PDXYarnHo Knits

Somehow I seem to have become rather adept at losing track of time. Really, I’ve just been up to my eyeballs in just about everything and haven’t had the time to knit, let alone upload pictures of everything.

I did manage to (rather quickly) knit up a test pair of slipper socks for the V-man. He wanted some slippers that were not ugly 80′s acrylic and five sizes too small (like the ones of mine he’s been wearing) and so he picked out some mis-dyed black wool in my stash. But before I went making a nice pair of slippers for him out of a nice yarn and then screwing up royally (as I do very well when I make things for him), i tried it out in some ugly 00′s acrylic that I had lying around. I happen to keep some old Wool-Ease around for charity knitting, and I had a skein and a half of chunky that I just had no idea what to do with. So, here’s the test pair:

they’re a little long, but otherwise seem to fit him fine. Next up, black wool I think that’s going to wait till it gets cooler again. Even these get too warm for him after a little while.

I’ve been working on some socks for me, too:

They’re the siblings to my autumn wheat socks. They’re actually quite a bit longer than that now – most of the way to the heel. I just haven’t taken a more recent picture!

I also *finally* got the Lisa Shrug turned in! It turned out ok, but naturally the final product didn’t shrink quite as much as the swatch – sigh. But, it fit me at first:

(39.5″) It shrunk down to the pattern-specified 32.5″.

But, the length is off. I told the gals that it probably just needed another vigorous run through the wash, and that’d do the trick. In any case, it’s done. Glad for that!

I’ve been so inundated with work that I haven’t done much else. Last week was the first week where I was able to catch my breath – the late-late projects were all done and sent off. With exception of two of them, everything is going smoothly with the test knitting, and we’ve already started to get the projects back. Pretty cool. Now I have one week until my next deadline – but luckily it floats around a little. That’s going to be a crunch too. I was very glad to have a day off yesterday. Amazingly enough, I didn’t work on work over the weekend.

What I did do was work on PAX costuming! V-man and I drove all over the place getting bits and bobs and fabric for (mostly) his costumes. I started working on his Chaos Zealot costume (from the tabletop/soon-to-be MMO game Warhammer). There are a lot of liberties taken here because a) every picture we’ve seen to reference is different and b) he’s not going to shave his head/file his teeth pointy/develop glowing eyes any time soon. So, we sort of developed what would work for him.

(not sewn together yet!)

and this pile of faux bird bits will become his shoulder pieces:

It’s really coming together rather quickly. There’s still a lot of work to be done on it, but it feels good to have a head start!

And while he was doing his homework, I managed to set aside 45 minutes and I spun up 50g of pencil roving. It’s the first time I’ve sat at my spinning wheel in probably over a month. Yikes!

It’s about dang time!

Well, it’s a lovely day out. i really want to hit the gym but I don’t think I have enough energy. bah!

Tags: Costuming, Spinning, work by Kerin
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(I think I know V-man’s answer to that question….hehe)

I’ve been recording the history of my stash for some time now. Well, at least the number of skeins and total worth, plus the name and such. I worked on it a bit tonight, too, and while looking through it I realized how many little potentials there were in there. It’s just eating away at me.

So much of what I have is not in real project quantities. A ball here, a ball there. Now, I have plenty of experience writing one-ball patterns, but for myself? I’d not wear much of it, and frankly the yarn I have doesn’t really lend itself to be a hat or a ruffly little whatnot. So I have a lot of sad, but hopeful, little onesies in my stash. So many. Much of it is unfortunately not machine washable, so even baby things are out.

I need to figure out a good purpose for all of this random stuff. And see, the trouble is I actually like all of it, so I don’t feel that I want to give it away. Possibly some day, but for now, it’s mine because I really wanted it.

And the weirdest part? I’ve got nothing new on the needles. There are a couple of projects that have been languishing for a few months, and the Lisa Shrug (which I have been working on when I get time), but other than that, nothing new. I just don’t have time to knit. It’s sad.

So, here I sit in a pile of yarn (virtually and literally), wanting to do something with all of it right now, yet strangely unable to do anything.

I think I’m spending all my motivation on work. *sigh*

Tags: General Knitting, work by Kerin
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Though all the guesses were very good, I’m afraid you underestimated how much of a total loser geek I am. For that fourteen yards of shiny sunny satin will transform this dumpy broad into a Princess. This one, as a matter of fact:

Oh yes. Yes, my friends, I am diving headlong into the beautiful world of cosplay. Of course, this isn’t in all seriousness… it’s just for fun. I love costuming, and I figured PAX was a damn good excuse. Especially considering who is going with me:

Hehehehe… Oh this is going to be AWESOME.

Tags: Costuming by Kerin
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Yay! I finished my easy peasy hat a little while ago:

and just to give you an idea of just how big my head is…

This giant thing is a perfect fit. Yay, another hat I can’t wear for 8 months! Wooooo! hehe.

Honestly I haven’t done much other knitting recently. It sucks. While I was sick I did absolutely none – it hurt my skin to touch anything, wool and needles included. Just about the only knitting I’ve done is swatches for work and *one sleeve’s* i-cord border for the Lisa Shrug. If I could only find the time… it’s a shame, really. Between cleaning and sewing, being sick and working too much, knitting has just fallen by the wayside. ANd it sucks. Really really sucks. Especially with so many baby things I want to knit…

And now that I have this in my stash, I just have to do a baby surprise! Argh!

