Massive update

First, let us review the goings on at my house for my 3rd favorite holiday.

On Tuesday evening, the boys made some amazing pumkin happenings. Sadly, Xander dumped most of his roastable seeds in the garbage since he wasn't into the gooey hand scooping approach. Dad saved his though and we oven roasted 'em with salt and Essence of Emeril. Yum.


I had planned to paint my tiny little round pumpkin, but ran short of time. The boys took off with the paint though and made their jack-o-lanterns in the image of Mike Wizowski and a Goblin. My little pumpkin, peaking out from behind the Goblin, will reappear as pumpkin pie in a about two weeks. At the pumkin patch, we also picked up some butternut squash and some acorn squash. Yum.


Now for the costuming. Always the procrastinator, I stayed up almost all night on Tuesday turning Simplicity's Raggedy Andy pattern into an Elvis Jumpsuit. I am happiest with finding the silver fabric to line the cape. This year was only the first incarnation of this costume. I am first going to build up the collar. Then, I am going to rework the belt to lay better. The final and most important step will be the embellishment. I haven't decided if I am going to invest in an actual repro chart from one of the professional Elvis impersonator websites. I have 3 years to figure it all out. Hubby desires to have a rotation of 4 costumes, so that his students will only see one for their four years at the school. Next year is a banana. That might change because he has lots of family costume ideas. Other than the cape lining, I am also quite proud of having excecuted a white jumpsuit that was not see thru in the least. Pat on the back. (Heavier knit in a flesh tone about as olive as his is.)



Here is the merry copout. I found this costume for super cheap last year during the Halloween clearance. I can't remember if it was $4 or $2 but it was way less than even the fabric. I had really forgotten about it and didn't think that it had even moved with us, but, about 2 weeks before Halloween, Xander popped out of his room dressed in it and very pleased with the idea of wearing it leu of being an allosaurus. As I reflect, I think that this maybe the first store bought costume in all my 26 Halloweens. Dad decided to go as himself from high school (shaving for Elvis authenticity took away about 10 years from his already youthful face).


Here is the knitting portion. I cast on this scarf on Saturday night. It is based on Berroco's Michaela. It is a 17 st. repeat that I cast on long ways with 22 repeats. The yarn is Mountain Colors Bearfoot Blue green. I am having fun and have almost finished one set of the 16 rows it takes to make a motif. I am hoping for at least 3 row repeats, maybe 4.

This bit of orange and blue is going to be a stripey hat for Xander. Rather than simply striping, I decided to add a pterodactyl via intarsia: the intarsia within each stripe will be the alternating color. This idea did occur to me after I had already cast on in the round - rip it, rip it. It is only yarn, right? Now, I am just waiting for times when he is at school or in bed to work on it. I do like to tease people by working on something that I know they will like in front of them and then coyly saying it is for a different purpose. He loves my knitted stuff too much to hear again that I am not making it for him. I'll go with pure surprise this time.



Last bit: while blog surfing, I ran across this project at Every Word's a Purl. It comes from the minds of the folks at MarthaStewart.com. Amused by the no-knit scarf and fueled by the fact that I actually am suffering a scarf shortage, I ran to the stash and grabbed four yarns I like together. I only glanced at the picture and scanned for cutting measurements, so I missed the thing about pinning it as you knotted to create neater knots. I did improve the technique by making butterfly bobbins. Then, I improved my butterfly bobbins by using tiny hairbands to keep 'em together instead of wrapping the second end around the outside. It is warm and serves its purpose for neck warmth. I really liked these yarns together, so I mosied over to the Random Stripe Generator and saw exactly what I was looking for one the first try. When I am done knitting, I am going to crochet shells around the perimeter. I am liking the architectural narue of the color blocks and the roundness of the shells like this anthropologie sweater.