After I had some small successes with the Spring Ruffle Top, I decided to branch out and try some other clothes. I started with a skirt.

This is from the book Sew What! Skirts. It's a book without actual patterns in it - you take your measurements and draft your own pattern using the formulas they provide. It works pretty well, because you don't have to worry about picking the right size pattern - you just have to take your measurements right!

A-line skirt.

I totally recommend this book - I see myself making many more skirts using it.

So, after the skirt success, I got excited and decided to try for a dress. My first try was a dismal failure ... documented here ... but I decided to chalk it up to the pattern and fabric and try again.

The second time resulted in a wearable dress.

Simplicity 2925.

I learned a lot on this one - I put in a dress zipper, worked with curves, discovered that my upper and lower body are NOT the size in Simplicity dress patterns, and just got more comfortable trying a commercial pattern. I've already worn it to work!

And then I sewed a few more dresses:

1. 365.2.155 simple sundress for me., 2. Simple sundress., 3. Simplicity 2587, 4. Simplicity 3778 - without sash

The top two dresses were made from a free online pattern, Heather Ross's Simple Sundress. If you are on Flickr, you've probably seen this dress and heard lots of discussion about the pattern. For me, it was one of the easiest things I've made thus far, but I did have to wing on a few things, mainly the seam allowance (there isn't one in the pattern) and hemming the dress (there isn't a specific way mentioned in the pattern.) The shirring at the top is created by hand-winding your bobbin with elastic thread and using that along with regular thread. Despite those things that could possibly cause you trouble, I still think it's a good beginner pattern, because it's basically just two pieces of fabric, shirring, and voila! dress!

Commercial patterns are still very hard for me - I hate cutting the pieces, and all the fiddly bits that go along with it. But, three of the dresses on this page were sewn from commercial patterns, and I'm slowly learning to not be afraid. Simplicity has been my friend - the easy Simplicity patterns are actually easy - or easier - and I've been able to make wearable garments so far. All of this is to say, be not afraid if you want to try to sew clothes! Obviously all of these dresses have issues (sketchy zippers, uneven hems, and oh lordy the raw edges on the insides!!), and I still have a lot to learn, but I'm feeling more confident with every piece I sew. and OMG I am having so much fun.

Lest you think I've TOTALLY abandoned knitting, I have a finished knit too!

Featherweight Cardigan!

I finally finished this sweater, and I love it. (More details on Ravelry if you're interested.) It's perfect for wearing in the air conditioning in my office and I think it will be warm when it's cold outside too. I'm seriously considering making another one - it's just so wearable.

In other news - did you know that I started my knitting blog on June 5, 2003? here's what my first blog post said:

june 05, 2003. 3:18 PM

so here is my first attempt at having a web log. or a blog. i'm really doing this so I can keep track of my knitting. Can you believe how many people have knitting websites? It's a craze of monstrous proportions.

i am a brand spanking new knitter, and i still make lots of mistakes, but i really really love doing it, and i want to get better, so i can knit fancy cardigans and bee-yoo-tee-full sweaters,

and i have nothing better to do at work than surf the net for knitting pages, knitting patterns, knitting blogs.

my left hand actually is hurting from knitting, and probably from typing so much. (because I am a secretary, not because I am a crazy blogger. remember? this is my first one!)
email me with any good patterns that aren't too hard. or anything else you wanna say.

HAHAHAHA. that makes me giggle. That also means I've been blogging for 6 years earlier this month. I had plans to do a sappy blogiversary post but then work got busy and I had to travel and I just didn't have time. I just discovered my very first blog posts on my old geocities website a few weeks ago, and it was really fun to read through them and see where I was then. I'm so glad I have those posts to remember that time in my life, and I'm so glad I wrote that first post, because having this blog has literally changed my life - I've met some of my dearest friends through it, and tried many things and visited many places that I never would have otherwise.

So, thank you, bloggy readers, for making this such a fun thing to do for six years. We all have reasons for blogging - and I do it mostly for myself - but it sure is nice to have a fabulous community of people to share it with. Thank you so much!

First of all, I finished my quilty wall hanging:

now we just need to hang it.

I had a really fun time making this quilt. I decided to try free-motion quilting for the first time, and although I had some real issues at first (the major one being that I kept forgetting to put my presser foot down), I'm very happy with the final result.

mmm, crinkly.

I practiced on a little quilted swatch first, and then just dove in on the quilt. It was time consuming and ate a lot of thread, but the result is cozy and crinkly and yummy - I will definitely be trying it again.

There has been other sewing too! I made my first top that I can wear, for real, in public:

The Spring Ruffle Top! Here's the tutorial.

