Happy Hallowe’en, bitches!
I need to post about the wedding – but it’s not happening tonight. I’m busy knitting and watching Dark Shadows, and avoiding trick-or-treaters. (We didn’t have any last year, so I’m not expecting any this year. But I’m not a huge fan of children, so I’m hoping they don’t show up. Leaving the lights off is supposed to be the universal symbol of “no candy here, bitches, or at least none for YOU” right?) Anyway, but I thought I’d post the little ghosties I felted and sent to my sister, Susan. Pre-felting:
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Post-felting
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I used Misty Green’s Bitty Boo pattern from MagKnits.
We just got back from Danny’s & Michel’s wedding in Richmond – it was fucking fantastic, but I am wiped, so I’ll post about it later. Sorry.
Susan – in answer to your question, um, I like just about any really sweet wine, especially dessert wines. The less it tastes like wine and the more it tastes like cordial, or Arbor Mists, or just straight up fruity bullshit, the more I love it. My all-time favorites are the Yalumba Museum Reserve muscat (which, to me, tastes like raisins, maple syrup, and toffee) and tokay (I want to say it was Disznoko Tokaji Aszu, but don’t hold me to it). All the Carolina fruit wines I’ve had, I liked – Hinnant Strawberry, Duplin Scuppernong, Duplin Blackberry, Chatham Hill Sweet Carolina Pomegranate (what I was drinking last night, although I don’t know that it’s really sweet). There you go.
GAGG: 32.25 miles
So last Saturday I got started resizing that pattern. The first thing I did was cut out the pattern pieces, trace them onto butcher’s paper, and then cut those pieces out.
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I transferred the pattern markings onto my new pieces, and then I marked them up for cutting, dividing them more or less into quarters (widthwise). (They don’t have “proper” shoulders, just those points, so I put the shoulder line through there, and the other lines so that they cut either side of the shoulder line into rough halves.)
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I vowed this weekend to cut them up. When I looked at the pieces, I realized I’d marked the sleeve piece up wrong, so I re-marked it. Then I cut up the pieces and, with some liquid courage* to help me, I resized them.
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But now that I’m posting this, I realize that I should have added 1.5″ to the front and back pieces, since they’re each half the actual front and back – I added three inches to each, which will add six inches total, when I only need three. Damn. I guess I had a little too much liquid courage, eh, but I wouldn’t have actually cut them up otherwise. Oh well. I’ll wait til I’m less tipsy and re-do them. At least now I’ve had practice, and while it’s a little fiddly, it’s not that bad.
*Pomegranate wine for tonight’s purposes – I’m not looking to get sloppy, just for a little bucking up.
GAGG: 31.25 miles
We’ve decided not to go to the State Fair this year – it’s just not convenient. I’m not as sad about this as I expected I’d be – maybe because I was the one to suggest skipping the Fair. We’ve got a wedding to attend in Virginia next weekend, and since Greg’s a groomsmen, we need to get him a shirt this weekend. And we were planning on going to the Fair on Friday, but the car’s idiot light has been coming on, so we might need to take the car to the dealership Friday and figure out what’s going on. It would really suck to have the car break down in Virginia, or on the way there or back.
Oh. my. GOD! UGH!
Stupid Durham water.
We have no water. None. No. Water.
I’m so pissed. We got home around 10:30pm, and noticed some water/sewage trucks in the neighborhood – one a little ways up the street one way from us, and about two or maybe three more down on Old Sugar. When we got in the house, we noticed our water pressure was low. Midnight-thirty rolls around, we’re thinking about going to sleep (if we can get to sleep with the water company ruckus outside, that is – it sounds like they’re fucking tearing up the street). I want some water – it’s barely trickling out. I get, like, a mouthful of damn water in my glass of ice, and make do, thinking, “Oh well, I can wait for the ice to melt.” A little while later, Greg goes to get some water – nothing comes out of the spigot but some blurbling noises. No fucking water.
I decide it might be more prudent to call the company, rather than interrupt the guys in the street to find out what’s going on. (Also, I’ve been having some mad diarrhea tonight, so not being able to flush SUCKS.) The lady answering the phones calls the guy in charge who tells her it’s going to be a couple more hours, and then hangs the fuck up on her. Nice.
I would’ve thought they might, you know, tell people *before* they cut off the water. Just to give us a head’s up or something. Or, you know, maybe even after they cut it off, just to be nice and all, “Hey guys, uh, you don’t have any water, here’s why.” But nope.
