A Penelope day

Remember Penelope, from Greek mythology? She was Odysseus' wife, left behind while he went off to Troy and was away for twenty years. She was under quite a lot of pressure to re-marry, as Odysseus was 'presumed dead', but Penelope was a cunning lady herself and managed to play for time. Her strategy was to announce that she would choose another husband only after she had finished weaving a shroud in memory of Odysseus, and every day she worked on her loom. And then every night she unpicked her day's work.

I was reminded of Penelope when I spent all last evening crocheting a hat, only to realise when I finished it that I had made a mistake in the second round, thus completely ruining the stitch count and size, and so had to unravel the entire. darn. thing.

Look up in the sky! It's a UFO! It's a WIP! It's... way too many projects

WIPs:
- Knitted Alpaca scarf - Still about halfway.
- Crocheted Scarf for Mum - A quarter of the way.
- About to begin tracing off shirt patterns for Mum and me, as we are both in DESPERATE NEED of tops. This has taken Total Priority over any other projects atm. Functional clothing is needed.
- Blue/green top - finished all sewing, but one side of the neck came out longer than the other, so a gathering thread needs to be put in.
- Navy skirt - still needs waistband finishing
- Light blue blouse - fronts and back cut out but not sleeves

 
Recently finished:
- Blue/green crochet hat - Made from Cleckheatons California 8 ply in Ocean.
- Grape wristwarmers - Made from the leftovers of the grape hat.


 
UFOs, temporarily abandoned while I think about the direction these projects are taking:
- Doll's Kimono - Made from Bendigo Classic 5 ply wool, in Butternut (a sort of apricot colour). Back and fronts done, tried on two dolls and it has come out way way WAY too long, also the wrong shape... yeah, stuff it.
- Slip-rib tunic - Decided to start over with a different pattern, as I like everything except the shape, which is, y'know, a pretty big problem.
- Navy jacket, White shirt, Wool skirt - all temporarily put aside.

Current activities

 In a rush, so just a quick run-down of what the current projects are:

Knitting:
- Alpaca scarf - Made from 3 balls of an alpaca boucle that's been floating around for a while, in a 3 by 3 rib stitch. About halfway.
- Doll's Kimono - Made from Bendigo Classic 5 ply wool, in Butternut (a sort of apricot colour). Back done and half one front.
- Doll's Welsh outfit - done
- Slip-rib tunic - UFO

Crochet:
- Scarf for Mum - Made from Bendigo Classic 2 ply wool in Cherry Red. About... 5 inches done.
- Doll's Welsh hat - done
- Blue/green hat - yet to start

Dressmaking:
- Navy skirt - still needs waistband finishing
- Navy jacket - cut out but not sewn
- Light blue blouse - fronts and back cut out but not sleeves
- White shirt - stuck at the collar which doesn't seem to fit the neck
- Blue/green top - cut out, marked and pinned
- Blue green skirt - done
- Wool skirt - still figuring out how to do the yoke

Recent baking:
- Butterscotch brownies
- Survival bikkies
- Lemon curd

Updates

So. Damn. Cold.

I know it's winter here, but still, it's supposed to be the sub-tropics. It just shouldn't be this cold, is all.

Wall-hangings for the twins are proceeding apace - i.e. they are done apart from the actual calligraphy. All dressmaking is on hold until I get them done - I need all the daylight I can get!

Doll costumes continue - the Welsh doll outfit is taking more time than expected because I've redone the shawl at least 3 times already. Still, I think I've got it figured out now.

An unexpected crochet hat happened the other day. I blame the yarn fumes. California 8ply 100% wool in colour 'Storm' (which is green and purple, go figure). From the stash, though, so it was stashbusting, not startitis. (It's important to keep these things straight.) And I'm thinking of doing a pair of wristwarmers in the leftovers.

It's ideal weather for baking, so chocolate biscuits might be happening sometime soon. No more muffins just yet though - we still have quite a few in the freezer.

RL is not good just now...

...so I don't know how regularly I'll be able to update. I seem to be attending a lot of funerals just now.

However, the silver and gold skirts are done and sent off, so they're out of the way.

The vest is done and blocking, and I've started knitting the Slip-Rib Tunic from Patons 1210. Yarn is Zhivago in deep red colour.

