FO Friday - November 23, 2012

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted for FO Friday! But luckily I've been knitting like mad and have some stuff to show off! (No finished sewing sadly, no time for that until I finish up about 6 more hats...)

Anyhoo, I've recently whipped up a couple "boho" chunky cowl things. And in doing so, I used some of my very own handspun yarn :)

The first one is charcoal grey with some red/black dreamy soft merino I spun up. This thing is HUGE! In the pic it's actually folded over in half. Seriously ginormous. And warm! And snuggly.

The second is burgundy with some super fun yellow/red/black corespun yarn of my creation. This was actually my first ever corespun yarn. Again, this scarf is super snuggly, and this one, while not as wide as the first, is super long so it can be wrapped for additional warmth (it's wrapped twice in the picture)




Sadly, I won't be keeping either of these cowls as I've decided to put them both up in my shop. But the great news for you is, if you really dig these one of a kind cowls, they can be yours!

Have a great weekend lovelies!

Spinning for a BFF, The Final Spin!

Do you ever start doing something and gets distracted part way through? For me that was this blog post (I started it hours ago...)

Anyhoo, I finally have the BFF yarn! I got the right yardage and everything! And it's just so pretty!

For this spin, I again used 2 different fibres, this time around it was some awesome electric merino/silk from KnittyandColor, and some alpaca/merino/sparkle fluff from Hilltop Cloud fluff. This yarn is so amazingly soft, I'm so excited to use it!

 This time around, I've ended up with approx 390 yards, and while it's a lighter weight yarn than I was aiming for, I don't care! The colours, the fibres, the sparkle are just all perfect. AND, Pacasha loves it too! What more could I ask for?

As for the scarf itself, we've decided not to use the actual BFF pattern (p5tog? are you insane???) and we're just going to go with something simple instead. The yarns we've spun will be the focus of these scarves, but the sentiment is still there.

I haven't started the scarf yet as I've been madly knitting away on orders for my shop. In fact, all of my other crafty pursuits have fallen by the wayside as a result. The Thurlow's I've been working on? Completely stalled. The ugly sweater I want to knit for our upcoming Festivus party? Probably not going to happen. But that's not the end of the world, as I recently was given a sweater that will do for that, so that's one less thing to stress over.

Is anyone else starting to feel the Giftmas pressure with their crafting?

Spinning for a BFF, Take Three

I've spun up more yarn for the BFF Cowl, and this one is delicious!

This time around, I used fibres from YorkieSlave Artworks (seriously, check out her goods! her spindles and fibre are divine) and again some fibre from Hilltop Cloud. The finished product is a yarn chock full of luxury, containing merino, tussah silk, bamboo, firestar and angelina (ie. SPARKLE).

At 224 yards, this yarn is a lot closer to my goal of 360 yards, but alas it's not quite enough. But it's pretty and sparkly and has gorgeous drape, so I'm going to hang onto it for a something special later on. In the meantime this purple pretty will get loved and petted while hanging out in my stash.

Since I'm getting closer I hope the next one gets me to the yardage goal. My fibre stash is getting low!

Spinning for a BFF, Take Two

I have more yarn! And it's even prettier than the last!

For this yarn, I again used 2 different fibres, both from Hilltop Cloud. The colourways I used this time were Emerald City (British Shetland Wool, Merino, Tussah Silk, Black (Gold) Bamboo) and Punk (Merino Wool, Alpaca, Tussah Silk and Mulberry Silk with added sparkle).

I  LOVE how this yarn turned out! As usual, you can't see it in the pics, but there's a healthy amount of sparkle in it, and the pink just pops! I spun it up a little bit thick and thin again to add just a little more interest to the yarn (as if it needs any more).

But, just like the last time, I didn't end up with enough yardage! Still aiming for 360 yards, I ended up with 158. WTF?!?! That's less than the last spin! Granted, there was also less fibre for this spin, using 2 fibres at 100g each, instead of 110g/115g. C'est la vie. That just means I'll have to spin again!

Does anyone else out there have plans to knit up a special BFF cowl of their own?

Thurlow Sew-Along - Front and Back Pockets

Sewing time was limited last week, but I got myself all good and caught up over the weekend. I now have front and back pockets! And yes, I'm a little behind as the sew-along has moved on to the fly/zipper, but I won't have time to work on that for a couple days.