I am so happy with this shirt. I'm such a newbie when it comes to sewing clothes, and the tutorial by Rae of Made by Rae was easy to follow. I definitely did a few things wrong this first time around - I misunderstood how to attach the ruffles and the chest band - but I was able to make it work! But that meant, of course, I needed to make another one:

this one's for Cathy!

She picked out the fabric - isn't it perfect? It's so nice to make a pattern again and fix all the mistakes you made the first time around. I guess that's why it's good to make a muslin when you sew a pattern for the first time (that just means you make the pattern out of practice fabric before using the good stuff.) I should maybe do that. hee.

I also made my dear friend JoAnna a nursing cover!

Yay JoAnna!

She really wanted a Hooter Hider, but when we looked at them in the store, we decided that we could make it ourselves. I used this tutorial and the awesome fabric that JoAnna picked out. It took less than an hour to make. YAY handmade!

o hai! this is a knitting blog! I am knitting too. I've finished one of my raffle prize socks and I'm about a third of the way through the second one. I've also started the Featherweight Cardigan in Jaggerspun Zephyr:

Progress.

I love this pattern! I want to make a bunch of them with all the laceweight yarn I have in my stash. I didn't swatch - bad knitter - and so next time around I might go down a needle size, but I'm hoping this one works out. I'm to the sleeves now!

I have more to show you and tell you, because I went to Maryland Sheep and Wool and bought pretty pretty things, but I need to go get ready for work. I'll post some yarny pics soon!

Work has been super busy lately, which is great, but also makes me a little overwhelmed sometimes. That means that I get home from work and immediately want to do something crafty to relax.

There has been knitting:

Spelling Bee Raffle socks for Stephanie!
(the colors in this pic are a bit off - the blues are little more pastel than they are here.)

I went through several different versions of these socks before I landed on this combination: Monkeys + Mama E's sock yarn. It's a perfect match! I started some Monkeys with some other yarn, but the pooling started to get to me, so I tried again and so far, the colors are working out nicely with this yarn. They need a good blocking, obviously, but I'm happy with them. and this pattern is fun, y'all. at first I had to really pay attention to the pattern, but now I've got it memorized and I can just knitknitknit while I'm watching TV. LOVE.

There has also been sewing. More box bags, of course:

Box Bags and one zipper pouch, actually.

and some progress on my quilt wall hanging:

yay quilt.

Since I've been sewing like a fiend, I've started reading some quilting/sewing blogs as well. If you haven't seen the Quilt Along posts over at Oh, Fransson! and you're wanting to get started quilted, check them out. She basically did a virtual quilt-along and went through her entire process from picking fabrics to binding and quilting. The posts are really clear and full of great info. I've definitely tagged a few of those posts (color choices, free motion quilting) to use in the future. I want to try and do free motion quilting for this wall hanging, but I need to practice A LOT before I do it.

While I'm sending you to other places on the Intarwebs, here are two more:

• if you are a scrapbooker, check out my older sister Michelle's blog, The Impatient Scrapper. She makes all kinds of awesome mini albums and she's actually designing a mini-album kit for Creative Scrappers in April! she rocks.
• My friend and indie sock dyer Melanie is having a raffle to help support her trip to the Sock Summit in August. Some of her fabulous prizes include a box bag made by me, and um hello delicious red Wollmeise sock yarn. Drooooool.
• Another great contest! Orinda5 is having a free giveaway on her blog with some pretty amazing prizes, including Malabrigo, some gorgeous sock yarn, and a beautiful shawl pin. She had originally intended to run a raffle, but it turns out that it's against the law to run an online raffle in her state, so the prize-drawing is not linked to the donations. BUT. you could totally make a completely unrelated to the contest but still awesome donation while you are there! I did!
  

I've started another quilt while I'm working on the wall hanging because I am addicted - I'm experimenting with some scrappy strip quilting using this tutorial from Quiltville (and hello she is another awesome online resource that Carolyn introduced me to). I'll take some pictures this weekend if the strips aren't ugly. ha.

have a great Friday!

But, I shall not complain, because today, a week later, it is 75 degrees. It's beautiful outside! It's also Spring Break at UGA, so I might take a couple of days off this week for the heck of it. We'll see how busy work is.

I've been really busy crafting lately, both knitting AND sewing. I finally finished my second quilt - a baby quilt for my dear friends Drew and Joanna, also know at the Teamies.

Stacked Coins.

I used the Stacked Coins pattern from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts, which is a seriously lovely and awesome book. There are great directions in the back for basting your quilt, quilting, and also two different ways to do the binding. I love this book. And I think would be an excellent first quilt for anyone - it's very forgiving if you aren't so good at cutting straight (like me, for instance). I think the real challenge with this quilt is picking awesome colors.

So, finishing that quilt has made me want to make MORE quilts. and sew. A LOT. My Flickr contacts can attest to my, um, crazed sewing frenzy lately.

yay sewing time!

