It’s almost over

November 30, 2014 / shellssells / 1 Comment

I just had a nice long vacation. Today is the last day. It’s a bit sad, but I have the realization to hang on to that I’ll get another week off at the end of December.

As far as vacations go, this one was extremely productive. At the beginning of the week off I took loads of stuff to goodwill and half price books. On Saturday, Mr. Ink and I took two truck loads of crap that cannot be rehomed to the dump. The creepy basement has far less stuff in it, which makes organizing what is still there far easier. I did the organizing today.

I’ve still got a load of stuff to take to goodwill. Just one more load for now. But, what I am hoping is that my motivation does not wane, and I continue to purge and organize upstairs, starting with the kitchen. I think it can be done.

I’ve also had time to do fun stuff. I spent time with Miss Bug, hung out with Mr. Ink, and due to the extremely balmy weather yesterday, got to ride mountain bikes. I even had an opportunity to try out a fat bike, something I’ve hoped to try for a long while now.

As my regular readers are probably well aware, I’ve also got the bulk of the Christmas knitting done, and wrapped. Can you believe it? It feels great to be this ahead of schedule, though I suspect what with happen with being ahead of schedule is that I’ll add to the list rather than just be done with it.

Today I am trying to knock out the 5 itty bitty socks that need to be knit for Bug’s teachers. I have 4 done, I will finish a 5th, and then I need to do some for coworkers.

There’s also been some spinning, but not much. Last Saturday I went to our local guild show and picked up some lovely things. Perhaps the most lovely and decadent item I picked up was a package of rolags. I love love love spinning from rolags, and yellow is a color that always calls to me.

I am spinning them on a support spindle, and these are the ones I may leave as singles and just immediately knit them off the spindle. I’ve never done such a thing before, but I think it could be an interesting experiment.

Hopefully tomorrow I’ll have some itty bitty socks to show off! If I am not too bitter about going back to work…..

Crazy

November 29, 2014 / shellssells / 2 Comments

I made crazy yarn, and didn’t end up wanting to knit with it.

So, I took that yarn and made it crazier, by plying it together.

And then I did want to knit with it. But, I couldn’t imagine ever wearing the colors. So, I decided that it goes nicely with the Christmas theme, I’d make a cowl for Bug, and she could wear the crazy colors.

It’s just a simple stockinette stitch cowl, but I think she’ll enjoy it.

Don’t you love it when…

November 28, 2014 / shellssells / 2 Comments

Don’t you love it when your vision of a project turns out to be less fantastic than the actual project?

I have had some of Marja’s singles in my stash, the handspun being of the inglenook variety. I think she was nervous about them being singles, but I was not, and the yarn was so beautiful that it wanted to be knit. I searched around for a bit for a pattern I thought would showcase the yarn itself, and landed on the So I Gather shawl. It’s a ruched pattern, and it seems quite wearable, so I gave it a try.

I worked on it most of the day yesterday, and I love how it is turning out. The singles look good, energetic but not too crazy. The large needles with the thin yarn give it all a light and airy quality. This one is going to be crazy warm once it’s complete.

As with Inglenook handspuns, it is even more rich and luscious in person than my picture shows. But, I think you can see the depth of color pretty well.

I love this shawl so much so far that I intend to knit another out of my own handspun singles, which I am creating right now. I may even just knit right off the spindle for a new and interesting experiment.

Extra Special

November 27, 2014 / shellssells / 3 Comments

I’ve got two more finished objects for Bug’s handknit Christmas, and each of them are extra special. In the sense that besides being hand knit, they’ve got an extra touch from someone else special in Bug’s life.

The first is her shroom hat, downsized to accommodate thinner yarn than the pattern calls for. Its extra special touch is the yarn itself, which was spun by Marja. It’s a wonderful purple and pink and blue toned yarn, and that’s a color combo Miss Bug truly appreciates.

The second item is her tunic. I’ve been working on this for some time now, and it turned out fantastic. The pattern is Bulle, and I knit the largest size, and then added extra length since Miss Bug is quite tall. In addition to that, I messed up the yoke itself, so it doesn’t quite look like it is supposed to, and I was too lazy to do the pockets.

