Woah December!

I thought I had had a grip on things.  The fall decorations came down the day after Thanksgiving, much to the chagrin of my cat.

Gifts were already stashed away for holiday giving.  Stocking stuffers were bought.  And then Husband had foot surgery.  I lost a solid two weeks in a flash of doctor appointments and end of year plan making.
We've had snow:

For the first time ever, we had to go buy a snow shovel!
It's also easier to see what animals hang around our house, mostly birds at this point.

Clothing picked for various seasonal shindigs has been thematic in it's color scheme:

I also knit a hat for a cause:

Now, there are a couple of days to knit, drink hot chocolate, and eat all sorts of lovely things.

Merry Everything to you and yours!

Happy Day Before Thanksgiving!

Or, as it's known outside the United States, happy Wednesday in late November!

Things have been a bit busy, what with potlucks and the like.  Which is why I only realized a couple of days ago that I was going to need to start thinking about my winter seasonal decor.  After a mild bout of panic, I pulled out a bunch of my winter embroidery patterns and got this one in the hoop.

It's the Winter Ambigram  from Urban Threads.  (Please excuse the poor lighting in all the photos as we are due for our first decent snow of the season, all light is currently gray.)  I'm hoping to get it done in a couple more days.

After having to rip out the Erica that was too big, I needed a palette cleanser.  I ripped out a hat that I had made too small and re-purposed the yarn into some Olivia mitts.

The yarn is Maverick Fiber Company DK in the Sedona colorway, (bought directly from the dyer too).  The yarn is gorgeous and warm.  The pattern worked up quick and beautiful.  I love these mitts!

I did re-cast the Erica sweater...I just haven't had the drive to get very far on it...again.  Even if it is knitting up faster at a smaller size.

I may have also let myself get slightly distracted by a couple of Hunter Hammersen patterns...can you blame me?
First is the Petiole  hat in Malabrigo Rios in Hojas (leaves):

The mitts will follow.  I may also have a cowl in this colorway already.  My excuse for casting on the hat and mitts was that I needed a full set.
And then she came out with Conflagration.  I immediately went looking for yarn.  Lava Flow from Lorna's Laces seemed just perfect!

Leaves and fire?  How could I not want to knit these?!?!

The last project that has my attention is a knit along called Project Peace.  This is a need to do for me personally.  It's difficult not to be pleased that so many others agree!  I went stash diving for this one, which is why I can't tell you what yarn this is, (the ball band went missing ages ago).  It is beautiful blues and teals and turquoise as well as sparkly.

Hopefully, I will make progress on my sweater as well as potentially finish the hat, mitts, and embroidery piece over the long weekend...I have other things to get on the needles!

I did finish a sweater...

This is Peregrine.  It looks well on, though it's a slightly deeper v-neck than I normally wear.

This was the body of an Erica sweater....that I made too big.  By about four inches around.

So it's been re-cast, as I love the sweater and want one rather badly.

I also had plans to make a dress for a family shindig in December....but I got a notice yesterday that the fabric won't get here till January.  I may have pouted at the bag of cut out pattern pieces for said dress and then run to look at different fabric.  I found nothing.
I decided to look at  it as a chance to buy a new dress. (The dresses already in my closet are too informal, cocktail, or decidedly costumes.  None of which work for a church event).  Found a perfect dress...but they were out of my size.  Kept looking.  Found yet another dress, not quite as ideal, still lovely of course, only to find out it's back ordered till January.
I may be getting a wee bit frustrated.

We were also told that the office holiday party was going to be Great Gatsby themed.  I can do that! Velvet and pearls and spangly bits!

Most of the ensemble readily pulled from my closet.  Not shown are the elegant opera length black velvet gloves I was going to wear with...till Husband announced yesterday that the only time he could get his foot surgery scheduled was the day before said office shindig.  Guess what we aren't going to now?  (I'm not upset about the surgery.  I am irked at not being able to play dress up.)

All of this has occurred in less than twenty four hours.   Does it hurt anybody? No.  Is it somehow a major event?  Only in my brain.
Mostly, it's me getting angry and being frustrated that weeks of effort and planning on at least three different projects got obliterated, mainly before lunch yesterday.

So, the election happened...