For the box bags, I've been using this fantastic tutorial by drago[knit]fly, with the modifications found here. It took me a few tries to understand what I was doing, but now I am comfortable doing it without checking the tutorial every five seconds.

Also, the zipper wasn't as scary as I thought it would be! The hardest thing for me is cutting STRAIGHT. I am so bad at it, and yes I have a rotary cutter and cutting mat and rulers and still I suck at it. that's why I need to make all of these bags! to practice!

For the zipper pouches, I used Caro's sew a zippered wristlet tutorial - super clear and she has a great Flickr set with detailed photos to go along with it. The zipper on top is harder for me - I haven't quite figured it out yet. but I'm getting there. The last little purse is this free pattern called the Buttercup Bag at Made by Rae.

Ack, I have the sewing bug, y'all. Next up, after eleventy million bags, is a quilty wall hanging for our den. I've chosen a dark brown background and some variations on teal and aqua as my color palette (because that's what is already in our den):

fabric pile.

I'm still nailing down exactly what I want to do, but I think I've got a plan. A loose plan.

I haven't totally abandoned knitting though! I'm still plugging away on both my Tapestry Cowl and my Francis Revisited:

I'm getting really close!

That's about it for now. Work is good, and I'm still BODYPUMPing (although this week is Spring Break so it's canceled. I guess I could get out and run or walk since it's so nice out. maybe.) I know some of you are still having wintry weather - I hope spring heads your way soon!

The Triplets on stage, waiting for their turn.

We didn't win the bee - we made it through 9 rounds, though, and were the fourth runner-up team. The word that got us was "Kinshasa" - it's the capital of the Republic of Congo, and we spelled "Kinchasa", but I will also say that the pronouncer totally pronounced it with a "ch" instead of an "sh" and I think we would've spelled it right if he'd said it right. not that I'm bitter. ;) But we had lots of fun, and we got several rounds of hard words correct, including "quoin" (an architecture term which means the corner stones of brick or stone walls) and "philately" (stamp collecting).

Spelling something correctly before we got booted.

I bet you wanna hear about the prize winners though, right?!?! I've got your prize winners right here! We had a total of 167 entries for the contest. All the entries were entered into a spreadsheet, and the winners were selected using a random number generator.

Prize #1: A pair of socks for YOU, handknit by me: WINNER: Stephanie Hansen

Prize #2: From the lovely Wry Punster Elspeth: a cowl, knit for YOU, in Briar Rose Fiber WINNER: Mary McCain

Prize #3: One skein of superwash merino sock yarn, dyed in a custom colorway (you pick the colors!!) by the fabulous Melanie of Lotus Yarns WINNER: Laura Stark

Prize #4: 11 balls Rowan Yorkshire Tweed DK WINNER: Mai N.

Prize #5: A Baby Surprise Jacket Kit from Schoolhouse Press in Orange and White, including buttons! WINNER: Bertha Crowley

Prize #6: A Baby Surprise Jacket Kit from Schoolhouse Press in Red and White, including buttons! WINNER: Nancy Cardona

Prize #7: A pair of hand knit socks, customized for YOU, knit by the fabulous Mai. WINNER: Carla P. Kipen

I've emailed all the winners - Congratulations to all of you! and thank you so much to everyone who donated - it's for a really great cause, and the Athens-Clarke Literacy Council was extremely excited and grateful for the money we raised.

Now, I'm off to play in the snow!

Snow? in Georgia! srsly!

**Also, we've added one more prize because you all have been so generous and because my friends are also so generous. EVERYONE FREAKING ROCKS. srsly.**

The fabulous Mai has offered to knit another pair of hand-knit socks for one lucky winner!

In order to entice you, we have NEW PRIZES! from the lovely and generous Carolyn.
They are:

11 balls Rowan Yorkshire Tweed DK

ooh, so pretty. and tweedy.

Schoolhouse Press Baby Surprise Jacket Kit #1 (with your choice of one of the button sets pictured)

Orange is lovely. and good for a boy or a girl!

Schoolhouse Press Baby Surprise Jacket Kit #2 (with your choice of one of the button sets pictured)

o hai red!

So! this means you have multiple opportunities to win a prize! Here's the total prize list one more time:

Prize #1: One pair of socks for YOU, handknit by me

Prize #2: From the lovely Wry Punster Elspeth: a cowl, knit for YOU, in Briar Rose Fiber

Prize #3: One skein of superwash merino sock yarn, dyed in a custom colorway (you pick the colors!!) by the fabulous Melanie of Lotus Yarns

Prize #4: 11 balls Rowan Yorkshire Tweed DK

Prize #5: A Baby Surprise Jacket Kit from Schoolhouse Press in Orange and White, including buttons!

