Introducing Megan, the Mad Hatter (or not-so-mad-before-the-poor-times-set-in, haha!)

A Nightmare Before Christmas Halloween!

This Halloween has been pretty much focused on Megan…  most likely due to the fact that Emily is now 19 and didn’t really have any desire to get all dressed up. 😉 Megan, on the other hand, has been planning her costume for months!  It will serve a dual purpose, as her friend, Kelly, is planning on holding a costume-required birthday party in March with the theme of Alice in Wonderland.  Megan called first dibs on the Mad Hatter and immediately began formulating her plans.

While she was preparing, I was book launching and didn’t have any time to spare for costume making.  She kept reminding me of how much time there was left until Halloween, and I kept promising that it would get done in time, to the worried and scolding looks on her face. 😛 While she waited for me to hold up my end of the bargain, she went about searching all the little things that would make up her version of the Mad Hatter. This included an actual working pocket watch, vintage earrings and pendant, peacock feathers, decorative buttons, and of course, all the fabric and patterns needed to build this into a working costume.  I’m really quite amazed at how well she planned this whole thing out!

Well…this last week was spent at the sewing machine, and sure enough!  We got it done in time!  Yay (to the abundant relief of both mom and teen, lol)!!!

When I provided her with the freshly sewn coat, vest and hat, I gave it over to her to decorate and fill in all the missing accessories.  She sewed all the buttons on herself and created her upscale, steam-punk, before-all-the-poor times version of the Mad Hatter that you see below:

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Doesn’t she look amazing?!  I think she’s absolutely gorgeous as the Megan version of the Mad Hatter!

The drawing at the top of this post is from last year’s Halloween, also drawn by Megan.  She creates these super fun characters that are versions of people in her daily life…these comic strips are called “Dailey Occurrences”.  😀  She is so great at finding the humor in every day happenings and putting them in very expressive cartoon strips.  This is a page from her holiday post cards collection that she said I could share with you all.  We hope to publish some of her comics on her very own site soon…so stay tuned for that in the future.

I hope you all have a Delightfully Frightful Halloween Night!  (a quote from my girlfriend, Guppygirl <3)  Happy  & Safe Trick-0r-Treating!

Bethany~

Posted in Crafting, Dailey Occurrances, Dailey Occurrences, Family Fun, Growing Up, Holidays, Kids, Kids Crafting | Tagged | 11 Comments

Clearing the Fog…

It’s time to set some goals! 🙂

I know that I’ve just completed a very huge goal, but seeing as that was pretty much my main goal for the last year+, I’m having a little bit of a difficulty getting set on the next items to do.  I think I’m just a bit burned out after all that focusing, planning, editing, PR-ing, creating and just plain doing.  After the last box was shipped from the Kickstarter book launch, the migraines set in and I was pretty much down for the count for a week straight!  After indulging in some muscle relaxers at night, I was finally able to get those under control.  But by then I had spent nearly 2 weeks in pain.  If you’ve thought recently in your dealings with me that I seemed just a tad flaky, well…it’s because I was trying to think through the fog and that isn’t always the best plan, lol.

Hence my post today!  Even though I’ve needed a bit of a break, life still goes on and there’re still items that need to be marked off the to-do list.  I’ve just plain got stuff to do and I need a bit of organization and motivation!  I figured my bloggie would be the best place to do that…with the encouragement and fortification of all my loomy buds! 🙂

This is the pattern we’ll be using to create Megan’s version of the Mad Hatter!

So here goes!  Here are the things I have on the top of my list:

