Shopping

Sorry I have been a bit delayed in posting. I have two capstones which I have been working on. This past week I had to devote a large chunk of time to them, and that left little time to post here. I have done a little spinning now that lent is over. I got Helen out of my closet, and played with some colonial top that I started spinning ages ago on a drop spindle. I am Navajo three plying it, and I hope to make socks out of it. As so much time elapsed between skeins though, I think that I will make socks, with one skein for the foot part, and one for a lacy decoration up the leg. What do you think?



















Well, I have had two restock trips in the past two days. Not that I needed more yarn or fabric... Anyways, I went to the Puyallup Spring Fair on Saturday, they have a section called the "Shepard's Extravaganza," and I found lots of fibre to play with. I got this stuff which is Merino for $1 an ounce (it's a pretty gray).














I also got this which is a merino, silk, mohair blend:














And this merino (I think its merino) roving in a navy with some purple.














The next shopping trip, Sunday, we went to JoAnne's. I usually don't buy anything there, but we are making costumes for the premier of Pirate's of the Caribean, so I needed something to go with my purple bodice. I found this, it is 100% silk, in a gold and black brocade. I have three yards of it, and it will go to a blouse and an overskirt for under the bodice. Unfortunately, I don't know quite yet what I will use for the underskirt, none of my fabric seems to work. I might have to find something from mom. The first picture is the fabric drying in our bathroom (it dried in like 3 hours, I love silk!) The second is a detail of the border that runs along one of the selvedges. That will be the edge on the sleeve, and the bottom of the skirt. It was a little spendy for me at 5$ a yard, but I figure that's pretty good for a silk brocade. It was 50% off. I also got some crimped silk that is tie dyed for a shirt or something. I took a picture, but my camera's batteries were running out.



















Well, that's all for now. Night.

--April 25th edit--
Pay Day! Hopefully it won't all go to the local yarn store...
In other news, Erin now wants a spinning wheel. I feel like she is progressing so well (she has joined the dark side). In other words, I feel like I need to announce this to the world:
As if this wasn't already obvious...

Easter Break

Well, Easter Break is over and done with, thus no posts for a little while. I forgot my camera, so no pictures from Eugene.
Let' s see, it was a fairly uneventful weekend. I got some new yarn. I can't remember the yarn company off the top of my head, but it is a two ply wool, alpaca, viscose blend. I have 6 skeins of 100 grams of this stuff. I love it. It is a burgandy colour in a tweed. The plan is a lacy shirt.

In any case, last Monday I went to one of the Immigration Reform Protest Rallies, this one in Seattle. It was quite fun, though most of the chants were in Spanish...
As usual, I was the one with the knitting project. Erin had a project, but it was buried in her bag under stuff. In the picture I am working on the Fir Cone shawl, which is getting bigger, I have almost three skeins on it so far, and have two more to go!
While we were there, I don't think I've ever seen so many cops in my life (except when the riot police came out in Peru in Arequippa for the taxi strikes). We saw bicycle cops, we saw car cops, we saw motorcycle cops, we saw foot cops and ones on horses. Well, there were 25.000 people or so there.














In other news, I just made a hat. I started it at about 4 or so, and finished it at 11pm. Woot! A one day hat! I will post a picture once it is all blocked etc.

And the weekend has come

Let's see, the weekend has come and gone. It rained, the sun shined, the usual.
I worked on another sewing project, I just seem to be in the mood for sewing this week. I am working on an Italian Ren. The fabric is a linen damask in a paisely pattern (je l'adore) which I got at Ursulmas last winter for like 3 dollars a yard. There were ten yards, so I split the fabric with Liz and we each got 5 yards for our own nefarious purposes. 5 yards is plenty to do stuff with, especially if you happen to be as short as moi.














I currently have the top parts cut out, and I am working on embroidering the back paiselys in lots of colours. Hopefully this will turn out as I envision.

I also will make myself a shift. Since the linen is a non bleached linen colour, I am going to make myself a coloured shift to go with it, otherwise it would be way too bland. I have some navy silk noil which I think I might use. I also have some periwinkle, but I have a nice amount of that fabric and think that I might like to save it for something nice.

