Fabric Stash And My URL

Okay, first up, prior to my boring you with my babbling about how awesome my husband is. I finally managed to figure out how to change my damnable URL for this blog to use my personal domain without losing all my feed traffic and readers. It only took me a year. Anyways. I am using blog.ninjakitten.net for my family blogging. (You know, the stuff that would bore you so I shunt it off onto some sad sack blog.)

That leaves me looking for a URL for this blog. I was just going to go with crafts.ninjakitten.net, but I was wondering if crafts sounds too... 'arts and crafts' as in macaroni and popsicle stick stuff. Then I thought, brilliantly, crafty.ninjakitten.net. Then I was worried that was lame. knitting.ninjakitten.net is out since I sew. clothing.ninjakitten.net seems a lie too since I'm not really discussing clothing so much as my making of items that might or might not be clothing.

What do you all think? Any suggestions? attack.ninjakitten.net? i-am.ninjakitten.net?

Anyways, let's forget about all that for now. Let me soothe you with some delicious silk my husband picked up for me at Mood while he was in New York city. Again.

Interestingly, my husband got me a yard of each which has left me browsing for cute, but short skirt patterns and for tank type tops. I bought a few Simplicity patterns during a Joann sale, but I'm too afraid to cut into silk!



That's actually much hot pinker in person. While it's my least favorite pattern of the three, I suspect it would actually be the most versatile made into clothing. Just goes to show that you should shop with other people and that you should consider what the finished item will look like.



I really love love this stripe, but with one yard of it, I'm at a complete loss. I mean, I've never matched up stripes before. Maybe I should use this as the bodice of a dress? Or just the short skirt of a dress?



The second I saw this one, I fell in love. Paul was mystified about what made this my favorite. I think that I like that it is slightly whimsical while still having a deep red to it. I am saving this one for last for use because I love it the most and am most afraid of it.

While picking up patterns at Joann, I also picked up some corduroy for myself.



How adorable are those owls? I definitely want to make a skirt out of that fabric and wear it every where. Because that would be the definition of autumnal fun -- wearing that skirt with my cute new J Crew tee and a cute pair of shoes that I do not currently own. Perhaps I could wear it while picking out pumpkins for the display I am planning for my front porch.

Okay, so, peeps, get back to me on that URL, please? Also, try not to mock me for having the fashion sense of a ten year old. I like my whimsy, okay?

More Mood

I've come to the conclusion that if I have nothing to blog about, then I should just buy more stash, because at least that looks good in photography here. Okay, not really. If you know me, you know I have a very small box of yarn and very little 'real' fabric. However, this month has been brutal. It's been bad news after bad news, hit after hit. It's been hot, and miserable, and down right unpleasant. People I love have been made unhappy by the news July continues to bring.

I try to keep the bad news and downer complaining from this blog, because I'm generally not a very down person. At least, I'd like to think I'm not. I might be filled with spite and anger and evil plans, but I'm generally kind of cheerful about it all. Heck, I weathered five years at a full time customer service/technical support job with barely a dent in my permanent happiness levels. (We won't talk about my view of humanity, however.)

Some of the bad news has not been mine, as you can see from Helen's blog post about her friend Amy. I've had my share, though. And this last week has been the worst yet. On top of some devastating news regarding my husband's family, my baby had yet another asthma attack. In the middle of summer. Due to bronchitis. What started out as a mild cough and runny nose quickly became full out coughing, hard breathing, and a lot of medicine and throw up. What is worse is that when he's that sick, he sleeps next to me (or not at all) and hits me and kicks me and generally fights sleep, so I have had to basically stay up at nights trying to lull him back into fitful sleep. Then, to top it off, when my fears get up about his asthma, my own body starts to rebel and I get nauseated. Then, to top that off, my husband was away for the full week again.

Paul has been pretty apologetic about not being around during this time, but, as he rightfully points out, when I decided to be a stay at home mom, I kind of signed up for dealing with vomit and sick babies. I think a good counterpoint to that is that I did not sign up to be a single mom to sick babies who keep throwing up on me, which is what being alone all week kind of feels like. In fact, if you're a single parent and you're reading this blog, my hat is off to you. You're probably the hardest working person on Earth and I can only admire you. If I had to go full time to a job and deal with this, I think that my plans to be a super villain would be much further along.

So, all this complaining aside, Paul wandered home last week from another work trip to NYC with another bag from Mood Fabrics. Nathan, finally somewhat better, decided to help me with the photo shoot this time, instead of sabotaging it.




It's another sheer woven cotton fabric with tons of drape and softness. As you can see from the picture at the top of this post, the pattern is reminiscent of what would occur if you crossed a bumblebee with a peacock.  I adore it even more than the previous fabric Paul brought home, but I still don't have a pattern for either of these fabrics.  Seriously, folks, any recs for a dress or skirt I could make from these super sheer fabrics?

