The costumes are done!

The costumes came out great. E seems to be comfortable in her costume. She likes the tail and all of the dangly things on it. D isn't too crazy about his pirate hair. I guess that is to be expected. He keeps playing with it and pulling on it. He's probably not used to anything brushing on his face and neck like that. Onto the pictures and details...

Arrrr matey! This is D trying to do a pirate face. His red bandana is made out of red snakeskin printed stretchy fabric. It is a rectangle of fabric with black yarn sewn onto the inside of it. There is a band in the back that goes all the way around. That part has yarn sewn onto it and then there is a part that ties over it. The hat is made from McCall pattern 5118 and it's version H. I made some modifications to it. It was made without the chin strap and the brim was extended a few inches. That was tacked up in three areas to make the tricorn looking hat. It was made out of brown faux leather that I found in the flat folds section of fabric at Joanns. It's not a vinyl, but thick like upholstery fabric. It was very easy to sew through the multiple layers.

His shirt is from McCall pattern 4952. It was made out of natural colored muslin fabric. The tie is fake leather. The vest is from Simplicity pattern 4944 C. It's a jacket in the pattern, but I only wanted a vest. I simply cut out the front and back pieces twice and sewed them like a vest. The outer part of the vest is made from linen. The liner to the vest is the same snakeskin print fabric as the red bandana. Right now, the vest has a tendency to pull back. I need to add a button to the front of it to prevent that. The sash around D's waist is just a striped rayon fabric that I had in my stash. It's sewn into a tube and the ends were frayed.

The pants are from Simplicity pattern 4944. I was planning on making them with elastic just below the knee, but I just left them unhemmed. They're starting to fray a little and I like that, especially if D decides that he doesn't like wearing the shoe covers. The pants are made out of black moleskin fabric. The shoe covers were made from Butterick pattern 4632 and greatly downsized. They're still a bit big, but that depends on what shoe D wears underneath them. They have a tendency to flop around and that bothers D, but doesn't seem to trip him up or anything like that. I plan on adding more elastic to the undersides or possibly something that will tie it to his shoe laces.

E's costume is made from version A of Simplicity 4043. It's a very cute pattern. I like how there is a full tail and her legs stick out of one side of the skirt. There are many little details to this pattern that make it a bit time consuming. The blue fabric is something that I had in my stash that I bought a long time ago. It's woven and looks like it might be cotton or polyester or a blend. It had blue metallic threads woven into it. The top part of the halter and the tail have a white sheer layer over the blue fabric. Then there are the sequins. Some of the sequin trim was sewn on my machine, but the tail was done by hand. Both sides of the tail are done and that was the neatest way that I could figure out how to do it.

The tail has ladder yarn dangling off of it. I used two different kinds. I picked out one and E picked out a more sparkly, hairy one. Off of the yarn and at random places throughout the tail, there are pailettes in various shades of blue. Those were either hand sewn onto the tail or tied onto the yarn. The tail also has a loop sewn onto it for E to wear around her wrist. I need to trim some of the yarn as it drags on the floor when the tail is looped up like that. The upper part of the skirt has a hook for the tail if E gets tired of holding it.

I bought some extra of the ladder yarn to make a shawl since the top is a halter. This was done from tip, increased towards the middle, several straight rows, and the decreased to the other tip. Then there was a lot of fringe added to it. E will most likely only wear the costume indoors, but I still wanted her to have something to throw over her shoulders. She likes it and says that it does keep her a little warmer. It was around 65 degrees outside when we took these pictures today and she didn't complain at all.

Phew!!! Well, those are the costumes. I want to add some beads to D's pirate hair. Yes, he is inspired by Captain Jack Sparrow. I wanted to lean towards that instead of the clean type of pirate with gold trim on his coat and a feather in his hat. D looks cute in his pirate hair, but it still needs something. I haven't decided if I'm going to draw on any facial hair. I have yet to make D's bag. I haven't decided on how I want that to look yet.

