Quick update

Hello Peeps!

I have been working hard at work and at school and haven't had much time for anything else. I promise there is a post coming soon...I have been working on lots of things - primarily on my 15 min breaks at work, but still making progress.

Below is a bit about how I got into what I call Hobby Travel - this is when I travel to whatever location to either knit, spin, costume, sew or any other hobby that tickles my fancy. It started with hobby travel - and has turned out to be an adventure in community. There are a multitude of communities out there for whatever your hobby is, that will allow you to explore and expand your horizons with a group of individuals who share your interests.

I hope that through this blogpost you will be inspired to find your community, whatever it might be, and join in. I need to say that this post will be somewhat incomplete, this is a post that I wrote a while ago but didn't get it out.... this is what I have written thus far on this post so here we go....

I need to tell you a bit about Black Sheep Gathering (BSG). I know I haven't mentioned BSG here before...primarily because I have been too busy talking about all the other things I am excited about, but don't be mistaken, I am thoroughly excited about BSG!

Black Sheep Gathering is a weekend long fiber festival in Eugene, OR. There are tons of knitting and spinning classes and all sorts of different types of fiber craft events. I hope you don't mind but I would like to tell you a little bit about how I got into the world of not only knitting but what I like to call Hobby Travel :)

When I was younger I used to do what we called finger-knitting - the knitting on the Knifty Knitter is kinda the same type of knitting. The knitting seems to be less secure and unravel easier...I don't know if that’s actually true, but it seemed to be to me.

I had been knitting on the Knifty Knitter for quite some time...off and on...and I had knitted a scarf for a co-worker of mine. One morning I went into my walk-in closet and found the scarf I had knitted for her unraveled. My dog had apparently decided to "play" with my newest creation and it had easily come undone.

I decided that it didn't make any sense to put all the time and love into making a scarf if the stitching wasn't going to hold up. I thought that if I learned how to "real knit" my work would be better quality and last longer. My mom had given me a copy of the Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Needlework, so I looked at the section on knitting and picked up some needles and yarn I had lying around and began to re-knit the scarf for my friend. It took a little while to get the hang of it, but eventually I was knitting scarves garter stitch like a pro.

There was a gal at work who knitted on all her breaks...I had talked to her about knitting several times and I wanted to do more than knit scarves. She was knitting socks at the time and I starting talking to her more about how I wanted to knit something new. She told me about her knitting group that met every week and I decided to join.

I wanted to make socks...so she told me that I should start with a hat. I whipped through a hat as fast as I could and then cast on my socks. Rachel and I became fast friends and she had told me about this knitting camp she was going to in April called CampKIP. It had long been sold out so I couldn’t join her, but there was a fiber festival happening near us in February called Madrona and that wasn’t really a limited attendance thing so I went to that.

Madrona was great fun, I met a lot of really wonderful people and started some friendships that I am sure will last a lifetime. CampKIP was fast approaching and Rachel was so excited she could hardly stand it. It was a week away when she IM’d me at work saying that there was a last minute cancellation and a spot was open if I could make it.

Needless to say I made it happen ...I cannot express in one post how much fun CampKIP was and how much it changed the way I see things...and community in general.

I will post again soon about how many things have happened since then.

So Much Time, So Little To Do....Strike That, Reverse It

A whole lot has happened, and many things have prevented me from getting this post up earlier...most of which I will not go into here, because really...let's face it...nobody likes listening to excuses. So we will just jump into all the fun things I have been doing and working on since I posted last.

I have made some progress on my costume for the Time Traveler's Gala at Costume College. I cut out and sewed the lace overlay for the skirt. I ran into some problems there because I cut it flat and basted it, but the fabric has a lot of drape to it and therefore when actually held up it stretches to be a much larger size.

I have yet to go back and re-sew the seams to take the skirt in, but it definitely needs to be done. Maybe I will work on that over this long holiday weekend. I may have one too many BBQ's to attend to get it completed, but I could definitely make some progress.

The other major project I have been working on is the neck piece. I realized that I had left it off my list of things to complete for the costume in my last post, and its a relatively labor intensive piece as the whole thing is beaded.

I am fortunate enough to live about 5 minutes away from Shipwreck Beads which boasts the largest selection of beads in the world. I knew that if I couldn't find it there, I probably wasn't going to find it. So it took me probably a little over an hour to find everything I needed...or almost everything and I headed back home to start beading. (I can't figure out why Blogger keeps rotating this picture so it is upside down...but you can still see the beads, so I am just going to go with it)

My husband had just had surgery so the activity level at the house was pretty low, and I wanted to keep him company but still be productive. This lead me to setting up a beading station in the living room so we could watch a marathon of Legend of the Seeker on Netflix.

