Well, I really have no excuses for not writing, as I’ve been knitting and crocheting. Of course, when you fill up your spare time actually DOING the crafts, there’s no time left to blog about it. And then NaNoWriMo happened.

ANYWAY.

Thought I was done with my bellydance socks, but not so much. They’re starting to felt on the bottom, which may or may not be bad — we’ll see how it affects traction. I’ve also been washing them with my pink bellydance trousers (ok, they’re actually thai fishermen’s trousers… but still, they’re great to dance in casually). As the trousers bleed EVERYWHERE, the socks have gained a bit of (blotchy) colour.

In other knitting, I’ve finished the Stackable Cats, but have yet to take pictures of them (I want to gift them first). So more info about those when I post the pictures.

In crocheting, I’ve been using the “Anarchy Irony Hat” from The Happy Hooker by Debbie Stoller as a base for making NaNoWriMo hats for my co-ML and myself.

…obviously, I fell behind and the suckers aren’t finished. They were supposed to be for my co-Ml and myself (we co-led our area) for our kick-off party. Maybe they’ll be done by next year’s NaNo. Of course, knowing my luck, they probably won’t match next year’s t-shirts. Alas.

Also have been knitting this headband with spare wool left from the StackCats.

Because I can!

My first cabling project, and mmmm cables. I <3 cables now. A great first project, by the way, and you can find the pattern for free here.

Combo projects: bellydance! For Halloween I bought myself a bellydancing outfit (it was an excuse), and decided I needed accessories to go WITH the outfit. Intro crochet and maille! I used the “Ruffled Corset Belt” pattern from The Happy Hooker for the belt, but only about a couple rows of it before adding the maille. It took me FOREVER to adjust it to my yarn. Originally I just wanted to use a sparkly black crochet thread for a nice spidery look, but I must have ripped that out about five times. I also thought I might cut the pattern in half, so I could tie it on either side, but that also proved too troublesome. I ended up using a light worsted wool combined with the crochet thread to add texture. The maille itself is aluminium (plain and anodized black trim, with red points on the headdress), with a gap left on each side so I could tuck up my top skirt. The headdress was a free-form piece, using longer and longer crochet stitches as it got wider. I also added rings around the crochet stitches just for a little accent, and a ruby-coloured freshwater pearl to the front triangle.

Headdress

Apologies for the less-than-great pictures; I took them while running out the door.

I’m also currently knitting a nativity set for my mother, who chooses the most delectable yarns (alpaca and soy-wool blends, mmm!). Mary and Baby Jesus have been finished, but no pictures of that yet.

Will hope to update far sooner next time!

Tags: amigurumi,bellydance socks,cables,stackable cats
Categories: crochet, knit, maille, projects
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