New finished crochet thing!

So, I don't remember if I mentioned it, but last month we drove to Las Vegas for the Magic the Gathering Grand Prix.  It was a lot of fun, crowded, busy, SO MUCH MAGIC.  But I went 5-4, won more rounds than I lost and that's all I wanted.  Anyways, faced with the prospect of a 12 hour drive with my husband and some of our rowdy Magic friends, I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep or concentrate on a book, so I decided it was time to start a new project.  I'd really been wanting a crocheted skirt for summer and it just so happened my grandma had just given me a bunch of cheap crappy red heart yarn.  Red Heart is not my first choice of yarn, but I figured since I had it I should use it.  So I started a new skirt.  And here, about a month later, it's done.

Of course, by the time I got to the end of this, I was so bored I was going crazy.  And I was trying to work on this while obsessing over steampunk stuff, so I really didn't want to be working on this.  I made myself finish it, though, cuz I knew I never would if I didn't do it now.  I'm glad I did, the skirt is cute, and fun to wear.  It flares like a flamenco dancer's skirt when I spin, so I spin constantly like a little girl when I wear it.  I went down a size on the pattern because I was worried about stretch, which turns out was a valid concern.  It's a bit snug getting in to right out of the wash, but after about an hour it fits perfectly.  Oh, and the cheap yarn softened up significantly after a round in the washer with some fabric softener. I'm pretty happy with it, even if I got annoyed there towards the end.  The thing took a crap ton of yarn, too, 7 1/2 skeins!  just for a skirt! geez.

My newest obsession- Steampunk!

So, I've got a new obsession, obviously.  I've been aware of steampunk for some time, but for some reason it just finally caught my fancy and I can't think about anything else. Basically, if you're not familiar, steampunk is kinda a science fiction Victorian age alternate history where steam power became the dominant technology.  And the clothes are fantastic.  As a result of the newly found fabulousness of this, I am making my own steampunk outfit.  Some of the pieces I'll be able to wear in my normal wardrobe, some I won't and I don't know what I'll  do with them, but I don't care.

First in my collection is these two shirts.  just really awesome Goodwill finds.

And these two corset belts, brown and black, from amazon.com for about $5 each.  I love these, they're rad.  I want to wear them over my long tunic sweaters that I wear all winter.

These two dresses are being sacrificed to my project. The black one was my bridesmaid dress to my sister in law's wedding that I will never wear again, and I want the black lace.  The yellow one is a Goodwill find that, again, I just want the lace.

This is the fabric for my big bustled skirt and the bolero jacket I'm going to make.  They are velvety curtains I found at Goodwill for $2 each. I was pleased with myself.

This is the fabric and liner for one of the two corsets I'm planning. Slightly shiny for some contrast against the skirt and jacket.

This is for the second corset.  This one will be an underbust corset and is made up of leather like pieces cut from a suitcase and a duffle bag, also purchased from Goodwill for about $3 each.  I like the idea of different colored panels.

This is a, I guess you could call it a utility belt? It was a purse I bought at Goodwill for $2.50.  I cut out the patches, sewed strips on the back, made holders for the tubes out of scraps, and strung them on the shoulder strap, which I can hook around my waist.  The longer pocket is exactly the size of my phone and the other is perfect for ID, or debit card or whatever.  perfect so I don't need to carry a purse.

Nothing more Victorian than a pocket watch, right? Just something I picked up at Walmart.  The left is a crappy phone pic of how it looked originally, and then I painted it with special metal paints to give it more the color and look I was going for.

This box is full of all my little embellishments. Beads, chains, gears, rivets and whatnot.  I will make jewelry and decorate my outfit with these.

                                    

The glasses were kinda a failed project. I ordered the ones on the left, and they were too big and dumb looking, so after lots of drama I was able to grind them smaller, and dipped them in epoxy to cover scratches, which warped any ability to see through them- right.  Plus they're rough, uneven and they don't look nice. I am not happy.



So I ordered this set here. It's the hat, glasses and choker.  Glasses should be perfect.  I was gonna make a hat, but this might be better. I wanted a black hat, but we'll see how this looks. I figure I can paint it if I need to. And I'll play with the choker.  I figure I can use the ruined lenses to make goggles or something.  Goggles don't really go with my steampunk persona I've created, but I think they'd be fun t make.

This is a picture of some swing clasps I've order so I can have some fancy closures on at least one of my corsets.

















Currently I'm working on the first corset.  For the burgundy one I have a pattern I got online- it's an overbust corset.  I've made a mock  up to perfect the fit. Turns out the waist is too high and of course the whole damn thing is too short.  makes sense with how tall I am, I suppose.  I've altered the pattern, lengthening, and changing the shape of the neckline, so I need to do another mockup now to check my changes.

This is the pattern that I'm working off of for the underbust corset and the jacket.  Not so much the skirt, I have an online tutorial that I'm planning to follow for that.  And I plan to make a bustle pad to go under the skirt.






So, the main purpose of this image heavy post was because I wanted to take pictures of all the pieces before they're complete, just for a before/after kind of thing.  I've got no idea how long this will take.





