Oh, was I supposed to knit, too?

The last couple weekends have been full of crafting, but there has been very little knitting. This is because I have had the same knitting project for the last month-and-a-bit, those friggin kilt hose, and while they are now SOCLOSE to being done, and will in fact be done for the upcoming weekend, there were other things that needed doing too. That I can't do in the car on the way to work. So.

Last weekend, I made a kilt. Kinda. Master Marksman wanted a kilt for the upcoming Rover/Venturer camp (aka Mardi Gras) for which the theme is the Highland Games. Understandable to want a kilt, then. He spent a lot of time wondering if it was worth it to go Utilikilt, and then decided to buy an iPod instead. Fair enough. He's used the iPod every day since he bought it; he would not have gotten the same kind of usage from a kilt. But that left him kiltless. So I said I'd make him one. All well and good. We went fabric shopping, bought fabric and a pattern for both a kilt and a shirt. And it sat in the livingroom until the weekend, when I started sewing. Originally, I was going to go kinda half-assed in the kiltmaking, and not pleat it "properly", and follow the costume pattern. But then I decided to make it look nice. So I ended up hand-pleating just about 5 yards of (not quite) tartan fabric.


And then I basted it.


And pressed it.


And tapered it from hips to waist.


Pressed it. And then sewed down EVERY SINGLE ONE of the pleats in the hip to waist stretch. About 8 inches or so.


There were occasions that I was sewing through about 14 layers of fabric at once, because of how the pleating worked out.


Yikes. Luckily, the sewing machine took it in stride. I'm going to make another one one of these days. Out of real wool.

And then I worked all week. Got maybe 10 rows of knitting in between working and dinner and Rovers and what-have-you. Turned heels on Friday night at Jenny's.

Yesterday I made the shirt to go with the kilt. It seemed to take longer than the kilt did, though it might just be because I actually used the pattern this time, and traced my pattern pieces instead of cutting them out directly, and did a little extra work on the seams... (all the torso seams are self-bound (maybe that's the right word? I basically turned a narrow hem with the seam allowance so there are no raw edges to get frayed or itchy)) It still needs a little work (and we need to find the buttons) but it looks good.



Today, I made the Prima Nocta Playset. One of the scavenger hunt items for MG is Prima Nocta. We joked about offering up Christina, but apparently it's too late for that. So the next best thing, of course, is a diorama. I love that I still have diorama-making opportunities... It's awesome. I was all set to be diorama making, with pipecleaner people and everything. There was going to be a castle cutaway, with a bed, mostly made of foamcore... And then I realized that before I could start drafting plans for furniture, I needed to make the actual figures first. One trip to the dollar store later, I had everything, set everything up, started crafting. And then... I finished making the people. And didn't really want to make a castle. And none of the Warhammer ones were the right size. Thus was born the playset. I made a quick cardboard and hot glue bed, with fabric scraps for bedlinens, and took everything outside to take pictures. Including the not-to scale Warhammer castle. Everything then got dumped into Photoshop, and the composite of 5 images gave me the front of a toy package. Glued onto a cereal box, with some text-only filler on the other 5 sides, I present:





It's going to be a giveaway to whoever is judging. They'd better like it.

Knitting will continue as scheduled for the rest of this week. I hope.

Ok, so I'm bad at posting. Like, kind of a lot. I apologize. Some things are new and some things aren't but I suppose it's time to proceed ahead. First of all, I managed to lose Marksman's socks. Like, absolutely, entirely GONE, including the bag they were in and the needles I was using. I'm not sure how I managed that, but nonetheless, it's how things stand. Oh well. Worse things have happened. I might still uncover them as I unpack boxes. Though I sort of doubt it, since I didn't find them when I was packing up. I have since started anew, with different yarn, and new needles (picked up by M, on a break from work in Victoria) and things are progressing much better this time. He picked the colour this time, so no more green, but grey instead. And amazing grey with purples and blues and greens and a hint of pink thrown in too.

See? I love the play of light and dark and mixed up-ness this yarn has. I've now finished the first sock, and I'm onto the second, because I picked up the Ender series again, and it's become "what I do on the bus", as opposed to knitting. I think I will get the second sock done anyways, as I 1) am knitting for someone else, and 2) have more sock yarn to contemplate. I have some green stuff from my aunt, and some "Lipstick Lava" Smooshy which will probably be something cable-y, and some koolaid-bright Araucania that Marksman got while he was picking up needles for me (smart, smart boy) and some Trekking XXL in a really bright colourway that I think will turn into more Jaywalkers. On top of this, I still have done no baby knitting, plus have incentive to get some REALLY nice kilt hose done by the end of the summer. The theme for Mardi Gras this year is the Highland games, and what're games with no hose? I think I am going to be busy. I also think that this is good.

Moving on. I was reminded of the spinning itch about a week ago, after finding my third bobbin, and have been doing some spinning too. (Another reason there is no knitting being done :p) I even took advantage of the sunshine yesterday to sit outside and ply, plus get a tiny bit of a tan at the same time. I was working with Wild Rose Fibres' Northern Lights in Grape Jelly. And while normally I'm not big on purple, this was really nice. I've decided that Merino is way better to play with that Corriedale. Way better. Easier to draft, nicer on the hands, a little more even to spin as well... So now I have about 115 yds of a 2-ply dk-ish weight in a blue-y purple-y mix, and no idea what to do with it. Other than give it back to my aunt, who gave me the fibre to begin with. Any ideas?

This:


turns into this:


and then this:


Oh, and since I've now managed to take pictures of the pink Jaywalkers, I might as well show them to you, too. (And by now, I mean NOW, as in I got up off my ass, grabbed The Feet and the socks and went outside and took pictures.) They would be tiptoeing through the tulips if I had tulips, or shoes that fit them.