Holiday knitting 2014

I had five holiday knitting projects this year.  Only four of them are done as of yet but the one that isn't done isn't really holiday knitting so I'll forgive that one (baby blanket that I was hoping to have done by Christmas but it wasn't really a Christmas present).

Just going to start with the two pairs of socks today.  One pair is for Mom and one pair for Dad (links are to the Ravelry pages).  I'm a little envious of them because they live in a colder part of the country so nice warm socks are appreciated.  I tried one of them on just get get pictures of the cable stretched out better and it was way too warm for here and it was the middle of December.


The yarn is from Tanis Fiber Arts - Green Label Aran Weight in Ravine.  This particular color isn't a regular yarn from her store but was from one of her Etsy updates.  Fantastic yarn that I can't wait to use again.  I even had someone ask about it while I was knitting.  =)  The white pompoms and cord are Malabrigo from another project.

Working on something new

For my large dice bags, the possibility of something falling out hasn't bothered me.  In the 3+ years I've been using my bag, I've had one thing fall out of it (one of my size 1 double pointed needles that was just loose in the bag).  I heard it hit the ground but it was dark, I was in a rush and didn't realize what that ting was until I couldn't find my needle.

However, the small dice bags that are meant to be used for dice, this could be more of a problem.  The magnets don't seem as strong and dice like to spill everywhere in my experience.  The first small dice bags were meant for larger dice so not really a problem there.  But Bryan took my test bag and used it for his normal dice and it was questionable.  As long as he's careful, no problem.  But accidents do happen.

So, I thought of a built in drawstring bag within the dice bag.  In my mind, this is perfect.  The drawstring bag will make sure nothing falls out but it will still look like a d12.  Of course, it isn't done yet so no idea if it will work out as planned.  I've already come up with a couple of changes that I would like to make before offering them in my shop but I'm excited to see the prototype done and hopefully it will work as planned.

New dice bags!!

These are a smaller version of my previous dice bags so they are more appropriate for use as an actual dice bag!  I'm quite excited about them and I have an idea to make an inner bag which should make them even better as dice bags.  I have three more waiting to be made but I need to take a break from the sewing and get some knitting done.  I hope to be back at these soon though!

New costume page!

I finally got back and finished the page for Romana!  I can't believe it took that long for me to get back to it since it didn't take all that long to finish.  About four hours but I did take a break in there so maybe only three hours of actually working on it.

Finally done!

Now what to do next?

Yet more fabric!

I have taken all the pictures of the polyester fabrics I'm thinking of listing and I only have to edit the pics for two of the fabrics - for some reason, I stopped when I only had two left, not sure what I was thinking.  Then it's time to start listing them!  It's mostly blacks and whites at this point but there are some colors left.  I'm still having a hard time parting with some of them so there are some blues hanging out in the folder because I haven't been able to list them yet.

I think I might leave it with the polyesters though.  If I'm having trouble parting with them, I don't see how I will be able to let go of silk, wool, linen, cotton...  But I do have a crazy large stash so it would be good to scale it back.  It all depends on how well the polyesters sell.  It takes a lot of work to list the fabric and so far, it really hasn't been worth it.  Maybe once the rush for San Diego Comic Con is over I will feel more like taking the time but at the moment, I'm trying to finish knitting a sweater I started on Saturday.  Not my best plan ever but not my worst so I'm going with it.  =)

New items in the shop!

My fabric stash has gotten horribly out of hand.  There is just too much of it.  Whenever I feel like sewing, I see the mountain of fabric and feel like I should work on that when what I really want to work on involves buying more fabric.  So I end up not working on anything sewing related.  On the plus side, I have finished a decent amount of knitting.  Of course, the yarn stash is starting to get out of control as well.  But I will worry about that one later.

So, fabric is for sale in my shop!  I'm trying to get it up to 30 different pieces of fabric and then as soon as one sells, I will put another up.  That is the plan so far but I might decide to skip that plan and just put up as many as I can when I can.

However, I can't seem to figure out how to do shipping so I'm not out shipping money but don't overcharge.  If someone buys one by-the-piece fabric, then it's perfect.  I know shipping is right on what it is.  But if they buy 2 yards of by-the-yard fabric, I might be out or I might overcharge.  I wish there was a better way to do it but I've asked the buyers to contact me before buying multiples so I can tell them what the shipping would be.  Thinking of just raising prices and covering it myself but that leads to other problems as well.  So I will stick with this for now and hope it works out.

Check out the fabric!  And keep checking back as I add more!  =)

Almost there, and then no.

I had been writing a page for my Romana costume for awhile now.  It's a long page because the costume went through a few twists and turns before I finally finished it and took over two years once I really got started.  I noticed at some point that it wouldn't let me preview the page anymore but I kept adding to it, saving a lot just in case that preview bug meant something.  As it turns out, the preview bug meant it also wasn't saving and so I have to start all over.  I just can't bring myself to go through two years of entries again and find the pics and add the tables so it all looks right.  I will come back to it but for now, I will focus on happier things.

Like my new car!  I have been driving this lovely little MINI as much as possible the past two weeks and have been planning road trips just so I can go out more.  Where should we eat tonight?  Oh, how about that little restaurant that is 45 minutes away...  And Bryan and I do fight over who gets to drive.

Finished socks!

I finished the socks for Mom and Dad!  Mom's were such a quick and easy knit that they were great fun after working on Dad's.  Good to know that sometimes a quick project is possible since I tend to go for the crazy complicated ones.  Unfortunately, I kept forgetting to take pics during the day so the lighting was terrible when I had to take these in order to get them sent off the next day.

Dad's socks were interesting.  I had never done intarsia before and this was the first time I knit socks without a pattern.  It was an excellent challenge and I'm so glad Dad gave me the push to try it.  He said he wanted argyle socks and I couldn't find a pattern so I just went with it.  I really like the way they turned out.  Not quite the way I had planned but I like it.

I picked up my sweater again - got both sleeves done and started on the hood - when a baby shower invitation came in.  Well, I couldn't resist the temptation to knit something so I started that.  This sweater will get done someday!

Jayne hats!

Yes, I have finally managed to knit Jayne hats!  I tried several years ago but it didn't go too well.  At that point, I had only knit scarves and none of those scarves followed a pattern other than knit so many rows of this color (Doctor Who scarf ftw!).  I tried just winging it and I ended up with a hat that was closer to fitting my dog than a human.  I frogged it and haven't tried again since.

Now that I'm knitting socks and all kinds of somewhat crazy things, these hats actually turned out exactly the way I wanted them to!  It helps to have a really great pattern.  I think I could have come up with something that was recognizable as a Jayne hat but Keiyla's instructions were great.

I tried posting this about two weeks ago but couldn't get the pic to upload and now I'm not following any of the blogs that I had been...