Pumpkin Head

I adore Tim Burton and his twisty imagination. His movies always have such delightful landscapes and oddities that any would make decent Halloween decorations. One of my favorites is the scarecrow from Sleepy Hollow. I really like the tree too, but I don't think I could make that. The scarecrow on the other hand, I think I can make.

I started searching for a carvable foam pumpkin. Amazingly this was a lot harder to do than I expected. I only found a few sites online that sell them and Funkins are surprisingly expensive. My mom solved the problem for me. It seems that Michaels has carvable pumpkins for 50% off. Off I went to Michaels and sure enough, I could get a 9” carvable pumpkin for just under $7. Online a comparable one would have cost close to $20, more with shipping.

Now, I know how I am drawing stuff out freehand. Like with the bats, it wouldn't have been symmetrical. Since I still have scraps from making bats I decided to use some construction paper to make a template. I made an eye, a nose, and a mouth. Then I traced the eye to make a second one. I taped the template pieces to the pumpkin and started carving it with a tool I had gotten.

After I "traced" (i.e. used the knife tip to gently etch the outline) my template on the pattern I got cutting.  Turns out that fake pumpkins take a lot more effort to carve than real ones do. The tool wouldn't even break the surface of the thing. I got one of my small paring knives and went to with that. Real knives work much better. I also discovered that cutting toward a point was much easier.  

 I got the pieces carved and had my grinning pumpkin head in hand.

It turned out a lot better than I was expecting. The inside of fake pumpkins are really light colored though, and that would never do for this particular decoration. I found some paint in my craft closet and used that to paint the carved edges and also to smear around a bit to make it look scorched.

It still needs a bit more work since the interior is still really pale. Trouble is, I can't fit my hand inside to paint it. I plan to get some matte black spray paint to color in the insides.  I'll put up more pics when I get that far.

My First Pattern!

Here it is!  My very first pattern.  The picture is darker than I would have preferred, so I included an "in progress" pic too, but I haven't had a chance to get someone else to photograph me and the lighting in my bathrooms is rather dim.  I've decided to call this the Margaret Top because it makes me think of Margaret Houlihan from M*A*S*H (and I love that show).

Please keep in mind that this is the first time I have ever written a pattern and that it has not been tested.  Please let me know if you find an problems with it, I'm sure there will be some, please let me know.  I'm still working on figuring out sizing so, for now, we'll call it a S/M.


Margaret Top

3-balls Patons Classic Wool in Deep Olive

US 7 (4.5 mm) circular needle

4 dpns, size 7

4 stitch markers

Gauge- 18 x 28

M- 27” bust, finished. There is quite a bit of negative ease in this garment, my actual bust measurement is 40” and you can see that it fits nicely.

Stitches Used:  Stockinette

                       K2/P2 ribbing

                        Applied I-cord:  after the 3 st cast on knit 2 sts, k2tog, then slip worked sts back onto the left needle.  Pull the yarn tight across the back of the sts and repeat K2, k2tog, slip back to working needle until all working sts are bound off.  Break yarn.

Cast on 52 stitches. Place markers as follows- 1 st, PM1, 7 sts, PM2, 34 sts, PM3, 7 sts, PM4, 1 st.

Row 1- K1, increase knitwise, slip marker, increase knitwise, K7, increase knitwise, slip marker, increase purlwise, K34, increase purlwise, slip marker, increase knitwise, K7, increase knitwise, slip marker, increase knitwise, K1

Row 2 and all wrong side rows- Work in established pattern

Row 3 and all right side rows- Work as established on Row 1, increasing on each side of every marker. Every 2 increases switch from increasing in knit to increasing in purl or vice versa. This will make the ribbing pattern.

Neckline

When piece measures 8 inches cast on 34 sts, to be worked in Stst, and join(check at this point to make sure the number of stitches cast on will allow for the 2/2 ribbing pattern to be worked continuously when you reach the bottom edge). Continue working in the round with increases as patterned.

Shape Armholes

When piece measures 9 inches (this is a "sizing point" if 9 inches is too short you can continue on as needed but you will have to adjust your stitch count on the sleeves) from back of the neck stop increasing and work as follows. Work to Marker 1. Transfer sts between Markers 1 and 2 to a piece of scrap yarn. Place a marker at the underarm join. Continue working to Marker 3. Transfer sts between Markers 3 and 4 to a piece of scrap yarn. Continue working in the round in established ribbing pattern.

When piece measures 19 inches work to the marker and work the ribbing pattern. At the beginning of the Stst section change to K2/P2 ribbing across the back. When you reach the front Stst section change to K2/P2 ribbing. This establishes the bottom band of the top, ribbing should alternate evenly all the way around.

After 2 inches of ribbing bind off and weave in ends.

Sleeves- R and L sides are worked the same.

