More hair pics - because I am vain

This is me before work a couple of days in the past week.
I hope you can see the red in these - and where it is placed.
I am still in love with this hair color. - But the countdown is going until I turn it back.

Steampunk armwarmers with boot accessories

These are pictures of steampunk armwarmers that I designed and the boots that I accessorized to match the arm warmers. These are for my Safari Outfit for Steamcon this weekend.

10 swatches down, 6 to go.

Calling it quits on that one for the night and will resume the masters tomorrow night.


Am going to pick up one of the scrap scarves and veg.

Still annoyed by the lack of coming up with a good lace for the corset cover. Blast!

Knitting Masters 1

Alright, now that Grad school is over, it's time to work on my Knitting Masters, Level 1.

I did 4 of the swatches out of 16 earlier this year as a stress-break during school when school wasn't that bad. So, this afternoon, after fruitlessly trying to make up a lace stitch for a corset coverup I am designing, I remembered that I only have until March or so to get all of these in. So, why not start them up again? I am hoping to learn a lot as I work my way through these levels.


Wish me luck.

4 down. 12 to go.

Sweaterboots and Arm-Warmers

Hello all,

I was thinking of putting up a sweater-boot tutorial. I have finished one self-improvized sweater-boot (except for the buttons, as it will be steampunked), and have begun my improvised steampunk arm warmers. While I had originally intended to make the Slither pattern from Knitty, as it is v. steampunk, I have both time constraints and yarn constraints.

- The time constraints are that con is on Halloween and I have to finish my armwarmers and a work costume by then, so something in Stk st that I can knit in the car is ideal (ie: no pattern)

- The yarn constraint is that I have one color to match what I am wearing (the green was matched wonderfully, the brown is both too cool and to grey to match any yarn in the store I looked). The slither pattern calls for three colors and butt-ton of buttons and snaps, which I frankly do not have the time to sew on (see time constraint above).

Thus, I am, again, improvising a design.


Current knitting goals:
- Finish armwarmers (which means more than the ribbing on one that I cast on last night) and attach buttons
- Begin and end 2nd sweater-boot (write up pattern into real language instead of Kalendar-scribble)
- Test out Gnome hat alternate patterns and post the PDF with pictures to Ravelry's free section
- Begin matching steampunk spat/boot and arm-warmer pattern. (this one I really hope works because it looks awesome in my little brain)
- Make some swatches to demonstrate knitting techniques usefull to steampunk for the Steampunk Convention's knitting How-To that I have been offered. (Because if people are interested, I am going to teach 'em everything I can!)


Wish me luck. Like my old Music Theory teacher said at a party right after our last final:
"Those of you passed should be proud. Those of you who failed, should be ashamed."

He, being a Russian ex-patriot also had this gem when it was suggested that a large lecture might intimidate those with low self-esteem:
"I don't believe in self-esteem. You think this is intimidating, try living in communist Russia!"

Sexy new Hair

Alright.....so, I've wanted crazy red hair since I was a kid. My favorite color is red and it appears I have a little bit of a red-fetish. Well, about half a year ago when I was really struggling with my engagement with the MBA program, I promised myself that when i graduated, I would dye my hair red - not normal red, a great not-natural red.

Well, today was two days after I finished grad school and earned my MBA. So....I went and got it done. Here are the pictures that are the proof. Yes, I do have awesome hair. Too bad I can only keep it for a month before I have to go on stage again (and it's victorian re-enactment). Besides, I work in the banking field - mortages - compliance - liaison with Law Enforcemnt, blah blah blah. Sooo......having fun hair is not really an option. I went through two levels of management for the approval to do this much. And when I start looking for a job next year, there's no way I can keep this sort of color. Too bad. I really really like it.

Haight Street

The Fiend and I went to Haight Street on Thursday, my first non-school day. I conveniently was able to take both Thursday and Friday off in order to mess around after I finished school.
There are pictures of the wierd traffic jam.....then of all the bags, of me passed out on those bags, and my Fiend ordering ice cream. We came, we saw, we conqured. As soon as we get the stuff steam-punked out, I will post it.

Hats hats hats

I made the Flowers on a Grave pattern into 2 hats, a grey and a pink.
I also made a hat for re-enacting that my friend will have to wear under his German Renn. armor.
I did not like the Flowers on a Grave hat as it was when finished, although I loved it pre-felted....so it got the brim turned-up into a cute different style of hat.

Alas, since all hats have been given away - I am left hat-less again. One of these days I will make one for me....but only after I get through some STEAMPUNK knitting. And I am now obsessed with turning my old high heels into sweater-boots, steam-punk style. Oh yes. I have caught the BUG. (the gear??)

(at the bottom here are some pictures of the un-felted hat to show the size. As you can see, it's pretty large pre-felting. It was actually sort of cute at that size, as well as very comfy. Being wool, it was still warm even with the gaps in the stitches - and it was comfy since the weave was loose)

Scarf and felted Hats

After a lot of work, and a lot of fascination with color, I finished my "scrap scarf 1."
This is the first in a set of scarves that I had planned as a way to get through a ton of (ROWAN!) stash that I inherited from my X-future-mother-in-law. It had originally been the makings of an outrageously difficult and ludicrously 80s sweater. I had decided, after the first few inches I did on the already-begun sweater (also begun in the 80s), that it just wasn't my sort of project, and that it would be too small for the intended recipient. SO, after shoving it guiltily in a bag where it sat during the majority of my MBA coursework, I finally took it out and began a scarf. Enjoy the finished project! I love the color changes!

Next up - the billions of hats I just made!