Finished a Few Knitted Things!

The weather continues to be outright freezing cold lately. Although it does fluctuate between below zero degrees F, and around 25 degrees F...! The other day it was -5 degrees F (which is approximately -20C fo y'alls who use Celsius..!) That's SO COLD OMG. So needless to say I've been knitting and knitting....and knitting!

Here's what I finished lately:

Gina Scarf



From a free pattern available online: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/f428-gina-scarf

The lady who did the pattern is Vanessa Ewing, and she's really nice! I was stuck on how to do this pattern a while ago and she helped me out by sharing a video on Youtube of a person knitting the Indian Cross Stitches pattern which is effectively what this pattern is only modified to change how the rows alternate. I really adore it. Such an easy and fast knit and if you use the Gina worsted weight yarn by Plymouth (it's 100% wool)



it comes out looking beautiful due to the way they dye the yarn. I love dip-dye effects and color gradients. :3 Especially when they're all rainbow-y!

I loved it so much that I finished a second one:





I just love the yarn so much. ^___^


I also got some knitting books to get some new patterns, and plus they just looked like fun. :D


Punk knits!! Haha. :D There's a skirt pattern in here I wanna try in neon green yarn plus a distressed striped sweater. Yay! :D


More fresh alpaca yarn too:



I was trying to use it to make a Steelers Scarf but it didn't really work with the pattern, transitioning between the two colors :(


I really do adore the way the yellow yarn looks in this pattern though so I will likely just frog the crap outta it and start over with just yellow, saving the black for another time.

That yarn is also by Plymouth, it's their Baby Alpaca Grande. From what I understand, "baby alpaca" doesn't mean the fibers came from a baby alpaca, but that it's indicative of the fineness of the fiber. Odd, huh? All this time I was picturing an adorable baby alpaca getting sheared down to naked, hehe. I guess it's just an adult alpaca getting sheared! :P

Anyhoo. That's all I got for now. I'm also working on sewing an Elsa costume for my next door neighbor's daughter using a child's pattern I found on Etsy. I'll have to make my next blog post about that. And knitting, of course! :)

I also plan to crochet a Totoro Amigurumi, but I haven't crocheted since highschool so this should be interesting. I plan to YouTube all of the pattern techniques so I have a better idea of what I am doing, lol.

Gangsta Knitting Rap + Ramblings + Fabric

I have nothing of any great import to say today other than...WATCH THIS VIDEO, it's pretty hilarious.




Also this is my progress thus far on my latest project:




(Sadly I haven't really touched this one in a while...)



In other news, Spoonflower was having a special promo where you can try a free sample of their Silky Faille fabric last week and you can have your own custom design printed, so in honor of watching Anchorman 2 last week, this beautiful, magical fabric was born:


I LOVE LAMP.

(reference below)



Yeah that just happened. Spoonflower is a magical site where you can print whatever you want on fabric and order tons of it and make clothing or whatever your heart desires out of it. Isn't that incredible? I made a Charlie Sheen fabric swatch once...it was beautiful as well. It was before I had GIMP though so I "borrowed" some random Charlie Sheen art I found online to make it. But it was only for a sample swatch. I plan to create my own design in the future, but I was impressed with how it came out and the overall print quality of Spoonflower. I highly recommend them if you are in need of custom printed fabric. Can be quite expensive, though, but it's worth the price!

Finished Project & Happy New Year!

First post of 2014, yay! (And it didn't happen in February either, lol!)

Just wanted to wish all my followers & fellow bloggers a Happy New Year and I hope you gals and guys have a kickass 2014. :)

Also wanted to share a project I just finished knitting. It's going to be a surprise present for someone...can't say who in case she reads this (though I doubt it!) lol! xD

It's a scarf from the game Rune Factory 4 for Nintendo 3DS. It's been kind of my addiction lately and also the reason why this blog has gone mostly neglected. ;___; sorry, friends!

In the game, your character can knit a cute little scarf for friends/lovers/etc. So I decided to make one myself, inspired by a teensy tiny pixelated game sprite. I don't think you actually see this scarf in game or in any character art. Even if you equip it, I don't think you can see it on the character because it's not a head accessory. Lame! But anyway.... see the comparison below:



Cute huh?

I think there's another scarf which becomes available for crafting later on in the game, though I have not yet encountered it.

Yay for nerd knitting. xD (I also got the "Knits for Nerds" book! I am gonna make a sweater vest from one of its patterns!)

I also plan to knit some UNIF replica dresses in 2014. And possibly some other garments...we shall see! (and also an amigurumi of Wooley the sheep from Rune Factory.)

Speaking of RF... I got a doujinshi of Frey x Arthur which I am in the (very slow, very tedious) process of scanlating! Here is a sneak peak below:







(Feel free to open the images in a new tab if the text is too tiny to read on my blog, lol.)

Anyway, I will post more pages as I finish them! If you are interested in helping me scanlate this doujin please comment below with your e-mail and I will give you access to the raw scans on my Dropbox. ^___^

Love you guys!

Just...knitting.