Its extra special touch is the buttons. They’ve been hanging around in my button stash for a few years now, because they were made by my mother, and I wanted an extra special project to put them on. This was the project.

And now, I get to wrap a few more gifts to set under the tree. Happy Thanksgiving everyone, I do hope you are enjoying it.

2 More

November 26, 2014November 25, 2014 / shellssells / Leave a comment

I am back at the christmas ornaments, and having a great time with them. First up, one I did for Bug for a stocking stuffer. She’s been begging for this one, and I didn’t really want to make it. But, since it’s her year of handknits, I figured it’s only appropriate she get it in her stocking.

This is a new color combo, it’s navy and grey. I like it, and hope for more of this combo, perhaps more navy with a grey design.

And, next up, one I’ve been thinking about making for years. To my knowledge, this is the only 3 color Christmas ornament in the entire book. I decided to use the yarn leftover from my color affection shawl, so I ended up with a lovely jewel toned ornament. I had to hold the yarn double for this, which was complicated and very tight stitches, but I think the end result is quite beautiful.

Though I can see it needs some additional squishing to get it more round.

I am again out of stuffing, so I am going to need to slow down on the ornaments and do more flick carding.

In the meantime, I am hard at work finishing Bug’s Christmas tunic, and it’s almost there! I am excited to show it off as well, even though I’ll be stuck waiting for a modeled photo until after Christmas.

Gradient Vest

November 25, 2014 / shellssells / 4 Comments

It’s finally complete!

So, awhile back I found a vest pattern at a new local yarn shop. I purchased the pattern, and was tempted to purchase the yarn. Then, I remembered that I had two loop bumps that I could spin for a nice long gradient, and I’d probably have enough for the vest.

So, I embarked on the long journey of spinning for a finished object. I was concerned about the yardage once I was done, especially since I added an additional repeat for my height. But, in the end, I had a bit left over, while still going through the entire gradient. I was quite pleased.

It fits nicely and it’s interesting and cute. The pictures don’t really show the sparkle, but it’s in there. I love the way it drapes, and it’s quite comfortable to wear, so I will call it a win.

More Christmas ornaments tomorrow!

Up to Speed

November 24, 2014 / shellssells / 2 Comments

It’s been busy, friends. Very busy. This weekend I went to the local weaver’s and spinner’s guild show, then to our local Cranksgiving. This is a bike race/scavenger hunt which brings in food for the local food bank. Each rider got a list of 10 items the food bank needs this time of year, and then they go out and purchase each item from different stores. I volunteered this year which was great fun in and of itself. There was quite a bit of downtime, so I knit and hung out with friends while waiting for the participants to return.

I took this week off work even though Bug goes to school for the first two days this week. Because of this, I got up early, got dressed, and headed off as if I were going to work. Why? Because Miss Bug likes to argue with me about how she should stay home from school if I am staying home from work.

My morning started at a coffeeshop, knitting and drinking coffee and waiting for shops to open. I then went to half price books and goodwill to drop off stuff from my crazy basement, office depot for tape for gifts, and then I came home to make breakfast, start dinner, start washing fleece, and wrap as many gifts as I could find boxes for.

Speaking of gifts, I also had an opportunity to photograph a couple of the Julie knits. The first being a tiny pair of underwear for the doll.

These were kind of a ridiculous endeavor but I think they’ll be appreciated even so. And they turned out pretty good. I didn’t bother to block them, it seemed a bit like overkill.

I also made a pair of legwarmers

Quite simple, and very pretty out of Blue Moon Fiber Arts socks that rock.

And finally, I made another christmas ornament. This one doesn’t have high contrast so it isn’t my favorite. I’ll try to remember not to pair these two colors again.

I am working on another ornament when Bug is home, this one quite different from the others. But, it’s slow going as it is almost all colorwork, and I am using yarn that isn’t exactly fit for the job.

I am also almost done with Bug’s christmas tunic, which I hope to show off soon. That’s my knitting project for today since I can knit without her figuring out it’s hers.

More tomorrow, for sure! Including a gradient vest I finally completed!

