Jack Frost is Making Some Warm Blankets

  This yarn appeared at K&CC at a perfect time.  I had received some green yarn from one of the ladies at Monday knit-night and was going to use that for a blanket I had in mind.  Before I cast it on I changed my mind on the pattern.  While trying to decide if I had enough yarn of another color for the first pattern, this one showed up on Saturday.  There is definitely enough and I love the color.
  I'm glad that I went with a nice and easy pattern right now.  The one problem with working on a costume and putting off some of your work is that it won't magically get done and it is easy to get behind.  Luckily it hasn't become too busy yet, so I'm not too far behind.  One thing that doesn't help is that we are trying some new things, but if those things go smoothly, it will be easier in the long run.  I'm also working on a How-To Guide for everything so I won't have to do what Linda did when she retired from the job and I took over.  She wrote me a list of things to do in order, but as she was getting to the end of the list she remembered things she had forgotten.  The list went from being in order to being a bit jumbled.  I am keeping a file going and as I do something I am making sure to include it.  Hopefully that will keep me from skipping any bits that I just do without having to think about.

  Dawn told me that I was going to teach a class using this new-to-Jo-Ann-Fabrics-yarn.  It is fuzzy yarn with loops built in so you don't need to know how to knit or crochet to make things with it.  I thought that sounded fun and looked at the pattern that I was supposed to teach.
  The pattern was to make an infinity cowl.  That sounded fun so I looked at the instructions.  The first instruction was to count 109 loops.  That is when I knew we were not going to be following those.  The class is only about 2.5 hours and I knew a lot of that would be to count to 109.  I also knew from playing around with it that someone would need to get a few rows in before it was stable enough to be moved.

  This was what I had them work on.  It is 12 stitches wide and I made them turn it over each row so they learned how to do both knit and purl stitches.  There were many instances where they had to take out some stitches because something went wrong and had to take some out.  One of my students got about half-way done, another got about 3/4, and the last actually got her whole scarf done.  This makes it a pretty quick project and only used about one skein.
  Dawn mentioned to them about the pattern that they were supposed to learn and they all agreed that the cowl pattern sounded like a cool idea, but that it sounded way too hard for a first project.

I Feel Much Better Now

  This is what I started and worked on during Turkey-day week.  Bill and I headed north on Tuesday and spend until Sunday in New Jersey.  I joked that I was going to hang out with the Jersey Devil.  Never saw him, but I did keep an eye out.
  A week of dinners with anywhere between 12-32 people probably doesn't sound relaxing, but it was what I needed.  We went to the spa, chased small children around, found some goodies while antiquing, cooked, ate way too much, drank a healthy amount, and laughed too loudly.  It was perfect.

Here is a quick breakdown of what all happened:

• Wednesday: Spa, cheese and champagne, pizza dinner
• Thursday: Mimosas and 3 soup lunch, wine and a whole buffet of options for dinner
• Friday: Bagels and lox lunch, antique shopping, beer tasting, distillery visiting (kitten petting), and 4 types of salmon and sides for dinner (accounting for the following dietary restrictions: Kosher, allergic to black pepper, vegetarian, allergic to turkey)
• Saturday: blueberry pancakes, hanging out, and smoked brisket, smoked ribs, and veggies for dinner
• Sunday: Eggs Benedict brunch, hike, beer, then a long drive home

  Now I feel like I can tackle the craziness of work and trying to find time to knit without too much trouble.  I'm a little behind because of the trip, but I'm not worried because we will work it all out in the end.  That just means less knitting time for me until I get caught up.

When It Rains...

  I have started this post about 5 times so far.  Everything has just been moving so fast that I can't seem to get my head around it.  At first I was going to ask for some warm wishes to help a friend get better, then things went downhill before I could start that post, then things fell off a cliff.  The last few days were a whirlwind of trying to get things moved out of an apartment in a gated community, getting work done, and dealing with everything going wrong at work.  I'm pretty sure there was some knitting in there too, but I might have just dreamed that.
  I am pretty proud that I was able to move Bill's truck in a small parking garage a few times and even backed into multiple spaces.  Back-up cameras are magical.

  Here is a picture of Tank being cute to keep you entertained until I can manage to get out of this whirlwind and get my feet onto more solid ground.

Time for Hats and Sweaters

  As you can see, Tank is also excited for autumn.  I am too!

  There has been some radio silence on here because a few things have been happening.  Work is starting to pick back up again, but that was expected.  What wasn't expected was that Bill suggest we do a couples cosplay for the anime convention this coming weekend.  We talked a little about ideas and how I was going to have to do most of the work for both costumes.
  I then did some research and found some pictures of the version of the costume I wanted to do for mine.  I started working on it and everything was taking a lot longer than I thought it was going to be.  I had planned on finishing the under-shirt and jacket the first week, the accessories the next week, and then anything for Bill in any 'between' times, weekends, and just his stuff on the last week.  Well, the undershirt somehow took me five days to sew.  The jacket only took about two and I made three samples for it before I found a pattern that both fit and I liked how it looked.  Everything else has both been pushed back a few days and also some of the things have also taken longer than I thought they would.  So some things got pushed back by a few days, and then a few more.  I know I won't be able to get everything I wanted done, but I think I will be able to get the costume to a place where I am alright with wearing it and having people see it.

 In knitting news, the blue sweater is almost done.  All it needs now is a good soaking, some blocking and drying time, then finally, the two buttons.  I have also started a blue hat for the Hat Not Hate project started by Lion Brand Yarns.  I know that October 1st has come and gone, but Shira from Lion Brand says that the project spans the entire month.