Prize #6: A Baby Surprise Jacket Kit from Schoolhouse Press in Red and White, including buttons!

Prize #7: A pair of hand knit socks, customized for YOU, knit by the fabulous Mai.

Every $5.00 donation will get your name in a drawing. At the end of the contest, I'll randomly pick a name for each the prizes listed above. All the money donated will go directly to the Athens Clarke Literacy Council.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Donation are now closed! THANK YOU SO MUCH.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you, thank you, thank you! All of your emails and good thoughts are really appreciated, and so are your donations. GO TEAM TRIPLETS!

I'm interrupting this not-so-frequently-updated blog to announce a contest. a contest for hand-knit socks and other yarny prizes. FOR YOU.

You may remember last year, around this same time, I participated in a charity spelling bee, also known as The Spirited Spell-Off Spectacle, here in Athens. Well, I'm doing it again, with my same trusty teammates from before: my twin sister Cathy and my friend Chip. The three of us form The Triplets (har!) and we are super excited about this year's bee.

Team Triplets!

The event is a fundraiser for the Athens Clarke Literacy Council. They promote and support adult literacy in Athens, Georgia, and they do good work.

At this team spelling bee, the six teams that raise the most money for the Athens Clarke Literacy Council are granted a mulligan, which means you can miss one word and still stay in the competition. So, we've been raising money to support our team. Any amount you can afford will help us, and it all goes to a great cause - promoting and supporting adult literacy.

Last year, with your help, our team raised the most money for the cause and earned our mulligan, which helped us finish second runner-up in the bee.

So this is where you come in! Every $5.00 donation will get your name in a drawing. At the end of the contest, I'll randomly pick a name, and I'll knit the winner a pair of socks in your favorite colors. All the money donated will go directly to the Athens Clarke Literacy Council.

UPDATE! We have additional raffle prizes! which means that more than one person can win! woooot!

-Prize #1: One pair of socks for YOU, handknit by me
-Prize #2: From the lovely Wry Punster Elspeth: a cowl, knit for YOU, in Briar Rose Fiber
-Prize #3: One skein of superwash merino sock yarn, dyed in a custom colorway (you pick the colors!!) by the fabulous Melanie of Lotus Yarns

Last year's winner, emily, got a pair of Mingus socks knitted by me, especially for her!

A pair of socks in your favorite colors and pattern. Srsly.
and you don't have to knit them! I will knit them for you!

Wouldn't you love a pair of handknitted socks, made just your size, that you don't even have to knit?

If so, just click the button below and buy yourself a ticket.

Last year, we were foiled by the word 'escutcheon'. Can we make it to the last round this year?? I THINK WE CAN. and thank you so much for letting me use my blog, once again, for shameless spelling bee fundraising.

Of course, my timing is impeccable because I've just finished winter hats for me and Jacob right when the weather gets warm! HA. I discovered Jared Flood's fabulous Turn a Square pattern on Ravelry and totally fell in love with it. It's super easy and SO fast - I finished both of these hats in about a day or so (per hat). And, you can do stripeys like the pattern:

stripes, for Jacob.

Or, you can do one with just one skein of mmmmalabrigo:

the Malabrigo one is all for me me me.

Woot. Totally versatile and awesome. and perfect for those 70 degree days we've been having. Har.

I'm still plugging away on the Tapestry Cowl. I'm getting faster at finishing a round - I actually did THREE rounds last night, which is totally a record for me and this pattern - but I'm convinced there's a better way to wrangle the two colors. Are there any English knitters out there who have double knitting tips for me? I've been practicing my Continental knitting, but the gauge is still too crazy for me to switch to Continental on this project.

And, my take-with-me-everywhere knitting is a new project: Francis Revisited. I may have used some of my knit teaching money to get some fantastic Sublime Cashmere Merino Silk Aran in Granite and oh my god I am loving this yarn. I couldn't get gauge, so I changed the numbers a bit and now I'm just knitting away. I'm hoping I can finish this soon and wear it a bit before it gets too hot in Georgia for any kind of long sleeves.

ohhh, this yarn. it's so lovely.

I really have been knitting a lot lately. Teaching at the yarn store is making it easier for me to justify new shiny yarn purchases, which makes me excited about new projects, which means I am a knitting. machine. and I like it that way!

Other than knitting, I'm finishing up a quilt,Flickring, Raveling, BODYPUMPing, and watching American Idol intently. Work is good - lots of graphic design lately, which I love. YAY.

My office sponsored several showings of the Inauguration coverage yesterday, so I got to watch it on a big old projector screen with a crowd of people. I was happy to watch it with other people - lots of cheering and clapping and yelling. It was just an all around good time. And the speech! Oh, the speech. and Rev. Lowery's closing prayer, which I totally loved.

