Needless to say or needles to say.... sorry I love puns!

After doing this to one's car on Thursday?

And then one brings their mom home from the hospital on Friday.... they may need a creative outlet.

I bought a new staple gun to fix the bulletin board. Previously, I'd stapled it temporarily with one of those regular staplers opened up flat. Obviously that wouldn't hold for very long. I also got copper upholstery tacks at Hobby Lobby on the way home from hospital. Yes on the way home. I had my mom and Rylie in the car and left it running. That way I'd only buy one or two things. Ok I got three and probably will take the cork back as I didn't need it. But I figured if I'm hanging around the house to keep an eye on my mom, I have to do something or people are going to get hurt. Well despite that I still hurt her feelings...

So I went back to work on the craft room, and I made the mistake of commenting on how hideous the curtains are.  I swore they were here when my parents bought the house. Now mom claims she bought them. I'm pretty sure she's wrong but she was already insulted and further argument would be moot. BUT really they are awful. They are also blue which I guess I thought didn't match the pillows therefore obviously would need to be replaced....

Curtains from before

I don't have the money and time to do the window curtains yet but I thought I can make a quick pseudo Roman Shade.

BUT first I had to finish the bulletin board. Well finish is a strong word, I mean embellish it more. I'm not going to promise it's done. I might think of something else to do to it.

I put the same stuff back on it. I plan to add fabric swatches but then who is willing to give up that big of a piece of swatch?

Current Projects in Process.... STALLED!!!

Well it didn't take long for this AD/HD'er to get several projects started and not many finished. Here's the deal:
Socks for Joe (belated Christmas, now birthday gift)
I've never done socks and bought all this sock weight yarn and it's very fine. Fine as in tiny. So it requires these size 1 needles first couple attempts looked like spaghetti.
So then I thought maybe the sock loom would be the answer....

Well the yarn is still fine and you use this little hook to slide the yarn up and over these little pegs and second try on that got frustrated.
So thought I'd try out the magic loop method. Still tiny bamboo in this case, circular needles that are 40 or 48" long.

I bought these from China. So they were cheap, cheap! And they smell funny, I think it's all that plastic tubing in a cellophane bag or they're contaminated with lead who knows. Ok so this time I'm on to something. It was going well looked like a sock. I was using the toe up method this time and a pattern called Scylla socks. They're named for a deadly sea monster named Scylla. Perhaps that should have scared me. So by now I've decided F#@$ this I'm making socks in Joe's girlfriend size instead because he has funny shaped feet and I don't need that for first try.

Hope she likes variegated purple, gray and white. Should have checked into Northern Illinois University's school colors. And now I'm 4 rows in and looks like a toe. But time to go to bed or something and I stick the toothpick think circular 1 needles into the ball of yarn. BIG MISTAKE!!!!

It broke just like a toothpick! Nooooooooooooooooooooooo! I put a dpn some smaller size through the stitches to try and save them but now that project also on hold.

Gray Skies Capelet

I could hardly wait to finish these gifts and start this one for myself. Not so much because it's for myself but because I looked forward to using the yarn. Expecially the glittery one!

This is the picture from the book. The yarn they used was really a light blue and cream and the yarn for the collar and bottom of cape has gold beads. I'm not much for blue or gold beads. So I bought Rowan Cocoon Lavendar Ice, a beautiful gray with a hint of violet, and Berroco Glitter in Pyotr, almost identical to the Lavendar Ice and with a silver glittery thread interwoven. 

So beautiful can't you imagine these two together. Well that went pretty fast until I realized that I bought one skein of each (I think, I may have another skein across the street of the Lavendar Ice) because it's from a book called one plus one and projects from 2 skeins that may not be true if you use different yarn. S@#$ I am not using the yarn from the book! It was all Artyarns which are some of the most gorgeous yarns out there so perhaps that's why they cost a ridiculous amount of money! Like 2 skeins for this project could easily be $100 or more. 

So I knit all the yarn I had of Lavendar Ice or that is unless I find another skein. I contacted the store I bought it at Sisters Art Studio up in Chicago and they are holding some skeins for me. I even attached the collar so I could try out the Glittery Pyotr and did the yarn ties. But I can't do more without another skein. I will look for that today in my craft room across the street. (My mom's house)

Lucy Hat

So last night I wanted to do a little knitting before bed and I cast on for the Lucy Hat. After just 4 rounds you start the short rows. Huh? Never done short rows before and a week or so ago I watched several you tube videos on it so I think I got this. But here's the dilemma. The instructions are as follows:

Short-row 1 (RS) K35 (39), wrap next st, turn

Short-row 2 K10, wrap next st, turn

Short-row 3 Knit to 2 sts past previously wrapped st, (see notes), wrap next st, turn

Notes: (when working short rows in garter stitch it is not necessary to work your wraps together with the wrapped stitches. The wraps will essentially disappear into the garter stitch when left alone).

