I'm a student!

Well if 3 Sundays in a row at a community college county as being a student, well then I am. I just enrolled my self in a beginning millinery class over in Redwood City (bit of a drive) for the end of Jan. to Feb 10th! Yeah I get to learn how to use hat blocks. Not that I could ever afford them, but hey I'm pretty hand with wood tools. Like that'll ever happen....
But aside from the hellacious week, it's the weekend. My big plans are to make a fruitcake and hopefully some of my fabulous raspberry jam. I've been sitting on frozen raspberries since the end of the season in August, and man is my freezer ever full. It's not only berries in there though. There's a butt load of plums from last year that I never jammed, and I should try try try and get to those this weekend also. I can't wait the kitchen is going to smell so yummy.
In other endeavors, the purselette to match the hat, well she is finished. Aside from the chain handle that is. Next time, perhaps pictures. The husbeast took the wonderful USB of Gimp~togo away from me, but has promised to give it back eventually (you know when he's done with it) . Perhaps the weekend will give good promise of light. Lord knows the evenings are rather lacking lately.
Ahhh I am still listless, I think that may be the term that applies to my mood. I'm trying though. Soon I shall be back to normal. I believe a bit of this is to be blamed on my ho hum attitude to the change is holidays. It's just soooo sudden, really the day after All Hallow's Eve they were putting up the Christmas favors, and I'm just not ready. Really though that's like 2 months of Christmas, not 12 days.!
Cheers and go have a good snog this weekend, I insist!

I got nothin'

So ironies of ironies, my bff emails me, yeh you know who you are, and she's all 'Everything alright' ~Since I've been so quiet lately. Just in case I was being too quiet, all is well. I'm still a little mopey but a lot of it has to do with the Allergy meds. It's either an allergy or the onset of a cold that just has me pooed! The ironic part of this is that she hasn't even written a word in like ever... but that's just my little jab from where I sit. Now if only I could remember where I left my little inter-spacial-dpn's to poke her with at her desk. Wouldn't that just be great. You could poke someone in the hand with a little knitting needle through your computer screen... oh just so you know I'm claiming the copyright on that little invention.

I've been busy. The kind of busy where I had house guests, moved the last motorcycle from the old roomies ! Woohoo. Oh and if you ever think it's a great idea to marry a man with 4 motorcycles, and none of them work; well um, yeah, at least mine still works. And then there's the finished capelett, which has been blocked and is beautiful. I also made a pair of elbow length mittletts, which I call the uber mitts, in the same yarn. As the hat is made just as yet not photographed, well I'm a slacker. Reason being is that I'm working on a matching purse (to the hat) and want to get it done and right before I shoot them all.
In other words I slack big time.
I must say that one of the highlights this weekend was Dickens Faire, over at the Cow Palace in the city. I always get lost going around and around and through the rooms. From the moment I got out of the car up until the last moment we were leaving, it seems as though I got nothing but compliments on the latest hat. Oh and have I mentioned that the pheasant plume on it was sooooo tall that it tends to bend in door frames! Seriously tall. I felt as though I couldn't move my poor head much under it though. I am rather glad it had a test run before the ball, as I found out that all the accoutrement made the topper a bit off. It needs a comb to better stay in the hair. And I experimented with loops of elastic instead of a head band, and well it needs a comb. I hate having to adjust the poor little bugger all day long. Aside from all the great booths and neat people I really like Dickens. Finding a proper dress for Dickens may prove to be difficult. What can I say, I'm just a Renn Faire reject! Oh and we accomplished our goal of finding and purchasing the most wonderous and most perfectous leather masks for the Ball. Mine is white and a bit feathery in design. The husbeast though, gah, gorgeous workmanship. I've been eyeing this proprietor's work for the better part of 10 years, and am proud to have a handmade mask from Peekaboo masks. Unfortunately the man doesn't have a web address, but he is always to be found at a Nor Cal Faire.
I promise to be back with picts. I'm just so tired and lazy, and making excuses. Soon though, soon.
I need to get going on a few more hats also, as I'm sure the young gentleman is looking for his, and well who knows who else out there requires a mini topper of my creation.
Cheers anon til then.

