The Anonymous Blueberry Muffin Thief Sews...

I made another squid. I'm sort of wishing I hadn't, because these things are a bastard to do (although hopefully now I've made a couple of pattern modifications, future ones might not be) This was a commission for a friend of a friend as a present for his wife, so the first drama was working out what to charge (I didn't want it to be too cheap because that devalues the work of other people, but at the same time, I didn't want to over charge); in the end we agreed on £40 + fabric.

 More projects are in the works. I am however suffering from a severe case of winter blues, coupled with LARP starting to pick up again for the year (pre-season planning and stuff) and a general loathing of my job that's infecting pretty much everything I do.   But enough of the blah. I spent the weekend trying to sort my house out, mostly so that I had enough flat surface to get some cutting done. Saturday I cut the pieces for a LARP shirt. It's a Simplicity 3519  in view D, which I know is going to be massive on the sleeves and probably too small on the chest. It's cut in a size XL (to accommodate chest) and the sleeves are only half the size of the back and front (and they're huge). I used about 3 metres of calico for this, which is a pain as that's most of my toile fabric gone in one shot. Oh well. Even if it is huge, I can pass it off onto someone else, or I can modify it to actually fit me. LARP shirts that fit me are a rarity, so making my own is basic...

Someone has just agreed to pay me, nay, asked to pay me, for a squid! Colours and price have been agreed, now to order fabric and get going. I'm also considering making one in 'realistic' colours. I'm also trying not to pad the fabric orders just so I can get free shipping, unless it's stuff I actually need. I've got a Wurm on my knitting needles at the moment, a bag full of knitting needles that need sorting into sizes, and this weekend, along with trying to clean my kitchen after 2 evenings of manic baking this week, I'm hoping to finish the skirt muslin, work out what size it NEEDS to be (rather than what it currently is) and cut an actual skirt. I found some fabric that I think was supposed to be a draft excluder many years ago, but which is actually really nice cotton, and it would make a really cool skirt (that hopefully doesn't need a lining). This is just the front piece. While I am somewhat large in the hip department, this goes all t...

 This was the big one. The one that was going to the person whose opinion as a crafter I care about, and a person who has had a bit of a rough year. Thankfully, by some miracle, it all came together, although this was NOT without disasters.

Emergency xmas present almost finished, well, about half way there. It turned out there was more hand stitching involved than I thought, but hey. It's going ok. I've just bought buttons for it, and new needles for my machine because sewing through fleece and then suede and felt has basically destroyed my last decent needle. Knitting is coming along. Fibonacci scarf is about 66% done, lacework scarf hasn't actually been touched in about a week, but I have until Boxing Day to get that done, and I'm not actually doing anything on Christmas day, so I have a chance. My tree isn't up because I currently don't have any room. Soooon (the plan is to do it on sunday, when all my sewing stuff should have gone away for a couple of days and I can move furniture).   And here is the current state of the sewing table. Fabric, patterns, baking paper and suede jacket. Mwahaha.   And this is me and my squid, for size reference. I'm about 5' 6 (on a good d...

November was a bit of a fail. Let's just leave it at that. Work has been pretty horrific of late, and I'm not getting as much crafting done as I'd like and xmas presents have started to become a pressing issue. The squid suffered some setbacks last weekend, when it became apparent that the long thin tentacles were going to be problematic to stuff. It turns out (so shockingly) that the fleece has a lot more stretch than the quilting cotton, and so as I was trying to stuff one of them, the cotton started splitting. No matter. I have plenty of fleece, so the long tentacles will just be all fleece. We'll call it a feature? Maybe? I've spent the afternoon sewing up the shorter tentacles and the fins. They now need stuffing, and then once the long tentacles are done, assembly can commence. Other than the squid, the main thing I've been working on is the Fibonacci sequence scarf for R. He knows about (he had to ok the colours, and I work on it during g...

So, current projects. There are plenty of them at the moment... Knitting 1. This is a shawl for me, using this pattern - Less is More from Ravelry. I'm about halfway done I reckon, and I'm really loving the texture that the yarn and pattern is creating. It got put on the back burner for a while as I was working on other things, but now it's getting a bit chilly, so I'm going to start working on it again so I have a scarf thing I can wear (to go with the billion other scarves and shawls I have). Knitting 2. This is a Christmas present for my best friend (he knows about it because he had to pick the colours). I've called it the "Pathfinder Fibonacci" as the colours match the colours we use for Pathfinder LARP, and the pattern is this Fibonacci sequence scarf , although I've added an extra step, so I'm going from 55, as he's a tall lanky bloke (this is causing some issues as I'm burning through wool at a rate of knots). I'm ab...