Front pocket progress, step-by-step

The fabric I'm using for this potentially wearable muslin is some random blue suiting I had in my stash. I was a teensy bit overzealous when cutting out the pieces, as I didn't realize I cut them out on the wrong side of the fabric. I suppose I could have just sewn the pants together backward so the right side of the fabric shows, but screw that, I'm too lazy to think about doing the fly backward. The two sides don't look all that different so I opted to leave it as is and live with my mistake. Also, this stuff kind of looks like denim in pictures. It's not denim. At all. If all goes well with this muslin, the next pair will be made with denim. Pinstriped denim :)

Back pocket progress, step-by-step

Lauren's tutorial on the double welt pockets made these a breeze to do! Although, I probably should have listened to her about he depth of the back pocket. It's so wee! It might hold my metro pass, but nothing else, so I'll be adjusting the back pockets on the next pair.

So that's where I'm at now. I should be able to squeeze out some sewing time later on this week. If not, I'll be getting things done over the weekend.

How's your progress been on your Thurlows?

Spinning for a BFF, Take One

Not long ago, my dear friend Pacasha, who I've known after meeting on Ravelry (her blog can be found here), asked my if I'd knit the BFF cowl with her. I was so honoured that she asked me! So of course, I jumped at the chance!

The BFF cowl is kind of like those best friend necklaces that were all the rage in the early 90s, where you kept one half and your BFF kept the other, except in this case, you knit one half and your BFF knits the other, and you each end up with a scarf! Pretty neat, huh?

Anyhoo, after much hemming and hawing over my ridiculous yarn stash, I decided I should spin up a yarn to use for these scarves, as it'd make it extra special and much more one of a kind.

I started with some handpainted Alpaca top from Spunky Eclectic (in the Diet Coke colourway) and some Merino/Seacell/Baby Camel spinning fibre from Hilltop Cloud (in the Scarlett colourway) and went to town. Since this scarf is going to be extra special, I was so glad I picked out some of the more luxurious fibres in my stash. I spun it up a little more than slightly thick and thin, as that always yields my favourite results, and ended up with gorgeous results.

It's crazy soft, and the colours are perfect, and despite the fact that it wasn't picked up in the picture, has the perfect amount of sparkle mixed in. The problem? I need at least 360 yards and ended up with 168.

Boo!

Not enough yardage means I need to spin again! I'm diving back into the fibre stash and will report back with the results soon :)

FO Friday - November 2, 2012

With all the excitement of Hallowe'en behind us, it's time to look ahead to Giftmas. I'll admit, I'm woefully behind on my Giftmas gift knitting, but at least I've got a bit of a start on Giftmas decoration knitting.

As you well know, I love knitting mini things. This includes mini-socks.

Slytherin minis

These are just so perfect for decorating your holiday tree/garland/wreath with, and are a seriously super fast, instant gratification project, not to mention the wonders it does to decrease your stash of sock yarn leftovers!

From one holiday to another

Hallowe'en has come and gone, and I'm a little bummed. Why, you ask? Well, Hallowe'en is my favourite holiday of the year. It's made of awesome. Costumes? Check. Candy? Check. Reason for a party? Check. Adult beverage of your choice? Check. Check. Check. But this year I had to be sick and miss the whole thing. I was too sick to make my costume (sadface) and too sick to go anywhere to see other people's costumes (double sadface).

Since I don't want to leave you all without something costume-y made by me, here's one of my faves from a few years back:

Now that Hallowe'en is over, it's time to look ahead to the next big holiday. No, Americans, not Thanksgiving, the real one already happened :P. I'm talking about Festivus.

It has become tradition that every year Mr. Social and I host a Festivus party where we invite our nearest and dearest over for food, drink, appropriate holiday inspired horror movies, and to keep things festive, Ugly Sweaters¹.

Being who I am, and putting near impossible deadlines on things, I like to kit my own ugly sweaters. This was the one from 2 years ago:

Less "ugly" and more "festively inappropriate"

This year I'd like to knit myself a new one. I've found a bunch of patterns that I'm not sure I can bring myself to knit:

Christmas Cardigan Sweater or Vest by Susan Chastain

Christmas Pullover also by Susan Chastain (she sure loves Christmas)

And a personal favourite:

12 Days of Christmas (S. W. A. K.) by Keely Stuever

As for what I'm actually considering, I've narrowed it down to two patterns:

The aptly named Jumper with raglan sleeves and reindeer pattern on yoke by DROPS design, or the less ugly and more charming Majestic Moose by Andi Satterlund. I feel like the reindeer yoke one is more appropriate for the ugly sweater party, however I'd probably get a lot more use out of the majestic moose one on account of it being kind of cute.

What do you think? Which should I make?

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1 White people like Ugly Sweater parties dontchaknow