In other lands, I got to model in my garb today for a sculpture, that was fun. I got to stand around a lot while Kim twitched the folds of the fabric so they were just so. I also got treated to lunch, which is good considering I currently have no monies on me. We went to Pho down the street from school, and it was scrumptious.

And here they are, pictures!

Lookie Lookie! Pictures of the final project! I'm not really going to add much in the way of comments, as I already posted today, but suffice it to say I am very happy with how they turned out (Even though the underskirts are slightly askew).

Finished!

Short post this time:

I have now finished all of the dance costumes! Rejoice! It is a wonderful feeling to not have to look at that fabric anymore. Now I just have to clean the living room, I made a little bit of a mess with all the fabric ^_^.

The dance production will be today in Red Square, so I am looking forward to seeing it. I will take my camera, so there should be some pictures of the final product up here soon. I am hoping against hope that everything looks okay. They hadn't given me the buttons, and were going to sew them on themselves, so...last time I saw the costumes they didn't have buttons on them. I also wasn't able to see the finished (minus the buttons) costumes on the other girls last night, because not all of them were there at the rehersal. On the plus side, I now know how to do buttonholes on a sewing machine! Woot! It was a bit interesting because I don't have a manual for my sewing machine.














In other news, I am now a fireplace, to see a picture, go here: Kim Graham Studios.
Katie also gave me some yarn. Her Mom purchased this linen print at Hill Top Yarns in Seattle. There were some other colours, but I liked this the best. I normally don't knit with frufru yarns (Give me natural fibres or give me death-to mangle a famous quote), but I will give this a try to see how it turns out. One more week and I get to spin again! I gave up spinning for lent, and let me tell you, it has been hard. Though with the costume project I haven't been able to do much else anyway... Well, off for a day of study!

More Ruffles!

Well, I have been working away at the outfits for the dance thing (carnival I think) on Friday. I finally got someone in the group to complement me on them! Woot!

First we have Erin doing a swishy swish to test out the billow power of the skirt (she makes such a good dress form, ne?), I am quite proud with how this turned out, I had to add a triangle in the back because the original skirt wasn't full enough, but now it, thankfully, is full enough. It also now has ruffles. I think that I can quite safely say that I absolutely detest ruffles and the sewing associated with them. My room shall henceforth (once the project is finished) be a ruffle free zone.



















I was quite ruffled out this weekend and here is the result...silliness.
Yes, I dumped all of the ruffles on Katie, she laughed...what could I do? Anyways, I call this picture: "Death by Ruffles" Appropriate? If you looked behind the couch she is lounging on, you would see piles more of fabric I still have to cut and sew.














John, Erin's boyfriend came up this past weekend, and we all had fun. He brightens up the apartment (even when I am ready to chase after anyone who even thinks of saying, "ruffle."), especially when we are all bogged down by projects and homework. Here is John cooking for Erin in Sara's apron. Notice the bright orange and green...Erin made it for Sara for Christmas. We thought that he should be wearing it since he was being all chefy.



















Last but not least, I have a silly picture (I know the others were really silly too, but this one is silly plain and simple). What are my roommates doing, you ask? Why, they are fighting each other with their tails. Erin is wearing my tail, and Katie is fighting with hers (this started out as, I wonder who's tail is longer? I know, it sounds wrong out of context, even in context it sounds a little wierd).
Have a good evening, and wish me luck with my sewing!

Kitties!

Here is Baxter, the new Kitty. I have some others of Mayumi (my cat) which shall be posted later, they are on my other memory card. In the first one he is stalking the squirrel (through the window). Look how much the squirrels ignore us and our cats. The next one is Baxter trying to hide from me. He doesn't blend very well with the apple juice though. He had the funniest reaction to a flash I have ever seen. Instead of running away, like most cats, he ran towards the camera and started batting at it. Bizzare?














In the next photo we have the dress of doom. Suffice it to say that I am not happy with the fabric or the dress. Orange? No! Orange plaid? No! Erin is being a lovely model, isn't she? She put so much into this shot (almost fell down dizzy). Not much is happening in the knitting sphere as I am working on the bloody dresses, but hopefully more will come. (And a random picture of a Greek vase, for those of you who are wondering.)

