Lacework cowls

I have been pulled down the slippery slope of knitting lacework. It's just so pretty, and impressive looking, and totally worth the claw fingers of doom, hahaha.

It started with this gift for a friend, my first proper lace pattern, with fingering weight yarn and tiny needles. I'm facinated by how a series of relatively simple stitches, organized in the right order, can create a complex looking pattern.

Unfortunately I didn't get very good pictures of this one before handing it over, because I only see the recipient once a week, and it took longer to block than anticipated. I didn't want it to wait another whole week just so I could get pictures! Funnily enough, her mother was visiting from out east shortly after, saw it, and has now commissioned me to make a similar one at some point. And here I thought I was almost at a point of making stuff for myself...

Then I found out that another friend was having a birthday i two weeks, and since I already had this yarn sitting around, waiting to be made into something for her, I hastily selected a pattern and got to work!

I'm actually rather amazed that this finished up in two weeks, although there where a few days when I thought my fingers would never straighten out again. And I really need to find a better way of photographing tubular lace, maybe a piece of white cardboard to slip in the middle so you can actually see the pattern...

But she loved it, so it was worth the hand cramps and couple of late night :). Oh yeah, and as usual, all the notes and everything are over on my Ravelry page.

My guy says that the lace pattern looks like penises, and now I can't unsee it...

Dinosaurs!

After making my superhero dresses, I ordered a few more sheets with nerdy, but non-comic related prints. One of them was Land Before Time! And in a fit of lolita fever, I made it into a big fluffy skirt :)

I also bought an outlandishly full white petticoat to go under it, hahaha. The skirt was actually finished months ago, but I had to swap out the elastic in the petticoat, and only got around to it today. Notice also my adorable lolita shoes and matching rose belt. Look at Sarah finally learning how to coordinate subtly :P. (Don't worry, I don't plan on doing it often. Not when clashing is so much more fun, hahaha).

I love a contrast ruffle, so after a little searching at my favourite fabric shop, came away with some teal cotton that almost perfectly matches the leaves on the dino-print. Aside from the ruffle, the skirt is just a big rectangle with an elastic casing at the top. It looks a little frumpy without a belt, but I like belts, so that's not a great hardship. Look at those faces!! True story: I still cry when Littlefoot's mother dies. Every single time.

I made the shirt too, from the christmas fabric I got from my mom. The purple is cotton, and the white is a deliciously soft bamboo knit. The pattern is a rub off from a t-shirt I quite like, with neck, arm, and waist binding bands that are just doubled over strips cut to 2/3 the length of the holes they where being set into. Still getting the hang of shirts, but I really needed some new ones that where cute and comfortable, but not t-shirts. Not that I don't love a good nerdy t-shirt, but sometimes one wants to feel a little more fancy :).

And nothing says fancy like knocking things off the shelves at work with your skirts, hahaha ;).