Anyways, good times. Yay for us electing someone awesome.

Let's see. What else is new? Well, I graduated - hooray! - so this marks my first semester in a LONG time without classes. It's a really great feeling. I don't have all the free time I was dreaming about (ha), but I do have MORE time on my hands, which is nice. I'm teaching a sock class at my local yarn store, and knitting a lot, and spending some quality time with my schmoos.

I'm also taking (gulp) a BodyPump class at my gym. (why does it have to have such a silly name? BODYPUMP) Here's the deal: I am lazy. I know this. I've had brief bouts of insanity before (mostly induced by my twin sis) where I ran half-marathons, but generally speaking, I'm not a huge fan of exercise. The couch is sooooo comfy, and my knitting is there, and also the TV...and maybe some dark chocolate....

SO. I've signed up for an entire semester of BodyPump, three days a week. It's already paid for. I'm doing it with AM, in the hopes that we will motivate each other when we don't feel like doing it. We shall see how long it lasts, but so far, so good. It's really hard for me to get up in the morning, and I'm hoping that incorporating some regular exercise into my routine will help with that. and just make me feel good in general. BODYPUMP.

har.

I have actually been knitting lots! I knit a few Christmas presents:

A Dollar and A Half Cardigan for my sis!

Toasty Mitts and a Darkside Cowl for my sister in law Alison!

A Fourteen cowl for Jenny!

They were all fun projects, although I was down to the wire on the cardigan (hello, picking up, knitting, and finishing buttonband on Christmas morning). Obviously my sister wouldn't have minded if I'd given it to her partially finished but I was SO. CLOSE. so I finished. and she loves it! yay!

Then, right after Christmas, I had another deadline: baby shower knitting. I didn't make the deadline because I was knitting for twins and WAY underestimated how long it would take me to finish two baby sweaters. D'oh. However, I did finish!

Twin Sweaters!

The pattern is SuperNatural Stripes, a great free pattern that I found via NotScarlett's Flickr photos. I haven't given them to the parents yet, but hopefully they'll love them.

And! I have a crocheted finished object to show you. I know! Crazy!

This is Herbert.

I'm also working on finishing a baby quilt, and have plans to start another small quilting project v. soon. I got a ReproDepot gift certificate for Christmas, and I just got my order....so many pretttttty fabrics. ohboy. and someone awesome sent me some fabulous new quilting books, so I have all kinds of crazy ideas.

So, now? Well, I'm working on a stripey Noro scarf - after admiring two in person, I pretty much needed to make one. And, I'm working on a not-so-sekrit and belated Christmas present for someone...

Haha, black and white! at least the colors will be a surprise.

If you can't tell from the pic, this is Minty's Tapestry Cowl. This is my first time doing double knitting, and I'm actually really enjoying myself. The pattern takes focus - I think right now it's taking me about 30-40 minutes to do one round - and I have to LOOK at the chart. but the colorwork is interesting, and I'm enjoying watching the pattern appear as I knit.

o hai, longest post ever! I hope you're having a great week and hope to revamp this here blog one of these days. maybe.

school + work has been keeping me totally busy. Yesterday was my last class of the semester, which also means it was my last class of my Master's program! It's only taken me two and a half years to knock out all of my coursework. I remember starting and thinking how cool the program was going to be, and it definitely has been a great experience - it resulted in the job I have now, which I sort of love.

I am really looking forward to JUST working, though. No work, then two hours of class, and homework, and group projects...just. work. I can't wait! I see more knitting and sewing in my future very soon...

I actually do have some knitted stuff to show you! For starters, I finished Lily from the first issue of Twist Collective:

happy!

I managed to finish it in time to wear it for my Master's portfolio defense! I really love this sweater - it's super flattering and wearable. I knit with this with a little bit of negative ease so it would be fitting. The pattern is also great to knit - it's extremely detailed. I needed some help understanding what to do when I joined the sleeves, but a few posts in the Ravelry Twist Collective group cleared that right up. I probably should've made it just a bit longer (which is my normal issue when I knit sweaters), but it's totally wearable as is. I've already worn it a bunch! My project details are on Ravelry, if you want more pics and progress shots.

close up front.

The only thing I changed was the collar. In the prototype sweater that Marnie blogged about, she knitted a ribbed collar, and I decided to go for that one instead of the plain garter stitch collar. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Aaaaand, another finished object: the Darkside Cowl.

sorry for the totally crappy Photobooth shot.

This is knit out of Noro Maiko, which I really like. The colors are SUPER bright, so I don't know if I could handle a whole sweater out of it, but it's perfect for accessories! I used a smaller needle sine this yarn is smaller than what the pattern calls for, and I added one repeat. This cowl will be mine. or maybe someone else's. My Christmas shopping hasn't started yet, so we'll see what happens.