  1. Complete Megan’s Halloween Costume…she’s going to be the Mad Hatter and I’m becoming a Mad Mama (crazy, that is!) just trying to focus on getting this thing done! 😛
  2. Complete 2 scarf sets.  These are gifts that I need to get done as soon as possible to be able to deliver them in a timely manner.  I can’t go into too much detail, as the recipients might actually be reading this, lol. I will say that both scarves are complete and I just need to make a hat for one set and fingerless mitts for the other to be able to mark them off the list.
  3. Koby the Striped Kitty!  This is for our blogiversary and book launch party winner, Catharine Plummer.  🙂  She chose to have me create her very own Koby (a choice that I highly commend, as Koby is such a fun little character and is liked by all who have the chance to meet him!).  I have completed looming his head, body, 4 striped legs and tail.  I still need to do his 4 feet, his 2 ears, his muzzle, stuff and assemble him.  I will be doing a separate post about this subject very soon, as I’m using the new Martha Stewart Loom Set to make Koby this time and I’m going to be sharing my feelings about the experience!
  4. Hubby has requested a SWEATER!  This is quite something, as he hasn’t really asked for anything before.  Well…maybe a long time ago, when I first started looming, I remember him saying something about the fact that “now I could make him a sweater.”  Well…needless to say I balked at the idea at the time and went about my merry way looming and designing all the fun little things that came to my mind and forgot all about it…that is, until he reminded me quite insistently about that long forgotten request.  I am still balking at the idea, lol.  I don’t know why…I’m sure it’s going to be magnificent (I’m crossing my fingers & toes here).  It’s just the idea of making something so big as an XL men’s sweater, with the expectations for a gorgeous fit at all time highs.  I tend to gravitate toward simple things that size doesn’t really matter that much and it doesn’t take that long to knit, lol.  I will be posting more about this subject soon too, as we’ve found the perfect fiber which will be actually spun into the perfect sweater yarn by my daughter Emily!  Won’t that be cool?!  A regular heirloom piece: a sweater that was knit by hubby’s wife out of yarn that was handspun by his eldest daughter. 🙂 We’ll have to get our youngest daughter Megan to sew on the buttons or something, so that it will truly be a gift to Evan from all his girls. ❤  (Talk about high expectations, right?)  Because of the enormity of this project, I’m dubbing it: Beast. hahaha… Hopefully we’ll be able to transform Beast into Beauty before we know it!
  5. Lose 30 LBS by the end of this year!  Needless to say, I’ve been sitting on my duff a lot for the past year and I am fully intending on dropping those extra unwanted pounds that came along with the territory.  Well…not all 30 lbs happened from this…probably more like 10, but I’d really like to drop the full 30, and I believe that with careful diet and exercise I can succeed. 🙂  I actually officially started yesterday, October 25th.  Here’s my official recording of it, lol.

Okay…I think that’s enough to take onto my plate right now.  I think that these things will last me through the end of the year, don’t you?  I know that the 2 loomy items will be done pretty quickly, as they are on the top of the list and I’ll be trying to pump those out fast.  I will probably add other little loomy items in their place as the previous are completed.  That will provide me with a little variety as I work on the larger goals of weight loss and completing Beast by Christmas. 😉

I’ve drawn up this progress chart and will be placing it in the sidebar, so that I can publicly keep track of my progress on each item.  I think it will seem more official that way, and I’ll have more motivation to work through the fog and get this stuff done, don’t you?  I’m feeling better already, just laying it all out on the screen for you!  Thank you for that! 🙂

I didn’t put the Mad Hatter on there, because that will be done by this weekend.  In fact, I really should be working on that right now, lol.

Shhhhh….don’t tell Megan that I’ve been playing on the computer and not tied to the sewing machine this morning… 😉

I hope you’re all having a terrific week and are finding ways to stay happy, organized and working with your yarns and looms!

Bethany~

Posted in Crafting, Family Fun, Goals, Holidays, Kids, Knitting, Life, Loom Knitting, Marriage, New Projects | Tagged | 17 Comments

Working with the Half Hitch~ (*inc. update on the Servin’ Up Stripes Table Runner)

As you probably remember, we have been working up the Servin’ Up Stripes Table Runner pattern as a Loom Along for October at our Yahoo Chat Clique and at our Ravelry LAL Group.  It’s been a little quiet, but some of us have been making some excellent progress on it and the variations of the different yarns being used are terrific to see in this project! 🙂

We did have an excellent question arise that needed to be addressed.  When using the increasing method described in the pattern specifically used for double knitting and making a triangle shape, there ended up being little loops on the side of the points where the newly cast on stitches were employed.  This doesn’t really show up if you’re using a thick enough yarn to fill out that extra looseness in the e-wrapped add-ons, but they do definitely show up with thinner type yarns.

I dug out my loom and yarn and refreshed myself on that cast on method.  I worked, tried, frogged, winged, frogged, then frogged some more, lol, in the search to control those loops. Finally, I had some luck! 🙂

If you follow the instructions just as written, but instead of wrapping those added increase pegs on each end as normal, you create them by using the half hitch technique, you will almost completely eliminate those extra loops! YAY!

What is the half hitch? If you have the new book, it is described in the Knitty Gritty section. It’s also shown on the DVD some of the book backers received (more info about that DVD coming soon!).  In essence, you will wrap exactly the same way, but will twist the working yarn in your fingers THE OPPOSITE WAY as an e-wrap, so that your WY will cross UNDERNEATH your wrap when placed on the peg. This helps lock that wrap in place and it won’t elongate after knitting off, which is what tends to happen with the e-wrap method.

Here’s a little tutorial video for you to see what I’m talking about for yourself…

Working with the Half Hitch:

Does this make sense? Give it a try and see what you come up with! 🙂  You can also find the updated version of Servin’ Up Stripes Table Runner pattern on the Freebies Page here.

Bethany~

Posted in Free Loom Patterns, Loom Alongs, Loom Knitter's Chat Clique, Loom Knitting, Looming Patterns, Tutorials | 3 Comments