It is Possible!

  This is the first lipstick that I have ever used up! I know I could go in with a lip brush and dig more product out, but it is getting really old and I feel that I have enjoyed it enough.  I also have a lot of other lipsticks that are in line to get some love.
  I also finished the Skin79 BB-Cream sample I have been using.  They do not mess around with those samples.  They look like it would be easy to use them up in a few wears, but they seem to have more product in them than the little squeeze tube lets on.

  I have had these sitting around for way too long.  I remember they were from a demo a long time ago at JoAnn Fabrics.  This was back when we had enough people to spare someone on a Saturday just to demonstrate something.  It was also a good time before I switched to just teaching there.
  The demonstration was to sell the little baby hats and headbands that were ready to wear.  The twisted ribbon flower things are clips that were also ready to wear and can be taken off the hat/head band again.  The strawberry and frog were iron-on patches.  I liked this because everything turned out to be really cute.  It was also really quick and easy.

  This is another one I have been unintentionally aging.  The store where I worked had three mannequins on a display.  A child sized body, a teen/young adult body, and an adult body.  We would receive seasonally appropriate clothing for the mannequins to try and sell patterns and fabric.  This was the one for summer child mannequin.  The problem we had with this was that it kept wanting to fall down, so we would put straight pins near the top.  Then people would try and see how it was made, so they would pull at the top and then there would be straight pins on the floor.
  The way these are made is to measure the chest of the recipient, take off an inch or two from that number, and that is how much of this style of fabric you should get.  Also, make sure the person cutting the fabric cuts through the ruched part, and then tears the bottom because it won't want to lay flat for cutting.  The last step is to either sew or surge the seam along the back and you are all done.  You could add ribbon straps if you would like to help hold it on, but those are optional.

  This is something that I have actually made.  I started it soon after I finished my Shear that I posted about not long ago.  While I liked the pattern, you know how I like messing with patterns as well.  I think this would be really interesting as the body of a sweater, so you can really get a feel for the stitch pattern on a larger scale.  A scarf might also be fun because both sides are interesting looking.

Is it Fall Yet?

  I've been trying to figure out if the lipstick I've been trying to pan has gone bad or if the wax is just sweating.  It is also pretty old, so I might be retiring it before I totally finishing it.  I have finished a few more items and have made note about it on my 2018 Project Pan page.  We'll see how it looks in a day or two.
  I plan on adding a small eye-shadow palette to the list to go with the gold eye-shadow and the bronzer.  While I still like my usual look I make with the two of them, I like being able to change it up.  I didn't like it at all the first few times I tried it, but this last time it really impressed me.  I used a different eye-shadow base, so that is probably the big difference and what helped it perform better.

  The light blue sweater is coming along nicely.  I was trying to think of something fun to do along the sleeves, but I think that keeping them plain will help to really test my theory.  If I make more like this, then I can mess with sleeve patterning more.

 While I'm glad that summer will be coming to an end at some point, I'm not looking forward to it becoming busy at work.  I don't mind the work, it just means that I will have less time to knit and pretend that I'm cleaning my house.  There will be some more changes on how things get done, so I'm hoping that the entire process will be sped up a little and give me more time to knit again.
 I am really excited to wear longer sleeves and not have to worry about the temperature of a building when knitting larger things too.  I would add that I'm excited to drink hot tea and hot chocolate, but Bill likes to keep our house a bit chilly, so I can do those things all year long.

A Deconstructed Cold

  I went to Otakon for the first time in a few years.  Overall it was pretty fun.  I had forgotten that it has grown so big that unless you want to wait in line for two hours, there is a good chance that you will not make it into all the panels you want to.  Otakon had become more of a dress up and see everyone else's costumes kind of convention.  That being said, Krissy and I got into a few of the panels we were hoping to.  We learned about 3D printing(Spoolishness), traditional kanzashi making(Atelier Kanawa), and silicone mold making(BlakAnubis Cosplay).  I've linked to their various websites.  I feel smarter and now have a bunch of ideas for how to make things for future costumes.
  I also brought home some con-crud with me.  If you don't know what that is, it is the germs that people share with you while you wonder around a crowded convention center.  This cold has been the weirdest I have ever had though.  On Wed morning I had a scratchy throat.  I did everything I could to keep it at bay.  I felt like I should also have a stuffed up nose, but didn't have that.  For a few days I felt like I was on the edge of getting something, but wasn't quite getting the full force of it.  Sunday evening was when my throat had been fine for most of a day and then my nose got congested.
  I figured this happened so I could fully experience each part of a cold.  There were no other symptoms to distract me.  I was fully immersed in the sore throat or the inability to breath through my nose.  At least that is the fancy way I have been thinking about it.  Either way, it is weird.

  I also realized that even though I did my math for the raglan sweater twice, I still didn't totally do it correctly.  When I figured out the numbers for the half-way points for the increases and added them to the starting numbers, I somehow forgot that each section gets an increase on both sides.  I only accounted for one of them.  So instead of increasing to the halfway point, I only increased to the quarter point.  This meant that I got to take out about 20 rows of knitting.  It gave me something to do to take my mind off how I missed being surrounded by anime fans.


Donated:
Poly-fil: 4 24oz bags
Yarn: 60 166 172 174 183 193 skeins

Discarded:
Poly-fil: a few handfuls
Yarn: 7 skeins