Christmas Ornaments

November 22, 2014 / shellssells / 2 Comments

I’ve been a tad bit obsessive about knitting Christmas ornaments this year. I’ve completed 3 out of the 55 Christmas Balls to Knit book. And, I’ve got another on the needles.

The first one I did using the two handed colorwork technique. Basically, I knit with the main color in my left hand and the contrast color in my right hand.

I wasn’t thrilled with my result. Meaning, it makes a perfectly lovely ornament, but I felt I could do better. So, I pulled out my colorwork thimble, and started another one.

I am particularly fond of the colors on this one. And, the resulting ornament is better as well. More pleasing to my eye.

Then I ran out of stuffing, so I was forced to do some more flick carding for scraps to fill the ornaments with. And then I knit another. This one I did with the colorwork thimble, but I was also very careful to secure my carried yarn as well.

I’ve done more flick carding and I have another ornament on the needles. I think this one will be even better than the ones before. And then Miss Bug has requested a rocking horse ornament so I’ll probably do that one for her stocking.

Again, with the little things. Little things are exactly what I want to be knitting at the moment.

Small Things

November 21, 2014 / shellssells / 1 Comment

As of right now, it feels like all I am knitting are small things. Just…little bits of business that knit up relatively quickly and provide slight satisfaction of the more immediate gratification type. I have repeatedly tried to get pictures taken and blog posts up, but between having Bug around and not wanting to take pictures of gifts while she’s around, and the seemingly continuous darkness when I am at home, it just hasn’t been favorable.

If you’ve been following along, you may remember that I knit dog booties for Mr. Ink’s old dog. He has trouble walking in the snow, as he’s 17 yrs old. The booties I knit him gave him renewed interest in the outdoors. If you put them on him while he’s inside, he prances around the house all proud. When he’s outside, he plays like a puppy in them. When he comes back inside, and you go to take them off, he sits on them in hopes you’ll leave them on. It’s ridiculously adorable.

However, after repeated use and washing, two of them have developed holes. So, I knit two to replace them.

I threw out the majority of my worsted weight scraps this summer, but I happened to have this Dream in Color Classy left in stash, so he gets some very fine booties this time around.

Mr. Ink will next paint the undersides with puffy paint for traction, as well as puffy paint on the inside of the ribbing so they stay on his legs better. And then he should be all set for this season.

Stay tuned for more Julie accessories and some lovely christmas ornaments. ‘Tis the season!

The Flaw in the Plan

November 18, 2014 / shellssells / 6 Comments

I am taking a bit of a break from Julie’s clothing. I had a ran out of yarn situation, and I couldn’t bear to keep going once I ripped that pretty little shirt out. So, I decided to work on my gradient vest a bit more.

I am no longer fearful I’ll run out of yarn, so that’s a relief. Both armholes are done, and now it’s just a matter of knitting the second front long enough to match the first front.

And then there’s the seaming. Which is where the flaw in the plan comes in. I failed to realize, as I was knitting along, that once I was done with a gradient piece, I would no longer have the appropriate yarn color to seam the shoulders. I’ve got one shoulder that’s orange toned, and the other shoulder that’s yellow toned, and by the time I am done I’ll be in green tones.

Lesson learned. If you are knitting a gradient garment, save some of the yarn color needed for the seams.

I am not sure what I’ll do about this issue. I’ve got some loop scraps in my bin, I could check them for color. Or, I could just use the green on both shoulders and hope for the best. At least the shoulders will match? I’ve no clue what I’ll do once I am done. But, I won’t make that mistake again, at least there’s that.

A Quiet Weekend

November 15, 2014 / shellssells / 2 Comments

Miss Bug headed to her dad’s for the weekend last night. I spent the evening finishing up my creepy basement clean out project so that I could get the car in the garage. While the project is done, I still need a trip to the dump. But, it’s snowing today and Mr. Ink has to work so the trip to the dump has to wait for another weekend.

I worked hard to finish the basement project yesterday so that I could devote my time today to knitting Bug’s Christmas gifts. Being that she is gone, I don’t have to hide them. So I am just working as fast as I can on them.