The next day I realized I didn't have enough of one particular bead and that I needed one other type of bead in order to make it as close as possible to the movie version. As you can see, I have my iPad set up with the detailed pictures of the pieces from the Padawan's Guide site. I found it incredibly helpful to have a detailed pictures to help as I was working on the piece.

In that weekend I managed to get all of the strung beads completed and sewed the velvet "straps" that go around the neck...although after reading about it...it turns out the original piece was boned to hold up the weight of the beads. I was thinking that I could maybe use a flexible cardboard inside of the pieces to give it the required rigidity. If anyone has any better ideas let me know :)

I am STILL waiting to get the velvet tubing I ordered from a large wholesale site that I will not mention here because I do not want to send them any business. I have been very dissatisfied with the service and it will be a month since I ordered it when it finally shows up on Tuesday this week. So once I have that I can mock up the neck piece a bit better.

I found an unexpected gem while at Shipwreck. I walked past an end display and noticed the exact blank metal headbands I had been scouring Claires and Icing to find. Apparently the costuming gods were smiling down on me that day because they even came 2 headbands in a pack! Perfect!

I used needle nose pliers to snap the bent ends off of each of the headbands, and then bent them out to lay flatter against my forehead - I just need to glue gun them together and add some type of loop or way to attach them into my hair :)

Well that's all the costuming craftyness I have to report for right now, but I have lots more to tell you. I will post all of my fun adventures in hobby travel soon. =)

Wishing you a crafty afternoon.

MandaD

Something's Gotta Give

So...this post is later than I would like it to be...as a matter of fact, I would love to post here almost every other day, but alas I have too many things competing for my time. That being said, I decided that something had to give in order for me to actually get a post up....this week it was my weekly knitting group.

I am taking a mid-term this week, and my husband is having surgery on Wednesday so things are a little busy. Enough about the stresses of this week, lets talk about the joys of last week :)

I did not start & complete an entire craft project last week. Rather I completed one relatively major one and started a really major new one.

So for the successes - I completed knitting my first pair of socks...finally. I had started these in January and had set them aside while knitting my first sweater & my first shawl. Once I completed those projects I picked my sock back up and got it done.

The other thing I have been working on is my costume for Costume College. I told you a tiny bit...really just that I was exited about it...earlier...but I haven't mentioned anything in detail about it.

So Costume College is a week-end long conference that teaches several classes related to the art of costuming. There are basic sewing classes, fitting classes, organizing classes as well as armor making and costuming theory & fabrics. I stumbled upon the class list and it was amazing. I was enrolling late so I couldn't get access to any of the limited classes, but there were so many interesting classes that I found that I would have more than a full day each of the 3 days and I am slightly grateful that my choice wasn't that much harder.

On the Saturday night of Costume College there is an event called the Time Traveler's Gala where costumer's go to show off their hard work. I really want to attend this event...so I need to have a costume. I don't have anything pre-prepared for an event like this, so I was going to have to come up with something new.

Right now at least...I am a Star Wars costumer...it may be, and it likely will be, that I will branch out in the future, however for now I am sticking to costumes from the Star Wars movies. That being said...I looked at the costumes available from Star Wars and evaluated the time I had to complete one before Costume College...and decided on "the Corset Costume" I have to give super credit to the website The Padawan's Guide. There is SO much information on that site. The picture below is a reference photo from that site.

I already have a corset and I thought this would be easiest to construct. I should mention that I have a tendency to be obsessive compulsive about making things movie accurate. Which this first draft of this costume will not be perfect, but it will be pretty close.

I primarily felt that getting the shape of the costume was the most important. So being sure the skirt was structured appropriately was top on the list. I got a pattern from Etsy.com for a Gothic costume and modified the skirt. The skirt in the pattern is lovely, but has a lot of ease and is not nearly as fitted as the costume skirt.

I cut a muslin of the skirt exactly as the pattern said, and sewed the darts and main seams, and then tried it on. It was rather large as I expected, so I attempted to pin the back of the skirt closer...and then stitched the seam...tried it on...stitched it closer.. until I got it relatively right.

I took the muslin and used it to alter the pattern pieces for the lining of the skirt, which I was using basic Costume Satin for. Currently I have the darts sewn on the satin and the two back pieces sewn together and the seam pressed. I am planning to sew together the pieces and repeat the process with the lace overlay.

After I have completed that I will finish the waist band and the zipper and then get started on the other aspects of the costume.

My main pieces are:

skirt

corset cover

fingerless opera gloves

hair

headband/crown

not too bad....but enough to keep me busy. :)

Here is a shot of my fabrics - Starting top-left (and continuing clockwise) is the velvet for the collar, pleather for the corset cover and opera gloves, the costume satin for lining and the lace for the skirt overlay.

Ok...I think I have to go to bed for now...there is so much ahead of me... I hope you have a fabulous crafty week. I will try to post more frequently to be sure I am keeping up.