I am so fucking thirsty. GOD. And I don’t even want to think about whether I’ll need to use the toilet again tonight. Jesus christ. (Greg is offering to go to the store to get us some water, but I think that’s lame.) What the fuck are they doing out there, and why do they have to be doing it at almost one o’clock in the goddamn morning. I mean, sure, if our water turned off by itself, by all means, come out and fix it. But it seemed to be fine until THEY TURNED IT OFF! What the fuck. And if I have to call in to work tomorrow all, “I couldn’t sleep because the water company…” I will be livid. Better be some damn water soon. So thirsty. And all we have in the house is milk, soymilk, and alcohol. I’m not trying to get shitfaced, and I just can’t drink milk or soymilk. Wanh wanh wanh. Water! I knew I liked it, but I guess I didn’t realize what a luxury it was to have water running out of the taps.
In the meantime, I’m going to wait for that damn ice to melt.
I’m also referring to this resizing tutorial. And the “grid thingy” we have is totally a “cardboard cutting surface with one-inch grid.”
Shit. That tute says I’ll need a French curve. Let’s hope I don’t really need it too much, since there aren’t any darts, and I only need to add like an inch or two to the pattern. (If I do end up needing it, I guess I’ll just have to find it.)
I feel all productive today and shit. I got alot of laundry done, worked on some knitting, cleaned my craft room (I mean, it’s not immaculate now, but it’s a damn sight better, much cleaner), and I’m about to start cutting up a pattern to size it up a bit. Go me!
In knitting news, I’ve been working on some Halloween surprises, and still plugging away at old projects still on the needles – but I also started a new ribbed v-neck sweater, from some old pattern I had in my stash. It looks like this pattern is out of print – it’s from Swedish Yarn Imports (in Jamestown, of all places – I’ve never heard of them before), in Carisio yarn, which they don’t seem to have any more. Anyway, I started it because I was itching to use my James C. Brett Marble yarn, and I wanted something relatively easy that I ought to be able to finish before it gets really cold here. Since it’s finally started to get a little chilly. (And the key words here are “ought to be able to finish.” I don’t have any delusions about my short knit-project attention span, but I’m really trying to make a concerted effort to finish this sweater, and then finish the rest of my languishing projects, before I start anything else for myself. We’ll see, right.) Here’s the back, so far:
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I also got a free pattern from Vogue – that was pretty awesome. I don’t know how long they’ll be giving them away, but you pay $3 shipping, and get a free pattern (excluding designer patterns, Marfy, out-of-print – I think that might be all the excluded patterns). Anyway, it’s pretty sweet, and I picked out a Vintage Vogue pattern on Tuesday, and got it today. Score!
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So, I’ve been meaning to finally get around to re-sizing sewing patterns for a while, but I’ve been a wimp about it because it’s a little daunting to just start cutting up patterns (or traced pattern pieces, I guess) and whatnot. But I’ve finally determined to just fucking do it (thanks in large part to Tiffianna’s bolstering me up about it, and giving me pointers). I had a dress pattern in mind, and asked Tiffianna what to do about darts, when you increase the bodice pieces. She explained it very well, but 1-I’m still a bit nervous, and 2-even though I just cleaned the craft room today, I focused mainly on getting my yarn stash back under control* and neatening my closet, so I’m not exactly sure where my French curve is. I could probably find it pretty quickly if I looked, but I decided to cut myself some slack and start with an easier, dart-free pattern. So I’m making the Built By Wendy top from Simplicity 3835. (The dress appears to have something dart-like on the back, or I’d do a dress, since I’m all about dresses right now.) The pattern I have goes up to a size 20, which has a bust measurement of 42 inches; the finished bust measurement (including ease) is 45.5 inches. My bustline is 45 inches, so I’m going to cut this bitch up and give myself a little more breathing room. Awesome. I’ve got the pattern, I’ve got some butcher’s paper, scissors, a sewing grid thingy (I’m not sure what they’re called, but we got it to use for D&D, even though it was *meant* for pattern making/adjusting, and I’m going to use it), and I’m just going to go for it. I’ll let you know how it turns out, but it can’t be that hard, right.
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*I originally pulled out a ton of my stashed yarn and dumped it on the floor in front of my computer, thinking this would motivate me to record it on Ravelry. And it did, for a while, but then I lost steam, and still had the damn yarn out. So I’ve put it up, and also put up some boxes I moved around to get to the yarn in the first place – trust me, it’s much neater, much cleaner, more floorspace, shit actually in the place it belongs. It’s hot.