I found an etsy shop that sold some stockings for American Girl dolls, and I purchased 3 pairs as gifts. This is fabulous since right now, Julie’s only stockings are red. I grabbed grey stockings and white stockings. Then, on a whim, I decided to also get a pair of stockings with bright peace signs on them. They were too cute to resist.

Then, I took some leftover handspun of Marja’s and knit a 3 tiered skirt. It matches the fabulous stockings perfectly, so I am quite excited about it. And, it was a quick knit!

I have more of that yarn, so I am not entirely positive I am done with that colorway yet. So cute!

The Christmas Sweater

November 14, 2014November 14, 2014 / shellssells / Leave a comment

I decided to knit one Christmas Sweater for Miss Bug this holiday. I chose the Bulle pattern because it’s more like a tunic, which is something she’ll enjoy, and it is designed to be worn with something under it, which seems wise for Miss Bug. The yarn I chose is Brooks Farms Mas Acero. I purchased it in 2008 or 2009 at Stitches Midwest and it’s been in my stash ever since. It’s lovely stuff, and I haven’t been able to figure out what to do with it, since I don’t want it to be gone from my stash.

While I realize that’s just crazy talk, it DOES happen. But, these days it happens far less, because I have yummy handspun in stash, and that takes the edge off getting rid of nice commercial yarns.

I love the little bit of added extra fabric at the back and front of this tunic, making it look so very sweet. It will be fun to put some great buttons on this for added detail, and even better? There’s alternating colored pockets to add. So sweet! The pattern is translated from french, and some of the terminology is unusual, but since it’s also intuitive, it’s easy to figure out.

I did, however, not read the pattern well enough to figure out where to stop making it garter stitch and join it in the round. By the time I figured that out, it was farther back than I was willing to rip. So, it’s not a bug, it’s a feature. It’ll look great even so.

It’s entirely possible I’ll make different sleeves. I’ve got a kid who gets very odd about her socks and shoes and the feeling of her pants, and I don’t think tighter sleeves on a tunic meant to be worn over something is going to fly with her.

This project is currently residing at work. It’s just boring stockinette at the moment and I have little doll knits to work on at home and keep me interested. I can manage an hour a day 5 days a week, and I am sure it will be done well before Christmas.

How about you? Do you have holiday knitting? If so, how’s it going?

In Spinning

November 13, 2014 / shellssells / 2 Comments

With all the Christmas knitting, my spinning has taken a terrible hit. But, last evening I had some friends over and realized I’d need to find a project for my wheel. While I really wanted to spin something completely new, interesting, and not thought of before, I realized that I had fiber I wanted to make into a 2 ply fingering weight yarn for the stripes of a particular sweater. While I very much want to start the sweater, I cannot, until the handspun portion is done. What better time to work on it? My knitting itself is completely taken over by knitting for Bug, but I could technically have the 2 ply handspun done in time to start a new sweater after Christmas. Works out perfectly.

The fiber is Enchanted Knolls superwash merino. The colorway is Sunshiney Day. I am doing a fractal spin on this one with shorter color changes because the stripes on the anticipated sweater are pretty small and I don’t want 10 stripes of one color and 2 of another. I want it all mixed up.

I got a pretty significant amount done last evening, pretty close to half. It’s spinning up beautifully as Enchanted Knoll fiber always does.

It was convenient to have people over for the spinning reason, but also for the clean up the house reason. After all, with the Great Basement Clean Out, I’ve neglected the rest of the house. But, this forced me to really get things cleaned up and organized around the main part of the house, and that really made me a calmer and more content person. I hope to do a bit more work on the main part of the house tonight in order to work on the basement on Friday. And then it’s just a matter of hauling away the junk! I am so close to being finished there as well.

For Julie

November 12, 2014 / shellssells / 1 Comment

Miss bug wants All Of The Handknits for Christmas. So, instead of buying her a bunch of toys she won’t use, I am going to provide her with just what she actually wants.

She wants some knits for herself, but most of what she wants is for Julie, her American Girl Doll.

I broke my all handknits rule simply to get her doll some stockings that will match what I am knitting. Currently, Julie only has red stockings. So, I got a pair in grey and a pair in white.

