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...

Well, Fuck You, Too

I managed to finish my shawl.

I even designed a custom border when the original annoyed me too much.

I even added bells to the edge for fun.

We had our differences. This yarn was a pain in my ass to work with. And I couldn't understand how this shawl got to be so big with so little yarn.

Washing it was a nightmare. It took 5 good washes to get all the excess dye out.

But it was done.

Just had to block.

Couldn't find my container of pins. But I luckily managed to find a spare pack while cleaning over the weekend, so I went and dug them out.

I started blocking like normal. Good and stretched out for this one.

It was an inch and a half too short on one side, so I decided to give it a little tug, like I've done with a million other shawls a million other times.

*pop*

It literally tore.

I managed to secure the stitches and I'm going to let it finish drying.

But I'm pissed.

I used the exact same bind off that I've used in nearly EVERY OTHER SHAWL I'VE KNIT.

But apparently the universe was like, "lol nope fuk u"

*sigh*

If anyone needs me, I'll be in the shower. Drinking a rum and coke. And trying to resist the urge to go set fire to the fucker.

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.

Listing to One Side

I have so many things I'm juggling right now that if I were to try and write them in a coherent fashion, I'd be chained to this laptop for a week.

Sooooo......

LIST IT UP, BEFORE I GO GO-back to working on this massive list, like, gaddamn.

1. I hit a hundred posts on here! Well, really this one makes 104. I'm really bad about stuff like this, people. I missed my 8k view mark by over 100 views...

2. We went to Cleveland Pride a few weeks ago and it was an amazing and fun experience (minus the sunburn). I REALLY want to take the time to write a proper post about this, but I honestly probably won't get to it until after Ren Faire (WHICH IS IN TWO WEEKS OH MY GOD SO MUCH TO DO)

For now, just have a couple of pics.

3. I actually managed to finish a project!

It was a small one, but still.

I had won a skein of Plymouth Gina in a contest years ago. I had started the Deep Sea Flower Dice Bag pretty early on in my knitting career, but never finished it.

I had pulled it out of the bottom of the WIP basket and was horrified by just how bad it looked. So, a quick rip later, and I was ready to try again.

Much better this time.

I fiddled with the sizing and pretty much doubled the number of stitches. I wanted to make sure this thing could hold my entire collection plus more. Because, let's be honest, hoarding dice is *almost* as much fun as hoarding yarn.

I fiddled with the color repeats to get the look I wanted.

And used almost the entire skein. I had so little left over that it wasn't even worth keeping.

I love the way it sits open, too.

Sadly, though, my bag is now severely lacking in the dice department. It doesn't have that nice full heft to it.

See?

Such a pitiful amount. John probably wouldn't care if I ordered a set... or five.

4. Mikayla, the absolute darling, gifted me with a wonderfully squishy skein of Malabrigo.

It's just begging to be made into a cowl or something equally as charming and delightful that lays right next to your skin.

5. Mermaid Lair has been started.

I'm through the first three charts and have just started the repeatable lace section.

6. What you don't see is the additional 4 to 5 hours worth of work, with a whole big stinking heap of frustration added in. 

I'm working on this using my tablet for the pattern rather than a physical copy out of sheer laziness and/or wanting to get started and not having access to a printer at like midnight when I started this thing for environmentally friendly reasons.

And this is how it normally looks when I have it zoomed to a comfortable level for me.

Which was fine until I get to Fancy Lace Chart 2.

See this part?

This section caused me to knit the whole damn chart TWICE, with major hair pulling out, crying, and major tinking.

Have you spotted what could have possibly thrown me off?

Yes, those are two ENTIRELY DIFFERENT STITCHES!

That bloody little "3" made me want to set fire to the whole damn thing.

Things seem to be smooth sailing from here, aside from the ridiculous amount of beads.

7. Well, they would be smooth sailing if I was actually working on this shawl.

But I'm not.

I'm cheating. I'm cheating hard.

And I'm, once again, putting myself in the predicament of having to get some major things accomplished in a very short amount of time. 

Our Ren Faire date is in less than two weeks. July 22nd, to be exact.

And I have a boatload of costume things to get done. 

I refuse to list them all here because I'm just going to make myself cry.

AND we're finally getting a dumpster to clean out the junkyard that is our garage this week. Which means major hours devoted to cleaning.

So what better to do than add in KNITTING A WHOLE BLOODY SHAWL in this timeframe?

Well, what can I say? I'm a sucker for heaping enormous amounts of pressure on myself.

8. Assuming that I do get this done, and then get Mermaid Lair done in the following six weeks, it will make my last blog post and subsequent freakout null and void.

9. That's really bloody annoying to think about.

10. I may be a little bitter.

11. Damnit.

Commitment

So, as you know, it's been my intention to complete a shawl every month this year.

Yes, I know that this is a rather lofty and ridiculous goal, but it's one I've been full comitted to doing. At this point I've completely finished 6 shawls.

That is a lot of yarn, time, and energy. An utterly ridiculous amount, really.

There have been points in doing this that  I've wanted to give up, to stop, to work on anything else. June's shawl, Kelp, was almost my breaking point. I didn't really enjoy making it all that much. I did it to keep up with my committment.

This month I started working on Mermaid Lair, the one you lovely people helped me choose. And it soon became apparent that I was going to be faced with a real dilema.

I knew that it had some beading, but I thought it was mostly in the edging. Well, I was really, really wrong. The entire thing is heavily beaded. From start to finish. Making this impossible for me to do in such a short amont of time.

I mean, I could try, but I KNOW that it wouldn't turn out well. I'd literally only be able to do this this month and not be able to work on anything else, which isn't exactly ideal. Most months I've been able to get the shawl done in a relatively short amount of time, leaving me time to do other things, like painintg, or reading, or gaming. This is Ren Faire month and I have a TON of work to do for costumes.

I also have the option of just not doing the beads at all, or only doing a small amount of them. But this yarn is amazing, and the pattern breathtaking. With the beads added into the mix, I really think that this shawl could be the most magnificent one I've done.

Am I really willing to compromise on this just in the name of some lofty ambitions?

Most of you are shouting at the screen, telling me to just take the time I need, make it pretty, that I'll probably have it done in less time than I think.

you're right, and that's what I'm planning ong doing. Turning this into a two-month project rather than just one.

But I want you to understand what this is costing me mentally and emotionally. This was a very difficult decison to make. I feel like I'm not just letting myself down, but you as well. That somehow, you'll all be a little dissapointed that I couldn't stick with this goal.

I can't help but beat myself up a bit, telling myself that if I were a better knitter, I could do this no problem. That by breaking this commitment, I am somehow less trustworthy now.

Ridiculous, yes, but this is what happens when you live with demons in your head.

Well, enough prattling on about this. I've told you what I'm doing, so I guess it's time to work on it.

Yep, just me and this ball of yarn the size of my head for the next two months.

Let's do this.

Take Me Out to Sea

I'm in a bit of a conundrum.

I really, really, REALLY want to play with my Sea Witch yarn for either July's or August's shawl.

But for once I can't decide exactly which shawl to knit.

I want something with an all over lace pattern and some beads. And it needs to be ocean themed.

I've narrowed it down to three.

First we have Mermaid Lair.

Second is Sea Songs.

Third is Sea Nymph.

(All images courtesy of Ravelry pattern pages.)

See how I'm having trouble?

They're all so lovely. And I want to make all of them. But alas, I only have one skein of yarn.

So this is where YOU come in!

If you could all do me a favor and vote in this poll, I'd really appreciate it.

Help this queen of indecision make something beautiful.

VOTE HERE!!!