A week late and a skein short

So, this will wrap up my sock summit report. I meant to do this last sunday when I got home, but I was simply exhausted. I was in bed by 8:30 and had to be up for work monday morning.

Saturday morning, I had a volunteer session in the bookstore again. It was fun, I got to meet some more authors. I also picked up 2 of Cat Bordhi's sock books. The reason for the books (other than I've been wanting them) was this mysterious whirlpool heel on the f2f pattern description. I wanted to be prepared.

Saturday afternoon was the planning for self striping success class. It was really good and taught us to forget measuring our socks and let the stripes do the talking.

Saturday evening was Stephanie's (The Yarn Harlot) lecture. It was nothing short of hysterically funny, informative and thought provoking.

After all that, Clarine and I decided to get some dinner. We decided seafood sounded good and after consulting google maps, we decided on South Park Seafood Grill and Wine Bar. It was quite lovely. I redeemed oysters and chardonnay for Clarine, so my work was done. After our lovely dinner, we walked over to Rougue where I had a ginger beer that was fantastic and I got to meet an author friend of Clarine's. I made a much later night of it than I wanted to, considering the f2f competition the next morning.

So, Sunday morning I was pretty nervous. I was actually too worked up to drink my coffee which is saying a lot. I met up with my team ahead of time, we were all wearing our matching t-shirts. Thankfully we got the pattern early on, do we were.able to review it and divide it up. It seems my panic was for naught. The cast-on's were all of our choosing as were the bind-off's. For the specific bits, clear instructions were given with a key. The only thing I looked up was a refresher on provisional cast-on's.

The sheep were adorable, and watching them get sheared was fun. Once the fleece was distributed, things were in motion. I got a quick and dirty lesson in flicking fleece and helped get our spinners stocked. Once they had spun enough yarn to get me started, I went to work on the toes. I did 2 at a time magic loop. Interestingly the increases called for in the pattern were the same ones I had learned in my Friday class. So thank goodness I asked for extra help with those.

Toes being fiddly and time consuming, I finished them around noon. Just in time for lunch. After quickly eating a hot dog and drinking nearly a liter of water I was ready to go again. I moved on to doing the leg of the sock, which had a lovely lace pattern.

2 of the pieces I knitted for f2f

A few notes here. This fleece came straight off the sheep, with not time to wash it. While the sheep wore coats, there was still some vegetable matter. Also, all of the natural lanolin was still on the wool. So while my hands were soft, there was this pervasive smell. As I knit with it, the wool warmed up and it just made it smell worse.

It was a lot of fun. There were reporters and importers running around and taking pictures and asking questions. In the end, my team won. We raised almost $400 for doctors without borders. My thumbs hurt for 3 days.

Since sock summit, I have finished my hitchiker and started a new secret project. It is for a steampunk swap on ravelry. I'll post pics of tge hitchiker shortly dvds the other project once my swapee received it.

yarn bombing at Sock Summit

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SDCC 2011: The rest of it

Ok, I was going to try and blog each day, but out just didn't happen. Partially, because my phone was usually dead as a doornail by the end of the day. Also, because I was constantly, moving and exhausted. So, here is a break down of Friday- Sunday.

Friday, I premiered my new steampunk costume. It went rather well. I managed to wear it for 7 hours, which is pretty good considering the corset and 3in heels. We wandered the exhibits hall some, working on the Doctor Who QR code scavenger hunt. Also Joe picked up a Bender (Futurama) print he had been wanting for years. We also worked the ANCEA/Sakura-Con booth and took donations for Peace Winds America.

Later we met up with one of Joe's former co-workers who had just moved to San Diego 2 weeks ago. She's already got a great tan and is really happy. We also had dinner with one of my Japanese guest contacts. It was this great Brazilian place. Fantastic good and drinks!

