Yep, still alive. Hit finals at school then home for christmas. No camera, thus no real content, but yep, after more than a month, here’s a post letting to prove that I still, in fact, exist. Ciao :D
November 9, 2008
Here it is, on a real live person!
It’s had over a hundred downloads already! And, of course, BECAUSE so many people have already downloaded it and I was silly enough to not get it test-knit, there was a mistake :( Nothing major–I just missed an ENTIRE LINE. Luckily, SunflowerKnits knit one up super-quickly and let me know :D All of the download links have been uploaded, but if you don’t feel like downloading a new one, just add in another row to the end of the main pattern repeat–Row 10: P15, K1, P to end. (exactly like rows 6 &8)
Oh, and just to prove that the BF is in fact still alive from our halloweenie adventure, here’s a pic of him from our walk…
November 7, 2008
I’ve made a new pattern, guys, and it’s available as a free PDF download. It is a one-skein super-bulky cowl. I’ve called it Arboreal Cowl, because of the tree branch lace motif that goes up the side. I hope you like it!
FREE
Pattern Level
Easy
Techniques Used
Knit
Purl
K2tog
SSK
Size
22 inches wide by 12 inches tall
Materials
Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick and Quick (80% Acrylic, 20% Wool; 108yds/98m per 170g/6oz skein); Color: Cilantro; 1 skein
12mm straight needles (NOTE: US17 is a close enough substitute)
large tapestry needle
Gauge
7 stitches = 4 inches
NOTE: The original pattern had a line missing–I’ve added it in to the latest version to download. If you’ve downloaded it before November 9, 2008, just add in a row 10–exactly the same as rows 6 and 8.
October 31, 2008
Okay, first off, a background story to let you know the type of person I am, when it comes to being scared.
A couple of years ago, I went to Universal Studios with my band-geek crowd. Van Helsing had just been released, so there was a Van Helsing themed haunted house. I spent the entire thing cowering behind one of the guys, and about 50% of it with my face literally buried in his hood. At one point, while I wasn’t cowering as much as usual, I looked up and saw one of the guys from my group slowly edging away. He made eye contact with me, made the “shush” sign and ducked into a crevice. About 30 seconds later, he jumped out roaring to scare everyone. I screamed and jumped about a foot in the air.
So, it’s been established that I’m a bit of a wimp when it comes to this sort of thing. Fast forward to last night. My filled-with-awesome RA arranged a trip to the PNE’s Fright Nights for us. Tons of fun, even though it was a bit rainy. But, one of the attractions that we did was this maze. Big huge black walls, corners that you couldn’t peek around, people rattling the walls and screaming all around. And occasionally, it would open up to a stereotypical horror movie scene.
Oh, man, did that maze get me. The first movie scene was a cornfield. We were all (well, except for my uber-cool-laugh-at-the-guy-in-a-costume-bf) a bit jumpy, but more giddy than anything else. In the cornfield, we see a scarecrow. He starts walking towards us, and we kind of move away laughing. The actor must have training picking out the easy targets, because as we are walking past, he yells at me. Yep, I jump and scream and cower.
We continue through, getting a bit more nervous. The atmosphere they set up was GOOD. We can kinda see through the walls and we see a forest coming up and something moving. Once we go around the corner, it looked ridiculously like the scene in The Blair Witch project that caused me to give up on watching that movie. Big, wide, with far apart skinny trees and this girl in the very middle. We stand there for a while, trying to figure out how to get through. By this point, I’m thoroughly convinced and pretty sure that that girl is capable of teleporting, so we are basically screwed. We split up and bolt around the edges.
After a few more dead ends and a few more screams coming from the distance, we come to a big, steaming well. None of us are going near that. The big guy in the group leads the way past, and comes to a fork. I follow the pack into it, at least until they all come bolting out of there like they have rockets on their butts screaming their heads off. I, of course, join in, not even knowing and not WANTING to know what we are running from. We go running past this group of confused people. Half plaster themselves to the wall to get outta the way, the other half join us. I look back and there’s a guy with A SCYTHE on our tails! Eventually, we get away and notice something. There are 4 of us, there were originally 6. The two missing were my boyfriend and another girl’s boyfriend. But we sure aren’t gonna move backwards. I’ve watched enough TV to know that if they are gone, they are dead and so are you if you go back. There is this small reasonable part of me saying this is just an attraction, but that part was begging me to find the emergency exit. The rest of me was truly convinced I was in a horror movie. I don’t actually remember much of the rest of the maze, I know there was talk of a guy who ran at you, dropped to his knees and slid about 10 feet. Creepy. I do know that the 4 of us got out, hung out huddled in a group by the exit and waited for what seemed like forever for the two missing boyfriends to reappear.
