Time to move on up...

It's been awhile, eh?

I've found that I'm a very seasonal crafter - probably has something to do with the fact that my sewing room is in the basement, and that wool is stinkin' hot to work with in the middle of summer.

Since I've been quite unfaithful to ye olde knitting lately, (seriously, my knitting output has been close to zilch for the past few months) I've decided that I can no longer limit myself to just a knitting blog. That, in addition to the identity crisis that I am starting to enter as of late...I need a new headspace.

thebuffaloherdtheory.blogspot.com is where you'll find me in the future. I'll be posting more varied ruminations there: snippets of my writing, book reviews, gaming stuff, crafty items, and lots of soul searching, I'm afraid. I'll try to keep the melancholy to a minimum but will still have lots of the snark lurking around.

Hope to see you there!

Hi.

I'm still here.

Really.

I've just been sick. Really sick. "I should go get meds" kinda sick. Turns out the nasty flu that I picked up a few weeks ago was actually pneumonia. Yeah. I'm finally almost over it apart from the occasional involuntary coughing spasm. And now that my family is finally gone home (nothing to pick you up like hosting Easter guests while hacking up a lung), I'm recuperating on many levels.

I have a few of the dresses to show you, but not all of them as some are in the wash already. I admit to dillydallying with getting these all finished, as I have a hatred for gathering fabric that is comparable to that of a Trekkie for Star Wars fans. (Google it people...it's an epic hate-on.) Excuse the crap photos...I'm waiting to upgrade to a DSLR until the new Canon Rebel comes out. HD movie capability, baby.

This one is the Peasant Dress pattern included as part of the Portobello Pixie Claire pattern:

These next few are mods of the Portobello Pixie "Claire" - took the bodice and extended it to an A-line dress. Tried different methods of cinching the waistline.



These are from the halter dress tutorial from Just Tutes:


These last two are for a friend of mine and her daughter who are looking forward to a new summer baby. See? Same material, different results...it's just like genetics! The little one with the ties at the shoulder is an Itty Bitty Dress from Made By Rae.


And finally, a pirate princess outfitted and ready to set sail...

As for knits - I have one measly pair of mittens done. These are for Mr. Ninja, and he's happy to see them. Now that the snow's all gone, of course.



Starting a pair of Rainy Day Socks in Fleece Artist, as much to my knitterly shame...I have exactly two pairs of hand knit socks that survived the winter. All the others bit the dust. Ungh.

Dibble Dabble...

And away ya go. So far this week, I've been sewing a lot, spinning a bit and knitting a bit. Here:


Autumn Walk in BFL dyed by Funky Carolina. Love this one. It's navajo plied, albeit poorly done. About a fingering weight, maybe? I've figured out why I don't like navajo ply, it's because I have to do it sloooowly and concentrate on it the entire time. Totally not my style, 'cause I like to ply fast. Yeah. I was the girl that your momma warned you about.

No knitting to show you - it's all UFOs at the moment. But lots of mitten action.

I've gone on a real sewing binge as of late, mostly gifts. I know of at least four babies that I'm sewing for (either REALLY recently arrived or expected this summer), including my VERY FIRST NIECE/NEPHEW! I'm super excited about this...namely because it takes the pressure off of us to propagate the family Christmas albums. The AT-AT only takes up so much room...


So lots of diaper sewing, one baby boy quilt, some wee dresses and some sewing for my munchkin:


Pattern is Claire from Portobello Pixie. LOVE this pattern, although it's a lot more fiddly than I'm used to. I'm setting myself a goal of sewing Miss E two weeks worth of summer dresses, as I am hoping to outfit her for the summer in just those. To that end, I managed to cut out 12 dresses today...now for the sewing up. To the batcave!

A mess of excess...

So why'd I post the pics of my stash? It has to do with public accountability, rather than a lame ass attempt to brag about yarn. If you know me irl, you might have guessed that I don't really care about stuff - I have a tendency to give away yarn at the drop of a hat. I'm just mostly hoping that posting this pic will give people the freedom to berate me if they catch me sniffing yarn at the LYS...Couple of reasons that I have it all gathered in one spot:

1) I'm planning on selling a fair bit of it. But before I can do that, I have to know how much there really is.