So now I'm working on another cowl for a possible Christmas pressie, and maybe another quilt. I've been occupied with finishing up all my last bits of schoolwork, so once I turn in my last assignment, I'll be a holiday crafting/shopping fool.

Gah, what else? So much to tell! NotScarlett and B came to visit and we had a total blast; I met up with Anne and had more fun times [including a trip to the Georgia Aquarium]; I watched the first season of True Blood (love); I got a new camera (!)...things are really great.

I just wish I was blogging more, for real. I love being able to look back at my old posts and remember what was happening (like, for example, when I started my Master's program, or when we bought our house, or our wedding). It's just nice to have that stuff documented. And of course, it's always awesome to talk to people via comments. I have to just be okay with my new blogging habits and maybe once I'm really, truly graduated, I'll have some time to revamp my blog and start up again.

yay! so I'm hoping this isn't my only December post, but just in case, happy holidays, y'all. hope you're having a great December!

Jacob decided about a month ago that he wanted to dress up as Daft Punk for Halloween. We were going for this Daft Punk, but Jacob also wanted to do these lights because he is a crazy man. But hey, I'm all about some crafting, so we decided to go for it!

Here's the finished product:

That's Jacob on the left and me on the right.

and here's what we look like with the lights on:

you can see our helmets better in this one.

I was responsible for the jackets and Jacob did the helmets - we are a good crafty team! The lights on our jackets are electroluminescent wire - each jacket/helmet combo has 40 feet of wire. I hand stitched all the wire to the leather jackets using fishing wire (and I had to buy a special leather needle to sew with. it was a pain, but really secure once I finished). This tutorial was really helpful.

Working on Jacob's jacket.

My helmet is made out of a baseball helmet. Jacob cut out the lower visor/mouth/chin part using an old stiff cardboard box and used beer can bottoms for the ears. He used bondo on the whole thing to make it one cohesive piece, and then he sanded it.

Helmet in progess.

His helmet was an old motorcycle helmet. He covered the entire thing with window tint, and then cut the gold parts out of some gold thin paperboard that he picked up. He also superglued all the EL wire to both of our helmets. We could see and hear with the helmets on, although it was harder in a crowded bar.

Back to back

The EL wire runs on a battery pack, and there's an on/off switch, which makes it easy to blink the lights (if you were so inspired while listening to some awesome 70s jams at a bar. Hypothetically.) The battery packs fit in our pants pockets.

Speaking of pants - Jacob wanted some shiny pants for this costume, so I offered to make him some. He originally wanted leather pants, but I was afraid to make my first pair of pants with pleather, so I opted for satin (which is still a bit of a pain to work with, but seemed like a better option than damn pleather.)

I made pants for The Pants!

I hemmed them a bit too short, and it was my first fly front zipper, so I wasn't sure about the whole extra material hanging over part of it. I'll know for next time!

It was so much fun, y'all. We got stopped a lot downtown to get our pictures taken, and people actually recognized who we were! (Although we did also get a lot of "are you guys from Tron?") We decided that our little group had some of the best costumes around:

Cathy as creepy headless Marie Antoinette

Wes and Alison as Barf from Spaceballs and a skeleton

Wes as Cousin Eddie from Christmas Vacation

So much creativity in Athens on Halloween! My friends Kate, Courtney and Sarah as Carol Burnett Show characters:

Nora Desmond, Scarlett O'Hard, and the Charwoman who mops up the spotlight.

I could go on and on. Check out Courtney's blog for some more awesome Athens Halloween costumes, and here's my Flickr photo set: [ Halloween 2008 ]

Yay for DIY halloween costumes! I've spent all day trying to recover from our late night (including a 2:30 am Waffle House trip - BAD IDEA), but I'm already starting to think about costume ideas for next year.

So this post was all Halloween crafty! I still have to tell you about SAFF, including all the yummy yarn I got, and some knits that are close to being done. Next time, I might even have a finished knit to show off!

At least I have some knits to wear! I just taught a knitting class at my yarn store - Getting Started Sweater Knitting - and I brought some of the sweaters I'd knitted to show different shapes and construction. It made me realize that I've knit a bunch of frakkin' sweaters that I totally ignore. So I got them out of the back of the closet, and I'm actually going to WEAR them. I know, it's crazy....

Speaking of sweaters, I've been working on a new one! It's Lily from Twist Collective. I've been reading Marnie's blog for a long time, and I think she is super talented (and also funny and awesome in general). I always love the beautiful shaping in her knit designs, so I was super excited to knit this. and I have not been disappointed. This is a GREAT pattern - super detailed, and the shaping is so clever and looks awesome. I did omit the bobbles, although admittedly, now that I've seen a bunch of version on Ravelry, I probably would've been okay keeping them, because they blend into the lace pattern very nicely.

see that pretty side shaping? LOVE.