Ooh! one extra thing that this project gave me an excuse to do:

 I made me a duct tape dress form.  it has it's quirks, but it does the job.  It's nice for taking pictures of clothes, as I'm sure you noticed above.  It was a pain to make, my daughter helped me.  But I got it done.  It's handy.  and a little creepy just sitting there in the corner of my office when I'm not using it.  I call her Tipsy.  My husband likes to move it and put it in front of doorways when I'm not expecting it and scare me.

Sighh... I'm optimistic about goals again....

Well, it's happened.  Suddenly my body picked up speed and I gained more weight.  I now weigh 175, which is over the weight line, and is, incidentally, how much I weighed when I was nine months pregnant.  And I don't know if you're aware of this, but generally a woman who is not nine months pregnant should not weigh as much as she did when she was.  So I'm having another vanity crisis.

I know.  Eye rolls and sighs.

As a result of this, I have a drawer full of shorts from last summer that I can no longer button up, and all my jeans give me the most horrifying muffin top.  I don't want to wear any of my t shirts, and my tight tanks don't ever see the light of day.  I'm losing most of my wardrobe, and I'm not imagining it.  I've legitimately gained weight and I'm not okay with it.

I cannot seem to convince my husband we should buy an elliptical or a treadmill, so I've had to look for other options.  So. Recently I was made full time at my work, so rather than packing lunches, I get a Slim Fast shake for breakfast and a protein bar for lunch, with various healthy snacks thrown in to keep me from losing my mind and going over to the Burger King that's next door.

I'm not kidding.  My window faces the drive thru and I sit and listen to people order Burger King all day.  It's bad.  Luckily BK isn't my favorite fast food place in the world so I'm managing to resist.

My snacks range from hummus and pita chips to grapes or cherries, carrots and ranch dip made with greek yogurt, cottage cheese and peaches, or my current favorite, pico de gallo with baked Tostitos.  For the record, the pico de gallo comes from Albertson's deli and is literally nothing but vegetables.  The ingredients list says, "Tomatoes, onions, jalapenos, cilantro." And it's delicious.  At home I'm reducing my portions and planning out my meals so they're healthier, mostly.  And I'm allowed to do what I like (within reason) on the weekend.

On top of this, I have discovered a lovely little loop through the business park in which I work that, according to Google Maps is 1.1 miles long.  I can walk it in about 20-25 min.  I've walked it a few times, jogged it twice.  Here is my current plan.

I'm going to walk it once in the morning, for kind of a morning break, once the other parttimer shows up at my work, during what would normally be my lunchtime, I will jog it, with an extended loop through a park that's along the route added for distance.  In the afternoon, I'll walk the normal loop one more time.  Total, this is nearly four miles of travel.  I don't know exactly, because I don't know how much the loop through the park adds. Obviously, I'm bringing jogging clothes and shoes for the afternoon jog. Not gonna go jogging in work clothes.  For the walks though I'm probably fine to go in whatever I'm wearing.  That's a decent amount of exercise for one day.  And since a lot of it is walked, it's not so difficult I'm going to give up. The jogging sucks, but I can do it. Plus the walk through the business park is actually really nice, it's a nice area.  So it's a very pleasant path.

My bare minimum goal weight is 155.  yeesh.  I'd rather be 150.  My perhaps excessively optimistic goal is 145, but I'd rather be 140.  However, I fear we might be reaching unhealthy levels if we get too far.  What I would like is to be able to reward myself with a bikini.  I've never worn one and I want to.  As it is I'd already look better than a lot of people do in a bikini, (that's not vanity, that me logically realizing that I'm not actually massively overweight) if I lose a little weight I bet I'll be a knockout.  Based on how much I have to lose, though, the bikini goal is probably a next summer thing. But we'll see.  This plan seems doable.  Lets see if I can stick to this one.

Doctor Who Scarf

Well, here it is.  Loom beading is very tedious.  I had to end it rather abruptly, because I ran out of thread on my loom. I thought I'd cut enough for the pattern that I was using, but I must have made a mistake in my math somewhere.  It's fine, this is plenty long enough.  I had some mild drama with it- if you look at the fringe on the end of the scarf, that was the color I'd originally selected for my purple segments.  Once I actually started getting it worked in, I hated it.  It was not the right color at all.  I tried to push through, figured I couldn't do anything about it now.  But the hate grew too strong, and I bought the much nicer color you see here.  Replacing the segments I'd already done involved CAREFULLY cutting the weft thread and avoiding the warp threads, which is much, much harder than it sounds.  I eventually realized I could just crush one of the beads with my pliers to get easier access to the weft, but apparently crushing a glass bead wrapped around a thin thread can occasionally cause damage to the thread- so I had a few warp threads cut that I had to figure out how to patch.  It was a bit awkward and knotty, but I managed.  And there are no visible flaws from this.  And as you can see, I ended up using the original purple color for the fringe.  It works.  I love it.

Beads!