Hope you are all well.

Silver lining

Silver skirts are DONE! Bound the hems with polyester interlock - 1m was plenty - cut into 1.25 inch strips across. Using a rotary cutter and mat to cut the strips made it go so much more quickly than using scissors - more even, too! I co-opted a volunteer to try on a skirt and the length seemed fine, so hopefully the same will be the case for all of them.

I'm about to try mending the frayed bits and opened seams on the gold skirts. Since they were made out of lame/lurex about 7 years ago, and have been worn in a number of theatrical productions since... they're in bad shape. Mostly the fabric is fraying too badly for me to do much good mending them, but I'll have a go so I can say I have.

Rainy Days vest is almost done - coming down on the far side of the button band now, with only a few inches left. Then I'll need to find some buttons. Unfortunately, the pattern doesn't say anything about blocking after finishing, and it's going to really need it as all the 'rib' bands are curling like blazes.

Forgot to say...

I realised after yesterday's post I'd forgotten to mention a few of the recent lot of creative pursuits. So without further ado, they are:

1. The 'Rainy Days and Mondays' vest from 'Crochet Today!' - using Bamboo Ewe (wool/bamboo blend aran weight). I'm up to the bottom band, halfway through that, and then it'll be time for the button band/collar. It's required MANY samples and test swatches for stitch, tension and just about everything else as well. But it seems to be going fine now. (Touch wood.)

2. 'So this isn't Home Sweet Home - Adjust' cross-stitch designed by Joan Elliott. Features a lot of teddy bears doing cute but destructive things all over a traditional 'home sweet home' style sampler. Very funny and although it is quite large, it breaks down nicely into smaller motifs of 1-2 bears. Almost halfway on this (although in the interests of full disclosure I should point out that it's been sitting around for over a year with almost this much done).

3. Researching a costume to make and wear to the Abbey Medieval Tournament and/or History Alive events. Having temporarily given up on the full-skirted medieval gown, I'm looking at doing an Anglo-Saxon style outfit, using this:


as inspiration, more or less (I have a black-and-white version of this picture in a costume book, but couldn't find it online). For a better idea of the style, go here and look at the Anglo-Saxon lady half-way down the page.


Meanwhile, the silver skirts have all been cut out. They did all fit on that piece of fabric - worth remembering that circles can be cut out more economically than squares - but I'm now a bit worried they may be a bit short. As I don't have heights for the ladies, I'll just have to see how things go - worst case scenario there is a fair bit of fabric left over, so maybe I can fudge lengthening them. Also, they need binding with black at the bottom hem, so maybe I can use that to lengthen a trifle. 5 skirts are now ready for binding/lengthening, 4 still to go. I may yet throw them on a bonfire.

She returns

So, He Who Provides A Shoulder told me to get back to doing this (probably because he doesn't want to hear about it). So here I am, back again!

Life's been hectic, but at least it's changed from a moving-house sort of hectic to more of a spinning-around-in-circles kind.

Also, the camera is out of action at present. This will hopefully be remedied soon. Putting batteries in would be a start.

But without further ado, a brief summary of things since I last updated:

Solomon's shrug: DONE! Also I made another one in navy Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo. VERY nice.

Medieval doll's dress: Abandoned. The fabric just wasn't doing what it needed to in terms of drape etc. The polycotton poplin was definitely too stiff. Linen or wool would obviously be better, but Pricey! Anyway, I achieved my goal of trying out the medieval dress cutting/sewing diagram and now have a better idea of how it works for a adult.

Navy skirt: Um. No progress. Definitely will get it done soon though.

Baking: Belgian Chocolate Cake made successfully and to rave reviews. Very complicated to make though; I don't think I'll be doing it too often.

I also signed up to help make costumes for my favourite local theatre group who are doing a 60s theatre restaurant. This is what's currently driving me round the bend (in a good way, mostly).

First off was making 16 tulle petticoats - I used the tutorial here for the construction except that I didn't sew the fabric yoke into a tube as I didn't have hip measurements and wanted to make sure people could get into them. Polycotton poplin yokes (Spotlight) and the stiffest, plainest, cheapest tulle/netting I could find (Lincraft), with 1/4inch elastic. I also tied the elastic in a knot so people can adjust if needed.