Rep last short-row 23 (27) more times

Um huh? The way I interpreted short-row 3 it was only 12 stitches so now I think I did it wrong. Because I can tell from picture you're not just repeating 12 stitches. So I thought I'm supposed to repeat short-row 1 27 times. But now I think it means I did short-row 3 wrong. Then I recheck the pattern in Ravelry and sure enough there's a correction but I'm not sure it helps me understand this.

This is what Ravelry said:

"Clarification for the short rows:

I’ve been getting a lot of messages from confused knitters regarding the short rows in this hat. I’ve re-read the instructions in the magazine and I see now where the confusion is.

The instructions say “knit to 2 sts past previously wrapped st… wrap next st, turn”

This means you knit up to but not including the second st past the previous wrap and then wrap the next st. It’s the minor, yet significant, difference between saying “knit 2 sts past…” and “knit to 2 sts past”. I hope this is helpful.

THERE IS NO ERRATA FOR THIS PATTERN. THE PATTERN IS CORRECT AS PUBLISHED IN KNITSCENE."

Now look at the picture and see if that helps.

Any ideas?

So this project is now stuck as well. 

Renovate My Ranch: 12DaysOfHGTV and Further Work on "My" Craft Room A...

Renovate My Ranch: 12DaysOfHGTV and Further Work on "My" Craft Room A...: As I've told a few people, I just can't take the chaos of my house sometimes plus I thought I should spend more time with my mom. So...

Lavish Cape done

 Here it is on Rylie who sadly isn't that much smaller than me anymore. I mean she is a string bean but she's sure catching me in height. 

It's hard to see in photos but I had what I believe was a genius idea. The pattern called for changing to a yarn that was identical but had glitter in it when you got to the part where the open weave is starting and leaves are ending. I couldn't find a yarn I liked with glitter, in green, and new yarn that fit the bill for matching skeins cost $100. I started it in cheap yarn because I wasn't that sure of my skills. However, it was turning out better than I expected so I hated to waste my effort. So we braved the tornado weather last week (we were in Chicago) and walked to a knit shop. I originally was going to try and find a similar yarn with glitter to switch to but nothing would work. And I found this beautiful yarn for my NEXT cape from this book. So I left without a solution. 

Then it came to me!

Metallic thread. Why not carry a strand (or two would have been even cooler) of metallic thread to just add some glitz and make my own glitter version of the yarn. So I did and it worked great! 

Toronados sweeping through Central Illinois while we dodged torrential rain to go to Knitting Shop!

Pat needed to walk briskly for 30 minutes so I suggested we walk to a knit shop I wanted to visit here in Chicago. (We're in Chicago for weekend, we're up here at least monthly) I don't believe we have cute little knit shops in Peoria with fancy shmancy yarn so I wanted to check this place out.

I bought four skeins or really 2 skeins and 2 hanks to be exact and wow I spent $100 basically. But online some yarn I wanted would have cost me that for just 2 skeins so could be worse.

Alpaca with a twist-Baby Twist

Berroco-Flicker

Rowan-Cocoon

The top one Pat picked out himself after he said "Hey you can make me a scarf for Christmas!" One down just three to go. Joe wants socks but I haven't picked up that yarn yet. And Rylie I bought some yarn to make something but of course the kids will probably want more than just knit goods for Christmas. But I do prefer gifts that are made to those bought in stores. No idea how long it'll take me to knit all of this. I need to finish this green cape I started that is a little over half done so I can work on the Christmas stuff. I could stop it and pick it up again but I'm on a roll with it and I'm afraid to not finish it. Plus I had an amazing idea today. This cape comes from a book that is designed to use ArtYarns. When I saw this book at JoAnn's I certainly didn't realize a couple things:
1. How incredibly beautiful some yarn is now days.
2. How outrageously expensive yarn is now days!
3. How hard to find some of this yarn is except on the internet.
I don't know about you but I kind of like to see the yarn before I spend $96 on 2 skeins. So I couldn't commit to buying the yarn for the cape in the book I liked that led to me starting knitting again. I also wasn't sure of my skills so I bought cheap yarn.

One+One Scarves, Shawls & Shrugs

Bait and switch! Here's the yarn they used.

ArtYarns Silk Mohair Rhapsody in Leaf Green and Leaf Green with Silver Glitter (glitter on the left)

The glitter is every so faint, you can't even tell in the picture in the book the two different yarns or how the transition to the glittered yarn adds to the peice. Yet the OCD in me can't let go of having some glitter in my capelet. So today while riding the bus I had this great idea! I could get a silver thread and twist it or just knit it along with my plain old yarn as I go when I get to that part. It would add just a touch of glitter (or more than a touch) but then all my yarn would match like theirs. If this works I could be on to something!

