Pumpkins!

Happy Halloween!

What better way to spend a hurricane then by carving pumpkins?

This was what my pumpkin looked like on Monday:

I carved out a candle in the middle there but my inexperience nearly cut the pumpkin in two so I didn't bother with the details. Actually, the top made the whole thing unbalanced so I didn't leave it on.

This is what it looked like this morning:

It had already gotten soft in the back and I guess the walls couldn't hold up anymore. It is a sad pumpkin now :(

The little ones were alright! A friend gave me these flickering electric tea lights instead of candles.

 I put one inside my sad pumpkin.

That's my sad pumpkin in the dark.

The little ones didn't turn out so well in the dark.

I'll save the big one until tomorrow but I'll keep the little ones as long as they keep. Despite forgetting that today was Halloween, I still got to have a little holiday.

Happy Halloween everyone!

The Latch Hook Elk - Part 5

It's about 1/4 done now. I'm almost done with the main body of the elk.

The Brown Cloak - Part 1

I've been meaning to make a cloak for my RenFaire costume for a while now. On my last day of break, I realized that if I wanted to have it done by Halloween, I needed to do it that day, while I still had a sewing machine.

What followed happened very quickly, mostly due to my experiences in theatre. I don't think there is anything that teaches 'Make it work' like backstage work.

So. I had one day and instructions on how to make a lined cloak.

Riiiight. I needed something that would whip up quick.

This right here is fleece, the same type I use for my blankets. The edges don't need to be finished and the material is warm.

This was about 5 1/2 yards of brown fleece, folded in half.

After a few mishaps, I traded in my needle for a heavy duty one and got to work sewing the back and sides together.  It turns out the material reaches past my feet but that is easy to cut away.

This cloak came with two little caplets and a hood attachted to the back. I ditch the hood and didn't bother to edge the capelets. I'm horrible at it and I didn't have time.

I attached the capelets to the back but the neck edge is unfinished. Apparently, with lining and a hood the piece can be pulled through without raw edges to deal with. I honestly don't care - the cloak will keep me warm and that is what I care about.

I do still need to trim the bottom and do the buttons at the top of the cloak but I can do that back at school before Halloween. Not bad for a day's work. 

Mending My Raincoat

Here's something I've been meaning to do for a while: mend my trenchcoat.

The hood of this coat was missing two buttons on the hood, causing the hood to sag when it was thrown back. I don't understand why you might want to remove the hood but that doesn't really matter. The matter of the missing buttons was annoying me so this fall break I decided to fix it.

Here's the hood.

One problem was that I had lost the buttons that they originally there. I had a few black buttons with me but they were larger and more curved than the ones already there.

My replacement buttons were so big that they can't fit through the buttonholes. Now, I have no plans to remove the hood, but it did mean I had to be careful while sewing the button on top of the buttonhole.

Which I did. 

The second one went quickly too. I'm not too concerned about the presentation of the buttons; if someone can notice it, they are too close.

And there - one little project done.

The Latch Hook Elk - Part 4

I've gotten to a new color on this project - light green. It doesn't look like I'll be using up that color anytime soon but it feels good to at least start breaking down that pile.

I keep going through black and tan strands but not any of the other piles, so I stopped breaking down the bundles. The two in the lower right corner don't have either - I just didn't want to keep adding to the light blue pile when I didn't have to. When those bundles actually start falling apart I will break them down.

I'm about 15 rows done right now. If I can do roughly 2 rows every day, I believe I'll be done by the end of the semester. Of course, that's not taking into account Thanksgiving, and I'm on Fall Break right now. Next week is pretty hectic as well. At least theatre has calmed down for a while.

The Latch Hook Elk - Part 3

Whelp, back from a conference.

I've been finding it very easy to stop work at the tree/elk boundary. As long as I find a recognizable stopping point, I don't get lost.

I ended up dismantling most of the bundles and grouping the strands by color. I find that easier than having several bundles without black or tan lying around.

I've been keeping the useful piles close - there's a lot of blue sitting in that box right now.

This piece is about 112 rows high and I've hit the 10 row mark. Even now it looks impressive.