I've finished the knitting up to the armpits, and now I've put the body aside and I'm working on the sleeves. This pattern is so fun to knit - I've got the lace part memorized now, so I just have to make sure that I'm keeping track of my increases and I'm good to go. I was hoping to have it finished by SAFF this weekend, but I'm not sure if I'll have time - this week has already been so. busy.

I have another FO - a sewing FO! I made a skirt!

and it fits!

I used the skirt pattern from the fabulous Sew U book from Built by Wendy, and it went pretty well. It was a good project to see what my sewing machine can do - I used the zipper foot, the overedge foot, the blind hem foot, and in general got pretty comfortable with my machine. I also managed to break a needle in half (o hai). But I'm getting better.

Now, I'm working on some pants for Jacob for Halloween. We've thought about Halloween in advance this year and our costumes require much preparation...more to come on that. I also want to try and make this kickass dress that I saw on Amber's flickr photostream. We'll see if I can actually do it.

In non-crafty but still awesome news, yesterday was me and Jacob's first anniversary! I can't believe it's been a year.

old married couple.

Happy anniversary to my schmoo. I love you!

But it's true! First, a super quick and super gratifying knit - meet Frank.

o hai.

Frank is actually Kate from Knitty. I knitted the pattern exactly as written, using size 7 and 8 Denise needle tips as double pointed needles. (I am lazy). It's an easy pattern to follow and I think the whole thing took me three days from start to finish. I used Brown Sheep Cotton Fine doubled for his stripey shirt and pants, and Cotton-Ease for his body. I cannot tell you how much I love the finished toy - he is just. so. cute. I see a lot of knitted toys in my future - such a great baby gift, and so fast! (I embroidered his eyes in addition to his mouth and nose so there wouldn't be any non-baby-friendly parts).

oh, Frank.

Okay. on to Finished Object the Second. It's the February Lady Sweater!

I wore her to work today!

I was so excited that I wore it to work today! It fits great. I used Silky Wool -- I think about 3.5 skeins. I had to change the numbers because Silky Wool is DK and the sweater is definitely light and airy - and it grew A LOT after blocking. I actually thought it might be TOO long last night, but after wearing it around today, I think it's the perfect length. The buttons I used were purchased at Maryland Sheep and Wool this year. They are a little heavy, so I'm considering reinforcing the button band with grosgrain ribbon. (yeah, I will probably NEVER get around to doing that. but I'm considering it.)

LOVE this sweater. I think it would be a great first sweater, if you're not afraid of lace, because when you're done, it's DONE. no seaming, just a little sewing under the armpits. It's seriously a great pattern. I'm trying to convince my sis to knit one! Thanks, Pam, for this awesome pattern - obviously it kicks ass because it seems like every knitter in the blogosphere / Ravelry has knit one. I might make another in worsted weight one day...

and finally! the grand finale. My First Quilt!

hanging out on the fence.

This is a lap-sized quilt - I used the Streak of Sunshine pattern from Quiltville. (That site has tons of good info - thanks for the rec, Carolyn!) And seriously, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. The hardest part for me (besides the binding) was picking out colors that worked well together. It's such a challenge for me, and for some reason really intimidating to me. I'm just going to keep plugging away at it.

Close up of the corner.

I lucked out because Carolyn was in town for Dragon*Con and showed me how to do a free-form braid on the sides and also how to do the binding. The braid was her idea and I love how it looks against the straight lines of the rest of the quilt. I was scared to do it without drawing it on the quilt, but it actually wasn't that bad. Carolyn is a fantastic teacher too.

The binding is machine sewn on the top, and then folded and blind-stitched by hand on the back. It was tedious, but seriously, it looks so good. It really makes it looked FINISHED. Carolyn swore it was her favorite part, and I was all, okay, whatever, crazy... but as you work the binding, the whole quilt just comes together - it's very cool!

I am really looking forward to working on more quilts, and some larger ones. Obviously there are lots of mistakes in this one, but I seriously love it so. and I actually use it all the time! Woot.

So, there you have it. I've been busy with the crafting, in between work and school and life in general. I am in my last semester of my Master's program - oh boy! - and work is totally slammed. Things are great! Now I have to decide what to work on next...

Like this one:

James Callis (Gaius Baltar on Battlestar Galactica)

and also this one:

Me with Aaron Douglas (Chief Tyrol on Battlestar Galactica)

oh. I was such a fangirl this weekend, I'm not going to lie. I totally got starstruck at Dragon*Con. For those who don't know, Dragon*Con is a big old science fiction/fantasy/anime/comics/whatever else convention that happens every year in Atlanta. We decided to go this year because so many people from Battlestar Galactica were there, and DUDE it was so worth it. Carolyn even came down for it!

