I adore Halloween. I love to make costumes and play dress up so this is an IDEAL holiday for me! I also have two very enthusiastic youngsters who love to dress up and are full of ideas. I’m going to ride that one as long as I can! Early October I talked to the kids about who they wanted to dress up as. Last year Cupcake (formerly known as Tiny T) had a great suggestion to be ‘scarecrows’ so I was hoping to have great ideas this year. Cupcake picks up the dvd box for Star Wars epi 4 and says ‘I want to be Princess Leia!” Little brother quickly chimes in “I wanna be Luke Sky-Walker!!” (That’s how he said it; with MUCH enthusiasm in the ‘walker’ part.) Aw, sweet, I think. Not only can we do this, we can WORK this. See, Luke and Leia are twins, the offspring of Padme Amadala and Anakin Skywalker, or Darth Vader. In case you didn’t know. Mom (me) is pregnant with twins. So that means if the kids are Luke and Leia, I HAVE to be Padme. And we will have to talk Dad into wearing his Darth Vader helmet.
T and K’s costumes were pretty simple. I made T’s dress in two pieces (front and back) and literally just laid her on the fabric and traced around her. It comes in a little too much at the waist, but it gets on. I made her a belt with some brown scrap I had laying around (not accurate, I know). I decided to make K jedi Luke instead of whiny Luke. All I made for him was a vest, the turtle neck and black pants were purchased at the thrift store.
hm, I have a picture of the kids in their costumes right after I finished them. I obvously haven’t uploaded it. Found it!
costumes finished!
Mom’s Padme outfit was a bit more difficult.
I decied to go with the brown outfit that she wears at the end of the move. It can actually be made a little warm and the shirt can be used later, and isn’t a hiding the belly outfit. I hit the Padawans Guide for help. There was a recommended pattern for the top, and I was able to find it. That was quite an adventure, BTW. It appears most pattern companies have pulled their maternity patterns. Um, why? Of course, we decided to move our basement around (and give mom a new studio) so there was a little worry about actually finding all the pieces and getting it all done. I managed to get it all together pretty quickly once the moving dust settled. I attached the sleeves to the outfit and tucked them under so I could pull them out later. I was planning on hitting the thrift store to find two belts to go across the chest but then a huge snow storm hit and we were stuck inside for two days. And so I improvised. That same brown that I made T’s belt from became my belt too! Sadly, my serger suffered in the move (Seriously? I picked you up and put you down. That was all. Why did you break?) so the belting didn’t get done as fast as I wanted to. It was ok, remember the snow? Wasn’t going anywhere….. The belting was all safety pinned so that it is removable after the fact. The collar was also added separately, and would have been easier with the serger too. The arm warmers were done before the serger break, gratefully, but I swear they kept shrinking. I ended up just using the brown maternity pants I own.
We never did get Dad into that Vader helmet, though.
How did we all look? FANTASTIC!
The kids were so excited to run around with lightsabers and tell everyone who they were. They got lots of compliments. People thought it was great. And my greatest compliment of the night came when I opened up the door for trick or treaters and a little guy yells “Nice Padme costume!”
I believe I will name my new sock knitting machine Koloth.
Because he is a cranky old man who likes lots of weight.
Meet my new Weaving loom! I haven’t quite named it yet. It’s almost all together- I’m in need of some hooks and cords for my pedals… which is kind of the reason for this post….
It’s a Nilus LeCleric. It has 8 shafts and 8 pedals. It’s got a 27 inch weaving width. The loom itself is about 38 inches. (ha, I measured it yesterday to prove that it will not fit out the door in it’s current state.) It’s serial number is N26.601.20 and from Tom, the American LeCleric guy, “Your loom has a very early canadian issue number, and Leclerc(Francois) cannot find the origin in his archive files, but the concensus is your loom was mnfgrd in Jan of 1960.” Sweet. I got a Hippy Loom. 
It’s warped up with some blue mill ends (no idea of the content) that I am hoping to make some kid lap blankets. Then I’ve got some scarves to make. Then some bathmats with sock loops. Uh, I had something else I was going to do to. hm.
side view
front view
view of the pedals and the current set up. You really need to see the full sized picture to see it in all it’s ghetto-rig glory.
A close up of my ghetto rig. Don’t laugh, I thought it would work.