Nada Mucho

Here it is...time for a new post. As of now, I don't have any pictures to post. I have a few from my Spring Break that I will post later. But for now...
Back at home we have a new cat, his name is Baxter. He loves yarn. And when I say this, I do not mean in a normal cat-play-with-yarn way. No, Baxter not only plays with yarn (and there is plenty for him to play with as there are four knitters at my house), but he steals it. This is quite interesting when the yarn is still attached to your knitting. It's quite cute.
I finally saw Memoirs of a Geisha, and I love it. Though, I had a hard time getting over the entirely Chinese cast. It wasn't necessarily a problem with the chinese actors (though they did have interesting Japanese accents), but more a problem that the entire cast seemed to have been in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. In any case, the movie is beautiful and well worth seeing.
I have a sewing job currently, I need to have four outfits finished by next Friday. They only gave me the fabric today, so I have my work cut out for me. The fabric, I have to say, is absolutely hideous, I claim no responsiblity (I will post pictures later). I made the prototype dress tonight, and I hope that it is what they want. Their instructions to me have been rather vague. I think that it looks pretty good, aside from the fabric.
Other than that, nada mucho. Erin and Mackie brought me back a pretty pashmina from New England, which I am absolutely in love with.
Well, Ciao for now!

Learning html, and baking!

Okay, it has been a boring day/weekend, thus the number of posts. I have been baking and cleaning (cleaning from the baking mostly really), and today I finally figured out how to make links in the text. Woot! Like this: I attend PLU in Tacoma Washington.

In any case, this morning I made myself breakfast. French toast, bacon and cheese biscuits and a glass of milk. My corn bread didn't turn out very well, it is very dry. (I have also made pancakes, homemade syrup, and potato soup.).

I also have, for your viewing pleasure, my newest project Fir Cone Triangular Shawl, out of my homespun yarn.
(Sorry if my links are getting a little too frequent, I'm just trying to practice.)
And last, but certainly not least, my new favourite chair, which I have been sitting in soaking up the sun and knitting.

My amazing rainbow scarf

Here is my newest scarf. I think that it is bound for my Dad. It looks like it will be a perfect pride day scarf. Though I might give it to Hugh (one of my Dad's friends), because it would match the rainbow hat I made him for Christmas. It took me three days!


I am quite happy with the scarf, and thought that I would try my hand at putting a free pattern up for people to use. Here it is:

Requirements: Lots of left over yarn in similar sizes (though if you have small yarn, you can always double it up to match the thicker yarns), for my example my yarn is worsted weight, or thereabouts.
Needles: I used size 6 circulars (US), use larger needles for chunky yarn, and smaller for thinner yarn.

CO 24 stitches (or an even multiple of four) in a colour that you want to start your rainbow in (I started with purples).
In same colour work basketweave pattern with a two stitch garter border on each side:
k2,* k4, p4* repeat * to last two, k2.
k2, *p4, k4* repeat to last two, k2.
repeat these two rows once

k2, *p4, k4* repeat to last two, k2.
k2, *k4, p4*, repeat to last two, k2.
repeat once

now change to another colour in the same colour segway and repeat ad nauseum. If you have less or a little more of the colour that you are using, you can start the next yarn earlier or later.

Change to the next colour (i.e. from purple to red and so on) after about a foot (or when you run out of yarns in that colour).

At the end you can add fringe, for mine, I added fringe in the colours at the ends.

And block

Now, here is my tank top. I finished blocking it, and am now wearing it. This isn't a terribly flattering picture of me, but I try. I am quite happy with how it turned out, the first top I have successfully made that fit me! Woot for my week tank top.

My newest knitting project

And, I am terrible at posting. I have recently come to this conclusion. But, nobody really reads this anyways...not even my parents. Oh well.
Isn't the view from our apartment lovely? This is the golf course by the way. Note the cars at the bottom (I should crop that later).

















Next, we have my newest project. My "it took me a week to make tank top." The pattern is from Knitty, and it is the soleil pattern. Yay! It is finally done. The yarn is some lovely homespun that I purchased this summer at the Lane
County Fair from one of the demo people. (The orange towel is courtesy of Sara).





























