Possibly Some Over-Medicated Babbling

I have a hidious cold that Dr. Google has me convinced is either my imminent doom or possible bronchitis.  Regardless, I've been cooped up in the house, sunk miserably in the couch coughing my lungs out.  Or so it feels.  I'm going to apologize right off the bat, because this post is going to meander like the Red River.  Actually, I'm not really sorry.  It will involve a lot of knit talk, because that's all I've been doing lately.  Although I do have one sewing project down at the bottom!

My boyfriend has abandoned me for a hockey tourniment out of town.  Well, to be fair, I was supposed to go, but THIS COUGH.  I've spent the majority of today doing a Project Runway Season 5 marathon on youtube and knitting away at my Reverb cardigan I started back in November.

I know a lot of you aren't big knitting fans, but you have to admit, you can make some gorgeous garments doing it!

I'm actually about an inch further down from this pic.  It's a slow knit because of all the cables, but it's hard to put down once you get going.  Especially when you can't really do much else without epic coughing fits.  Again though, colour is off in this picture.  Stupid camera.

Fit check!  It's not too bad - I'm worried about the sleeves and the width, but I need to trust my math. Despite the fact that Geologist don't do math.  Eeep.  The colour in this pic is more true, but a little dark still.  ARGH CAMERA I HATE YOU.

No, I didn't get very far in NaKniSweMo.  Well, I got as far as the armhole divide, and then everything stalled out for Christmas knitting.  Which I should still be working on because I'm not actually done, but screw it.  I'm sick and I can knit what I want to!

I'm pleased with what I got done for Christmas though.  Aside from the out-of-no-where owl hat for a coworker's daughter, I also finished off two toques for the couple who hosted us for Christmas eve/morning. (They also got most of the salted caramels too.)  I thought it was very kind of them to open their home for two people with no local family, and wanted to do something extra for them.  I made The Natural Hat (which I made last year as well for a friend) and the Lace Vine Hat.  The latter is a new pattern and the first one the creator has released.  It's a pretty well-written and a beautiful pattern - my right-before-wrapping-them-up pictures don't do the hat justice.

Love the textures in this pattern, and it was a quick knit. So fun to watch the lace pattern develop!  Colour's off here though.

The toque was more of a teal shade, like in this photo, but...deeper, if that makes sense.

This toque turned out a little bit too short. The recipient immediately put it on and wouldn't take it off all morning, so I assume he liked it, but it didn't quite go down far enough. Think my tension was a little tighter than normal.

Let's not talk about what I didn't get done.  Like the fornicating beaver's hat I promised to design for my boyfriend, nor the other NSFW knit he asked for.  And the fornicating deer hat a good friend requested that's been nearly done for months now but I'm too lazy to pull back 4 rows to start the top decreases sooner.  (I have interesting friends.)  And then there's the hat my brother asked me for about 2 weeks before Christmas when I had all the above (including the two pictured) to complete.  Brat.

The Boyfriend and I went out and cut down our own Christmas Tree from the middle of the bush.  It was my first time doing that and was so much fun!!  Poor thing looks a little scraggly, but honestly it was one of the fullest ones out there.  I might've added too many lights to the poor thing - looks sort of like the centre of a galaxy, but at least he's a bright little tree!  I made some of the ornaments for it too.  Mostly brass bells with ribbons tied on, but I also made this little guy:

I love it!  Entirely hand sewn using felt, some lace I had on-hand and a bit of woven fabric for the noel part, some embroidery thread, some ribbon and beads, and a button.  I can't take credit for it though, I totally copied was inspired by this brilliantly talented person. 

I also made a bunch of crocheted snowflakes, but I didn't get them starched in time, and frankly, I forgot about them until just now.  Whoops.  Oh well, next year.

AND I should probably stop babbling.  I will say, though, that I'm stoked to get back into my sewing room (as soon as I dig it out of the Christmas Cleaning Explosion that happened in there AKA where everything that I didn't know what to do with got tossed).  I'm forcing myself to cull my wardrobe drastically, and that's made me think about the gaping holes in my closet.

Not the least of all is pants.  Might be time to dig these suckers out again.

Hope you all are healthier than me and knitting/crocheting/sewing up a storm this holiday season!  Or at least are enjoying your alcohol and merriment with friends and family.  Lucky buggers.  I'll just be here on my couch, coughing and pouting.

Happy Christmas!

Salted Caramels: The best and most dangerous thing I have ever made. SERIOUSLY.

 

Happy Christmas everyone!  I hope your days are full of good friends, loved ones, and seriously dangerous (and tasty) treats!

Cute Little Hooters

I may have been utterly absent lately, but that doesn't mean I haven't been creating!  Boy, have I been creating.  There may be more posts in the near future.  Especially since the mining industry has gone down the toilet and I'm going to find myself with a lot more free time in the near future!  YAY MORE CRAFTING TIME!!!