And then I decided to get moving on the knitting. So far, I’ve knit 3 items for the doll. First up is a little dress out of sock yarn. I used a ribbon I had in my stash for the neckline drawstring.

I am very pleased with this one, it’s super cute, I like the yarn choice, and it’ll be a fabulous addition to her collection.

I also made a skirt. A line, because Bug wants a skirt she can put an apron over so Julie can pretend to be a waitress.

I used leftovers from a self striping sock yarn, and that made for quite an interesting skirt. I may see if I can find a grey to do a matching sweater.

Bug also requested that Julie get a knit hat. It seems a bit small, but it’s pretty cute.

This one I made out of handspun, my leftover hawser ply yarn.

Two things you’ll notice, one being that all the pictures are indoors. This is because it’s really tough to have an active kid who takes interest in handknits and provide her with surprise knitting. I had to beg for her to let me keep Julie with me for one night, and daytime pictures just weren’t an option. Perhaps I’ll get an opportunity after Christmas for a fashion show.

The other thing you may notice is that my Christmas tree is already up! It’s ridiculously early, I know. But, I am in the midst of a creepy basement clean out, and it was just easier to set it up to get it out of the way so I could continue with the sorting, purging, and reorganizing.

There are a few more must knits for the doll on Bug’s list. Slippers being one of them. I think I’ll just make the doll socks and call them slippers. There’s also talk about the potential for another American Girl Doll, and if that’s the case, I think I’ll have to consider two hats, two slippers, and a second set of mittens and fingerless mitts. I know what will be required of me.

Nevertheless, it’s been a lot of fun, knitting for the doll. I am currently working on legwarmers of all things! There’s such a wealth of patterns and styles and just giving myself the freedom to totally go wild over knitting is absolutely good times.

Lolita Vest

November 7, 2014 / shellssells / 2 Comments

For a long while, we only had one yarn shop in this area, or perhaps I should say, only one easy to find and worth going to. But, more recently, we’ve upped that to three. Once all three were open, a couple of us did a quick little morning yarn crawl, visiting each store. I saw a lolita vest knit up as a shop sample in the first store, and decided that this pattern should be my purchase at that store.

But, instead of buying the yarn for it, I decided to spin for it. I created my very large hank of yarn over a number of months, and got to cast it on fairly recently. My yarn calculations told me I should have more than enough yardage, but of course I am already worried.

You can see I’ve created the area for the sleeve and will now be moving on to the back of the vest. The gradient itself seems to be working out quite nicely.

My hope, if I run out of yarn, is that some nice loop groupy will take pity on me and sell me another bump. But, I am also hoping that doesn’t happen at all. We’ll see!

User Error

November 6, 2014 / shellssells / 1 Comment

I decided to get a move on with Christmas knitting. Since Bug has asked for all the knitting things, I figure it will be a lot less stressful if I just get them all finished.

On that note, I spent some of my evening winding yarn for projects. And then, I started a dress for Bug’s doll Julie. It seemed to be going pretty well, and fairly quickly. But, at some point, as I was knitting along I thought “This ribbing seems to be a lot longer than what is in the picture.” I continued on anyhow, until the end of my evening, when I looked at the pattern for the third time or so, and realized that I’d calculated 26 rows rather than the 13 rows of ribbing required.

To be fair, 26 rows is the number of rows that the skirt requires. I’d just calculated the correct number of rows for the wrong section of knitting. And, as the pattern is written row by row, this is pretty easy to do. But, while I wanted to call it the continued curse of the knitting gods, I knew in my heart that this was truly simple user error. I ripped back this morning and got the stitches all set up to begin the 26 row section. And then I hid the knitting, since it is actually starting to look like doll clothing, and that means she’ll start asking about it at any point now. So, I’ll just have to wait to work on it at work, or after she goes to bed at night.

Meanwhile, I also cast on a hat for Bug out of Marja’s handspun yarn. I loved the Shroom pattern so much that I decided to just modify the pattern for DK weight yarn, and size it down a bit for Bug’s smaller head. This project is sitting at work at the moment, which is great because I know she isn’t likely to spot it there. It is knitting up fairly quickly and I think I’ll have it done in short order. Sadly, that FO post won’t come until after Christmas! Unless I can secretly find another small head to photograph it on secretly. I don’t see that happening.