2) Christmas gifts. (Yeah, I know.) I'm thinking that this is the year that I knit mittens for everyone. So we're looking at a minimum of 15 pairs of mitts of varying sizes. That's going to take some work, as I'm also planning on spinning the yarn for most of them.

3) It's a great baby amuser.

The Return of the Light...

And not a minute too soon! I find that the winter really saps me of the desire to do anything but hunker down on my couch and eat my own weight in chocolate. But with Spring finally arriving, my energy is slowly returning. Honestly, if you think that my blogging's been delinquent...you should see my FO pile. I think that I've got about 4 projects in total to show for the entire freakin' winter.

A pair of "lobster" mittens, requested by Mr. Munchkin. (Use your inner 5 year old's imagination, people.) Peenchy peenchy.


A scarf out of some sparkly rainbow handspun.



A very pink baby sweater out of more handspun.


And a pair of plain vanilla ribbed socks for my MIL's Christmas gift. No pics, as I was too brain dead to remember to take pics.

In other news, I have officially reached SABLE. Really. No kidding around. Here, look.



Once it was all amassed, I was initially horrified that I owned yarn that I had totally forgotten about. Then I remembered my Mum's stash and felt slightly better. But still. I'm not allowed to buy any more yarn for quite a while. I'm going to have to start bigger projects, me thinks. Yoiks.

Making Lemonade...

So, what's a knitter to do with a sweater that the recipient grows out of during the knitting process? A hat, of course.



It's a little big for her, but I think she'll get used to it eventually.

Seems that I had a more productive summer than I thought - I was looking at my flickr the other day and noticed that I had spun a bit this summer, and knit a little more. Check it:

Novalis colourway in BFL from Crown Mountain Farms roving. Crappily plied using the Navajo technique.

Man socks, in handspun - superwash merino in the Henry colourway.

The Hungry Caterpillar yarn - Corriedale and sari silk remnants.

Candied Rainbow - bamboo/merino blend from The Good Sheep. Triple ply, and a major PITA to ply in just such a way that the colours run together.

Twilight - Superwash merino.

There, I feel better about my slacking now. Nothing more to see here people, move along.

East, West...

Home's best.

Well, that was a good summer. There's really too much to write about in detail, so I'll sum up.

Visitors: 5
Little boys who started school: 1
Little girls who started crawling: 1
Computers that bricked: 1
New computers: 1
Old ladies that got a year older: 1
Little boys that got a year older: 1
Husbands that stopped smoking: 1
Husbands that bought a big screen plasma & a PS3 to reward themselves: 1
Trips to Toronto for Dad's 65th birthday: 1
Trips to New York City for a surprise wedding: 1
Buckets of ice cream devoured during the summer: at least 5, but who's counting
Days at the beach: 20 or so
FOs: 2

As for the wedding - my big brother called two weeks ago and announced that he was getting married to his fiancee, pronto. So, last Friday, our little family got up at 4 am and got on a place to NYC (which was the smallest airplane that I've ever flown in, apart from a Cessna that I toured the Grand Canyon in) - it was a beautiful day. Civil ceremony at City Hall, and then pictures in Central Park. Dinner was at the swankiest hotel in town, and we were lucky enough to stay there as well (freebie!). The next day was spent shopping at Toys R Us at Times Square (three separate Star Wars sections, people), and eating lunch at White Castle (the food is quite possibly an abomination inflicted on the American people by terrorists...it's AWFUL.) Back home on early Sunday morning. Phew!

And the knitting? Dismal output. Two FOs - a pair of Uzume socks in Colinette Jitterbug (Fire colourway), and a Cupcake Hat for a sweet little girl that I know (not mine). I don't have permission to post the pic of the behatted wee one, so no go on that one, and I've been too lazy to take pics of the socks - it'll get done eventually.

I've also been sucked back into World of Warcraft, which probably directly correlates to the suck-ass knitting productivity. With the expansion coming out in a month, I kinda doubt that it'll get better, but who knows? Maybe I'll find a Time Warp and be able to knit all sorts of wintery things like mittens, scarves, etc. But one thing's for sure - no Christmas knitting this year. After the lukewarm reception of handknit socks for everyone last year, I have avowed to only knit for those who appreciate the effort, or who are too small to protest being clad in knitwear.

I'm hoping for a Time Warp like this one, personally.