Happy Halloween!

I taught a friend to sew today. We made a skirt for her Tinkerbell costume. The Wind Symphony is playing a concert tomorrow. The clarinets are dressing up as characters from Peter Pan.

Not pictured: Stephanie's AWESOME Tiger Lily costume. We did the whole thing by hand, not being in possession of a sewing machine. It's not exactly professional, but it will do!

May I suggest that you add some Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Icing to your Halloween festivities? These (like pretty much all the cupcakes I make) are from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. The only changes I made were to double the amount of powdered sugar in the icing to make it spreadable. I left some cupcakes plain because, well, that's all the icing I had, and I didn't expect us to eat them all, and I figured I'd just freeze the leftovers. Oh me of little faith, though I did send four to good homes, there is only one lonely cupcake left for me to eat tomorrow (and to be clear, I only ate one today!). It turns out that they are perfectly delicious without the icing after all!

Well, I haven't got any moors.....

.... but I'm pretty good at wandering.

Pattern: Wandering the Moor by Celeste Glassesl
Yarn: 3 skeins Berroco Ultra Alpaca in Buckwheat
Needles: US 5
Mods: I added one extra pattern repeat to the small size on each side of the shawl - two total - in an effort to use up every last bit of this yarn that has been lying around here for a year now.

You might want to get used to looking at this yarn. It will feature in a design of mine in a few weeks here, and if you recall, it is the same yarn as I used for my dad's Very Classy Vest about this time last year. I grossly overestimated the amount of yarn needed for his vest and have had a ton of it hanging around. Since I'm on a bit of a yarn diet, I'm making use of what I have. You will also be seeing another new design of mine with this "making use of what I have" idea in a few more weeks.

I think I got bit by the shawl bug after I finished the Box Office Shawl. I actually wore it, much to my surprise, though sadly not in the "date night" situation I was imagining. It's a great little thing to have around to throw on when you're a bit chilly but not cold enough to get another sweater. And it's good to take along substitute teaching because you can never be sure what the temperature of a classroom is going to be and it folds up to practically nothing. It's only as warm as you need it to be. This new shawl will get added to my arsenal. It's heavier, and therefore warmer, but the color is versatile and I like the geometric lace on the edging. The pattern is well written with lots of tips for customization. The only thing is, in a twist of irony, I wish I had more yarn, because I would have like for it to be bigger!

Central Park in the Woods

Doing a little happy dance - my first sweater of the season!

Pattern: Central Park Hoodie by Heather Lodinsky
Yarn: Classic Elite Skye Tweed in #1288
Needles: US 4 and 6
Mods: Lengthed the body by an inch and a half, shortened the sleeves by an inch.

Overall, I'm pretty excited about this sweater. It's very warm and cozy and perfect for the cold fall days we are having now. I am very glad that it's done though. I did not like knitting with the yarn. It's not springy, and it's very felty, and all in all the experience was not great. The yarn blooms a lot in the wash, which is pretty much the only thing that makes it wearable. It knits up almost like it's still in spinning oil or something, but without the oily feeling. The end fabric is quite dense and pleasingly soft while still having structure. In any case, I'm not sorry it's discontinued. I wouldn't use it again simply because it was very hard on my hands and not fun to work with, though the end fabric is nice.

The one disappointment about this sweater, which fits very well otherwise, is that I wish I had lengthen it even more. In these photos, I have it pulled down quite a bit. I wore it all day yesterday, and found that I was constantly tugging it down. I should have made the body about 3 inches longer in total than the pattern calls for instead of an inch and a half. I'll save those notes for another time, I guess.

On to other projects, and I have a few hangin around that are near completion!

A Quick Note

Just thought you might like to stop by M&S, a new blog started by my friend Sarah and me. We have been wanted to do a co-project for a long time, and finally decided to set one up. The parameters are pretty loose right now, but the idea is to stay connected to each other and to our creative spirirts. We'd love to have you stop by!

Socktober

Are you doing it? Kirsten Kapur's Mystery sock knitalong for Socktober Fest? Join in the fun!