Sisters Art Studio

Picked up yarn for Pat's Christmas present and some really cool yarn for another capelet. Staff was very helpful. (@ Sister ARTS Studio) http://4sq.com/IagmRp

Want to learn to sew?

I'm excited that I haven't forgot how to sew. I also just realized yesterday I don't have to go to fabric store and pour over the pattern books anymore it's all online! Duh! Technology has blessed sewing the same as everything else. Then I wondered if you could buy patterns online and print out and what do you know you can. Or at least you can on the Butterick site. But I think the tissue paper patterns are probably a lot easier to work with then taping all that computer paper together....

But I also stumbled on to these great videos that went step by step on how to read a pattern and thought wow that's amazing for someone who doesn't know how to sew. So here's the link.

http://butterick.mccall.com/b5879-products-44957.php?page_id=155

So I was looking at Butterick dress patterns and looked at B5879 and saw hey they are now modifiable for your bust size. They didn't have that 20 years ago but then luckily I was a B cup. Well 20 years later and one baby I'm now a D cup so I hadn't even thought about that. I was luck the outfit I made had a poofy blouse. But come to think of it the corset did kind of run into trouble in that area hmmmm so I'll have to make some patterns for the D crowd and pick up how to alter ones that don't have the adjustment.

Working on my outfit with my hair styled for Halloween (the dry run).

Rylie must have snapped this and I didn't even know it.

Actually I liked my hair better the first time. Second time it was a little too much. And I look pretty tired. My mom ended up in the hospital the weekend before so even though I worked so hard to NOT procrastinate and do it all in the end, I ended up working 3 nights in a row until midnight or after to finish it. I guess it's not procrastination if you start early and it takes a long time and events happen to derail you. So yay for me! Vyvanse it a miracle drug. In the past I would have made huge mistakes due to not following the directions and that never happened, I only had to do things again because I changed my mind about certain things. I found this striped fabric in our storage unit that yes would be 20 years old and was in perfect condition along with 5 yards of linen that didn't fair so well and pseudo leather that looked a little worn as well. It was exactly what I had been looking for the contrast on the skirt and couldn't find so I changed to that instead of what I bought. I hadn't cut out the other yet luckily but I had cut out the lining for the corset and I didn't like it. It was too thin. So I used the contrast I bought for the skirt as a lining instead. And I did have to do it twice. The first time I sewed it with 5/8" seam allowance and realized oops it was the one set of seams that was supposed to be 3/8". Luckily I had so much of it I just cut it out again. But I almost ran out of interfacing. Since I was using fusible I just had some peices fused with hodgepodging of the interfacing.

So I planned on much more detail on the corset but as I said above I didn't exactly like the fit and I didn't have time to purchase good boning. I used the usual plastic stuff they sell at Joann's and now I know why the people in the know discourage it. Parts of my corset are permanently bent. I really would like to purchase one instead. Normally yes I want to make it all myself but I can't hold a candle nor do I have the time to figure out how to make one out of leather or even better vegan leather. Check out this corset on etsy I want so bad!!!!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/165453103/26-waist-steampunk-pirate-linen-chain?ref=af_you_favitem

or this one:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/107318692/24-waist-steampunk-underbust-explorer?ref=af_you_favitem

Next question.... where else can I wear steampunk clothes? Can I wear them around the house and to work? Because I sure love them.

What about this one?

Or this one?

It wouldn't be hard to make that top and skirt. Sigh... just need more places to wear the stuff. Maybe I could just be Steampunk Mom at home! I bought a pair of new boots on ebay that will complement these outfits nicely that were originally $475 and I got them for $80!!!! Yes that's right!

Much more comfortable then the silly stiletto boots I wore on Halloween that I'll NEVER wear again. 

(They were borrowed)

1917 spyglass replica came from India took long time...

Costume goggles already broke

New goggles for future....

These are from the Etsy shop Steampunk Wasteland. 

Yes I 'm thinking I don't have to make it all and I can support other craftspeople or should I say Artisans. I know look at me, big step.... I am willing to not do it all myself. Especially as my nerf gun really didn't look that good and the paint fumes gave me a headache of magnificent proportions. I will buy a gun as well. I really would like an antique real gun... doesn't have to work rather it didn't. Maybe a stage prop.

Oh and check out this skirt and the colors... remind you of anyone.

I'm thinking about buying a dress form so I can use it for sewing and when not using it for that just having my steampunk costume on it and working on the details. Or I could make a dress form out of duct tape for that.... Have you seen these?

DIY duct tape dress form