Put sts from scrap yarn on dps, pick up and knit 4 sts at the underarm join (if you made the armholes bigger you will need to pick up more sts here. as for the neckline, make sure that however many stitches you pick up allows the 2/2 ribbing to be continued on the sleeve edge). Work 4 rows in the round in Stst. After 4 rows switch to K2/P2 ribbing. Work ribbing for 1 inch. Bind off, weave in ends.

Neckline/collar-

With right side facing, pick up and knit 36 sts across the back neckline. Purl wrong side row casting on 3 sts at the end. With right side facing, work applied I-cord bind off.

With right side facing pick up and knit 36 sts across front neck opening. Purl wrong side row, cast on 3 sts. With right side facing, work applied I-cord bind off. Repeat this twice or until neckline is desired height.  Weave in ends.

Nuts to You, Premade Halloween Decorations!

I have absolutely had it with premade Halloween decorations.  They are too expensive to be as cheaply made as they are.  I was all excited and ready to get an upside down hanging spider victim with light up eyes that screamed and shook, until I saw one in person.  It was horrible!  A $40 prop and you could see the styrofoam body form!  After much rage I finally calmed down enough to realize what the solution is.  It was so obvious.  Start making things myself.  And that is just what I'm going to do!  No more crap purchased bits, I'm going on a mad ride down creativity lane.

I have many ambitious plans for what I shall make.  However, they do require some additional planning for logistic and budget reasons so I decided to start small.  One thing that has always bothered me is how sparse my walls look once the art is down and the decorations go up.  I've got a ton of Halloween decorations but most of them seem to be rather on the small side and there are always giant, gaping spaces between things and it looks weird. So, DIY project number 1 is make bats.  I saw this on Pinterest and decided that it was the way to go for a few reasons.  The first of which is that I already had construction paper.  Projects are more fun when you don't have to buy a bunch of extra stuff for them (because then you can use the budget somewhere else and get MORE stuff (-;  ).  Secondly, the only thing I need to get for them is some sticky-tack to hang them and I can reuse it for Halloween next year or anything else that might need hanging.  I'm a big fan of reusable decorations because re-buying stuff is stupid unless it's something like spiderwebs which just don't recycle well.

For the bats I needed a template.  I could have freehanded them but I'm really bad at making things symmetrical and while other people tell me my sketches of stuff look good, they ALWAYS look weird to me.  I dug around online for a while and decided on this template.  There are a bunch out there, but I liked this one because it gives you three different sized bats on one sheet of paper.  If you want to use them all you have to print it out twice because the biggest bat goes across the page.

Once I had the template I was ready to rock and roll.  I found a silver quilters pencil in my craft stuff which let me draw lines I could see on the black construction paper and got to work.  I traced bats through an episode of Top Gear and most of The Shining which was on after.  After much tracing I was ready to cut out bats.  Let me tell you, cutting out tons of tiny shapes is a LOT harder when you're an adult and haven't had to cut things out in something like 10 years.  My thumb was killing me by the time I got them done.

Now I have many paper bats that I can decorate with!  I still have more paper so I will probably make some more just to make sure I have enough.  The current count is 12 big bats, 13 medium bats, and 21 small bats.

Design testing has begun!

Whirlwind Weekend

First things first.  Cooking shenanigans yesterday went really well.  The intestine recipe needs a bit of tweaking, it wasn't as flavorful as it should have been, but the panna cotta was AMAZING.  I made a half batch since I wasn't planning on filling an entire brain mold just for practice and I divided that further so that I could test a variety of flavors.  The recipe called just for vanilla but I wanted to try out more.  I made one in vanilla, one in almond, one in raspberry, and one in plain.  They were all really, really good.  Even the plain one.  I think for the actual brain I'm going to use mostly vanilla with a hint of almond like my family sometimes uses for our cheesecake. That plus the raspberry goo topping should be excellent.   In standard fashion, however, I only managed to take pictures as I was making the food and utterly forgot about taking pics of the finished product until after they had been consumed.  Go me.  One of these days I'll get better at that.

I did a bit more Halloween prep work today since I had the day off.  Good thing, too.  I found out that one of the props I was planning on getting was no where near as impressive in person as it is on paper.  I had wanted to get a mummified spider victim that hangs by its feet, screams, shakes, and has light up eyes but when I came across one at the store it was so poorly done that I think I could make a better one with the $40 it would cost. Very depressing.  I did come across a gallon jug of blood though.  I'm not sure if I need that much or if I would be better off getting it in pints.  I have no idea how much it will take to do my bathroom up nicely and some will be spattered onto fabric for other props too.  I don't like the "bloody bandage" type things you can buy here, there, and everywhere.  They always look so fake.  Last year I found some scrap fabric that I tore into bandage like strips.  Then I got some fake blood and smeared it on my arms or legs like a wound before wrapping the "injury" with the bandage I had made.  They look awesome.  Plus I got fake blood all over my hands at one point and had a fabric scrap about the size of a towel that I was able to wipe the blood off with.  Those look great, very realistic.  I'll start taking pictures of all my homemade stuff on October 1 when I get to start the decoration bonanza.   