Small projects all around

I've finally made a washcloth. I had this cotton in my stash for some crochet project that never happened. I have wanted to try entrelac, so the garterlac pattern was perfect. I taught myself how to knit backward when I did the Seaweed stole. That came in handy for doing entrelac without turning repeatedly. Knitting a washcloth was fun. It was very quick and the pattern was easy to follow. I haven't used the washcloth yet, but I think my kids have claimed it for their bath. I have already made two more in the peppermint colorway and using the same garterlac pattern. I did these to get rid of the yarn and to keep myself busy until my Knitpicks order arrived. I also finished the shawl for E's costume and started a fuzzy pink shawl. That one might is just for fun. E will probably add it to her dress up clothes.


Here is the start of a sweater for a baby girl due at the end of October. I'm using Knitpicks shine in orchid and blush. I plan on making a sweater, hat, and socks. If there is time and yarn left, I want to make a small bear or some kind of toy. The sweater pattern is from a book titled Bouncing Baby Knit Wardrobe. This is my first time using Shine and I like it. After knitting the garterlac washcloth, I wasn't sure if I would want to knit with any kind of cotton for a while. This cotton is really soft and not stiff at all. It is also shiny and slippery. I'll have to be careful with how I weave in the ends and hope that they don't slip free.


I'm working on the mate for this sock. This is my take along project and I haven't been working on it that much. The pattern is the Lombard street socks from Magknits. This is my first time doing a picot edge. The edge was finicky when I had to fold it over, but I love how it looks. It seems to do a pretty good job holding the sock up too. I'm knitting this with Knitpicks essential in pumpkin. It's a nice fall color. I think finishing this pair will kick off Socktoberfest.

Red Scarves

I've been trying to fill my time knitting smaller things right now. I'm waiting on my Knitpicks order. I need that yarn to knit some baby presents. Until then, I'm knitting scarves. I read about the Red Scarf Project and decided to use my red bulky aplaca yarn for that. I have 8 skeins of red bulky alpaca yarn that my husband brought back from China last year. I haven't found a way to use them for myself. I already have too many scarves. I'm not used to knitting with bulky yarn. It was fun starting and finishing a project in one day.


This is Red Scarf #1. It's made out of the bulky red yarn. I used exactly 2 skeins with nothing left. The scarf is 5.5" wide by 62" long unblocked. I started and finished this scarf this past Sunday. I used the four stitch check pattern from The Knitter's Bible. I think it's the same or similar to a basketweave stitch pattern. I cast on 20 and just knit until I ran out of yarn.



This is Red Scarf #2. I started it right after I finished the first one. It is made out of Paton's Classic Wool in Rich Red. I used 2 skeins and it ended up 5" wide by 67" long unblocked. It took me around 2.5 days to knit this one. I used the Irish Hiking Scarf pattern. This is my first time finishing this pattern. Yes, I said finish. I attempted this once before when I first started knitting again last year. I found it tedious with a cabling needle. Now, I don't use a cabling needle and everything moves so much faster now. I also knit a bit looser and that helps.

Pirate Booty Bag!

I finished the Pirate Booty Bag last week. Here are the specs:
Yarn: Patons Classic Merino in Black and That's Red(3 skeins each)
Needles: Knitpicks Options size 8
Started: September 4, 2006
Completed: September 13, 2006

Things I learned: double knitting, i-cord edging, fulling


Notes:
I attempted to full/felt(?) this bag in the sink with dishsoap. We have a front loader washer and I wasn't sure how it would go in there. After around 15 minutes of vigorous squishing and scrubbing in the sink, I decided to throw the whole thing in the washer. I placed the already wet bag in a pillow case and secured that with a large rubber band. I made the mistake of adding some laundry soap and picking the longest wash setting. There were so many bubbles!!! I sat there and watched it the whole time for fear of the washer exploding from all of the bubbles. Another problem I had was that I couldn't check on the fulling process. I tried to stop the washer during the spinning out section of the cycle and the door remained locked. I tried to move it along and get it to the final spin. It still woudn't unlock the door. ARGH! I just had to let it finish the wash cycle and end on it's own. I was very surprised when I opened up the pillow case. It shrunk so much! I stretched it out over a plastic container loaded with large bottles of shampoo. It took a long time for the bag to dry.


