FABULOUS Ruffly Goodness

It was Thursday night, November 12th and it was the witching hour. And no one in their right mind would be up arguing with a neon green sash about how it's red edges should ruffle but me.  Hard battles were fought, wills clashed but in the end I won. Some things I learned about ruffles:

1.  I hate them.
2.  They grow like a fungus on the edge of your work. They start out small and in their ruffly demanding ways require more and more, and more, stitches.  Curse them and all their houses.
3.  I really hate them
4.  You cannot necessarily control how the ruffles wax and wane or fold or wave or whatever they decide to do. This is dictated by your yarn choice and number of initial stitches and tension of your gauge and the wind blowing and unicorns over the rainbow and monks in Tibet and mystical forces beyond your ken
5.  Do not ruffle past your bedtime.  This *might* be influencing my opinion.  Just a little.
6.  Unless you're creating something for the very young, the very old, or the very gaudy I highly question their importance in the universe.  See Example A

Example A

Now that all the hate is out of the way, I did find some good resources should you lose your mind and decide this is the way to go.  And to be fair, and less bitter, they are very cute on dresses for BABIES or rhumba pants for BABIES or ugly sweater prizes when ugly sweaters are weighed and measured and they're worth determined in yarn.  So if you're in the mood to inflict yarn mutilation, please check out the links below for ruffly goodness:

• Creative Knitting Tutorial
• Short Row Method from Craftsy
• Knitting Daily Ruffle Video by Interweave

I have added a Calendar page to the blog, hooray!  I'm really excited to have events start lining up and having my work seen outside my, well, anywhere.  I have a rich history of being a closet poetess, writer, and crafter.  My sophomore year  I finally got the courage to submit a poem to the school literary publication, anonymously, and actually attended the meeting and saw it get approved by the committee to publish.  In a twist of irony, they lost or damaged the disc the poetry was on and they didn't know who submitted it so it was lost in the annals of time.  Oh Ruby in the rocking chair, your legacy was never known.

Yes, I said disc.  Correct.  I am not a spring chicken.  Moving on.

**Disclaimer:  The ugly sweater contest itself will not feature any sweaters knit by me.  I don't do ugly.  They will, however, be truly atrocious I have no doubt.**

So, click on over to the calendar page and check out the events coming up and come check out what's going on!

Steampunk, a series of torture devices?

It is now October 31st and I can't believe tomorrow is already November.  It feels like it finally, it's actually chilly and I might have to drag my feeble plants in tonight.  I also need to sauce, butter, bake, or otherwise mutilate the fruits of our apple picking labors last weekend before the bag runs amuck. I've been grossly preoccupied with my Halloween costume this month and while I look hella awesome, my house is in dire straights and in need of some domestication.

This year for Halloween I went steampunk. I get one of two reactions - awesome or WHAT is that?!?!? 

Dr. Livingston, I presume?

Steampunk is a fantasy genre in a Victorian world where electricity and industrialization haven't quite taken hold and machines operate on steam and clockworks, explorers battle over air and sea in airships and great galleons over discoveries, and inventors gleefully violate humanity with their inane creations. It's kind of like Pirates of the Caribbean meets Indiana Jones meets Studio Ghibli.  To be steampunk you need corsets, metal, goggles, leather, boots, and a gun to defend your person and property. The devil is in the detail!

Steampunk Trinkets

You Shall Not Pass!

I made most of the accessories for my costume and purchased the garments. I was inspired by a few films and fell in love with the knitting world of Needles and Artifice.  I made the Master and Commander cap to add a pop of color to my black and brown theme and was able to incorporate some beaded fingerless gloves I made a few years back.   It turns out my costume was a series of torture devices with 4" heels that I could stab a man through the heart with, a corset that kept me from indulging in Halloween sweets and a neck corset of my own design that made, well, everything awkward.

Occuli and apertures

I did get my feet wet in leather work though and tapped into my jewelry skills on the neck corset, watch fob and wrist cuffs. I can now rivet, eyelet, and mold leather. I did snaps but I would not count those as a "can do" yet.  My biggest takeaways?  Keep the rawhide mallet away from the dogs and set 30 minutes aside to use the restroom while in costume!

For Personal Edification

Check out these businesses if you're putting together steampunk, goth, larp, or otherwise funky gear!

Monkey Wrench Clothing - skirt

Yandy - corset

Hips and Curves - peasant top

Springfield Leather - neck and cuffs hardware

Hardware Elf - neck hardware

Hades Footware - boots

Dark Knight Armory - belt, clips and belt bottle

Moonhoar - gun holster

Verillas - goggles

Fall, Ad infinitum?

It's been a minute since I posted.  Why, might you ask?  Well, as I mentioned in my last post, I had to travel for work.  Let's just say it involved about 1569 miles, 1 bloodmoon, 1 new car starter, 1 repaired tire, 1 sick child, a week out of town for work immediately followed by a weekend out of town for a family visit, and to top it all off with a toy surprise, a vet checkup that ended with bladder infection meds and xrays for 1 of my dogs.  Due to the chaos I did not get to my yarn stops I had planned and I was just happy to be here when it was all said and done.

