Faire, Weather, Friends

Now that I'm home for more than 5 minutes, I can finally talk about Ren Faire last weekend.

It ended up raining the whole way there, but managed to stop just as we pulled in the parking area. Still the place was a muddy mess. I wisely decided to wear my boots, and if you know anything about me and how much I abhor anything on my feet, that should tell you just how muddy it was.

But we still had a bunch of fun.

We took some pictures.

Some of us took sneaky pictures while we were watching various shows.

I found a goat statue. 

We shot some bows.

 We watched some jousting.

And then we got ready for the ball and tried not to melt.

That fan was the best $5 I've ever spent, let me tell you. The humidity was unbearable.

All in all, it was a pretty fun day. There's already discussion about costumes for next year. Maybe I should start that now...

Steaming Forward

Ren Faire is this coming Saturday. Which means I've been running around like bloody mad over the last few weeks. This weekend was especially chaotic.

So, my weekend(...week?... intolerable number of busy days?)  in a nutshell:

Thursday and Friday ended up being dedicated to cleaning out the garage and backroom since my grandpa has decided that he wants to rent our garage during the winter for his Nova.

I did take some time in the evening to work on this ridiculous last minute shawl.

Well, as much as the cat would let me.

Saturday, I looked cute.

Bought a lace cardigan for $5.

Bought the rest of John's costume.

And knit some more.

Sunday friends came over.

I looked cute again.

We made a mess.

And made our masks.

Then everyone left and I worked on Vi's hat.

And mine.

(Photo from my instagram story, so pardon the text. Did you know I'm on instagram? Go over there to follow me ------->)

And I tweaked my mask a bit more until I was satisfied with it.

Then I took a bunch of selfies of my ridiculous post-bun Hermione hair.

So floofy. :3

Yesterday I was supposed to knit.

And I did... sorta.

I'm on row 9 out of the 30 rows of edging. But working on it is... mind-numbingly boring. It just needs to be done already.

I did do some things yesterday.

I finished a tube of chapstick for the first time in my life.

I took a picture of a cat.

(Wide angle lenses are fun.)

And I remade my hat when I realized that I had stupidly put everything facing the wrong way...

So that brings us to today. And really, the rest of this week.

This is what I still have to accomplish before Saturday.

• Decorate two additional masks
• Finish knitting this damned shawl
• Block said shawl
• Learn how to steam block so I can do Vi's shawl that she's also making last minute for this weekend
• Finish John's accessories for his costume
• Find shoes for myself
• Finish adding crystals and other dangly bits to my ball crown
• Make jewellry for the ball
• Try not to cry too much

Friday I also have to take Al out to get Splatoon 2 and do some shopping with my grandma. 

So really, I have 3 days to get the whole list done. 

Fuck.

Steam Fever

No, I was not abducted by aliens or trying to move myself out into a cabin in the woods, going completely off the grid. I came down sick with something that can only be described as steam fever.

I found out two weekends ago that the day we were supposed to go to Ren Faire just so happened to be the Steampunk theme weekend. I am a steampunk nerd (steampunk fiction is my favorite genre). I've had a character built up in my head for a few years at this point. I was practically quivering with excitement. Until I realized that I only had a week to come up with a costume.

So, that's what I did.

Well, what we did.

With my grandma's help, we put together a costume that, while not entirely what I had in mind, would at least serve as a nice base. I can build on it and improve as time goes on.

We made a skirt out of the fabric that was supposed to be a tunic. With the scraps, I swore, yelled, and fought my way to make a sort of faux bustle. Because everyone Victorian lady needs a butt pouf.

I also remembered that I had my crinoline from the wedding hiding in the back of the closet, and let me tell you, it made all the difference to my costume.

I took a plain, black felt mini top hat form and transformed it. And promptly decided that I would never make another hat again. Between the velvet being a pain in the ass to work with, having to dye two-thirds of my trim, and burning myself with the glue gun, I was about ready to shove the damn thing out a window.

Came out pretty awesome in the end, though. Especially because I did the entire thing with craft stash. Yep, I didn't have to buy anything for this other than a comb to keep it in my hair.

I did a bit of knitting, too, because I wanted a pair of lace gloves. The pattern that I had originally picked was just not working, so I did what I am so good at doing and improvised.

I used the lace pattern from the Fir Cone Wrap on Ravelry and went from there. Keen eyed observers will see that I was watching Pokemon while working on them. ( #TeamInstinct4Lyfe!)

I ordered a lovely lace parasol that arrived with a broken handle, but a little bit of glue fixed it right up.

I already had boots and stockings. I had a plan for my hair. John was even going to be kind enough to carry my essentials so I didn't have to worry about finding room in my costume for them. Everything was going to be perfect.

Friday rolled around at it was hot. Stupidly hot. The kind of hot that makes it hard to breathe outside. A feeling of dread hit my stomach. I checked the weather report for the next day. It was supposed to be over 100 degrees.

There was no way I was going to survive in my costume in weather like that.

So, we didn't go.

But all of that work won't be for nothing. We've decided to head up there in a few weeks instead. And I'll be wearing my costume, theme weekend be damned.

Guess that means I can get back to the important things.

Poor Quality Pictures

So.

It's cold outside.

Like really cold.

At least, it was yesterday. And I refuse to look at the weather report today.