Now, for my roommate's things (well, what I could take pictures of at this hour of the night).
On the left are Mackenzie's philosopher finder puppets partying (doing the can can I believe). And on the right are some stuffies that Katie made needle felting. (Sorry, the pictures a bit fuzzy).















That's all for now. I must needs sleep.

Skeleton in a pot!

More pictures from England.

Here are more pictures from January. These are from the British Museum. There were some pretty Viking things that I thought my SCA friends would like.Here is the main entrance to the BM, impressive ne? This was the last day in England (each time prior that I went to the BM my camera batteries died on me. Grrr.), and it was beautiful. Notice the blue sky. One of the few sunny days we had in the entire month.
Pretties! I love the one on the right with the yellows and reds.
And hair sticks, always useful...and decorative too. The middle one is impressive, but I like the one just to the left of it.
Here we are, back in the V&A. This is a tapestry showing the fates triumphing over chastity (down at the bottom). One has a distaff, one measures the thread, and the third holds the spindle.

I still have more photos coming.
On a personal, recent note, I got an A on my final History 301 paper. 192 out of 200! Woot. That was the longest, hardest paper I have ever written. My secret, a title with a colon does wonders! Mine was: "Norman Propaganda: A Utilization of Disparate Sources in the Eleventh Century." Wow, I can't believe that I came up with it and how little it actually says. I confess that I came up with it one day 5 minutes before a draft was due, and decided to keep it.
Hope you all had a lovely weekend!

England and January.

So, I went to England during January.
I went for a J-Term study abroad, studying England's involvement in WWII. I took some textile picutes, so I figured this would be a good place to post some of them. These are from a hunting tapestry circa 1430's on display in the Victoria and Albert in London. I took these mostly for costuming resources (and they are just plain pretty).

















I quite like the V & A, some of the prettiest textiles I have ever see, including these tapestries. The also had a textile of linen from King Tut's tumb.












A warning: I got lost in this museum. I map is quite useful when you go into any I mean any building in England. I ended up lost in the British museum, the V & A, almost in the British Library, and in the Ashmolean in Oxford.














More later, I am not very good at adding pictures to my posts yet. Ta!

Raining

Well, it's raining. The perfect time to post. Outside it is cold and bleary, and inside I sit with my warm cup of tea. It also makes a wonderful way of procrastinating my 10 page paper and my Latin translation for tomorrow (though Catullus is quite fun, once you get to know him).
This weekend we went to a wonderful jazz preformance by one of Erin's friends from the mall. We had a few drinks (a bit stronger than was expected, so Mackenzie was the only one to have more than one), and some wonderful desert. The music was wonderful, sometimes a little odd, but always fun.
I worked on yarn this weekend. I am spinning a blue/pink
/red/green romney roving that I bought at the Puyallup Fair. It is nice to spin, and I hope that I will have enough for a shawl. Speaking of shawls, one of my friends may let me knit her a shawl/veil for her wedding, and I am very excited. Hopefully I will have enough time, her wedding is in the summer.





Now, here is Katie's first mitten. Isn't it pretty (and pointy)? This is one of her first projects and has turned out quite well. Now she just needs to make the other one, which shoudl go pretty fast.
I am really jealos of the yarn. Her mom found it for her at a place that was going out of buisness. Though, I guess that I can't be too jealos, her mom got yarn for all of the rest of us too. I believe that it is 100% wool.





Mackenzie is currently working on a baby blanket in a shell and wave type pattern. It is a varient that has the pattern row on the reverse side. She has about 4 inches and a long way to go before it is done. Mackenzie, Sara and Erin are all working on blankets, and I laugh, because my nice little scarves and shawls go so quickly in comparison.

Let's see, Erin is almost finished with a crochet blanket, but I don't appear to have any pictures of it. I do, however, have a picture of her hideous green and yellow scarf. She's making it for her sister for her birthday. Her sister goes to the U of O, so the colours are perfect. The yarn is wool ease from Lion Brand. The pattern she is using is a mistake rib.

As for Sara, she has been working on a afghan in a very pretty pattern. As she has persevered for so long, and it is so very pretty, I thought that I would post a picture of it for her. Oooh, ahhh.