In His Steps

My Fourth of July this year was fun and I admit I spent most of it in a pool. Sooo glad I did! I hadn't gone swimming in over a year. I'm going to pic spam our dinner though, since I was without my camera for most of the day. This was the pool I was in--a salt water pool! I love those. My niece walking this adorable Shiba Inu. Seriously, this dog was beautiful. I wanted to kidnap her.

Originally posted 7/1/12: I finished my second pair of socks (the ones I mentioned I never swatched for), and they are also Harry Potter themed. The pattern is called  "Weasley Homestead"  and the pattern designer is Erica Lueder, the same author I got the Hermione Everyday Socks pattern from. This yarn became the following socks. Here is the first sock with the top, heel, heel turn, gusset already complete. I was much less meticulous in documenting these. Trying it on just for fun. The fit was good, but I was making these for a friend, so the socks fitting me was not quite the point. And here's the completed project. During just the gusset and heel turn, these socks managed to have a more consistent color area instead of the random striping the rest of the socks have. I had a great deal of fun watching the orange, brown, and magenta tiger stripes form there. Overall, I am very proud of these, and the recipient tried them on insta...

I was given an opportunity to enjoy the fun at Fantasy Con in Salt Lake City this year, so I had some fun there! I went to three panels: Dwarves! and a Villains panel and then the estimable Doug Jones' panel! After the panels, I ran about the vendor hall and had some more fun there, so enjoy the pic spam! They had this amazing fountain of a dragon and warrior fighting. Stuff for the kiddos! This guy had fun scaring people. And he was freaking huge. My friend Douglas was also there and we hung out for most of the day. Here he is, barrel-riding. And I couldn't help but giggle when it was my turn. There were some truly amazing shows of craftsmanship. I wanted to steal the ballista. Our local SCA was there as well having a free for all. I'm still not sure what they were doing. Very cool dragon. But he was totally upstaged by this one. I got to meet Doug Jones! I really can't explain ...

Originally posted 5/23/12: A couple months ago, I wanted to step up my knitting ability and, to do that, I decided to learn how to make socks. A yarn swap proved fortuitous and I traded some yarn I didn't want for two different skeins in a fingering weight. I chose the one with the more enchanting color scheme to me at the time. Plymouth Yarn Zino in Forest. I started this in March when winter was still clinging on with all its might. I think my color choice was in defiance. So I began. I selected a pattern that in its essence seemed simple. I chose  Hermione's Everyday Socks  pattern, by Erica Leuder, a pattern designer I quite enjoy, as she does many Harry Potter inspired patterns. In the spirit of things, I call these my Slytherin socks. Here's a close up of the pattern and you can see I've begun to knit the heel flap. I'll let you in on a secret right here. The heel flap is backwards. The mistake came from following the patter...

I day tripped to a local war recently and it felt good to be back in the swing of things. The location had some amazing points. Enjoy the locale's view! It's a large amphitheatre built to look like a castle. There were many skirmishes along the winding stone path. It made for a good battle scenario.

Originally posted 4/1/12: The previous posts have yet to reflect my entire repertoire of completed projects, but this will come close. These are the most current ones. Rosslyn needed a scarf to match more of her clothing as protection from the weather. She decided she liked the following yarn: Lion Brand Amazing in colorway 210 (I wish they would just name them). She wanted the Twill pattern I used in my father's and brother's respective cowls, which can be found as a sample pattern in the back of the Knitter's Handbook. So, I got to knitting... Here is the final product and a detail of the pattern. The broach is Rosslyn's and this scarf looks quite amazing with many of her coats and blouses. This next project is actually for me. This is the last of the handspun from that SCA vendor. I named it the Clementine Handspun in Irish Rose (the vendor named the colorway--I had the small paper still attached to this one, and the sh...