Now I need to make 9 silver satin circular skirts to match the 7 existing gold skirts. Requested 11.7 metres of fabric, was presented with 10 (all they had on the bolt). Which means, according to my calculations, that I'm going to get 7.5 skirts out of this length, and then hopefully I'll be able to match the stuff or I'll have to get enough for a full two skirts. One skirt is made already, so I'm planning to get the cutting out all done this afternoon, and then see where I am. (There's always a chance my calculations may be a bit off...)

Anyway, I'll keep you posted. Hopefully I can edit this later to add pictures.

WIPs

So yesterday was surprisingly productive. (It did rain, but only for ten minutes.)

I worked on the Solomon's Shrug

No, it's not finished. That's the amount I got done out of one ball (Sirdar Juicy). AND it finished the yarn at the end of a row!

I also worked on the Full-skirted Medieval Dress:

which I've been working on for a couple of months, on and off. The instructions are from Medieval Costume and How to Recreate it. Please note I said 'instructions' not 'pattern'. There is a diagram on page 99 of the book showing how you layout the fabric and manipulate it, but a lot is left up to the dressmaker to interpret.

I'm hoping to make one to wear to the Abbey Medieval Festival in July (I go every year, it's awesome, if you're in the area check it out) but I thought I'd better make sure I wasn't going to stuff it up hugely and waste a lot of fabric, so I made a doll's version first, which is being modelled here by Kim. Please make her welcome.

Here's another picture of the dress which shows more of the skirt:

It is an ENORMOUS skirt. A full circle reaching down to the floor is a LOT of fabric. The good thing is that the actual yardage to buy isn't that much, since there's some pretty impressive cutting and piecing going on.

And in other news:

The skirt waist has been gathered and the waistband is pinned on ready to sew. The colour is actually a very dark navy - imagine a blue-black. The pattern is from No Time To Sew, with a few alterations. (Like shortening it by 5" and tapering the panels in an extra 6" at the waist and even then it needs extra gathering. And yes, I did make the smallest size.)

Next up, hopefully I'll be finishing these off. Although, there's always the next project to start on...

Electronics with issues

My camera is telling me it's low on battery. It just got new batteries. Telling it this is having little effect as yet, but I will persevere.

My card reader has developed separation issues. It will only work with my laptop if I hold it in place the entire time it's plugged in. The moment I release my hand, it's gone.

Pictures will therefore appear as and when the technology permits.

The Solomon's shrug progresses unfrogged (mostly), although it is now being created from one sleeve edge to the other, instead of bottom to top as the pattern says. I consider the pattern forfeited all rights to telling me what to do when I realised that following its instructions as written would have resulted in a 40cm square piece of crochet. Given that the measurements given are 90cm from sleeve hem to sleeve hem... yeah. You see the problem.

Please note I am not blaming the designer for the error. I am quite sure that in her pattern all the instructions are correct and would indeed result in a shrug exactly like the one pictured. I am, however, choosing to believe that in formatting it for the crochet magazine in which it appeared about 2 years ago, some errors were introduced. (I will leave the crochet magazine nameless. They have since been taken over by new people - I don't want to blame them for the errors of their predecessors.)

This afternoon I am definitely going to get on to the skirt. Unless it rains again.

A little diversion into crocheting

So, I know I was going to do the gathering stitches around my skirt today, but the weather is still overcast, and besides, I started this

last night.

The yarn is Juicy by Sirday (I heard it was discontinued but not certain about that) and the pattern is Solomon's shrug by Jenny King. I'm having to learn the Solomon's Knot stitch - which, let me tell you, is not as hard as the instructions always make it look. Either that or I'm doing it wrong.

I do realise that starting a lacy summer shrug is probably not the most sensible project coming into Autumn. In my defense, I meant to start this months ago, but - and I swear this is true - I could only ever find ONE of the yarn or the pattern at a time. As soon as I found the yarn - WHOOSH - the pattern disappeared. Crafty gremlins - literally.

I'm just a bit worried though. It's supposed to be knit bottom to top, forming a rectangle 90cm wide by 40cm long. What I've produced so far is about 40cm wide. Either the pattern or I are in trouble. Possibly both.

I'll be taking it to the Oracle of All Things Crochet and Most Other Crafts, aka my mother, to get it checked this afternoon.