This is pretty damn cool!

Have you ever wondered if/where there are sewists/bloggers/sewing blogger near you? I know I have. And apparently so has Vicki over at Another Sewing Scientist. She's created a map where you can pin your location so others can stalk you! How fun!


View Map the Sewintists in a larger map 

Some people have also added stash enhancement centres around the world for easy reference if you're travelling and want to score some goodies.

I'm off to see who's close to me! TTFN!

Mad Men Challenge, Round 2 (But a first for me!)

By now, I'm sure you've seen that Julia Bobbin has announced the second Mad Men challenge.

I didn't participate last year, but I loved seeing what everyone came up with. Everything was truly fantastic! You can check them out for yourself and ooh and aah and drool over them here.

The Challenge:     

Find a dress from Mad Men that you love and create your own version. It doesn't have to be an exact copy, you can just be inspired by the style.

 

As luck would have it, the dress I'm currently working on was inspired by a favourite dress of mine that Peggy wore early on in the show.

 

 

Perhaps if I have enough time, I'll be able to make something inspired by a different character! How fun!

 

Are you planning to take the challenge?

Something is in the works!

And Spicy has decided I don't require the pattern instructions...

A Festivus for the Rest of Us!

'Tis the season for holiday festivities! 

Yes, this is part of my holiday decor

Every year, Mr. Social and I host a Festivus party, and this year we added a little 2012/end of the world/zombieapocalypse spin to it. In addition to the traditional ugly sweaters, we encouraged our guests to come prepared for the zombie apocalypse. But before I show off the fabulous people who came to the party dressed in theme appropriate attire, let me show off some of the goodies I made!

The first batch of cookies I baked were Chocolate Cardamom Macadamia Nut Cookies. Mmmmmmm. I think I accidentally doubled the amount of chocolate chips in the recipe, probably because I bought them at the bulk store rather than in a package from the grocery store. So I eyeballed it to guess I got the right amount. You can never have too much chocolate, right? I think that if I make these again, I'll use the same amount of chocolate, again, but I'll add a little more cardamom and not toast the macadamia nuts before adding them to the batter. But all in all, they were nummy!

For the next batch of cookies, I tried out a recipe I found on Pinterest, Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies. These were touted as being like mint chocolate chip ice cream in a cookie, and well, it's true! If you're a lover of mint chocolate chip, I highly recommend these (myself, I'll only make them for parties as after one of these I've hit my max capacity for mint). The guests seemed to love these though, as there were only 6 left at the end of the night!

Now, just because it's the holidays it doesn't mean we should be overlooking birthdays! I also whipped up a birthday cake for my friend CC, who sadly couldn't make it to the Festivus festivities as she wasn't feeling well (I suspect a few too many wobbly-pops the night before...). But, as it turned out, it was another revelers birthday as well so the cake got to fulfill its destiny...

YAY!

I had planned on making a bunch more stuff for the party, and got a little stressed out that I didn't have time for it. However, I really didn't need to make anything else, as the stuff that people brought with them to share had the table groaning under the weight!

To add a little incentive to guests to come wearing ugly sweaters/zombie gear/holiday appropriate attire, I offered up a prize for the best outfit. The winner was decided by popular vote, and I gotta say, it was hard to choose this year!

Ultimately, it was determined that J in her ugly sweater/super duper patterned skirt was the winner of the giant inappropriate stocking (handmade by me of course)

And the runner up got a kiss from me :)

Apparently I was walking around with lipstick on my face all night. Hooray for mistletoe!

All in all it was a fantastic evening, and I'm excited to see what next year's festivities hold! (provided the world doesn't come to an end on the 21st!)

WIP Wednesday - December 12, 2012

Holy shit that was a LOT of custom knits! But, I'm finally done! And since Mr. Social and I are currently rearranging everything in our home, I can't sew. Which means my Thurlows remain unfinished *grumble grumble*

But you know what I can do when I have a few spare minutes? I can knit! And since I've been unselfishly knitting for weeks, it's time to knit something for me!

Can you guess what that is? No, it's not a Jayne hat.

Gorramit, this is the happiest sweater I have ever knit!

Why is this the happiest sweater I ever knit? Well, that's simple. It's the brightest sweater I ever knit. You see, I tend to wear a lot of black. And more black. And sometimes even grey. In an attempt to change up my wardrobe and throw myself way out of my comfort zone, I took a bunch of leftover yarn that was supposed to be for Jayne hats and decided to use it for a sweater.


Wow, my mirror is dirty

The pattern is a variation of Buttony Sweater by Katie Marcus. I've had my eye on this sweater for a while now but socks and hats always seemed to get in the way. But I decided I didn't ant a cardi, so instead I've turned it into a henley. I love that the button band is off to the side instead of down the centre. Makes it moer interesting, n'est-ce pas?

The body of this sweater went so fast. Like, I cranked it out in about 3 days fast. Sometimes I forget how fast things knit up in a bulky yarn go. I'm running dangerously low on the yellow yarn though, so I may need to get just a wee bit more to finish off the sleeves. I can't wait for this to be finished!

Check out more WIPs (and share your own!) with Tami's Amis