We had so much fun. Cathy joined us, and we even ran into Wes and Jacob a few times while we were there. It was just a totally interesting experience - my first time at a convention - and I am so going back next year. In addition to getting to meet BSG peeps and take pictures and generally be silly rabid fans, we also attended two Battlestar Galactica panels...

From L to R:
Tahmoh Penikett, Michael Hogan, Edward James Olmos, Kevin Grazier.
or, Helo, Col. Tigh, Commander Adama, and the science advisor for BSG.

We also ate a lot of good meals, saw lots of crazy costumes, and spent a lot of time waiting in lines (so I got a decent amount of knitting done). If you want to see some of the crazy costumes and more of the fun time rabid fan pics, here's a link to my Flickr set: [ Dragon*Con 2008 ]

Now - you didn't think I'd let Carolyn come to town without making her quilt, right? Of course not! We managed to squeeze in some quilting when we weren't being geeky fans. And I am so excited because I am really close to having my very first finished quilt! Carolyn helped me finish quilting the border of my quilt and then showed me how to do a double-fold binding on the edges. She got me started, and now I'm working on finishing:

Binding!

We used the machine to sew it on the top, and now I'm blind-stitching the bottom. Carolyn said she liked this part, and I was a bit hesitant when I saw what I had to do, but it IS fun to watch the binding come together. I can't wait to finish the binding and wash this sucker. And then start a new one! oh boy!!!

In other crafty news, I'm *this* close to finishing my February Lady Sweater. Obviously I didn't finish for the Ravelympics (FAIL), but I got pretty far. I'm about 3/4 of the way through the first sleeve, so all I have left is 1 and 1/4 sleeves!

That's all I've got for now. It's been exactly one month since I last posted, so I'm hoping I can get to the blog more often this month.

It's the Dollar and a Half cardigan, from Interweave Knits, Spring 2007! I so love me some Véronik Avery patterns.

Yay, I finished it!

I used three skeins of Brooks Farm Willow that I bought at Maryland Sheep and Wool earlier this year. I really, really love this yarn. It's a wool/bamboo blend, and it's soft and drapey and lovely. It becomes even softer and prettier after blocking.

This photo shoot was very sweaty.

It was a close call with the yarn. My stitch and row gauge were a teeny tiny bit off, which I think may have caused me to need a bit more yarn. I tried to get an extra skein of the yarn (Ravelry, Flickr, even emailed Brooks Farm, and they were super nice, although they sold out of this colorway at MDS&W), but I realized after finishing all the sweater pieces that my sleeves were uber long.

So, I seamed until I was almost out of yarn, and then I took some yarn from each sleeve to finish things up. (How I did it: I got a piece of scrap yarn and ran it through a row of stitches right above the ribbing on a sleeve. Then, I snipped one stitch, and unraveled a row of stitches, which detached the ribbing, and gave me a row of live stitches still attached to the sleeve. I used the ripped out ribbing to seam and do buttonbands, and then I put the row of live stitches back on my needles and knit down from there, finishing the sleeves up. Does that make sense? It was actually really easy!)

I do think the sleeves as written are LONG. So, be aware of that if you knit this. Other things to note: I did stockinette in between the lace panels instead of the reverse stockinette that's in the pattern. Also, lots of knitters have mentioned the stockinette panels puffing out in between the lace panels, so I went down one needle size for every stockinette panel, and that seemed to help with the puffiness. I still have a little of that on the sleeves, but it's definitely still wearable.

The lace pattern is easy to memorize, and once I did, the knitting is fast. It's nice too, because the lace panels break up the stockinette, so I didn't get bored. I seriously love this pattern, y'all. LOVE. I'm so happy with my sweater! Now, I have to put it away for probably four more months until it's a little bit colder in Georgia ... because it's pretty much in the 90s all the time right now. Oh, being a knitter in the South. Sigh.

Anyways. This is definitely my best sweater yet - it fits great, it's long enough (which is usually a big problem for me) and I like the way the buttons turned out, which can sometimes make or break a project for me. YAY finished wearable sweater! (Thanks to Jacob for the pics - we were both sweating after like two seconds outside, but he persevered and got some good shots for me.)

Next up? I'm going to try and knit a February Lady Sweater for the Ravelympics, using some Silky Wool I picked up at Halycon Yarns. I've never done any knitting olympics before, so we'll see how I handle the pressure...

and also! earthchick is having a raffle on her blog for a really great cause, and it has some seriously amazing prizes. so you should go check it out! (and while you're there, check out her Sunshine top! so cute.)

If you tried to leave a comment and got a blank page, please try again - if the blank page comes up, hit refresh and see if that fixes the problem. It may be time to upgrade to MT 4.0...or Wordpress. Gah.