Category Archives: costumes

Internet woes.

Hermione Cable/Lace hat

Having crappy internet is quite possibly one of the most annoying things ever.

If you’re out in the woods somewhere escaping civilization, then it’s pretty much assured that you have chosen to distance yourself from your addiction to the interwebs and that there is no hope of connecting anyway. But if you’re at your new apartment trying to post a picture of the gorgey cable/eyelet lace hat you’ve been working on and the ratio of time you’ve spent waiting for pages to load to time you’ve spent actually perusing page content is 4:1, chances are after several hours of contorting yourself into strange sitting positions in all odd corners of your room hoping to get your laptop within range, you’ll end up wanting to claw your eyes out in a rather violent way.

In related news, I should probably call my landlady tomorrow and figure out what’s up with the internet.

Button shopping at 11:36pm presents a problem.

I really want to go button shopping right now. Why don’t 24 hour craft stores exist??

In other news, my Hermione Fair Isle cardigan is done!

Hermione Fair Isle sweater

Well, except for the buttons.

I also started my other re-do project while I was working on this one just to have something to switch to when the eighty million rows of reverse stockinette became too tedious. This photo was actually taken about twenty rows ago, but it’s Hermione’s cable/eyelet lace hat from the Half-blood Prince.

Hermione's cabled hat

In yet more news, I’m moving into my new place this weekend! I’m moving to my very own ginormous studio with a kitchen and my own bathroom but I think what I’m most excited about is the huge squishy armchair that I’m going to curl up on to knit for hours when I have spare time. Squee!

I have a desire to learn to spin my own yarn that is bordering on obsessive. I bought a drop spindle a few years ago but either I didn’t give it enough time to learn the proper technique or I just bought a crappy spindle because nothing really came of it and I have a bunch of roving sitting in a box looking fluffily sad. I might have to bust that out when I finally unpack all of my boxes. What would make me die of squee’s is an actual spinning wheel, but I don’t exactly have $400 burning a hole in my pocket. I am considering building my own though.

Hmm.

I love you, Mr Fedex Man.

Hermione Fair Isle sweater yarn

After I obsessively refreshed the Fedex shipment tracking site all morning, my yarns arrived this afternoon!

I know I’ve already knitted Hermione’s Fair Isle sweater once, but I didn’t really know what I was doing in terms of Fair Isle knitting, the gauging was completely wrong, and I’m just generally not thrilled with the way it turned out. So we’re going for round two. So far I’m much happier with the color choices I found online and the yarn (Knit Picks wool of the Andes) is simply scrumptious.

Somehow I mustered up the strength and discipline to finish the scarf I was nearly done with before starting the new sweater because I knew that if I didn’t do it then I would most likely be carting around a mostly finished scarf for the next five years.

It’s pinned to the carpet while it dries but the lace turned out pretty cool!

Springtime bandit scarf Springtime bandit scarf

Andd I’m also 24 rows into the sweater. Pictures of that to come when it becomes more interesting because right now it’s literally just a knitted ribbon with some awkward sideways cabling on the ends. I will say though, the gray yarn I bought for the sweater is absolutely perfect. It looks gray when you look at it but it’s heathered with bits of blue so that in certain lights it looks light blue, which is exactly the shade I was going for because for ages I couldn’t figure out if the original sweater was blue or gray.

-dances-

And now, bedtime.

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How to replicate a dress with zero reference images.

Hermione's red dress beads

This picture is from a few days ago, but the red dress is (almost) finished! I want to redo the flower thing in the middle to make it look less flat, and it’s lacking beads but other than that it’s done! I wore it the other night when Boyfriend and I went on a pre-Valentine’s Day date. It’s swirly and lovely and I completely forgot to take pictures. -headdesk-

I’ll get on that.

I think I have an unhealthy obsession with Hermione. In the past month, I have made two of her sweaters, one dress, a hat.

On top of that, I started a scarf the other day..

Hogwarts PoA Scarf

..and I’m in the beginning stages of a second dress.

Hermione's pink dress fabric

This dress is absolutely gorgeous but it’s driving me insane. It was handmade by Jenny Packham for Hermione to wear to Slughorn’s Christmas party, and since the entire scene lasts all of a minute and a half and happens in the dark, there aren’t a lot of reference images. In fact the only ones I could find online were about fifty pixels wide. So I’ve been watching that scene and saving screen captures in the attempt to find one that actually shows me how the seams are done on the bodice. I thought I had it figured out, but after two hours of attempting to recreate a pattern of it, I deemed it impossible and have added a stomach panel under the crinkled bust bit.

Like this, basically:

Hermione's pink dress pattern making

And I may have ordered more yarn to redo the Deathly Hallows Fair Isle cardigan in the proper colors.

I need about eight more sets of hands.

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