I stayed up late, watching the returns come in.  I sat shocked, stunned, and rather terrified when I realized the results.  It was difficult not to be saddened by the evidence of so many people voting in fear and hate.
 As a country, we are fundamentally granted the right to believe as we like.  Though, if those beliefs hurt and demean other people, they may require some re-thinking.

People are NOT things.
Different does NOT equal bad or wrong.

More folks are going to need help, do what you can.  Little things do matter.

And now, a picture of my cat with a toy mouse on her head, as well as stuffies made for a friend's wedding a few years back, because adorable helps!

They are Forget Me Knots by Phoeny.

Knitting and making stuff pictures to grace the page soon!

I finished the dress in time

Even if we don't go out, I still dress up.  I think the dress turned out rather well.

And it glows beautifully!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

My house is full of bats and pumpkins and skulls and spiders.

Goodies have been made.

Lemon bark with toasted pumpkin seeds and worm cookies that stare back!

Later, there will be kabobs and fresh pretzel rolls.  There's pomegranates and chocolate chip cookies too.  Green tortilla chips with chunky salsa...and a vegetable platter because you really should eat your veggies.

I would totally share if I could!

Have a happy Halloween!

He followed me home. I can keep him right?

This is Spot.

I found Spot on a shelf in the Halloween section of Target.  I will admit, the first time I saw him amidst all the other skeletons, he was the one whose head I stopped to pet.  Then I realized there were other people standing there, regarding me oddly.  Of course, that likely had something to do with me treating a plastic, skeletal chameleon like a kitten in a pet store.  I stopped petting the cute inanimate critter and walked away to peruse the rest of their Halloween selection (which was quite good this year!).
But then we went back to Target for something....and he was still sitting on his shelf.  I scooped him up, announced to Husband that the chameleon was coming home with us and proceeded to carry him contentedly through the store.
Currently, he's part of the Halloween decorations.  When the decorations are put away, he will go back to sitting next to my computer, where I can scratch his happy little head with a smile on my face; much to the confusion of everyone else in the house.

More sewing than usual

The glow in the dark fabric I had to have is steadily becoming a dress.  Mostly from pattern pieces from Sew Many Dresses Sew Little Time as well as a pocket pattern from an old skirt pattern.

It still needs it's sleeves and neck facings...and to hang over night so I can hem it properly tomorrow.  The dress looks surprisingly well on considering the outrageousness of the print.  We'll have to see if it's a strictly Halloween piece once it's done.

I put together a choker necklace from buttons, ribbon, and some glow in the dark embroidery floss to go with the dress as well.

I also cobbled together a lovely gray wool skirt with black silk insets out of leftovers from the cloak I made Darling Son (which I still haven't gotten pictures of...so much hemming).  I loosely based it on the pencil skirt pattern from Gertie Sews Vintage Casual.

The skirt ends up being decidedly more 1930's looking with the modifications, which means it looks smashing with the sweater I finished.

The lovely Aiken sweater, whose second sleeve cuff took me a week to finish.  Why, you might ask, did it take me a week to knit an inch and a half of ribbed cuff?  I played yarn chicken....

 and lost.  I had to wait for the new ball of yarn to get here before I could finish it.  Then, in less than 45 minutes of far from strenuous knitting...I had a finished sweater.

The yarn is the beautiful Colrain by Valley Yarns/ Webs in the Burgundy colorway.  Sadly, it's been overcast so the lighting does not do the yarn justice.  This sweater fairly glows in sunlight, it's gorgeous.

But....because I had to wait for yarn, I needed to have another sweater on the needles.  So, now there is a Peregrine decently under way.

It's being done in Knit Picks Wool of the Andes superwash in the Oyster colorway.  I am sincerely thinking about making more of them, in lots of colors.

And then, then there was fabric purchase.  It isn't much.  It's not fancy.  But it is a fabric panel that has all my favorite Dr. Seuss books on it!

I had tried to buy it before, only to be told it was sold out.  I searched everywhere I could think of, and then searched for Dr. Seuss fabric in general...and the only place I could find even one panel was a lovely woman on Etsy (whose business card I've misplaced).  There may have been a sonic boom with the speed with which I placed the order.  I'm thinking I will piece it out and make a larger quilt top out of it.  I can't explain why, but this panel had to be mine.

