The Siren's Swan Song

Well, she's done.

The most brilliant and amazing shawl that my hands have ever produced.

From such a humble little bundle.

Through trial and tribulations.

Not to mention some very real fears about not being able to finish.

But we got there in the end.

And, my god, is she breathtaking.

So many beads placed...

And so many stitches made...

This art was brought into being by my two humble hands. 

I'm left feeling a little lost.

Where do I go from here?

How do I possibly top this?

I mean, this is the most complex project I've ever done.

And, except for a couple of minor hiccups, it went pretty smoothly.

Is this it? Have I peaked?

Nah, I don't really think so, either.

This creative train ain't ever going to stop rolling.

Though I am *slightly* scared at what my next magnum opus is going to involve.

Guess the only way to find out is to keep going forward.

Potter Pottery Painting Party

A few weeks ago, I had a marvelous day out with my dear Bethany. We spent the day rummaging around "antique" (read: junk) stores, stumbling on some really cool things for the library.

I even found some old player piano music scrolls. And the boxes reminded me of the ones you'd bring your Ollivander's wand home in.

The scrolls themselves look like, well... scrolls. So they'll be displayed separately somewhere.

And for those of you curious as to what the music actually looks like.

After that, we headed to a place called Hot Pots for a Harry Potter themed craft night. She and I had elected to paint oversized house crest mugs. It was so much fun.

Since I already have a Gryffindor crest mug, I decided to do a Black Goat one instead.

It's really cool to see just how much the glaze changes once it's been fired.

Of course, I ended up having so much fun that I just HAD to take John and Al there as soon as possible. So that's just what I did.

Al did an espresso cup and saucer set.

John decided on a mushroom figurine.

I, of course, did a yarn bowl. Did you expect anything else?

I also did a lantern.

We picked them up on Saturday, and oh my Henry, I'm so dang happy.

First, John's mushroom.

Al doesn't like me to share her projects, so I'll respect her wishes.

Here's my lantern.

I'm pretty happy with it. But I'm not nearly as infatuated with it as I am with my yarn bowl.

LOOK AT THIS BEAUTIFUL BABY!

LOOK IT!

I'm just so dang happy with it. And now I want to make a million more things. John feels the same way. So this may actually become a regular date night for us. Hell yes.

If you'll excuse me, I need to go wind the yarn for this month's shawl. I need an excuse to use my new bowl, don't you think?

Purlgatory

Bind-off.

A word I would grow to hate.

It is my life.

I've always been binding off.

There has never been anything else.
No sunlight. No warmth. No lover's touch to bring me comfort. Just the endless stitches.

Knit, slip, knit two together.
Knit, slip, knit two together.

Knit.
Slip.
Knit two together.

The project never grows bigger.
The end never comes near.

Embrace me, darkness.
End this woolen torment.

A Few Months Late

So...

Back in July I had knit that utter disaster of a shawl. The one with the little bells on it? THE ONE THAT BETRAYED ME BY RIPPING DURING BLOCKING?!

Ahem..

Anyway, I realized that I never did get around to posting pics of it.

So, yeah. Here's July's shawl, Steam Bells.

Made with Berroco Folio, which is an alpaca blend.

I really hated working with it, honestly. I'm a loose knitter by default, but I was struggling to get my needle in my stitches.

You already know about the disaster that was trying to block this thing.

It's definitely not my favorite thing I've made.

But it is a shawl and meets my monthly goal.

"Uhhhhhhhh......."

This clever title brought to you by the ever lovely Jamie. Because hell if I could think of one.

I'm exhausted, friends.

My mental illnesses have sent me on one hell of roller coaster recently. It feels like there are just as many bad days as good days right now. I'm not sure what exactly is causing this sudden change, but I'm hopeful that things are going to even out.

But in the meantime, you'll have to deal with a slightly less witty blogger.

Anyway, September has come and gone and there's no Mermaid Lair to show for it. There is, however, a new shawl in my collection.

One that was completely improvised, mind you. A good, mindless knit.

