Tag Archives: hermione

Ruffles.

Hermione red dress progress 5

I’m getting the most odd collection of blisters on my hands. What’s even more sad is I can clearly distinguish which have resulted from knitting and which are due to sewing.

In other news, this dress is coming along quite faster than I had thought it would. The actual dress itself was pretty simple to put together, it’s all of the ruffles that have been a strange sort of therapeutic nightmare.

Next up: fixing/finishing the ruffles, and then beads!

As you can probably tell, some of the ruffles are crooked. I also don’t quite like the way they lie currently so I’m going to stretch them out to the edge of the skirt and then trim them inwards so they’re fatter at the waist and taper downward to the edge.

As for beads, I can’t decide what kind to use. In the reference photos I’ve been using, they either look like very small sequins or seed beads. I’m going with seed beads, but I can’t decide if I should get red opaque ones or the clear ones with red in the center.

Hermione red dress progress 3 Hermione red dress progress 4

Last night as I was getting ready to take a shower, I happened to glance at my reflection and noticed something red on my belly button. After a sudden panicking flash of “OH NOES I’M BLEEDING” ran through my mind, I looked down and realized that a tangle of red thread had taken up residence in my navel.

I feel like this indicates some underlying issues.

Not yarn.

The streets are empty and Joann’s was crowded; it must be Superbowl Sunday.

I woke up this morning at exactly 9:37am with a burning desire to make a very specific dress that I’ve been squee-ing over for months. Hence the Joann’s trip.

BUT I walked away with this lovely bundle of stuff. And it’s not yarn! -shock-

Any guesses on what this lovely project is that is going to be eating my soul for the next week or two?

Hermione red dress fabric

Yeah, ok. Not very difficult.

Anyway, then I went home and decided to wear my new slouchy hat even though it’s nearly 80F outside.
Hello New York hat 2 Hello New York hat 1

Stripes.

Applications for graduate school are due tomorrow –most of them anyway. This has, of course, resulted in a lot of stress which has in turn led to a lot of knitting breaks to maintain a certain level of sanity.

And so I present you with a progress photo.

CIMG1017

I’ve got the ribbing done on the other sleeve. If I finish this today (and by “if” I mean “when”), I’ll have made 2.89 sweaters in three weeks. I think I have problems.

Andd here’s one of me wearing my cabled Hermione hat. I ended up adding some elastic to the ribbed part because it was really just too loose. Now it’s slightly too tight. Might have to adjust the elastic so my ears don’t fall asleep.
CIMG1004

Harry Potter apparently leads to knitting obsession.

Usually sewing is my thing. Usually knitting is something I do when I’m away from my sewing machine and so bored I can’t survive without making something, anything.

But then again before three weeks ago, really the only thing I knew how to do was knit, purl, and decrease. I had only a vague idea of how to cast on properly (I used to crochet a single chain and pull loops onto a knitting needle. Embarrassing, amirite?), a vague concept of something that slightly resembled k2tog, and not even the faintest clue how to add stitches. Needless to say, I mostly stuck to scarves and the occasional lumpy hat.

But somehow in the past three weeks, I’ve watched loads of online tutorials and read all kinds of diagrams, and not only can I do all of the above, but I’ve also mastered cables! (Seriously, cables were a bit of a mystical beast before.) I’m even dropping phrases like “k2tog” in a blog post, apparently I also gained quite a bit of coolness in the last three weeks.

Anyway, I place all the blame of this recent surge of inspiration on the latest Harry Potter movie. There’s no other explanation.