This also came with the loom and I have no idea what it is…
The box said warping board- so I assumed it was a (really tiny!) warping board, but obvously it’s not. I’ve looked around the LeClerc website and can’t really find out what it is…
Every once in a while my husband looks at my crafty blog and counts months between posts.
My husband.
My crafty blog.
I make things. I do. All the time. I just don’t always take photos or blog. ETA: Or I blog badly.
Here, have yarn.
Have more yarn.
Have yarn inspired by books
Have roving soon to be for sale.
Yarn. I like yarn. I make yarn. Yarn yarn yarn yarn noodle.
I forget I do more than spin! I make clothes!! I made Ren Fest costumes for me and the kids. Well, the kids were all made, I used lots of pieces from other costumes.
Tiny T got a dress and a bodice. Yeah my grommet setter. She’s got some jewlery and some sparkles on.
Mr K got a kilt.
And, uh, I need a better pict.
I bought a new hat while I was there. I LOVE ren fest shopping.
I have pictures. I have been keeping up with uploading picts and posting them on craftster, but I forgot to post them here….
Belly casts!
upside down christmas tree!
Poppet!
Merry Christmas all!!!!!!
Ok, the sprout’s soaker is done! The i-cord was finished at the Mom’s SnB.
I still have 110 yards of yarn left. Which means this soaker only used about 120 yards of yarn. What’s sad is I had to open the calculator to figure it out…. and this was only 4 oz. He he, only.
I think now I just need to break out the tape measure and figure out what went wrong with the Dave’s knucks. Because I either got the gauge wrong or his hands are too big. Gaguge wrong= easy fix. Big hands= could be a little more difficult.
I keep tottering back and forth whether I want to join the Tour de Fleece or not. I have much to work on, I think I need to make some yarn for my midwife and the lady who will be teaching our birth class. There really is no shortage to stash or reason. I just worry that if I commit to spinning everyday something will blow up or melt down. Maybe I will just be a bystander and if I do it, rawk, and if not, nothing lost.
And because Nicole was asking:
the mess that is my TARDIS apron. It started as a plain blue apron. Because I need more aprons. Seriously, I think now I have three. I decided it needed something. I saw a really nicely done 8 layer stencil of the TARDIS. I think I can do in in only like 4 layers. The black layer is a disaster, as you may be able to see. I’m still working on it. I may throw it across the room or try again with freezer paper since you can iron freezer paper to your fabric. I keep thinking I need to write something clever on it but the only thing that comes to mind is something silly like “I’m in your kitchen, disobeying the laws of time and space.” Though part of me wants to write “The angels have the phone box” across the bottom. But that only makes sense if you’ve seen “Blink”.
So a quick run down:
Current Finished objects:
-The SOAKER!!
-TARDIS apron.
Current works- in- progress:
-Ren fest costumes. I keep waffling over whether I really want to put that much work into them or just go in something cool.
-Husband’s knucks
-Tiny’s baby doll
Current planning:
- Sprout’s blanket
I have one more thing to say but I am so going to bed. Because the AC is on in our room. ahhhhhhhh…..
Reasons not to take photos when the LO is up and running around.
-What ever she is working on /playing with becomes dull the moment the camera is whipped out.
-She likes to play with the yarn, resulting in hands or feet in the shot.
-She likes to help (read: pull on my arm) resulting in blurry photos.
Five shots later I have nothing and so I decide to wait until nap time. Nap time rolls around and with one shot each I have each of these pictures. Things to do while tiny is up? READ.
So I give you: some progress shots.
Easter egg roving:
Easter egg yarn:
about 190 yards. No idea what to do with it yet. Everything says ‘soaker’ to me right now…….
The Batts that Would be a Soaker: (from a craftster.org swap)
The yarn all spun up:
Aprox 230 yards. I think it was about 5 oz but I could be wrong.
The soaker in progress:
I’m making a hybrid pattern for this soaker- I like the ‘ribbed’ idea- a little more absorption where you need it (between the legs). I’m making it in the small size- 3-6 mos. I keep looking at it thinking “My baby is not going to be THAT tiny!” Erm, yes, babies start out tiny! Those are my Denise knitting needles. I do like them- they are really light weight and never get cold.
whoo! That’s enough for now. Other things to do while tiny is alseep? LAUNDRY.