Welcome Back

Hope all had a lovely Thanksgiving. It certainly was nice having 4 days to do things, and nothing. Sooo, back to traditional work. I'm going to go mope... but have a great day otherwise.

And now for something new.

When I say new, and something; well they refer to me finally grasping the concept of short rows. Yes the elusive short row is now a comprehension of mine. And get this, I finally get short rows. Hey did I mention that short rows are something I can mark off my list of something to comprehend. Yeh, great.

Evidence of short rows.... it's one of two under ruffles on the capelet. And yes the second underuffle would mean that the capelet would be nearly an FO. Only nearly because there are still a slew of ends that need tucking in. I had a shot of the collar w/ me in it, but unfortunately I deleted said pict, and yes it was cute. But there will be more.

Besides knitting on the capelett like mad, I also made my mum a pair of matching mittletts and Sweet Mary Janes. Sooo cute, and both such easy knits.

Done just in time for her birthday and her trip up to my brothers for Thanksgiving. They should be there in just about an hour's time. Gosh I bet it's real cold up there now. It was freezing when the husbeast and I were there for Hallow's Eve. But what's one to do but recognize the sheer beauty of winter in all it's great coldness. Just that many more sweaters one can bundle themselves up in.

We're off to the husbeasts parents house, always good food and great company. I still remember the first time I went over there to meet them, his dad pulled out a huge binder of scavenged and rummaged images of communes throughout the 60's that he's still compiling. They are strange hippy Christians ... but very nice folk.

Hope everyone else enjoys their Thanksgiving. (that is if I don't come back before then).

Cheers for now.

Is it my turn yet?

Ah the struggles for sanity. You know, the personal kind. The kind where you contemplate the benefits of a career and/or a family. Timing is a key element to this whole thing that revolves in my mind. The questions of timing are what keep me on my toes. When, how the hell do I ..., and to what. If I want a career in a particular field of art, just where the hell does one begin. Of course the right answer is with a portfolio. Well I'm working on that one slowly but surely. I need to have more deadlines, harsher critiques on myself, and eventually perhaps some classroom time to hone the particular techniques I lack.

I envision tables of dyed and felted fabrics, wool with silk, or even forms to shape the fabrics to... So much to be done but again it's time that seems to elude me and mock my efforts. It's times like these that I feel like *just a crafter*. Times like these that I prefer to be a creator, a maker, an artist in a world that needs designing. I want to be that eccentric, you know the older woman with the wild hair and curious outfits. I want to be the one that identifies something different in the world and marks it as something familiar and like-kind.

My husbeast is precious. He is strong for me, and he is rather giving for reasons I can't quite put into words. I feel as though he will be able to afford me the time and space needed to get these ideas out of my head and into the real world. He is patient with my Filbert-gibberty manners. He is precious and pushy when need be. If only he knew just how adored...

But here I am to bring you the latest news in my current millinery endeavors. This is la petite chapeau styled for the Venetian Ball coming up in December for the husbeasts outlandish software company. It is still as yet unblocked, and unstyled. But alas ze is sewn. I do swear that the hardest bit is the back seaming. I finally figured that if I angled the fabrics that I would get a straight seam. Still it took a bit of fidgeting and well it is just about spot on when it comes to the lines meeting up. But that's nothing a little stylization, and some ribbon would come in to benefit. I believe I trim this one in browns, so as best to match the dress. And I am still as yet undecided about what else to adorn it with. Perhaps some pheasant plumes and certainly some vintaged brass would be lovely. I like the way the the framed hat is horridly mad hatter like. Right now there's just some cardboard for rigidity. So we'll see how the final piece comes out in the end.

I still have all those little cotton mushrooms I need to put onto something. Or things I should say, as there are 50 to a package. Yoinks so many!

Tonight I may finally get my truck back from the body shop. Again this is where I shake an angry first at the stupid flock of turkeys!

And also I finally get to knit downtown. You should have seen me jonesin' last week, all just to knit in public.

Cheers and here's to a good nights sleep tonight *crosses fingers*

The proof is in the Pudding...