*sigh* Oh well. It’s hard to imagine that there’d be a downside to having a knitting related job (and there really isn’t much), but I don’t get a chance to do much of my own knitting. Poo. Well, that’s what meetings are for, I guess.

Tags: General Knitting, work, yarn by Kerin
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So I did pick up that wee package that arrived for me while I was sick:

Yes, the photo sucks. I was sick, gimme a break!

I’ve busted out the sewing machine and have tested some seams on a remnant of the same fabric. Now, if you can correctly identify what all that fabric is going to be, I’ve got some fresh cookies for you!

Me and the V-man started the long and arduous process of sizing my Uniquely You dress form this weekend. It’s a fabulous thing, this form, but oh is it ever a pain to size it. But, once you’re done, you’ve got a dress form that is a darn-near-exact replica of your body. For me, with all my stupid shapes, there was no other real option for me when searching for a dress form. There are plenty of knobbed models out there, and standard-sloper soft forms, but I’m not standard sized. No way.

Besides the time investment, the only other drawback of the Uniquely You form is that it doesn’t have individual legs. I’d love to do pants on it…

Pants just don’t fit right. Pretty much ever. So, I’d like to make some. But even more than that, I want to hem the pants I do have. But, no luck – she only wears skirts. Oh well.

At any rate, I didn’t get too far with the sizing – but V-man is having so much fun playing tailor. It’s cute.

In other sewing related topics of interest, with the coming of summer and longer days comes the bedtime-before-sundown issue. So, I informed the V-man that I will be buying some heavy velvet or canvas and making some blackout shades. He was pretty happy about that. Where he’s from, there’s no noticeable chance in seasons, so he’s always had a problem with the changing light. I like it myself. But it does feel weird to go to bed when it’s still light out.

At least the weather was nice this weekend.

*****

Beating 1000.

So, I’ve passed 1,000 on two things recently. One being over 1,000 photos on my Flickr account! woooo.. many many more to come, you can be sure of that.

The other is that at the end of last week (maybe Thursday?) I passed 1,000 miles in my car. Not bad for only having her for a few weeks! She’s about due for yet another bath… the highway really takes a toll on her.

Tags: Not Knitting by Kerin
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Man, i think I’m finally kicking this stupid sickness. I’m de-cruddifying my poor head.

But, this being spring, it’s time for the annual de-cruddification ritual known as spring cleaning. For me that means (dunh dunh DUUUUUUNNNHHHH) wash day!

Wash day for me is more than just laundry. It’s a giant orchestrated event that involves the hand-washing of every woolen and handwash only wearable I own all at once. It’s usually more than one day, since I only have so much drying space in my apartment. One day it’ll be summer viscose and rayon dresses, one day outerwear, one day sweaters, one day accessories. I always do this before packing things away for the summer; that and fresh mothballs make it all less likely to get attacked by carpet beetles.

Maybe this doesn’t sound like a lot, but I assure you – it is. I have probably 20 sweaters alone that are hand-wash only.

So, to facilitate this massive odorous exodus, One thing in particular needs to be ready – the tub. It’s where I do a lot of my laundry, and most of the time scrubbing the bottom is enough. But I decided, no, this year, I’m going to scrub the whole thing. It’s a molded shower-tub thing; standard apartment issue. I got down on my hands and knees (of all things, the night before I got sick), busted out the new scrubbies, and got to work.

Now, I’m not a dirty person. I don’t like dirty. Messy, well, that happens. But I don’t like dirty. So it might be surprising to note that in three and a half years in this apartment this is the first time I’ve scrubbed the whole shower/tub thing. So imagine my surprise when, after all was said and done, I discovered that my lowly shower had some features I wasn’t aware of. Mainly, it’s white. Here all these years I’d been convinced it was beige. Goes to show what a good case of denial can do for you.

Now that my shower is clean, I have to wash my blocking towels and get my living room cleared out. Once that’s done, I’m ready to dive in! I’m looking forward to it. Partially because I got some new Goodwill threads that are going to need a good washing.

Besides the shower, I managed to get most of my bedroom clean, and get a load of dishes done today. I took out four bags of garbage and three recycling (another is ready to go out). I cleaned out the fridge. It was a very productive day, though I didn’t actually get to about 50% of what I wanted to do.

I did, finally, get one thing set though. I’ve been using a Brita-on-tap for the past 5 years; the tap piece belonged to my old psycho roommate; she left it behind. But it’s been squirting and leaking for almost the last year, and I just couldn’t take it anymore, so I bought a new one.

I’m amazed, they come in black now! Anyway, when I took the old one off, it was disgusting. The plastic had wrinkled and contorted in the strangest ways, and there was muck and algae all over it. ::shiver:: All better now! And now with my kitchen clean, it was the perfect time to make cookies.

I can tell you it’s wonderfully liberating to have a clean house. It’s not done yet (is it ever?) but I’m getting there. It reminds me of why I like this place so much. It’s amazing just how big my apartment is when everything’s put away.

Well, that’s it for now. I will have all sorts of other fun stuff to chat about later. But I can’t think in a dirty house!

Tags: Not Knitting by Kerin
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