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

A Leafy Set

  I finished the leafy dress!  The bottom flares more than I had planned on, but I still like it.  I don't know if it is too long or not, but I was having so much fun making it that I just kept going.  I made the increased the size of the leaves on every third repeat, that way it wasn't going to grow too quickly, or on the same side.  It looks like it is a gradient in the picture, but it is a solid color in real life.

  I had planned on trying to find a cute leaf button, but since the dress itself is already so busy, I decided to stick with a plain button.  I think it goes nicely.

  Since I already had a new idea on how I wanted to do the last row of leaves, I decided to make a cowl.  This time I cast on too few and it became the hat on the left.  I tried the decrease and felt like I liked it a lot better, but it didn't help me decide what to do at the bottom after the leaves so it wouldn't flare out as much.
  I had enough to make a short cowl.  I decided to try and do the decreases again with some ribbing on the bottom.  I don't like the decreases as much while it wasn't on the top of a hat.  I might have to keep working on it.

  This was a fun knit.  Shear by Emily Greene(Ravelry link) and it was a huge hit when I finished it on Wednesday.  The second it was off the needles everyone at the table wanted to see it and were asking about the pattern.  I'm pretty sure I got her four sales right there and I'm waiting for my commission to come in the mail.

  I have always both liked and disliked raglan style sweaters.  I like the diagonal lines, but I don't like how there usually ends up being a bunch of fabric bunched at your armpit area.  I know that happens because of the way the increases are made, but I was wondering if there was a way to "fix it."
  I had such a hard time with this before I even cast on.  All I wanted to find was a raglan style sweater with a smaller neck opening to begin with.  I wanted the numbers telling me how many stitches to start with and how many to end with.  First I had issues finding a sweater with the right neck shape that wasn't for a child or baby.  Then I had problems finding both sets of numbers.  The ones I checked told you your beginning numbers and then to work in the pattern until it was X" in length.  Then in the next step they would just tell you to work until you hit various stitch markers.  I finally used the gauge to reverse-math how many rows that would be and then how many increases I would be doing.  I finally got some numbers to work with!


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

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

Taking Full Bags into the Grocery Store

  I finished that hat that I had started on the train to Florida.  I seem to be good at getting projects to come out larger than I picture in my head.  I know there are many things I can do to prevent this, but since most of my projects aren't for a specific person, it doesn't both me too much.

  I had planned for this hat to be for a kid, but it fits me just fine.  Since I was just trying out the pattern from a picture, I count this as a success.  I might try again to see if I can make a kid hat.

  I've moved the long list for my Project Pan to it's own page.  It was starting to get a bit long and I felt like it was starting to take over the post.  It also didn't change much each time, so I felt like it also wasn't adding much to each post it was in.  It can be found here.  I've added food and beverages to the bottom since I'm still pretty proud at how I'm getting through those things too.  I'm also not going to go overboard and record anything I use, only things that take some time or have been sitting around a bit too long.

  I got some funny looks on my way in to Wegmans on Saturday, but when the ladies were starting to go through the bags, there were a bunch of 'Ooh's and 'Ahh's.  A bunch of things disappeared really quickly.  I'm glad that people looked at those things with so much excitement.

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

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

So Many Basement Things

  I'm still plugging away and have found another 106 skeins of yarn, and that is just a rough count.  If there are too many skeins in a bag, I just either count general lumps, or try and count labels.  Even after just typing that, I found another 6 skeins.
  I'm pretty sure that I have pulled everything that will be going out of the items from the basement, but since I was so successful with that, I will be doing something similar with the bags I have in my crafting storage room and the overflow in the guest bedroom.  There are a lot of those that I haven't looked at in quite some time.  All of that will free up some space and I can start moving some of the things out of the corners of the other rooms in the house and then we should start seeing some real progress.

 

  This is my set-up to dry the first batch of washed yarn.  I have been soaking them in a bucket with enzyme soap made for pet stains for a while, then soak again with more pet soap and some laundry detergent.  Plenty of rinsing to make sure all the soap is out and a quick spin in the washing machine before being put in front of the fan.  I find that while washing the yarn in the washing machine would be a bad idea, putting it in for a spin cycle gets most of the water out quite quickly.

  I was moving the last of some boxes that I will need to go through when this little friend landed on me.  I carefully walked upstairs and we both went outside.  I was worried that he/she would fly off before we got out, but they just enjoyed the ride.

  I've also almost finished the green leafy dress.  All I need to do now is to sew on a button, and block it.  I'm now working on my purse hat while I'm trying to figure out what size I want to make the leafy cowl.

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

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

Basement Stuff

  With the demolition of the basement walls means that I need to deal with all the things I have stored in the room that will be my craft room someday.  I didn't want to think of it because when we got some mice in the house they loved all the soft things in there.  Most of the yarn was in bags, so they weren't affected, but I was starting to organize some to be put into my cube wall, so not all yarn was protected.
  I'm going through and pulling out all the clean stuff first.  I'm also using a part of the KonMari method of cleaning.  Her style tells you to gather all of one style of item you have and then go through them all one by one and see if any bring you joy when you hold it.  I'm not gathering all of my yarn together, but I am looking at my yarn as I pull them out.  If I don't want to start knitting with it right now, it goes.  I'm up to about 60 skeins in this picture.
  The dirty stuff will be delt with on a case by case basis.  If it looks too dirty to be worth trying to save, then it goes in the bin.  I already had to throw one out because it looked like it had been made into a nest.  If it doesn't look too bad, I might try and wash it.  Also, before anyone worries, I have read many websites on how to keep myself from catching any mouse cooties.

  I'm super close to finishing the green leafy dress.  I think I'm going to start the green leafy cowl right after I'm done.  Though I might also work on a summer bracelet that I have planned out.