Opinions Sought

Hello everyone!  Anyone feel like giving me an opinion?  Hahahaha…of course you do!

In my last post I talked about the beautiful yarn Mom had dyed for me.  The navy with silver has been making me think of a very starry sky, and for about a year I’ve been trying to come up with a design that would evoke a garden at night.  So I felt like having this navy yarn was halfway there.  I don’t want to do an entire sweater with the Sterling; all that sparkle will make me look like Liberace.  So for a week or so, I’ve been meandering around websites and local yarn shops trying to come up with a yarn, or combo of yarns, that would evoke the garden, if I used the Sterling to evoke the night sky.

Today during a run to Ben Franklin (for ribbons for my Halloween costume), I spotted Mushishi – a Plymouth yarn that I’ve been eying for a while without quite knowing what to do with it.  Lucky me, there is a colorway that is dark grey-greens and variations thereon (some dark green, some dark grey, some flecks of white).  Quite believable as a “garden in the dark” kind of thing.

After swatching the two together, I worry that the white flecks in the Mushishi are going to make the overall look too busy (combining those white flecks with the silver flecks in the Sterling).  Here are some pictures.  Tell me if you think these two yarns together are going to look crazy or not.  I have included a picture with part of the rest of the Mushishi, because it does color-change throughout the ball, but you can’t see that on the swatch.

I blurred the swatch so you will see it as if from a slight distance.

 

The skeins plus the swatch.

Looking at finished projects on Ravelry, some people appear to have had dark pink in their Mushishi skeins, but I just wound one off into a ball and didn’t notice anything but grey, green, variations thereon, and white flecks.

What do you think?  Can I use these two yarns together, or is it too busy?  Email me or post a comment!  Thanks.

Here is the pattern I plan to modify.  Mushishi for the grey, Sterling for the black.

Vogue Knitting's Boxy Cardigan, Winter 2009

I hate knitting machines

After a bit of effort I was able to get my old Studio SK-105 working, but not happily, so I bought a used Passap from a local lady and sold the Studio.  (The new owner is beginning to work with it this week.)  And the Passap is giving me just as much trouble as the Studio did!  I spent some time swatching last week and had frequent carriage jams – Ravelry Passapers told me this yarn (a LACEWEIGHT SILK, very firm and fine) was too thick for the machine to handle.  So I whomped in a remainder ball of Filatura di Crosa Superior – best yarn ever – and tried to do a scarf.  The first part – brown, knit with the remainder ball – went quite nicely.  When I ran out, I bought more, in cream, olive and tan.  The cream yarn jammed the machine, so I removed the knitting from the machine and stomped away in frustration.

Today I got back on the horse and tried again.  I started with the olive Superior, the intention being to randomly stripe it up and then graft it together with the brown/cream piece from the other day.  The olive knit up nicely.  I switched to the remainder ball of the cream, and other than needing to fiddle with the tension, it knit up nicely.  The tan knit up nicely.  My awful grafting skills left a little to be desired but I successfully made a scarf today, which is a bit “homemade-looking” with the junky grafted seam and so on.  But by the time I’d finished the knitting, I had high hopes of the Passap.

Not Suitable for Competition!

So I started another one.  This was going to be a scarf knit with remnants of laceweight cashmeres and silks that I’ve used in other projects.  I cast on with purple and knit until it ran out.  Looked fine.  Tried to join in some turquoise silk, and it jammed!  As with the Superior, I removed this part of the scarf from the machine and started another piece.  What the heck, my grafting skills can always use practice, right?  Well, I started with a different turquoise and it went well.  When I ran out, I joined in a skein of the SAME CASHMERE, a deeper purple that Mom had dyed for me recently.  This seemed to be going well, too…until I looked at the knit piece and noticed dropped edge stitches, ‘blobs’ where several stitches apparently got knitted into one (causing a pucker or half-bobble), and broken yarns!  AUGH.  I gave up again and made sure the Passap is listed for sale in my Ravelry trade stash.  I simply do not feel the trade-off (of timesaving machine-knitting, versus careful and high-quality hand-knitting) is worth it.

So, now I’m at yarn’s end, with no projects on the needles and no idea what to knit next.  I have all that beautiful Sterling Silk & Silver that Mom dyed for the store…hmm…

Halloween Mayhem

In the world of costuming, it is always wise to get a jump on Halloween.  Last year I was scrambling somewhat, while trying to put together a steampunk costume at the last minute.  Last week I decided to refine last year’s outfit with a few more gadgets and/or subtle changes to the costume, and in the process have changed things entirely.  As a result, I have some new things and some old things being offered for sale.  Much of this will work together, but some of it won’t.  I’m not going to list it on ebay yet, but if you stumble across this and are interested in anything, just let me know.

1. Von Lancelot custom corset in steampunk shades of brown and gold.  It has a detachable hood and tails.  (Whoops.  The tails don’t detach, just the hood.)  The lacing is brown ribbon, up the front, and the front is accented with faux brown croco.  Size 18, worn twice (last year).
2. 3-hoop hoop skirt (fits up to 45″ waist), white.  Brand new, bought last week, but don’t need it for the final costume.
3. Black-and-white striped skirt to go over the hoop skirt.  It has a serged hem so you can take it up to your appropriate length.  As a 5’6″ woman I find that it fits perfectly over the hoop skirt with neither of them dragging on the floor.  The stripes are about 1″ wide and the skirt has an elastic waist.  Probably would fit up to something like a 54″ waist; it’s pretty stretchy.
4. Maroon silk reticule, custom made for me by an Etsy seller.  Has a little tassel on the bottom.  This is actually so new that it hasn’t arrived yet…but I can’t cancel the Etsy order.
5. Maroon cotton wide sash, custom made for me by an Ebay seller.  6″ wide by 115″ long with angled ends.
6. A bunch of six 1.5″ wide silk millinery roses in maroon (burgundy, whatever), with little green silk leaves.  I have a bag of brooch pins that I’ll send you to attach them with, if you like.
7. 25′ piece of black tulle, 6″ wide.  A bit bent up but will steam out easily.
8. An Alchemy Gothic “Dragon’s Lure” earpiece for the right ear.  My ear is too long, or too short, or something; I just can’t get this on right.  Gone.

OK, that’s it from Chez Costume!  (Meanwhile, what did I do with my false eyelashes…grrr…grrr…)

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