Great time of year

Just back home from Burning Man, off work for a little while, Halloween costume making just starting, and holiday gift making just around the corner. Soon it will be cool enough to think about knitting sweaters again.






Uploading the pictures is taking forever, so there's just a few.

Halloween costumes this year will be a saloon girl and old west dude, using patterns Simplicity 2851 and Simplicity 2895.

It's that time of year...

The man burns in three weeks from today. Which means we leave in two weeks. Which is frickin' awesome! Also awesome is the fact that Beth has decided to come with us, which bring us up to a group of six now. I happen to think that six is the perfect number, since we rented two pickup, and now it makes more sense to get a second hotel room on the way back (only three people per shower!). And we're building a hexagonal shade structure, which will be a living room in the middle, with one tent connected to each side. So now we'll have four tents, then one side will have a truck full of supplies, and the other side is the entrance. Oh and then girls aren't outnumbered anymore! And Beth is really fun and awesome and easy to get along with.

We've got all the sheets cut for the shade structure now, and are in the process of sewing it up now. First have to lay it out in the park to make sure it looks pretty!

Of course I've been busy crafting a whole bunch of stuff lately, to bring to burning man.

I knit a pair of legwarmers out of some leftover colours of Noro. Good for nighttime playa wear, on when its cold, anf taken off easily if its warm.


On the first day while we're building the shade structure, we'll wear white to keep cool. So I made this dress, using Burda 7808. The fabric is so pretty and has an irridescent mandala pattern that I'm sure will look great in the playa sun. Unfortunately the fabric doesn't photograph well.


And I knit this halter top out of Bamboo yarn, with sequins. Daytime playa wear!


And this is the basic slip dress from the book Knitting Lingerie Style. It took a while, but I can't wait to wear it at Burning Man!There's lots more stuff that I have't taken pictures of. Some thing I want to wait and take pictures of them on the playa, and other things I probably won't photograph at all. You'll have to be there to see them!

New bag! Newport!

A little while ago, I ordered the Namaste Laguna bag from Elann. I love love love it. Its big, and its fake leather but super soft, and its a lovely turquoise colour. Its big, its got lots of pockets, basically its the perfect bag for being a purse, and fitting a knitting project in there too.

So when I saw that Namaste was coming out with a new bag, the Newport, I had to preorder one from Dream Weaver yarns. It arrived today (super fast!), I got the limited edition peacock colour. And here is a photo of the bags side by side, the Laguna on the left, the Newport on the right:

Burnin back in mind...

So it's summer, which means knitting is seeming less appealing than sewing lately, especially with burning man just around the corner. Ravelry had taken my blogging urges away, since I can updae all my knitting progress there. But there's nowhere for stuff that isn't knit, so...

I've made a few things already for the playa, the first is a night-time dress. I found the fabric for $2/yard, and it has a one direction stretch. Not sure the fibre, probably some sort of blend. I think it will look really good under black light. I used McCalls 4769 but I shortened it a bit, used snaps instead of buttons (love!), added a bit of velcro to the opening right at the waist, and added some sequins and reflective trim to the back.


I also bought a pair of 3/4 length black shiny almost rubberized tights that look awesome with this dress. Here's a close up of the fabric and trim:



Last year we all got together and made our playa coats one night, then made polymer clay beads and jewelery the next day. I had made a cane, which I actually still have a big chunk of, and it may make a reappearance. This year I wanted to go for a different look, but knew Bryan would probably wnat to make some polymer clay beads again, so I got mostly metallic colours of clay this time. I spent a few hours making some pendants a few weeks ago.



And one with the edge of a measuring tape for scale:



I have more stuff to come - some stuff is already finished or nearly finished, and there's lots more ideas, and lots of great fabric and notions I've been collecting lately. I've got Simplicity 2966 partly done, and this pile of fabric and ribbon is now a dress:

Knitting Update

I have been neglecting this blog a whole lot, so here's a whole bunch of what I've been working on since the last update...

In very slow progress, a purple mohair sweater in a deep amethyst colour. I bought the pattern and yarn (Lily Chin Tribeca) on sale at Len's Mill in Cambridge. I keep picking it up and just knitting a few row here and there, so it's not hibernating, it's just progressing slowly.


I also finally finished the socks I was stalling on. My first socks are now done! I've worn them once, and they were super awesome and soft and warm, and now I just need to wash them once to make sure the dye won;t bleed or anything. I'm still not sure if they'll end up going in the regular load of laundry, or in the delicate soak, spin, and flat to dry with other knits (the Yarn Harlot sweater washing method).


And with the leftover, came more socks! Baby socks, for a coworkers 10-month old baby girl. One more purple picture:


Craig went on a snowboarding trip to Vermont, so I knit him a toque to wear that matches the scarf I gave him for xmas. It's knit in 1x1 rib in two-row alternating stripes of Patons SWS in Natural Russet and Natural Slate - exactly like the scarf. And it is long enough to fold up so he can cover his ears a lot or a little. The edge stretched out quite a bit by the end of his trip, which I think might be because I cast on really loosely. I gave it a soak and a spin in the washing mashing with some Eucalan, gave it a tug to stretch it out, and let it dry flat and it was all better. I just hope it doesn't keep happening. A picture of the matching set...

There's a cabley dog sweater almost done, and some furry stuff for Burning Man that I'm designing on the needles right now. Pictures soon!

First FO of the year!

But unfortunately the picture is blurry (and unblocked...)


It is blocked now and the squares don't look all drunk anymore like they do in the picture. I cast on last Wednesday at knitting night, and I'll be wearing it tomorrow night back to knitting night. Yay!

I knit my first sock, but I am stalling on finishing the second. I knit the heel way too long on the first one, but it fits okay so I don't want to frog it. So I am not enjoying knitting the second one very much. I am however looking forward to starting on a new, mistake-free pair of socks. Probably for Craig. And maybe toe-up. But I promised myself I wouldn't start more socks until I finished the current socks. Makes sense I guess. Taught myself magic loop (thank you knittinghelp!) to do them which I love, and am very proud of. Used it for the top of the hat too.



Now I'm watching American Idol, and going through my huge collection of knitting magazines and queuing patterns I like in ravelry so that I'm actually more like to knit them one day.

Nearly there

I am *thisclose* to being done all my xmas knitting! For Craig, his mom, dad, sister and niece, I just have maybe 2/3 of a pretty quick scarf to go until I'm done. Yay! I also have most of my cookie gifts baked already too. And all with a week to go still!

Got some Martha Stewart wrapping paper on sale at Michaels for the gifts, and tins and cellophane at the dollar store for the cookies, piles of ribbon, and I'm all set.