And finally, I got to knit a good deal over my extended weekend.  That was nice.  I have the body of a sweater done and am working on the first arm.  I tried finishing up a top that I've been working on since July and discovered what appears to be an error in the pattern.  I'm not 100% sure on that yet, I've only reread that section 2 or 3 times so far, but I think there may be an extra row on a sleeve. Figuring it out will take more thought that I was prepared for today, so I'll get to that later on.  After all, it's waited this long already. A few more days won't hurt.  I wore my newest top out today and was told that I looked very "high fashion" by a friend whose style opinions I trust.  That was nice, especially when I got to tell him that I designed and made the top myself.  I'm doing some edits to the pattern right now so that I can put it out in the universe for others.  It's only in one size so far, though.  I'm trying to figure out the modifications for other sizes and that is taking a lot longer than I thought it would so I'll probably post what I have so far and then update it when I get the sizing worked out.  The pattern is a top down so it's really easy to modify anyway.  And now, I must leave you to attend the demands of my wee beasties.

Looooong Day

What a day I've had!  My car has been making funny noises which I recently determined to be caused by a wheel imbalance.  I was almost right. I got up at 6:30 to get out nice and early before the really long lines started.  I managed to get out of the house a bit after 7, which I thought was doing pretty well.   3 hours and 2 car places later I know definitively that it is, in fact, my wheel bearing and not just the wheels being unbalanced.  A huge surprise that.  It's amazing that something of mine is unbalanced, I know.  The really fun bit is that neither place I took my car to was able to do anything to fix the problem.  Since I only have the one car and have to go to work during normal work hours, this presents something of an issue.  I can't take the car in during the week because I have to go to work and none of the weekend-y places can fix me.  Enter emergency trip to the parents house to trade out my car for one of theirs.  My wonderful mother will then take my car to our Car God (read: mechanic of epic awesomeness) and I'll still be able to get to work.  It's times like this when I'm really glad they've kept our van for 15 years.

The only good thing about today was that the whole time I was waiting on my car I got to knit.  Granted, this does get you some really odd looks at auto shops, but it was kinda nice to have a conversation starter.  I got to chat with a wide variety of people today which made the time pass faster.  Also I got a TON of knitting done, almost half of a sweater body.

The other improvement in my day came when I found that my cats are actually starting to lose weight.  My chubby little Calliope has even been bringing me toy mice to throw for her.  She plays fetch, after a fashion, when she's in a good mood.  Both cats have been getting more active and I'm hoping it's because they feel better since they've lost some squishy bits.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow, especially since today was not so great.  Tomorrow is the middle of my 3 day weekend and I will be recipe testing!  I have two things that I need to attempt well before my Halloween party so that I have time to make something else if they don't work.  I will be making the basic recipe for intestines and brains.  I'm a little wary of the intestine recipe as I am not a big fan of sweet potato, but the brain should be fun.  I've never made panna cotta before so I'm thinking of trying a variety of flavoring agents and making a number of "sampler" panna cottas.  Hopefully enough people will come over for me to have a good taste test. I've found my camera battery charger too so I can take pics of my progress, assuming of course that I remember to actually use my camera.  I've also gotten some major progress done for my knit top pattern.  I should be able to get it up by Monday, no telling how useful it will be though.

What a Week

Argh!  I just wrote out a post, got side tracked, and managed to delete it.  Brilliant.  Of course, my week has been a bit of a pain.  I managed to make myself look a fool at work, though thankfully there was no problem with the data.  Just an easily corrected numbering error which I should have noticed before it happened.  But, no harm done.  I would try to re-write what I had, but I'm sure something else would go horribly wrong.  So all I'll say is that I should have pics and a pattern soon and leave it at that.

Creativity Bonanza

I've been going a little nuts on the designing side of things lately.  My artistic streak, such as it is, has been trying to assert itself in knitting pattern form.  Since my first real attempt at creativity went well, I'm really hoping my next idea does too.  I'm hoping that in a few days I'll actually have a sweater pattern to put out! The sweater itself worked wondrously (pictures to follow later, with the pattern) and with luck I took good enough notes to be useful to others.  In the mean time I have the lace shell, which has been started and set aside already to make room for a sweater for a friend.  She'll be traveling to New York in late October and needs something warm and fluffy.  Plus there is the Deneb bolero.  Evil little thing, I can hear the yarn calling at me all the way from work... "you told your mom you would make me into something, why haven't you?  don't you love your mom?"  and so on and on.  I'm really looking forward to the 3 day weekend ahead, Labor Day is one of my work's official holidays.  I'll be able to take care of my car (needs a wheel balanced or a bearing dealt with, preferably the former), mow my yard, knit, and test out some Halloween recipes!  Very exciting. And now, I go to slump into a stupor and knit, read, or both if I can manage it.  Oof.