Good-Fucking-Bye

In a few hours, 20-I-HATE-teen will be a mere memory. Lost forever to time.

THANK ALL THE BLESSED BLOODY STARS

So, let's pour the champagne, put on the comfy pants, and take a quick look back at all the projects I managed to finish over the last 12 months.

First, my octopus hat.

My first blanket.

The first Rios Lace Tam.

Quite a few dice bags.

Cute little soft friends.

 

Soft friends wearing soft things.

The second lace tam.

A few odds and ends.

And most importantly, a few shawls.

The fact that I got so much done despite the absolute bloody disaster this year stands as a giant, defiant middle-finger to it.

So, goodbye, so long, and fuck you, 2018.

2019, you better be better. I'm fucking watching you.

Alright, friends. We made it. Let's kick ass next year.

Love you all. <3

A Fade-bled Project

Some patterns tend to take the knitting world by storm. The Bee Keeper's Quilt, Hitchiker, Wingspan, Jaywalker Socks... all things that everyone seemed to be casting on at once in the thousands.

In late 2016/early 2017 THE THING to be knitting was a shawl known as Find Your Fade. Minimal lace work, almost no purling, absolutely massive, AND it was written using 7 different colors. Dyers everywhere started making Fade kits in droves and ravelry was just filled with people's projects.

At the time, I didn't really want to make one. It didn't really appeal to me. Not to mention the very real concern that my loose knitting would mean I'd end up with a finished object that would better be served as a sail rather than a shawl. So I gave it a hard pass.

Well, until this year at least.

After finishing Mojito and wanting to sob from all the intricacy, I needed something plain to soothe my poor battered soul. I started pulling skeins out, looking for inspiration, and loved the idea of using a bunch of colors, but didn't want to do actual color work. My brain snapped to Fade and I decided why the hell not.

It was intended to be a long-term, travel project. Instead, it became the only thing I wanted to work on. I was also deep into planning for the D&D campaign and my character ( a tiefling bard named Aralith) had a whole fire and water thing going for her, so this shawl quickly became Aralith's shawl.

It took me quite a while to finish it, as I've said in a previous post. But last Wednesday (at 3 in the morning, mind you) I finished my bind-off and finally laid Fade out.

And...

Well....

I'll just let the photos speak for themselves.

When I measured it before blocking, it was already 112 inches wide.

I really shouldn't have been all that surprised since I really should have been using something like a size 2 needle instead of my usual 4's.

But could you imagine doing a large scale fingering weight project on the knitting equivalent to toothpicks?

Blocking itself was a total nightmare, with nothing going right, and a frustrating lack of room. It was the closest I ever came to having a total meltdown and just throwing a whole damn project out.

It's final measurement was a whopping 12 feet and 8 inches wide.

At first, I was angry and upset and just so damn frustrated. How the bloody hell was I supposed to wear this thing?! But as I kept playing around with it, draping it in different ways, I figured out exactly what this was.

This was FUN.

Listen, this thing is absolutely ridiculous. It's never going to function as a "proper" shawl. But it IS just so dang enjoyable to toss around me in various dramatic ways.

It's great for tossing around multiple people, too. Especially ones you like to snuggle with.

And I just absolutely ADORE the way all of the colors work together.

Especially because this shawl was 5/7ths stash yarn.

It also fits my character perfectly, but alas, I can't say too much since my party reads my blog.

So thank you, Fade, for being as ridiculous and over-the-top as your creator.

Stars know we could use some levity in our lives right now.

P.S. Isn't my new letter board totally awesome?! I can't wait for the various shenanigans that the possibilities of this board holds.

Taking a Bullet at Journaling... Wait a Sec...

So, if any of you know me half as well as you think, you could say that I'm... less than organized. That may be the kindest phrasing.

I like the idea of organization and keeping my life on track, but I'm shit at it. "Daily journaling" becomes "day of journaling," and then is never thought about again.

Well, at least until I see a new pretty journal that I HAVE to have, as the basket of mostly empty ones beside my bed will attest to.

So when the bullet journal fad kept popping up in my social media, I thought "ooooooooh, new thing!" immediately followed by, "for a week."

I wasn't going to participate. Nope, not me! No sense in it!

But it kept nagging me. That little voice in the back of my head started really trying to convince me. And then it pretty much sold me when it pointed out that we could rope John into it, too.

I had bought myself one of the famed dot grid notebooks a while back, intending on using it for knitting projects.

For those of you not in the know, you always have to give the 'specs on your set-up for your fellow bujo junkies. This baby right here is a Dingbats A5+ Dot Grid Notebook in Green Deer. And it's been serving me well.

My first weekly spread (spread is the lingo for them fancy cohesive layouts you make across a pair of page) was inspired by one I saw on reddit.

Of course, I put my own spin on it. The original was black and white and the doodles were completely different. But I was still pretty impressed with myself.

Then I started buying all the bits and bobs that go along with it, including these adorable cactus stamps.

I also got a nice set of fine liners in 36 different colors off of Amazon. I was a little nervous about them, especially for being so cheap, but I've been pleasantly surprised.

This week's spread was done entirely with them.

But it's not just weekly planning that I'm using my journal for. Take a look at my Fade spread.

Which, by the way, is now OUT OF DATE!

That's right! I finished the monster. But you'll have to wait for that one.

If the weather holds up, I'm hoping to be able to take pics this weekend.

Guess I should go add that to my bullet journal now.

How Dost Thou Faire?

You know that little voice that always tells you that you have way more time to get stuff done than what you think?

Yeah, it's a real bitch.

And it seems to be plaguing my entire life at the moment.

Take my Fade shawl for example.

I started the bloody thing back in May. I had originally intended to finish it for the Destination Yarn open house in July, but that didn't happen.

So then I moved my goal to done before Ren Faire.

That also didn't happen. 

But surely I could finish it in time for the latest pj party?

Nope.

I'm still on section 11. I'm *closer* to the end. But not quite close enough. So, once again the deadline gets moved.

Ren Faire also hit me like a freight train. I had elaborate plans for my costume this year... want to guess what never magically materialized?

Grandma ended up doing practically everything for us, for which I'm eternally grateful.

I did, however, make myself a giant set of horns because why the hell not?

They were a hit, as I had many people compliment me on them and ask for pictures. Not bad for doing them in less than 24 hours.

I didn't actually take any pics of things at the faire itself, but here are a bunch of pics of me and the friendos.

I also wore a shirt this year that....errrr..... worked better with my corset.

Heaving bosoms... heaving bosoms everywhere.

I bought a few little treasures, too.

I also bought a wee little stained glass star, but I forgot to grab it when taking pics.

But lest you feel like you're missing out, I made a TOTALLY ACCURATE REPRESENTATION for you.

See? You can TOTALLY envision it now!

You are very welcome.

John got me this adorable pair of glass owl earrings.

AND FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER IN OUR TWELVE YEAR RELATIONSHIP HE BOUGHT ME A DAMN FLOWER

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go faint 'pon yonder fainting couch from shock.