singing tavern wench whom I invented and have played for 13 years in basically the same costume. In fact, my avatar on wordpress is a 4-year-old photo of me as Cupcake, in her signature bodice, with her famous “crumpets” on display. At one point, 8 or so years ago, I made her a new underdress, but the basic look has not changed.

No longer.

The original consists of a burgundy/pink bodice and burgundy wrap skirt over a cap-sleeved underdress. I’ve added accessories recently that include a pair of above-the-elbow Fetching mitts (FO #5 in 2009), a scarf (FO #25 in 2008) and a pair of lace-trimmed black bloomers (purchased at last year’s faire). The problem with the costume is one that Jean-Luc Picard can readily identify with: the bodice keeps shifting upward and I kept having to tug it back down into place. (As my belly has expanded over the years, the problem has, perhaps predictably, gotten worse.

A few years ago, I conceived and started a new costume for Cuppie (as some of her fans call her). Sort of. In fact, I only made the overdress, using the same vest pattern that my original burgundy/pink bodice was based on, but leaving it unhemmed for ages. (I was surprised to discover the other day that I hemmed it sometime last year… I think… I’d thought that would be a chore for this week, too. What a nice surprise!) Oh, and I purchased some white fabric for an underdress.

The new purple overdress is ankle-length, with no break at the waist, so there should be less upward-drift and more comfort. Instead of side and back seams, I made each piece self-lined/reversible, with ribbon loops sewn into all the seam allowances, so each “seam” can be laced up. The idea is to look more period-appropriate while allowing for day-to-day and year-to-year accommodations of changing girth. I haven’t worn it while in character and moving around, so it may need some refinements, but the basic idea is sound.

I put off making the underskirt, coming up against my own resistance time and again, until I finally figured out what was going on: I didn’t want to use that particular fabric after all.

Not that it isn’t a fine fabric for the job, but it just wasn’t “speaking” to me, ya know?

Instead, the hubs and I went to JoAnn fabric Monday morning and I bought some white gauze, plus some purple and navy blue Rit dye, and bribed said hubs to dye the fabric for me by also buying some fabric for him, enough to make him a new pair of costume pants for the faire. (Well, in theory, he was going to make the pants himself, but my sewing skills trump his and I wound up doing almost all of the stitching. He did, however, cut them out and do a lot of pinning-together.)

The dyed fabric is rather a darker purple than I’d expected, probably because of the half-bottle of navy blue dye that was added to the full bottle of purple, and I’m not sure it’s a great match to the overdress, but Cupcake’s not royalty, so her clothing needn’t be as elegant and “perfect” as a noblewoman’s.

So last night, I did all but the hemming on the hub’s pants (about to do that now), plus I cut out and sewed Cuppie’s underdress, minus the drawstring casing at the neckline. When I finally went to sleep Tuesday (after noon), I had the casing pinned into place, needing only to be stitched and threaded with ribbon.

So it looks like my FOs 4 and 5 will be of the sewing variety.

As for knitting, I want to knit Gayle a pair of fingerless mitts for her med-faire character. (What color, Gayle?) And Cupcake will need a new pair of long Fetchings, as the other pair are cranberry and the new costume is, um, not. Opera-length purple Fetchings? Hell yeah!

I’m hoping to get both pair knit before the second weekend of the faire. Yes, this year’s faire. Hey, it could happen!

Well, I’m off to sew a bit. Pictures to follow.

If you want to see both sooner and in person, and  if you’re anywhere near, come to the faire. I’d love to see you and you’ll have a blast!

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Mitt monogamy

This morning, about 30 minutes ago in fact, I finished my 4th set of fingerless mitts (FO# 3 for 2011) out of the two unlabeled supersized skeins of Red Heart-like acrylic yarn I had in my stash. And I still have enough yarn for at least one (maybe two) more pair!

Seriously.

This stuff is like the yarn that never ends.

(Yes, it goes on and on, my friends. Oh, I started knitting with it four sets of mitts ago. How many pair are left in it the world may never know.)

(You’re welcome.)

The first pair are pictured in my last post. I used a K2P2 pattern on those.

The three pair I’ve made this year are based on the same K1P1 pattern I used when I made the BC14’s mitts last year (FO#19 for 2010), with modifications made for the thinner yarn I’m using now and with the goal of making small adult-sized mitts.

Smut helped me with these, playing cheerleader at every step.

Here he is with them when there were only about 4 rounds completed on each mitt:

His eyes are positively glowing with encouragement... or with disdain for the fluffy pink robe? Hmm.

As you can see, I have both mitts on one long circular (US size 8 ) needle and the yarn is coming out of the green yarn holder on the bottom left of the photo. Now, I realize you can only see one strand in this shot, so you’ll have to take my word for it that there is another strand coming out of another section of the container. (It has six separate compartments.)

A couple of hours later, I had finished 34 of the 44 rows that make up the mitts and Smut insisted I take another photo of him the mitts. Here it is:

"I sleep in your general direction," says Smut.

He was pretty much worn out from coaching me through this first iteration of the modified mitt pattern, so a nap was definitely called for.

After a couple more hours, during which I knit at a leisurely pace, with frequent breaks to avoid finger fatigue, I had finished the mitts. Smut gave them his approval, although I’m pretty sure he was doing his best to ignore my fluffy pink robe. (He’s just not a fluffy-pink-robe kind of cat, ya know? I mean, did you see the look on his face in photo 1 of this post?? Just sayin’.)

Here’s the FO shot:

Oh, yeah, he hates my robe.