We were waiting outside the restarunt to say goodbye when a lady walked up to us and asked if we wanted to see a movie. We were all tired so we kindof shrugged and asked what it was. Turns out it was a pre-showing of Fright Night, including a pre-funk. We all agreed and were lead to this gorgeous Spanish style house. After convincing the bouncer that Alyx was indeed 31 and no that's not a fake ID, we were allowed into the bar area. The drinks were good, my glass of Svedka with a drop of cranberry juice was delicious! The inside of the house had been totally done up with a coffin in the corner and all kind of other vampire themed decorations. After a few minutes Colin Farrell and other members of the cast (sadly no David Tennant) showed up to introduce the movie.

Next we were given stainless steel water bottles that said holy water on them and lead down the street to a movie theater whet our phones and cameras were checked and we were given sweet 3d glasses in a coffin case, popcorn, candy and a drink. The theater was large and nice and had been booked just for this event. The movie itself was rather good, I love David Tennant and he was his usually crazy self. My friends who had seen the original said it was a really good omage. It got out around 1:30am and we all wandered back to the hotel and passed out.

I'm not smiling because we had been taking pictures for 10min

Saturday was Steampunk day at SDCC, so I wore my costume again, minutes the heels. I ran into one of my best friends from high school, Hector, who read also in costume. We went to the meetup together, which was a lot of fun. There was also a photo shoot at the Privateer Press booth in front of the War Machine statue. I then abandoned the costume for the day.


Joe and I wandered the exhibits hall, handing out Sakura-Con brocheures and looking for anything we missed. We met up later with the FUNimation crew for some drinks before an early night of packing.

Line for hall H

This morning (Sunday) we were up at 7am, so we could make it to the Doctor Who panel at 12:30. We got into line at a great time as right after we got there, it started filling quick and ended up across the street and down the block. We got into the hall right when it opened, which meant sitting through the Glee and Supernatural panels. Neither of which I really cared about. It was worth it though.



Matt and Karen are just as funny in person as they are on camera. They showed clips from the next half of the season, which have me wondering about a great many things. The show is just simply brilliant!

So, now I an waiting at.the airport to fly home. I have lots of laundry to do before Sock Summit and my homework for class.

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Craftspolsion

Finished wrist cuffs

Lace Wrist cuffs blocking

So, leading up to SDCC and Sock Summit I have been doing a lot of crafting. For my steampunk costume, I had to cut all the fabric which Alyx kindly sewed. I had to cover my nuclear grade welding goggle in leather and brass studs and paint them. I finished knitting my lace cuffs and neck collar and had to decorate my felted hat. I even made myself a necklace. So, my house is an utter mess and there are bits and pieces of costume remnants everywhere!

The good news is, I think blogger droid is going to work great for posting from SDCC. I also got a new battery for my pedometer, so I can tell you guys how far I walked each day. It'll be fun! I hope you will enjoy my report.

goggles

Me Wearing the necklace I made

Belated weekend posting aka blogger droid ate my post

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So, I spent 30min or so this morning writing up a post to make up for missing this weekend. It was lovely, and then my blogger droid ap ate it. So, I wil attempt to re-write it and give blogger droid a second chance. I wanted to test out this ap as I am hoping to use it at SDCC and Sock Summit to do travel blogging. Since the droid X didn't have spell check, and I use swype in my phone, please forgive any mis-spellings and/or typos. 

The steampunk costume is progressing nicely. Alyx pieced together the muslin test and after some initial confusion (the 2 center back pieces hid on us and didn't originally get seamed in) it fit great! The fabric swatches for the skirt arrived, so I am trying to pick a color. Once I do, I can order the fabric. Alyx, bless her, is in the process of re-sizing the shiry pattern. Her bf has also kindly agreed to help me make a belt to go with it all. I also have some great ideas for accessories.