Say hello to Polar Bear in a Snowstorm.

It originally started as a scarf to wear with this dress.

But of course, this is me.

So it got 'Ashtaned'.

No regrets, though. It's the perfect middle size. Just a really good, satisfying knit.

But, for the love of Henry, my next project has GOT to be something with some damn patterning! Give me lace or give me death.

Yarn Discovery Tour, Personal Modifications, and a Wedding

Once again I must ask, dear friends, to think back a few weeks ago. Because, once again, I've fallen behind on my blogging duties.

Clear back on the 16th, I was supposed to be going for a special birthday trip with a couple of friends. Sadly, those plans fell through due to the lovely season of colds starting. So I took Caitlin up on her offer of joining her on this year's Yarn Discovery Tour.

I originally had no plans on participating this year due to a lack of funds and really feeling like I shouldn't be buying more yarn. I mean, I'm pretty sure I've reached SABLE at this point. But it sounded like a fun day out, so I figured what the hell, and went along.

We started out at Harps & Thistles, which was probably a mistake. Because of course, I started chatting. I needed to catch up, alright?

I actually didn't buy any yarn there. Instead, I got some lovely fiber for spinning. I want to give it another go and Caitlin's promised to teach me.

The next stop was The Designing Woman. (Please excuse the text in the pic. My front-facing camera mirrors everything and I'm too lazy to fix it right now.)

A quaint little shop with both yarn and fabrics, it was pleasant. I've never seen such a large collection of Berroco brand yarn.

I just picked up a skein of worsted weight from Rowan to use for more Bulbasaur.

After that, it was up the road to Crochet Innovations.

Another lovely shop tucked into a plaza. There was a bistro right next door that had all sorts of divine smells coming from it.

I picked up a hank of Cascade 220 Superwash Aran weight in a lovely charcoal grey. No pics of just it, though. It's already all in the edging of September's shawl.

We hit up Long Tail Knits after that.

This place is definitely a spinner's paradise. Caitlin and I are already making plans on hitting it up again in the near future.

I, however, fell in love with a hank of their in-house yarn line and couldn't walk away.

At this point, we were definitely starting to go into sensory overload, so we made our stop at Fine Points as brief as we could. I bought neither yarn nor fiber. Instead, I walked away with this FRIGGIN AWESOME PROJECT BAG!

Our final stop was River Colors in Cleveland, where we met up with Mikayla. This was her LYS and it was easy to see why. It was huge  and inviting. The selection was superb. And I found freakin' Tosh in the clearance section!

Mikayla said she'd make me a hat if I bought it since bulky weight is her jam. Can't really say no to that sort of offer.

I also picked up this lil' hank of Malabrigo lace.

We got some much-needed food after all of that. But my day was only half-done. Caitlin handed me off to Kayla and we went to her apartment for a hair appointment of epic proportions.

The darling woman had agreed to redo my hair for me, and well, we went a little wild. Rather than just redoing the color I had, we went full galaxy up in my mane.

It was great fun and the results are amazing.

Seriously, how awesome does it look?

I wanted it done for a wedding that John and I attended last Friday. Have to look good, right?

My wedding 'do actually came out ridiculously epic for doing it myself and I had people coming up to me all night just to compliment my hair.

I also wanted something else done for the wedding, so last Tuesday, Kayla and I made our way to the local needleman.

My nose is now a little bit shinier.

Shoutout to Kayla for the amazing birthday present. And to Caitlin for the fun day out.

As for that wedding I mentioned, it was for John and I's favorite cousin on his side of the family. And let me tell you...

We clean up pretty good.

Seriously, I had the hottest date there.

And before you ask yes...

I knit at the wedding.

Did you expect anything less?

So congrats to Danielle and Carl, you two lovely nerds. Enjoy the months of writing down the wrong name, the mountains of paperwork, and the little skip your heart does whenever you look at your spouse and realize, "holy shit, we're married."

And thanks for not mentioning the yarn spread across our table.