Want to see pictures of FO# 2 and FO# 3?

Well, um, I’d love to show them to you, but… um… the, um, dog ate them. Yeah, that’s right, the dog ate the photos. In fact, all three dogs ate them. Nomnomnom, no more pictures.

Don’t you hate it when that happens?

Bad doggies!

Luckily for everyone concerned, FOs #2 and 3 look almost exactly like FO#1, so we can simply look at the last picture above a couple more times and that should do it. Maybe click on it and see if it gets bigger or something. Ahem.

Anyhoo, it’s time for this chica to flee the big ball of light in the sky and to seek peace and comfort in my amazing waterbed of joy.

(No, you’re not invited, but thanks for asking. Nothing personal, I just need to get my sleep on and you’d probably just make waves and keep me awake all day. That’s no good on a day when I have to work 12 hours of OT, as I do tonight, so, um, raincheck?)

(Just kidding. No rainchecks, either. What kind of a girl– oh, never mind.)

Later, kittens.

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Final 2010 FOs: the photos

A brief wrap-up of 2010, so we can tuck it firmly away in the memory books and get on with 2011 unencumbered by UFB (unfinished business, of course).

FO# 22 for 2010 was a multi-part FO, comprising both mitts and booties for a baby boy who was born days after I finished them. Here’s a photo:

Awwwwww!

The pattern the set is posed upon is a free one from Lion Brand. I used it as a basis for these, but I improvised a crapload to make my much-thinner yarn and much-smaller target size work out. You can see my hand-scrawled numbers in the margin of the page, but I wouldn’t try to follow them, as I’m not sure even I could do that now.

You know how it is: when you’re doing the knitting and making the notes, it all makes sense. Later, however, you can make little to no sense of the notations and have only the dimmest memory of how you arrived at them. It’s as if you’d been sleep-knitting, or in a dream state, or even in a trance at the time. Rather Edgar Cayce-esque, no?

Anyway, the mitts and booties were given to the (then) father-to-be along with the blue twisted pumpkin hat (FO# 14 for 2010). He and the (then) mother-to-be were charmed by them, as were all of the ladies up and down the dad’s hallway at work.

I don’t know if the baby has worn any of the stuff I knit for him, but I do hope so. And if I get a decent picture that shows them on the li’l boy, I’ll post it.

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FO# 23 was a freeform pair of K2P2 fingerless mitts, knit two-at-a-time in the round à la Magic Loop method, with thumb gussets.

Check it out:

"Really, mom?"

Smut doesn’t look overly thrilled at the interruption of his catnap, but he didn’t try to eat them or jump down and run away, so we’ll call it a “posing win”.

The thumb gussets aren’t really as disproportionately large as they look here. It’s just that they’re in stockinette, while the body of the mitts are in K2P2, which makes them accordion in on themselves when they’re not being worn. And as they are knit from 100-percent acrylic, there is no blocking these babies out. If made out of a natural fiber, they would block beautifully and look more like they did when I saw and failed to photograph them on their recipient’s hands.

—

I’m already 2 FOs into 2011, making more fingerless mitts from this same yarn. I had two previously unused super-saver-sized skeins (both label-free) of the yarn when I started the pair above. Which means I’ve knit three pair from those skeins so far, and I think I’ve enough yarn left to make at least two more pair. Maybe three. That means you can look forward to lots of pictures of very similar-looking mitts this month, starting with my next post.

For now, it’s waaaay past my bedtime, so I’m signing off. Hugs!

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2010 in review: the cruel sadistics…

… I mean, statistics. Of course.

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 5,800 times in 2010. That’s about 14 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 87 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 359 posts. There were 137 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 77mb. That’s about 3 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was January 3rd with 53 views. The most popular post that day was My first FO of 2010: toddler beret.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were knitnut.net, wanderingcatstudio.blogspot.com, alamaille.blogspot.com, bloglines.com, and search.aol.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for write read knit purr, knitty nora, potato chip scarf, just enough ruffles, and oak pollen.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

My first FO of 2010: toddler beret

January 2010

2

24. Potato chip scarf

December 2008

3

Knitty Nora’s Knitting Natter

May 2008

4

20. Just Enough Ruffles

November 2008

5

Oak pollen explosion

March 2009
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Note: the verbiage in the above review was created by wordpress. I wrote the post title and first line. After that, nada. (Which means I’m hoping you won’t blame me for it’s cutesiness, etc.)

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It’s bedtime now, y’all, as I must end my massive two-day-off stretch and return to worker-bee status tonight.

It’s been a full two days, with a trip out of town with the BC14 to visit my mom. It’s her 74th birthday today and I was there when the clock and calendar flipped over to “her” day. We had a good two days, watching DVR’d episodes of Castle (love that show!) and actual DVDs of The Blind Side (loved it!), Edge of Darkness (ah, how nice to not see the whackadoodle Mel!), and The Lovely Bones (better than I expected). Oh and an on-air showing of Shooter. Yep, Mom and I had double doses of Mark Wahlberg this weekend, while the BC14 was sleeping. And, lo, it was good. Even if it did mean waking the BC14 up at 4:45 this a.m. and driving two hours home to get him to school on time. Totally worth it.

I’ve finished my first book of 2011, started and frogged my first knit of the year, petted the kitties and written a blog post, so I’m well on my way to fulfilling my blog title’s stated purpose. (Should I have included “win the lottery and retire early” to the title? Nah, doesn’t flow. Ah, well, c’est la vie!)

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