Mmmmm, pudding. Have I ever mentioned that I love Tapioca pudding. It's my absolute favorite. All those little bubbles of squishyness, yum.
But this really isn't about pudding is it now.
So what you see here is evidence of my knitting related injury. Yes it's true I have shoulder-itis. Ah so painful. But I have used 5 balls and am onto the 6th which is depleting faster and faster as this monster grows. It really is a quick knit.
But sadly last night I hurt so much from knitting on this the previous evening, that I had to pick up a needle and thread and begin on the hat for the ball. As evidenced by my horrible phone pict, yes these two items are relatively the same color. The hat, ahhhh how I love the fabric I found for it. It's just so wonderful and such a color that I find peaking out all over my house. At first this was to be vertical stripes that would find themselves coinciding on the brim, top, and the vertical part. But alas big, thick, chunky stripes don't like to converge in nice, pretty lines when they need to be sized down considerable from the top of the hat to the base. So sadly I cut another piece of precious fabric and placed the stripes horizontally, which really does work for me still. As you may see from the pict, I am at my stopping ground, as I had reached the back seam to la petite chapeau. They are always the most difficult to manipulate. But fantastically the sewing has gone rather quickly, as it's nearly finished from one nights work. I would estimate that a hat may truly take 3 nights to construct. Damn this day job!
And soon my loverlies I may have real picts to show again. The husbeast had a wonderful epiphany the other evening when I was whining to him how he's rather ruined my computer (he did warn me not to move it into the home with him...) and he realized that he had a computer program that I could take to work with me and use it also on my home computer. It's called Gimpshop ToGo. And it's a free plug in that doesn't require any software to be installed onto one's work computer. When I'm done with the pict I'm working on, I just save it to the little card-thingy, and go home, viola, c'est fin! So this GIMP program is just like Photoshop, but not as easy to navigate, but it's free so if you can't afford the $$$$ for photoshop, or don't have a hacker friend (hey wait I married one!...) then you can use this great program. There are help books out there to give aid when using the program also. I believe the link provided may give anyone interested enough info...but if not don't ask me, I just do what the husbeast demands. (Well, he doesn't really give me a choice now does he when it comes to actually buying software, now does he.)

a hat for all seasons.

It was another eventful weekend around East Bania here. For one I finally got to go shopping for some essentials. Essentials like material for my Venetian Ball hat. Did I mention that the husbeasts company is throwing a Ball in the big city on the 8th of December... at a rather fabulous hotel, very riche and posh. Thankfully he gave me the invite immediately and now I am finally preparing. Being in the style of a Venetian Ball, that means we get to dress in fancy costumery! Something I absolutely adore. He's leaning towards being a penguin, the Linux goofball that he is, and well I'm aiming for some sort of winter inspired woodland creation.

So far my colors are a periwinkle/slate palette. And the dress is being shipped as we speak. Joy. I decided Saturday that I CAN and I will make the Casual Glamour Capelet I've been eyeing for so long. So I went shopping at Article Pract in Berkeley, and grabbed 13 skeins of the most softest and most glorious yarn I have yet to knit with. It's 100% Baby Llama, in a worsted weight. It's also a newer yarn,

See that, that's Mirasol Miski yarn from Peru, in shade 101, which is very winter in color, and very pale, and very pretty. The great thing about this company is that proceeds from the purchase (well some of them) go to educating the kids of the village it hails from and making a new school for them.

I've gone through 2.5 of the 13 skeins necessary to make this, but since I started it on Sat. and it's now Mon. I believe that's a great start. *crosses fingers* The pattern for the capelet is super easy, just knits and purls and some YO, and eventually some short row shaping. Aside from grabbing the yarn Sat. I went and spent a pretty penny for a yard of fabric that I believe may be perfect for the matching hat. Picts to follow.

And then,.....

Dicken's begins on the 23rd of Nov. You know, Dickens just like Renn Faire, but in Edwardian garb! And the mask maker will be there, and I'm dragging the husbeast along so we can grab a few leather masks for the Ball.

Yes and now I realize that I have nothing better in my life than to plan for future events. Oh well, at least I have fun preparing for them in the mean time. Well nothing else, besides replanting my garden from the old house into the front yard of the new house. I think it looks great, and everything will grow in rather pleasingly.

Cheers for now. Happy knitting.