Moody

As some of you might or might not know, my husband occasionally works out of town for longer periods of time. When he recently went to New York City, I got pretty excited and told him to eat dessert at ChikaLicious and to buy me fabric since he was working directly next to the fabric district. He ignored me on the dessert front, but like a great husband, he wanted to get me something for my crafting.

As with everyone on Earth, we have both watched Project Runway so he decided to hit up Mood. Or, at least, he tried to! The first night, he spent roughly an hour and a half wandering NYC in a heat wave, only to fail to find it. When he told me that, I told him that any fabric store would do and that he should not worry about it if it was too hot.

He never mentioned another word about it during the week, so I assumed he had not had time and did not ask. When he got home, he told me he had a surprise for me, but I had totally forgotten about asking him to get fabric, so I think I thought I was getting something from the hotel he stayed at. (No lie, we once got a pillow case embroidered with his name from one of the hotels he stayed at.) He told me to give him a kiss and hug, but I wimped out in the heat and gave him a sort of half kiss and then a sort of half hug. I know, I know, what kind of welcoming wife was I? The extremely overheated and exhausted kind.

Luckily, he gave me the bag from Mood anyway, and told me what had gone into getting the fabric. He had asked employees there what type of fabric to get me based on the fact that I am a beginner fashion sewer, and they told him to get me a cotton knit and they referred him to a certain section. (What?!) He asked me if he had gotten a cotton knit.





I told him that he had not, but that was okay since I had never worked with a knit before and would be afraid to. I was happy to have gotten a woven instead, and it was cotton, but very sheer and very soft and very drapey unlike the quilting cottons I was used to. He said they suggested two and a half yards, which I agreed was a good amount since I could probably make a dress with that.

We immediately ran for a photo shoot in the dying light, but my baby decided he wanted to 'help'.




We quickly derailed from there, so today while he napped, I snapped a quick photo of the non-washed, non-ironed fabric.




I kind of love the fabric, but I've never worked with such a sheer fabric before and I've never lined anything. Anyone have recs for a dress pattern that has a lining but is also instructional on sewing? Should I just sew something simple and use a slip?

I Heart Winning

Not so recently, Chappy's Mom hosted a contest in which she was trying to encourage people to watch Chuck. I already watch it, but, due to that, I was prepared to take her quiz and answer her questions! I did so and she politely wrote to me, right after Nathan's latest asthma flare, that I had won the contest.

That seemed the ideal time to check out what the prize was. No, really. I entered the contest solely for my love of Chuck and to spite people who disagreed with her Ravelry forum post. That's the way I roll -- entering contests to spite people who will never realize they've been spited.

It turns out I won twelve(!!!!11!) skeins of Sublime yarn, a knitting DVD, and season one of Chuck on Blu-Ray. I was pretty psyched, especially since I had expected the prize to be something like a skein of dishcloth cotton. Not that I don't love dishcloth cotton! But, beautiful cashmere, silk, merino yarn?

Mmmmm.



I shall say it again.

Mmmmm.



That was me gloating, by the way.

Thank you, Deb. I highly encourage you all to check out her blog(s). She's got nice photographs and she can write nicely. You all know that I don't have much higher praise than that for a blog.

Met Jared Flood And All I Got Was Yarn!

This post goes to out to making Sophy envious! As I had not seen Helen in about a week and a half, I contacted her to make plans to eat and knit and pet kittens. She suggested that we attend Jared Flood's meet and greet at Loop, and, after a quick discussion of feasibility with Paul and Nathan, it was decided.

We were very late getting there, which was all my fault due to a combination of Nathan and traffic, but it turns out that this was for the best. By the time we got there, no one was around! There were about five other knitters there besides Helen and me. We spent several minutes browsing the store and talking about visiting Spool before Helen tried to egg me into meeting Jared on the basis that I was the 'better' knitter. This is a complete lie as Helen has probably knit more than me by now and she's actually knit some of Jared's designs. I hesitated on sitting near Jared and lingered over at the sock yarn area and tried to push her to sit first, but Helen kept going on about buying yarn for another knitting venture.

After a while, the owner of Loop noticed our odd behavior and tried to push us both into sitting at the table. I ended up grabbing some Madelinetosh Tosh Sock to avoid sitting.


I mean, it's super pretty and I love me some semisolid sock yarns (colorway Clover), but at least fifty percent of that sock yarn purchase was bashfulness at meeting people.

See, here's the thing you need to know about me. I hate meeting people. I'm not sociable in person and I have few social skills. I tend to alienate people I've just met by being standoffish or super opinionated or shallow. I make jokes that are offensively cold. A lot of people dislike me upon first meeting me, and I've had this verified by people who have later become my friends!