(ETA: They did appear after a while. They called us wimps and decided to never star in a horror movie with us. Also, I really did have fun overall :p I love amusement parks, but this story was definitely the overpowering “moment” of the night :D)
Happy Halloween :D
October 28, 2008
Remember way back when I mentioned I was making a shirt out of silk leaves? You know, this post. Well, it’s done and it’s on display in my school now :D
Basically, that is over 100 silk leaves hand-sewn together. The top halter part is ribbon, and in the back there is more ribbon closing it corset-style. I only actually made the corset-halter-top part–the puffy skirt at the bottom was added for the display, as it would be a bit silly to have the one one display that is only a top between two that had attached skirts :p I’m pretty stoked about this assignment, I think it turned out really well. And I really like the window it is displayed in, the three chosen look nice together :D
October 26, 2008
I made it all by myself. I wove the fabric, most of it in one evening, and believe me, for a noob weaver 95+inches of weaving in one go HURTS. I then sort of made up a pattern basically using a knit sweater schematic. I think next time, I’d knit the cuffs and stuff with a thinner yarn–I was holding worsted doubled, and it’s just too thick for the thin woven fabric. I’d also knit the front band and collar as one piece, I don’t like the bulky seam. But, I think I didn’t do that bad for a first-timer :D This was done for my weaving midterm project. We are already planning for our final projects. I’m handpainting my warp and doing what is probably one of the more complicated weave structures in the class. It’s a little intimidating!
October 24, 2008
This neckwarmer is about as Fingerless Glove Fanatic as you can get without being…well, fingerless gloves. It was made with the yummy handspun from the FGF Fall Birthday Swap that kikibowns sent me and the lovely button from Stringcat in the Autumn Materials Swap. I knit it using a brand new pattern designed for handspun yarns–Otulenie (Rav Link)by Agnieszka Rupnik. It’s super warm and cozy and not at all boring to knit. I think the pattern would stand out more with a less thick-and-thin yarn, but I love it anyways.
October 16, 2008
Okay, so last time I posted, I titled it something to do with a package. I then said nothing about the package and got rid of the package part of the title :p Now, I’m finally gonna post about it! It was from the Fingerless Glove Fanatics Fall Birthday Swap, I was SPOILED by kikibowns. Wanna see? She sent so much great stuff, and it even arrived early! I made myself wait until my birthday to open it, though. (Oh, that by the way was the 11th. I turned 20 :D)
Isn’t it wonderful?!?
She sent the pattern for Dapper Gloves (Rav Link), a yummy looking recipe for Peanut Butter cookies, a beautiful birthday card, stitch markers, two kinds of chocolate, handspun yarn from banadura.etsy.com, tapestry needles (which I forgot to bring to Uni!!), super-soft alpaca yarn and some pretty, sparkly fiber! It was such a great package to open! Thanks so much, kikibowns!
(Oh, and I’ve already cast on with the yummy handspun. That is for a different post!)
October 12, 2008
For real! I knit something AND finished it to show to you! Impressive, huh?
The pattern is Seraphine (rav link) knit on US 11s. I used two yarns–Noro Cash Island and Sirdar Snuggly DK. I LOVE Noro colorways in the skein, but I’m not…something enough to wear them as is. But, with the teal Snuggly, it’s still there and lovely, but toned down a bit. The pattern was pretty awesome, too. It was like mindless knitting, but not boring old stockinette stitch. And it looks nice in the end, too! The edges curl in, of course, but I actually really like scarves that curl in. I’m weird like that. It hides the backside, and makes skinny scarves even skinnier.
October 6, 2008
Weaving:
Felting:
And sewing fake leaves together.
That one’s just a teaser. I’ll be showing off that leafy top later, once I get some decent pics.