This year, we're spending Christmas at the Boyfriend's Best Friend's Parents place, which will be fun and is so kind of them to invite non-family to their family event.  And I thought it would be nice to make them all toques, because they're all outdoorsy people and winter outdoorsy people, and you can never have enough toques.

So while I should've been working on all of these toques, I instead made my coworker's daughter (who I've never met) a toque instead.  Because I am the Queen of Procrastination.  lol  I tried to say no, but the project burrowed it's way into my brain and shoved all other projects out. 

Sneaky little owls.  You might recognize this toque.  I made the same pattern last summer and then gave it away to Suzy Bee Sews.  I love the pattern and I was glad for a chance to make the child-size version.

I was originally going to make it out of the bright pink yarn you can see hints of in the toque, but it's a bit of a scratchy wool, and it's for a kid...plus wool needs special handling...nope, wasn't going to work.  So instead I used some admittedly soft acrylic I happened to have in camp with me, and I'm so glad that I did.  Easy care, super soft, and will take a beating.  And then added some pink touches, since the girl really loves pink!

As you can see, it's a bit small for an adult's head, but it'll be perfect for the little 8-year-old recipient.  The coworker is knit-worthy, considering all of the stuff he's done for me, last minute mind, without complaining.  My job would've been a lot harder without his help!

Someday, I'm going to make myself one of these...

The very best part of this toque is this:

Obviously ALL THE TOQUES will need pompoms now, because I've forgotten just how much fun they are to make!

NaKniSweMo

Yeah I know, there's approximately 8 jillion of these National ____  ____ Month things.  Apparently there's one for knitting sweaters!

I don't actually think that I can succeed at National Knit [a] Sweater Month, since it involves knitting a 50 000 stitch sweater in just a month.  I not only started 3 days late, but I head back to camp this Thursday and I don't have much time to knit while there. 

But I thought it'd be fun to knit along!  I'd be happy if I could get the body done this month.

Collar and first pattern repeat complete today.

I'm making the Reverb by Tanis Lavallee, a cardigan pattern I've been oogling for about 6 months now.  I've even pictured it in this yarn, although I've attempted it on two other knitting projects.  I think this will be the best marriage between yarn and pattern!

And the best part is that I'm not the one who picked it!  I narrowed down my sweater choices to three patterns and the yarn to four colours, and asked my boyfriend for his opinion.  He picked this pattern and this yarn, and I'm so happy with his choices!

Obviously it's meant to be!*


* Yarn/pattern and him/me.

Finished Project: Plaidtastic Blue Archer

Hey would you look at that, I finally took pictures of my Archer!  I've only been wearing it near-constantly for the last 3 weeks.

Yeah, I'm pretty happy with it.  There's a couple things I'd change on the next one (and there will be at least one more, possibly a half-dozen because these are fantastic work shirts!  And every day shirts.

I forgot how easy button-ups are to wear.


Details
Pattern: Grainline Studio's Archer Button-Up Shirt
Fabric: 100% cotton plaid flannel
Size: Size 12 from armhole upward, graded to size 14 at waist and size 16 at hips
Alterations: Other than size grading above, I did the following:

• Narrowed the shoulders by 3/4 inch
• Shortened bodice by 2.5 inches
• Take in side seams by 1/2 inch
• Reduced length of butt bustle by cutting along size 0 hem

I didn't do an FBA, just because this is a loose top and the toile I did (and didn't take a pic of, sorry) showed that I didn't need it.  I might do a small FBA next time though, just for a bit of extra room.

This fabric, while lovely, was skewed to an annoying degree.  I couldn't straighten it no matter what I did.  So I mostly gave up on matching the plaid, except for across the front.  I think I did a pretty good job, considering, but the bias button band helps a lot!

There are two major alterations that I'll make next time.

I shortened the bodice by 2.5 inches.  This was about 1 inch too much.  The butt bustle should've been a bit lower.

This one is probably the biggest one.  View A has a pleat below the yoke to give some extra fabric across the shoulders.  View B doesn't.  Definitely should've added that one in, because holy man is it ever annoying not having it.  REACHING FORWARD IS HARD.

Although I'm probably going to make more view A's in the future, because there's only so many butt bustles a person needs in the 21st century.  In this part of it, anyways.

So overall, I'm in love with this shirt.  Don't be fooled by the 'meh' face in some of these photos, it was entirely due to my horrible camera and not the top.  The top is easy to wear, both at home and at work, and with a few tweaks, will be even better next time.

But I will warn you, there's not a lot of shaping to this shirt.  The only shaping is at the sides, and it's a bit poofy at the tummy.  I'm happy with this right now, because I've been enjoying the camp desserts a bit too much and the camp gym facilities a bit too little.  Plus I do like to de-emphasize my body when at camp.

Wouldn't be too hard to add a couple darts in the front though...

ETA: I forgot to mention something that's come up in the comments.  I found the instructions for the Archer a little sparce, especially for a button-up top with a full collar.  I eventually gave up on them and followed the Archer Sew Along instead.  Maybe if you have experiences with this type of garment, the instructions would be fine, but for anyone new or newish to them, use the sew along.