This evening the internet kept dropping. We decided to take that as a sign, and went out for dinner. With no place in particular in mind, we explored the Central West End and ended up at Duff's restaurant. It turned out to be a fantastic choice; they had some really great food in the smaller portions that we're trying to look for, and a hole-in-the-wall atmosphere which I happen to love. Later we took a walk down to my new favorite coffee shop - Coffee Cartel - and walked by the St Louis Chess Club.

Once home, we got impatient, and decided to open Christmas presents tonight! Most of them, anyway... there's one each that we're holding back until actual Christmas.

We each got some pretty awesome stuff, if I say so myself. He received a bunch of parts for his car, some shirts & a hat he's been wanting, which seemed to make him pretty happy :-) He got me an awesome loose tea infuser, amazing polarized sunglasses (no more crappy $10 sunglasses!) and A SWIFT. A real swift! No more draping the yarn around my knees and trying to keep it tensioned while winding!

And to keep my promise of moving the desk out of the main living/dining room once my dress was finished (which it has been for at least a month now...), I cleaned out the drawers and organized all of my fabric, bias tape, elastic and what not into my various bins. Once it was empty, we moved it temporarily into the spare bedroom, where I continued the organization to the yarn stash. My very overstuffed underbed container now has room again, and there's actually a method to my madness now!

( Evidence: )

Completely blanked on the Classic 99 trivia contest on the way in. Any other day would've been fine, but today I couldn't have come up with "Prokofiev" as the composer of Peter and the Wolf if my life depended on it. (Stupid, too - I probably have the CD in the car.) Guess the hamster wheel in my brain just isn't spinning fast enough this morning!

In other news, this is guaranteed to make anyone feel better:

The gang's all here - we got my brother moved into an apartment a couple of hours south of St Louis last week. I use "we" loosely -- our part consisted mostly of spare furniture transport.

While Mom was here the four of us took a trip down to Lambert's Cafe in Sikeston (yes, home of the throwed rolls). The rolls were as airborne as advertised, and absolutely delicious. I don't know why they bother having you order sides with your meal; waiters come around every couple of minutes with pots filled with various other sides that the chefs apparently just felt like making, so we got a taste of everything!
Final review: A+, would definitely go again.

I was taking a vague look at Penguicon this coming year; it both looks like something I'd be interested in and something that may not be worth the trip. Halp D:

The project that the Ravelry Heirloom Knitting group has been working on - have I mentioned this before? - is nearing completion. "Nearing" is a sort of relative word, as large parts of it remain to be done, but it's at least at a point where those not spending all their time trying to chart the border corner can cast on for the middle section.

So I have. 271 stitch provisional cast on in laceweight and gossamer: hear me roar!

This officially means that I have two giant lace shawls in the works, and one thankfully not at all complicated sweater. It's amazing; the gossamer that I'm using for Queen Susan is so fine that when I switch back to the laceweight cashwool for Snowflakes in Cedarwoods it feels like I'm knitting sock yarn... >_> Trouble with these shawls is that both are of the type which require concentration and long spans of time in which to work on them, or I get something like half a row done which doesn't feel at all productive.

And what with Dragon Age Origins*, and Torchlight**, and Real Life***, I don't really HAVE long spans of time to work on anything. Aaagh.

Contemplating a trip to the Maryland Sheep & Wool festival next year. I could probably stay with some family in the area, and there are highly tentative plans from said HK group to have a mini meet up at the festival. I think it would be fun :D

And maybe next year I could actually go to Rhinebeck!

* Excellent game.
** VERY Excellent game. Nowhere near as srs bzns as DAO, and quite a bit more addictive.
*** Always excellent :-)

Here's some of the swag from the excursion to Strange Folk Fest in O'Fallon IL today!

( Read more... )

What have I gotten myself into?


Regardless, here's the official "Before" picture. Tune in about this time next year, I hope*, for the "After".



*And depending rather heavily on an early 2010 pattern release date, which is still no more than my wishful thinking. It could be December 2010 for all I know.

I found the yarn for the goddessknits Fall 09 Mystery Shawl KAL, at long last.

I was really hoping to find something in a real gold, similar to how this mithril silk laceweight that I've been using is a real silver color. But Fyberspates was out of stock on their gold yarn, and I had to go searching.

It's not as over-the-top vibrant, but all things considered I think that this from The Fiber Denn will do just fine. :-)

I'm finally surrendering on the matter of the white linen dress. I love it, I really do, but I can't stop it from gaping at the armholes unless I make the bust darts ENORMOUS. And if I do that, I take away from already very-needed top hem fabric that's really quite necessary to get the silly thing ON.

I can't imagine how the pattern designers (Vogue, if you can believe it) thought that normal people could get this thing on. There is no zipper to be found. It's backless, yes, we understand that, but even a backless dress has to be able to extend around from top bust (read: rib cage. Non-squishy. Finite circumference.) to my back while getting over the shoulders. And this one most emphatically does not. My shoulders can disjoint at will and that is the ONLY way that I've been getting this thing on over my shoulders/collarbone, and we're reaching the end of that ability.

And still the shoulders gape. Aaaaargh.

Maybe a much more experienced seamstress could fix this, while figuring out how to put a zipper in after the fact, but I really can't. And given the secondary problem of the hems being visible through the linen, I'm no longer even inclined to try. I give up. I'll just shove it in the closet and wear something else on Friday.

I'm just pissed off that I wasted so many hours on it.

Done!
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Pattern: Aeolian, from the Spring 09 Knitty
Yarn: Misti Alpaca, in Green Field Molinette (actually a neat yarn; each of the 2 plys is a different shade of green, but when knit up it looks just like a solid color with a bit more depth than would be usual. Really a great yarn.) I used 42g of a 50g skein. The pattern's yardage requirements suggest that I am a bit unusual.
Needles: 4, I think.. I knit most lace on 4's.

That's another Christmas present on the FO list :)

Pattern: Ishbel by Ysolda Teague.
Yarn: Artsygal handpainted 50% Merino 50% Tussah Silk. I used approximately 25g of an 85g skein
Modifications: None. Small stockinette section, small lace section (I know! Does this look small to you?)
Result: I knit this in 3 days over the weekend. That feels incredible to me - the stockinette center knits up like lightening, and the lace has an 8 stitch repeat that is easy to memorize and which just flies by. I love it to death, and plan to make 2 more out of the rest of the skein.
( Pictures under the cut! )


Pattern: Snow White by Ysolda Teague.
Yarn: Cascade 220, 4 skeins.
Modifications: I did size Medium, but lengthened the arms by 2" (for a total length of 21" before joining. In retrospect, I really could have gone to 22 or 23.)
Result: I love the fit, I think the neckline and shaping are amazing, and there is good chance that I will knit at least one more as I'm really craving a burgundy one.
( Pictures under the cut! )

I apologize for my hair, by the way. I have no idea what it was doing, and it didn't seem to be interested in informing me.