Conclusion:
I really enjoyed double knitting. I'm not going to rush in and felt/full anything else anytime soon. I felt that it was a big waste of water. I did love the results of the bag though. I took the pirate bag out. I love the roominess of it. I did have to use some zippered pouches to organize my stuff in it. The bag is very sturdy and very strong.


Thanks to E for letting me use her as a scale reference.

Many thanks to kightp for designing the bag and offering it for free.

I-cord day

That's where I'm stuck. You know, like the movie Groundhog Day? I've been working on this i-cord for two days now on the Pirate booty bag. The bag is done. The part that was the quickest to do was the skulls. The handles seemed endless. Now, I just need to get the miles and miles of i-cord done. I really want to felt this thing and see how it turns out. It looks gigantic right now. I'll take a picture before and after felting.

Knitting did take a long break this past weekend. I worked on the little pirate costume and only that all weekend. I managed to finish the shirt, pants, vest, sash, scarf, hat, and fake boots. I only need to sew the bag and that costume will be complete.

Fall Knitty came out. Yikes! There are a few lovely sock patterns. Luckily, I just bought some solid colored sock yarn. I'll add that to my "I want to knit this" list.

Some friends are having a baby in October. I plan on making a baby sweater, hat, and socks out of Knitpicks shine sport. I just decided this since the yarn is on sale this week. I like knitting baby things. They're so quick to finish and are so cute.

No pictures...must get back to the i-cord. Arrrrrrr... ;-)

Frogging and costumes

Well, I frogged the Icarus that I was working on. The yarn looked really nice with the pattern, but I just didn't have the patience to do that pattern again. Those endless repeats of chart 1 were so boring. I could only stand to knit a few rows at a time and then I would move on to some other project. I really want to use that yarn, but I just need to find a more interesting pattern.

I'm working on the Lombard Street socks from Magknits in pumpkin Knitpicks Essential. It's my first time doing a picot edging and I like it. It was a bit tricky, but I like the result. I'd like to use that more often.

I'm also working on a Pirate Booty Bag. This is my first time double knitting. I'm comfortable with it and like it so far. It doesn't seem that slow, but we'll see. I've finished the row of little skulls towards the bottom of the bag. I'm using Paton's Classic Wool in That's Red and Black. I plan on carrying this while E and D are trick or treating. Their bags usually get too heavy and I end up having to throw some into my purse or another bag(if I remember to bring one).



E's mermaid costume is 100% complete. I don't plan on taking pictures of her in it until the little pirate costume is done. I bought everything that I need for D's costume, but haven't cut out anything yet. I've been busy with homeschooling and knitting. When I sew, I like to get as much done in one sitting. I plan on working on his costume a lot this weekend. Here are pictures of parts of the mermaid with the danglies attached. Those are hand sewn onto the costume. E helped pick out the novelty yarn. That yarn is supposed to make it look like water or seaweed is dripping off of the mermaid.

Casting on more silk

I finished another pair of socks. These are made out of Fortissima Graffiti. It was a lesson on gauge and tension for me. Those black lines are supposed to be diagonals. Oh well. The grey lines turned out decent enough. I didn't feel like frogging and trying it again, so I left it. I kind of like it like that. I have two other colorways of this same yarn to play around with. Maybe I'll get the diagonal lines on one of those. This yarn was really cheap and it shows. The dye job wasn't that good. You could see splotches of undyed areas. Plus, the dye just seemed to be on the surface of the yarn and not all the way through. I still like them though. These socks are thick and very sturdy feeling. Not very soft, but these feel like they will last forever.

I started working on the hat for D's pirate costume. I did a mock-up and it turned out so cute! I'll work on that more sometime this weekend. I'm hoping to finish up E's costume first and not have to come back to it again later.

I said that I wouldn't cast on, but I did. hahaha! I have some Cherry Tree Hill Cascade Silk lace yarn in the Dusk colorway. I'm making another Icarus out of it. My last Icarus was airy. I wanted something a little more dense. I'm knitting this using Knitpicks size 2 circulars. I like what I'm getting so far. Pictures to come some time this weekend when I have more than a tiny triangle to show.