The Best Hat That Ever Was

November 5, 2014 / shellssells / 2 Comments

This is a comeback post of sorts, I suppose. If you’ve followed along with me for long enough, you’ll realize that I really do not like knitting hats. And I don’t very often. It’s just not something I care to do. It hurts my hands, and the hat rarely turns out well. So, instead, I often trade my knitting or spinning services for hats that other knitters create. This has worked well for me.

However, I had that amazing rotund 6 ply chain ply. And I couldn’t resist. I needed a Shroom hat. I wouldn’t have it any other way. So I knit one.

And it is simply the best hat that ever was. I love it. I love the crazy colors, I love the fit, I am happy with the way it looks. It’s got a lot of sparkle and a lot of crazy colors and it just…is the best hat that *I* have ever created. It was tempting to wear it to work today, but I doubt that it is quite cool enough to get away with it. Maybe tomorrow.

Miss Bug has this long list of knitting she wants me to make for her. I’ve never really gone over the top with knitting for her before, but this year may be my year to start. In which case, this blog may be quiet on the finished object front, as I’ll not be able to show the final project until after Christmas. In the interest of the long list of knitted items, I started a shroom hat for Miss Bug yesterday, but with dk weight handspun. I had to change the sizing a bit, but it’s still going to work well.

On Angering the Knitting Gods

November 4, 2014 / shellssells / 4 Comments

The proverbial knitting gods are angry. And it’s my fault, and it has been taken out on me hard in the past few days.

You see, I knit my Lemongrass sweater, finished my lemongrass sweater, blocked my lemongrass sweater, sewed buttons on my lemongrass sweater, but I never bothered to photograph it and document it in any way.

I can only assume this made the knitting gods angry because over the course of 3 days, my knitting abilities went completely tits up.

Let me tell you about it. On Saturday, I cast on a hat out of handspun yarn. I proceeded to cast on that hat 4 more times before I managed to have enough of a tail for the long tail cast on. I then knit what looked like seed stitch for the brim. Then, I decided to read the pattern, and realized that it wasn’t seed stitch at all, so I had to rip and start over.

I knit that lovely hat until I hit the decrease area, sort of thinking that it might be a little on the large side. When I tried it on, I realized that it was so far on the large side that it was not salvageable. I ripped it out.

I then wound a different yarn and started a hat in that yarn. I only had to cast on twice to get the proper long tail. Then, I knit a few inches of ribbing on the hat, tried it on, and realized that it was too small and too tight. I ripped. Went up a needle size, and tried again. THAT hat seems to be going ok at the moment. But, the yarn is super bulky and hurts my hands, so I can’t really work on it consistently.

Awhile back I started the Fading Lines sweater, I never bothered to photograph it because it wasn’t very interesting. I got a good portion of the top down sweater increases done when it seemed there might be an issue. Sure enough, my gauge was entirely incorrect, and if I kept on like I was, I’d have a sweater that was much too small. Ok, fine, I ripped all that out.

And then, I worked on my “at work” project. Despite counting and recounting, I knit a bit on it, realized I’d knit a couple rows past the place where I was supposed to add some patterning, and then put it down because…..I really couldn’t fathom ripping out a couple rows….of MOHAIR! Seriously, this was The Last Straw. I knew drastic measures must be taken.

Last evening, rather than spending a bunch of time knitting, I looked at patterns and wound yarn. This morning? I had Bug take a picture of my lemongrass sweater. It’s early, and my knitting has all been crap, so please forgive the less than pleased face and focus on the sweater itself. After many many pictures, only one was really fit for posting. The rest were quite blurry.

I have a lemongrass sweater. It is nice. It fits well. I am wearing it at work. There you go knitting gods, the sweater is complete and photographed, now release my knitting!

What do we call this?

November 3, 2014November 1, 2014 / shellssells / 1 Comment

I had 4 sets of rolags in my stash, you know the kind made on blending boards? 3 from dyeabolical, and the 4th from Spinmonkeys. There wasn’t enough for a full project in any of them. So, I decided to mix them up and combine them. The colors were….passably matching. Plenty of green tones, and a nice burgundy tone, with bits of purple and orange and mustard and sparkle thrown in for good measure.