So, I love acquiring new hobbies.  My newest one is beading.  I found these pictures online:

http://crafty-tardis.livejournal.com/407311.html#cutid1

http://crafty-tardis.livejournal.com/407311.html#cutid1

 

And I had to have it.  If you're not sure, that is a small beaded version of the Fourth Doctor's scarf from Doctor Who.



You know, this guy:

geez, he looks like a nutter butter.  But that's why he's fun. 

Anyways, I've thought before about knitting the scarf, since it's one of those things that any self respecting crafty nerd is required to make. (along with the Firefly Jayne hat- I have the materials, I swear I'm gonna make it soon.) But what on earth would I do with a 20 ft long scarf?  It would be impossible to wear, except in costume, and when am I ever gonna have a chance to do that?  Also, UHG 20 feet of plain scarf knitting.  Just the thought puts me to sleep having nightmares of endless boredom.  But then I found the beaded necklace.  That is perfect.  I can wear that.  And we all know how I love to mix nerdy into my daily wear. So I immediately went out and bought a bead loom and taught myself bead weaving.  Not like it's hard, Shannon and I learned together, and she can do it no problem.

Of course, it wasn't good enough to just copy the pictures I found, I had to go to the official Doctor Who scarf site and carefully research my pattern and colors.  I ended up buying beads for it twice cuz I had such a hard time finding colors I liked.  Even now I'm not entirely pleased, mostly with the purple color I got.  But the person who made the necklace originally is selling them on Etsy for $125 each, which I think is majorly overpriced.  If I really don't like this one, I'll sell it for half that, and remake one for myself.  Selling this one might make me feel better about how much I've spent on beads.  I'm almost 3/4 the way done with it, and it's taken some time. I really don't want to remake it, but I will if the details bother me.  You know, cuz I'm crazy like that.  I'll put pictures up when it's done.

I've also been making a lot of other random jewelry just cuz I had the tools and supplies, since I now have a basic beginner's beading kit.  Maybe I'll post some pictures of the other stuff I've made.  I'm pretty proud of it.  I also want to learn kumihimo, which is Japanese round braiding.  It can be done with beads, and you end up with cool round ropes of beads.  I may run to the craft store on my lunch break.

I was knitting that shrug for my Rinoa thing, but I needed a break from knitting, so I put it away.  I'll finish it eventually.

Granny Square jacket is done!

so, it's finally done, with only a few minor hiccups.  The body of the jacket was plenty long enough, but the sleeves did need lengthening.  so the sleeves are five squares long, instead of four.  also, to avoid bagginess in the arms I did reduce it to three rows wide instead of four.  I was worried about it being tight in the armpits, but the squares have plenty of stretch, so that's not a problem at all.  These changes did mean that I didn't use one of the sets of godets I made for the sleeves, and I have four squares leftover instead of two.  not sure what I'm going to do with that.  I severely underestimated how long assembly would take, but I guess it makes sense.  it is a jacket made up of a bunch of small pieces that needed to be sewn together.  and I ran out of black yarn, AGAIN.  very annoyed.  last time I knew it was coming and ordered more in plenty of time, this time I wasn't ready, so I had to just let it sit so close to finished while I waited for knitpicks.com's INSANELY SLOW SHIPPING.  only time in my life I've wished I paid more for shipping so I'd get it faster.  all I had left was about half of the body edging, and the edging for the sleeves.  so in all, it took 1 1/2 skeins of the colors, and 8 1/2 of the black.  way more than I thought.

Caleb hates it though.  I think that's funny.  he doesn't like hippie style things, and is definitely not a fan of mixing crazy bright colors like this. ah well.  I love it.

New Rinoa Project

So, if you remember, I mentioned this other project when I was working on my duster.  I wanted to create this outfit of Rinoa's from some fanart I found.  I love this version of Rinoa's outfit.  And, since I ran out of black yarn RIGHT BEFORE THE END of my granny jacket and need something else to do while I wait for the rest of my yarn to ship to me, I decided to work on this.  Already have the armwarmers, obviously.  I have half a dozen black tank tops I can use for this.  I had a plain denim skirt, but it recently came to my attention that the skirt was sitting badly and causing some self conciousness issues that didn't need to be there so I got rid of it.  So I need a new one, but that's not hard.  And I have a plain black belt.  I can't tell what the neclace is, something with wings, I don't know.  I have a necklace that is a winged heart, and I decided to order a Griever necklace, even though she's clearly not wearing Griever, just cuz it's cool and would be appropriate.  I'll figure out something for the bracelet.  Her legs are hard, there's not much to see there.  it looks like some kind of leggings with zippers, or stockings, or it may even be thigh high boots.  Not sure.  I may just do my own thing with thigh high stockings and something else for shoes.  thigh high boots, while awesome, and I do want some, are a bit out of my reach.  Stockings are much easier.  The shrug, of course, I am knitting.  I found a pattern that was simple enough, and close to the right shape.  I had to sit and redo all the math for the number of stitches and rows and whatnot, cuz I'm using the same yarn and needles I did for the duster.  so now, once again, I am knitting and purling on tiny, tiny needles.  sigh....