 I cast on Marnie MacLean's executive funk on Sunday. I am already halfway through the lace pattern chart. I am making it with Knit Pick's comfy sport in ivory. The pattern actually calls for a fingering weight yarn, but they were out in my color choice. So, I cast on the number of stitches for the smaller size on 40in size 2's and then switched to 3's for the ribbing. I used size 6's instead of 5's fire the larger size. Initially I used a 36in cable, but I had to switch to a 47in and I might switch to 60in now. The grow a lot as you knit them. They are firing my 7.25in wrist perfectly at least! You can check out my ivory wristlets on Ravelry.

 So, my yarn choice was based on ether fact that I am knitting 4 accessories for my costume, 3 of which I want to kindof match. Knit Picks has several yarn lines that have a variety of rights with the same colors. Cindy was the only one with an off white in the neighborhood of the rights I needed. The cuffs called for a fingering, the collar for a dk and the spats for a worsted. So for the cuffs and collar I am using the sport. The spats will be done in current and trimmed in the ivory. I just have to knit like the wind. So, the whisker cardi is on pause for now. I will try and post pics as things progress.

books, television and crafts

So, I finished Jen Lancaster's Wish You Were Here. It was really well written and quite good. I've always enjoyed Jen's writing style, but it's interesting to now see her imagination at work. Some of it was a bit "pink book," but I think the characters were still enjoyable. It's a nice break from my often more serious and dark reading.

I managed to finally get Patrick Rothfuss' next book from  the library. The Wise Man's Fear is the second book in the Kingkiller Chronicle's series. The first book, The Name of the Wind , was nothing short of brilliant. I have never read a first book from a new author and just fallen into their words. Often the writing is awkward as they haven't established their voice or style yet. Patrick however, didn't have any of these awkward moments or storytelling issues. It makes his books really enjoyable. Not to mention, his story itself is fantastic. I can't recommend it enough.

I have also started watching The Game of Thrones on HBO. It's really a pretty cool series. Joe and I have also been watching Mad Men. We just finished the first season and so far we really like it. I am sad that they are splitting up the Doctor Who season. The last episode was awesome though!


In the crafting section of my life. The back of my cardigan is bound off, and I am now working on the left front. I just ordered the yarn for my accessories for my steampunk costume. Speaking of which, pattern cutting and altering continues. I have settled on the fabric for the jacket, from Vogue Fabrics. We are still working on the rest of the fabric choices. We should be starting to mock up the jacket either today or next week. Most of the muslin is cut, it's just a matter of stitching it together.

(left) cut out skirt pattern.

fabric swatches (right)

Fabric for my jacket.

So much for sunshine

The weather yesterday was fantastic! Sunny and warm and wonderful. I took my dog for a nice long walk which made us both happy. I had plans for taking photos of some of my yarn for Ravelry, and I was able to get a few. However, before the lighting was quite right I got called into work. I comforted myself with the fact that it was supposed to be sunny and nice today too. So, I got out all my un-photographed yarn and set it aside so it would be ready. Mother nature had other plans though. While it was warm today, it was overcast the whole day. So now, I have a large pile of yarn that it is still picture-less. Gotta love the PNW!

I finished the arm hole decreases on my whisker cardi! I am now just working the pattern repeats to get to the shoulder and neck shaping. It seems like no matter how many repeats I do that the arm holes still measure 7in and I need 9in. Oh well, let the slogging continue. I am debating about casting on for Martina Behm's Hitchhiker scarf just so I can whip through and get the fun of completing something. It could be a nice use of my one skein of Wollmeise.

The steampunk costume project also continues. I have mostly settled on my fabric choices and swatches should be here shortly. I also got the rest of my patterns from Laughing Moon. I will have to adjust the sizing for the shirt pattern a bit. I think it'll come out nicely though. Here are the links for the patterns I am using for my costume: skirt, shirt, jacket, and if I have time I'll knit these cuffs, spats and collar. I've settled on doing the cuffs and collar in ivory. I just need to order the yarn and then decide on colors for the spats.

I am going to try and regularly post on here every weekend. I hope you enjoy it!