And speaking of happy, it is fall!  Well, officially, according to the calendar.  According to the weather apparently I live in FL for 12 hours of the day and Chicago for the other 12.  We call it St Louis, a magical land of confusion and mysticism.  I have, however, had the air off for at least two weeks, nevermind the fact the house gets down into the sixties at night and in the mid 70s during the day.  We're not here during the day, it's fine, really.

In celebration of fall and all things foliage, I present this month's knitting design Leaf River.

Leaf River a la Patons Metallic

The idea was sparked by seeing many a leaf motif knitted in one direction and wanting a pattern where the leaves flowed in both directions and went endlessly on.  To many, fall signifies the end of summer and vacations.  For me, it is the beginning of crispy outdoor walks and hot chocolate oatmeal mornings and a new buzz of activity around the school year and holidays.  I wanted my design to be ad infinitum knittable and entirely up to the knitter when it would end, or begin.  To me, nothing ever really ends, it just changes.  The pattern can be knit in any weight yarn, as long or as short as you want it to be, pieced together with other knitted "scarves" to create blankets or wall hangings,  I can't wait to see how others use this pattern!  Enjoy!

Have Knit, Will Travel

Ah, travel.  Staying in new places and not worrying about cooking dinner, doing laundry or domestic duties in general.  Except when it' s not a new place and it's not with your loved ones.  And it's for work and you're answering emails and stuck in a hotel feeling bloated because you maybe made too much merry at happy hour.  To soothe my unrest at these times I, of course, knit.

My Version of the Apple Dishcloth by Bernat/Lily Sugar'n Cream

As I get ready to travel for work next week, I am browsing through my stash of patterns and ideas trying to select a good travel project.  Travel is also a good time to check out the yarn silk road and do your own little yarn crawl along the way.  I try to keep my travel projects fairly simple, as I know it will be what I do in my spare time and I will be coming back to it repeatedly vs sitting and enjoying a leisurely afternoon of X-Files reruns whilst I click away on my needles.  Ahh.  Mulder.  An unrequited love.  

*snaps to*  I also tend to veer towards projects I have already started so I can actually enjoy and not do the cursed initial cast-on, yarn selection and possibly math.  These things involve lots of squinting and mumbling and possibly a padded room for me. 

I am going to the hotbed of culture, Dayton OH. Yes.  That was sarcasm.  They do, however, have LYS!  I'm looking forward to checking out Strings Attached if I get the chance, and possibly Fiberworks.  On the drive home I usually hit up Riverwools in Terra Haute, IN.  I have a visit to Arkansas the weekend I get back for the Apple Festival and hoping I find some fiber artists there as well.  On this visit I need to gift an aunt for her help with a relative's move and she loved the Ball and Band dishcloths I made for mom, so I'm going to make her a "fruit" set to include the Apple and Pear patterns and a handsoap. I am a bath product junkie so always have new soaps and lotions on hand.  A handsoap or lotion bundled with knitted cloths makes an awesome impromptu gift for housewarmings, hostess gifts, or just a simple thanks.  Free patterns, 1 or 2 skeins of yarn and a handsoap, I'll have money for the yarn shops along the way.  Booyah!

Take some time to check out yarn shops and fiber stops on your next adventure, you won't regret it!

Some of my favorite free dishcloth patterns:
Chinese Waves - On Ravelry
Ball and Band Dishcloth
Per Orla
Double Bump Dishcloth
Christmas Tree Dishcloth
Just Like Honey

Hey, Dish Towels!
Chili Pepper - On Ravelry
Bubble Up

Homecoming week = Jester. . . . . .?

My son is a senior this year so we're trying to make sure each event is memorable and unique.  Rather than running cross country this year, he has opted to do more afterschool activities, which involved being part of a float for the Homecoming parade.  Now, about two weeks ago, he DID tell me he might need a jester hat and he would let me know.  Fast forward to Monday this week, 6:00.  In the AM.  



Me:  Oh hey, you never told me what was going on with the parade.  Do you still need a jester hat?
Son:  mumble-mumble-eye-rub-headshake-zombie breakfast mode
Me: Hey.  Did you hear me?  Do you need that hat or no?
Son:  Oh, yeah.  I do.
Me:  So when is the parade?
Son: This Thursday.
Me:  *sigh*  Ok.

(Insert frantic pattern searching here)

After figuring out the picture in my head didn't quite exactly match anything I could find quickly, and by quickly I meant by lunchtime on Monday when I could run to the store and get the right colors of yarn, I figured out I would need to probably just 'do it' and figure it out as I go along.  Two straight days and nights of working then coming home and knitting and ripping and making notes and erasing and rewriting said notes until 1 in the morning and by Wednesday night at a normal bedtime, we had what the doctor ordered.

The Jester of Intarsia was born.  He was quietly pleased in the manner of a reserved 18 year old.  I, however, am blasting it out everywhere because I'm a spaz.  Enjoy!