I contemplated how I’d draw it all together, as I spun these rolags, mixing them all up. I figured there had to be a way to make them really match well, or at least blend appropriately. I contemplated different chain ply techniques, and then after consulting with a very talented spinner friend of mine, I decided to give chain plying 2 singles together a try.

I don’t know if there’s a name for that. Double chain ply? 6 ply chain ply? No clue. But what it created was far better than I imagined. Not only did all the colors blend beautifully, but the yarn is thick, super bulky, and extraordinarily rotund.

I ended up with 140 yards of 6 ply, which was also more than I expected. I think I’ve got a hat in mind for this one. it certainly is hat season soon!

Labor of Love

November 2, 2014November 1, 2014 / shellssells / 2 Comments

Bug, Mr. Ink, and I went to see The Boxtrolls very soon after it came out. Bug had been waiting for it to come out forever, and we were all fairly eager to see it. In the theater, I realized we were all laughing, smiling, and giggling equally over the movie and I realized I just couldn’t tell which of the 3 of us was having the better time.

When Bug said later “well, I really hate to say it, but I think The Boxtrolls is actually a better movie than Frozen.” I knew she’d truly loved it.

A bit later in the week, Bug, when considering Halloween costumes, decided that maybe she’d like to be a boxtroll. We talked about Eggs, and thought about that for awhile, but she decided instead that she’d like to be Fish. I figured it would be a relatively easy costume to create, and I asked Mr. Ink for his help in drawing a fish on a box so she could have her wish.

We began to prepare for our first ever truly homemade costume. I tea dyed strips of flannel, and found a box. I spent a lot of time looking at Fish’s pictures so I could try to recreate him with face paint.

And then things got crazy. Mr. Ink, apparently a bit of a perfectionist, decided the plans weren’t quite good enough. He asked me to knit Bug a pair of troll gloves, since the boxtrolls only have 3 fingers. It was too late in the game for that, so I decided instead to buy a cheap pair of gloves and sew the fingers into one. Then, I knit a pair of ears. And, I took a teddy bear and made it look like it had an eye falling out, since that is also an element of the movie.

I sewed the ears on a blue hooded sweatshirt, and added hair to the top of it which I then sprayed with hairspray to make sure it stayed sticking up.

I left the box up to Mr. Ink. The big reveal was Thursday evening. And the box is an absolute work of art. It is so beautiful, and so authentic. This is a box we are never going to be able to get rid of. It’s perfection.

Notice the foam on the shoulders to make it more comfortable”

Introducing Fish the Boxtroll:

We spent our Halloween evening with friends, a crockpot of chili, a fire in a fire pit, s’mores, mountain pies, and all the neighborhood kids coming by for trick or treating. It was one of The Most fabulous holidays we’ve ever had, surrounded by so much love and laughter and friendship, fun, and happy rambunctious children. A very cold evening was about as warm as it could possibly be.

Just a bit more plying

November 1, 2014October 30, 2014 / shellssells / 1 Comment

This week, while busy and feeling a bit anxious, I decided I needed to start fixing things. I’ve got a pile of knitting that needs various repairs, clothing needing a bit of sewing, and a couple skeins of handspun I am not thrilled to pieces about. I figured if I could get a few of those things done, it would make me feel more productive in general.

Back in June I spun this yarn:

I’d pulled a technique out of a book and gave it a try. It’s nice yarn, very pretty. Certainly interesting. But, also delicate, and I didn’t love the idea of knitting with it. I decided to “repair” it. I just wanted to ply it back together into a 2 ply with 2 sparkly threads running through it.

140 yards of bulky yarn, thick and thin, with sparkles. I am not sure if it looks better this way, but it is certainly more stable and easier to knit this way, so I’ll call it a win.

I also repaired the heel of a sock that I loved, and I call that a win too. However, when I went to put that sock away, I found another needing repair. Two steps forward, one step back.

Suzy Sells Sea Shells

Month: November 2014