I also made a...statement purchase, (which is supposed to be here tomorrow so I can't tell you how wonderful it is quite yet), from Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs' Limited Edition section.  Nasty Woman seemed like a purchase that needed to be made.  I'm thinking I will get Palmyra next month.  Smell wonderful and do some good?   Count me in!

It's October!

It's really been non-stop since mid-September.  I finished Petrichor, have been wearing it daily since I wove in the ends, and have yet to take a photo of it completed.
We went to a local parade to, apparently, have candy flung at us.

My eldest turned twenty-one.

My son made his first pie from scratch, video game inspired butterscotch cinnamon custard:

Complete with fresh cinnamon whipped cream:

I finished my Cheshire Noir shawl:

And I finally made my husband his birthday cake, German chocolate of course:

But I may have been over enthusiastic with the frosting, as it apparently squished cake layers:

Husband and I spent  some time at the Hoptober Freshtival which was fun, though got a bit more crowded than was really comfortable later in the afternoon, so we left after a few hours.  I'm hoping that maybe they will have a bigger venue next year.  It did seem as though there were way more people than anticipated as the food vendors, as well as some of the breweries started running out of supplies by mid-afternoon (it had started at noon and was scheduled to go till 8pm).

Amidst all of this frolicking and pastry eating, the rest of my knitting and all of my sewing(none of which are good travel projects), have been left to languish just a bit.
I'll leave you with the cross stitch  I finished fairly recently, bought at JoAnns on a whim:

And now I need to knit all the sweaters

It started when the Pandamonium hat made it's debut on Ravelry, causing me to contemplate colorwork hats...so I remembered that I wanted to get some dk or worsted yarn to make an adult version of The Hedgehog Hats to match the mittens kit I have which meant digging the kit out of my knitting stash bins so I could find yarn colors for the hat that match the mittens.
This led me to unearthing the yarns for:
The Taming of the Shrug, (Flaming Kate model of course):

The Smithfield sweater, (modified a bit):

The Berkeley sweater, so simple and elegant:

A sweater worth of lovely sport weight, superwash wool in a burgundy red that I decided needed to become a  Blaster:

And enough yarn in a similar color, though different gauge and base is on it's way to make an Aiken
Why yes, I do have a knit designer crush on Andi Satterlund.  Can you really disagree?  Her stuff is wonderful!
Really, this is what happens when I start getting close to finishing a sweater.  Petrichor is close to being done.  I keep trying it on, which slows down the knitting process, but makes me happy and less put off about knitting sleeves.

The first sleeve is actually complete now, but it's been over cast and I haven't gotten a better picture.
I also dug out a long hibernating work in progress, that I neglected to take pictures of.  Honestly, it looked so sad, I didn't have the heart to document it's neglect.  What it will be, is a lovely Viola in black with deep, jade green edges...once I finish work on it.
The fabric for my Halloween dress arrived too.

The pattern pieces for the dress I'm going to make out of it are all drafted and cut out.  It now means stopping knitting long enough to cut out the fabric and start sewing!

Bits and pieces

I've finished a couple of pairs of socks.  The first pair has been on the needles long enough, that other than remembering it was bought from Knit Picks, I don't remember the colorway or base.  It was an alpaca blend hand paint sock yarn from years ago.

The second set is a pair of Rose City Rollers, in Hawthorne sock, Rose city colorway.  I really love working with the Hawthorne base yarn.  The projects turn out beautifully.

I've also managed to find a pair of plain, black kitten heels and a pair of black cat eye sunglasses that actually fit!  Thank you Pin Up Girl!

Essie also just put out a gel nail polish line with a color called Spiked with Style.  It's my favorite deep blood red.

Over the last year, I have also managed to find three red lipsticks that really are wonderful.  Two are from Besame.  The darker is Red Velvet and the other is Victory Red.  The third is my day to day red, and I adore it.  It's from Shea Moisture in Red Rose. 

What all of this actually means is that I am slowly but surely getting together a proper wardrobe of things that go together, not just things that pique my interest at the moment that I never wear/use.  Knowing that I can grab something out of my closet, swipe on some lipstick, and look like I have my act together, (even if that act is gothic June Cleaver meets Ms. Frizzle), is reassuring and enables me to focus on other things that need taking care of.