Knowing all this about myself has made meeting people even worse. I just hate being in group situations with people I don't know. I am always sure that the second I sit down, there's something about my face or voice that makes people dislike me.

I did not want to sit anywhere near Jared Flood or the other knitters or the owner. However, after a few more minutes, I realized I couldn't avoid sitting at the edge of the table, so I did. I talked with a nice guy named Alex about where we both lived. I forgot to tell him that I really liked his t-shirt. Helen joined me shortly after, but I needed to buy my sock yarn then. When I got back, she was in the middle of the table discussing her food blog with everyone. (Helen's a serious Philadelphia food blogger. She's got mad Twitter followers and she meets with all kinds of other food bloggers.) I finally sat down at the table again and started talking with people. No one seemed to hate me, and everyone was interesting, and we stayed until closing. This meant no Spool for me, but I hope to go back down on another Friday.

I did forget to tell Jared Flood (who is kind of a cutie and I'd probably die of embarrassment if he saw that, but he will never see that I said that because no one besides ten people read this blog) that I want to knit Girasole. That would be such an awesome blanket to pull over oneself in the middle of winter, as one lounged in front of a roaring fire with a bagful of hot chestnuts. Don't you love how I create these picturesque scenes in my head?

After all this was done, Helen and I got some Indian pizza (DELISH!) Then, we went to pet the kittens and knit and watch Glee. Are you watching Glee? If not, what is wrong with you? Do you not like fun and music and dancing and joy? Helen also presented me with a belated birthday present. I took it outside and cuddled it today.


Is that Malabrigo you see before you? Yes, it is three skeins of Merino Worsted in Sapphire Green and it's for Shalom. I do dislike the name of the colorway because sapphires are most commonly blue. Here you can see a real sapphire and the yarn. Are they the same color?


I had a fun Friday night, got some great yarn, and tried to blog about my latest pair of knit anklets. Unfortunately, every series of photos I've taken has come out blurry, so that'll have to wait. But, please note that I'm back down to one WIP! So exciting a life!

New Sock Yarn

I was going to skip a post this week because I was just out of it. I was tired, grumpy, allergy ridden, and tired. This led to me not doing much at all that shows. I mean, I knit a little on my scarf, and I cross-stitched, and I even finished that cloth book I showed you in my last post, but nothing exciting happened.

Then, darling Christy came through with her Knit Picks order. In the recent past, she asked Helen and me if we would like to get anything from Knit Picks so we could all get free shipping from one package. I decided to go with an extra long cabled sock needle for trying the Magic Loop again, and two skeins of Gloss Sock Yarn. This yarn has silk in it.



It's very pretty when you look at it close up.



Now, I just need to find a good pattern for this yarn. Perhaps the Bella Catena Italiana?

Visit to Yarnings

Decided to try and visit Yarnings today, since I'm feeling more into knitting and I love touching yarn. I went with a specific purpose in mind (sock yarn and, perhaps, Berroco Suede for Coachella.), and left with two skeins of sock yarn, several magazines, and some size 0 DPNs.

I was a bit disappointed because they did not have several skeins of Suede in the color I wanted, nor did they have Lorna's Laces yarn. I also totally forgot that I wanted to buy some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino, which they did have!

So, here's some of the purchases I did make. I bought some knitting magazines. They had older Vogues for two bucks a piece. Since I want to expand my pattern library and at least one of the ones I picked up had a pattern in my Ravelry queue, I was happy to pick them up. I also picked up a Rowan magazine on the mistaken belief that I'll ever knit anything from one of them. I swear that I become beguiled by Rowan yarn and their pictures and then the next thing I know, I'm purchasing magazines I don't need and will NEVER knit anything from. I did ALMOST buy some Rowan tweed since I love all tweedy yarns, but I hate to buy yarn without a specific project at least in mind.



I fondled some Kollage yarn made of milk fibers that was called Creamy. I wasn't going to buy any (again, no project), then I remembered those adorable little baby booties that Sophy has been whipping up. Next thing you know, a small skein of the yarn is going to the front of the store, along with some bamboo size 0 DPNs. Why I'm buying the DPNs is beyond me since I've repeatedly said to myself that I'd prefer to either metal or Lantern Moon needles, but I buy them just in case I want to start knitting tonight!



Lastly, because I can't resist sock yarn, I picked up a beautiful greenish-blue skein of Koigu's KPPPM which I know knits up beautifully. I didn't need it, but it will look cute with some of my wintry shoes. I was so happy that I came home and put everything into Ravelry almost immediately, and then I went and bought more sock yarn at Simply Socks Yarn online store for Helen's socks.