And I'm currently all snuggled up in my bed. Which means that you'll just have to deal with my makeshift backdrop and bad lighting.

Because I straight up refuse to put pants on today.

First off, thanks to anyone who voted in the contest. The winner will be revealed in April at the next trunk show. In the meantime, I'm going to pretend to not be nervous and try to put the thoughts aside.

The monthly pj party was on the 5th. I ended up going with Vi and Caitlin, which was amazing fun. Sarah, sadly, wasn't there due to another commitment. If anyone asks, I moped about the shop, lamenting her absence.

I had planned on giving John my debit card before I went in to the shop to prevent me from buying anything (a feat I've never been able to achieve. Seriously, there hasn't been a time I've gone to the shop and not purchased something.), but then I got nervous. What if there was an emergency and I had to have my card? So, I refused to give it up and was good for the entire night.

I can hear you laughing from here.

I really did TRY to be good! There was a skein of Three Irish Girls in a beautiful colorway called Winter Birch. Vi and Caitlin did their damndest to talk me into it. I challenged them to spell out my full name using only the letters on the tag and then I might consider breaking my resolve and buying it.

Of course, they did it in a heartbeat. I really didn't want to spend that much on one skein that night, so I told them I really honestly and truly could not buy it that night.

So, Caitlin grabbed it out of my hands and tossed it into her pile.

Decided on the Debaser shawlette pattern for it.

I can't stand people being nice to me, so I'm giving her the extra skein of TIG Blackberry Cobbler that I have.

So, since I had to buy something now so I didn't look like an ass, I had resolved to satisfying my addiction by just purchasing the one skein of Malabrigo sock yarn that I had in reserve. I'd be out of there with only spending $20.

Problem was, Cindy couldn't find it.

So, I messaged Sarah and asked her where she had put it. She then confessed something to me. That beautiful, beautiful woman had bought it out from under me to knit me a pair of custom fit socks.

Let me say that again. She's knitting me CUSTOM. FIT. SOCKS.

I'm sorry, John. I'm leaving you for Sarah. I'm easily swayed by the promise of easy access to wool and (one more time) CUSTOM KNIT SOCKS!

Custom knit socks and a skein of TIG gifted to me.

AND Vi made me a mug cozy! IT'S SO AWESOME!

I have to add a button and weave in the ends, but I can't wait to wrap this around one of my favorite mugs.

Yarn karma is real, my friends.

I ended up deciding to buy three skeins of Malabrigo baby merino, which is a lace weight yarn. Caitlin was knitting a shawl with it at the party and I kept petting it.

The color is called Cypress. It looks entirely black here, but it actually has blue and blue-green in it.

Told you, terrible photos. This one has the flash on so you can just see the color in it.

I wanted to keep the yarn karma going, I bought Vi a skein of one of the new Downton Abbey yarns. Don't remember which one, all I know is that it was purple and sparkly.

I've been working pretty steadily on Vi's Tardis shawl. I'm through the main body and decorative break and have finally started the Tardis chart.

It pretty much just looks like a giant blue blob, but blocking will work it's magic and turn it into something beautiful.

I also delved into one of my other hobbies: painting RPG miniatures. I had purchased a few things from Reaper, including a clockwork dragon.

Here's how he came out.

I've named him Wrenchester (Wrench? Get it?) and he is my most precious of babies. I knew I wanted to make him into a display piece for our mantle and began the hunt for something to house him in. We'll get to that in a minute, since we have to do this thing in chronological order, right?

So, this past Saturday we made a trip up to Harps and Thistles so Sarah could measure me for my socks. I brought my lovely Vi along with me and sent Alex and John packing. Vi and I ended up walking down to Flurry's for lunch.

Can I just tell you how delicious my lunch was?

Chicken and chorizo quesadilla with a side of homemade mac and cheese. Frickin' yum!

We then went back and hung out with Sarah. I also had to buy a couple of skeins of Malabrigo sock to make my mom's birthday present.

No spoilers, but isn't this pretty?

More yarn karma came when Vi told me to pick out something as a thank you gift. I couldn't pass up another skein of Malabrigo sock, this time in the Turner colorway.

It's a gorgeous green color. But my camera says it looks like this.

Which is so wildly inaccurate that it's funny.

Taken with flash, it looks a bit closer to the true color.

Sunday, I had a Gal-intine's Day out with my lovely Bethany! We met up for lunch and then went to the Big Three craft stores (Michael's, JoAnn's, and Pat Catan's). I spent way more money than I probably should have, but damnit if I didn't have fun doing it.

We also stopped at the new Goodwill outlet and I found an amazing deal. I've been looking for area rugs for our bedroom and living room. I ended up finding two 5x7 foot rugs for $7 each!

A bit of a scrub and they'll work beautifully.

I also somehow managed to buy 9 pounds of throw pillows, but let's gloss over that.

I want to talk about my REALLY COOL THING THAT I BOUGHT!

So, looking for a house for Wrenchester, right? My thinking is some sort of glass cloche.

Until I spotted this.

Isn't it pretty? The only problem was the color. It was little too clean and silver for my rusty heart.

But with a little copper spray paint...

And some antiquing techniques with acrylic paint...

Wrenchester has himself a lovely little abode.

I still need to mount him on a small base so he's properly framed in the glass.

Look at that rusty bit of Steampunky goodness!

He's right at home here.

At least until it's time to kick some player ass in the next D&D campaign...