Belated Merry Christmas to everyone in the blogosphere! :)


My tree! ^__^

I'm trying to stay warm by knitting things again. Actually, I learned how to knit several years ago and I had only produced 1 scarf. It happens to be a very cute pastel green/pale mint green scarf which I do love but I only wear it with other equally cutesy and pastel-y things. So a few years back, I had purchased some wonderfully amazing 100% Baby Alpaca yarn by Cascade Yarns in a rather lovely shade of burgundy/red. (I think their colorway is "Ruby" actually.) Well, around Thanksgiving of this year, I decided to finish knitting that freakin' scarf...I had only completed about 1/3 of the project and I was quite disappointed in myself for stopping. Mostly because I hate leaving projects unfinished but also because this yarn is FUCKING AWESOME. It smells good. It feels oh-so-soft. It's beautiful. Did I mention it smells good? Omg. I never realized "yarn huffing" was a "thing" until I sniffed me some 100% baby alpaca yarn. Omg. So good. (Seriously just pick up a skein and sniff it sometime! Has to be 100% tho...or else it might smell different!) So anyway. I finished said scarf.

Now I have two scarves... and the addiction begins...(or continues? depends on how you look at it.)


Awww yeeaaaa! So warm! And gorgeous. Check dat yarn lustre! xD


It's just a garter stitch, so I am going to attempt crazier patterns soon. Right now I am working on a k2, p2 scarf in brown. Same type of yarn (100% Baby Alpaca Yarn) just different colorway.

BTW if you are on Ravelry (sort of like a Facebook type of site only for knitting/crocheting/weaving/yarn spinning, etc.) feel free to add me as a friend on there! :) And/or just creep on my projects mercilessly! I don't mind! ;3
http://www.ravelry.com/people/theflyingace/

Did I mention I enjoy drinking and knitting at the same time??

Wine + knitting...


Beer + yarn winding...(tangling, lol!)

Also this isn't really related, but I am sort of addicted to the band CHVRCHES. Seriously. IDK why I love to listen to electronic music whilst knitting (and drinking) simultaneously...but it does makes the project go by so much faster when you're listening to a favorite band (at least for the time being) and plus the alcohol makes my muscles relax and use less tension which is a problem often have as a n00b-knitter. (Try it, but don't get too drunk or you might drop some stitches, lol.)



Click Read More to see some more yarn porn and misc knitting related pix. :D

Treated myself to some knitting needles and other odds and ends for Christmas:


Received this cute knitting set as an XMas gift:


and some yarn:


Finished red scarf plus (an old pic of) my stash:

O-Mighty Hates Big Butts!

Long time no post, yet again. Sorry for the blog neglect, everyone. I don't know if there's anyone out there who actually follows this blog or whatever, but if there is...I apologize for my neglect! Life gets in the way every time I want to update. But moreso, I just hate typing posts and formatting them and all that crap. I tried posting from my phone a few times since I can talk into it and it will spit out what I write, but then the issue with formatting came up. Bah.

So anyway. I guess I will get on with the subject of this post: o-mighty! Some of y'alls may have encountered their products before in the online fashion blogosphere world.

http://o-mighty.com/

But at any rate...they're based out of Singapore (which I am assuming is how they escape all the copyright infringement lawsuits!) and they pretty much only carry one size for most everything. This is slowly changing but not by much. They do have a lot of cool stuff for sale, which brings me to the Word Art Skirt.

http://o-mighty.com/products/150/all/3172

Pretty dope, huh? Well I thought so too. And I wanted to order one. So I did. But then I realized, hooooly shiiiit, it's like...XS. And I'm usually like M/L in bottoms! So needless to say, I was a bit disappointed. I was kind of anticipating it though, and decided to go to the fabric store to make the skirt BIGGER by adding two panels in. Below is a photographic depiction of my journey in the world of making something larger. (Usually I take things in!) I was a little nervous about the alteration...not to mention I already dropped like $45 US on this stupid skirt, lol.


Got the skirt in the mail, and obviously it wouldn't fit on my big caboose!! >__<;;;
Grab sewing machine, add beer and loud music....


Seam rip skirt edges...as you can see, their skirt pattern is "highly complex" lol...


Now pin the damn thing to mannequin and attempt to figure out how much fabric you will need to buy...!


Go on shameless fabric shopping spree with your JoAnn coupons...end up spending $120 instead of the $15 you originally planned!

???

FINISH!


Threw it on with some other random stuff.


Not bad but I could have been more patient to do a better job. >_<;; Annnnd I will end with my favorite photo!
Because, fuck yea, drippy tights!!! xD

The end.

Hope you guys enjoyed this. Thankfully o-mighty is beginning to make bigger sizes now but I don't know by how much. I ordered their Nokia Phone skirt because, shit, it's dope, and I used to own one of these phones, back in like 2000. It even had a metallic green case to clip on it. I thought I was a straight up baller, lol. I got it in M/L so it better fit. Dammit. Otherwise I will be buying more knit fabric and doing skirt surgery again. Skurgery. Yep. I said that.


Have you ever made something bigger before? What was it? Did it come out good? Or was it a fail? Comment below and tell meeeee!!!

New JASMINE album - Complexxx!

AHHHH omg. This is gonna be a quickie post but I couldn't help but to rave about JASMINE's new album, Complexxx...it's her 2nd Studio Album. She's a JPOP singer, and I loved her first album, GOLD soooo so much that I just had to order her latest album from CDJapan.



12 tracks of pure awesome. I love how she mixes English words with Japanese. Highly recommended if you love JPOP. :D

I'll add more later after I've listened to all the tracks...but I will say I have already heard "Only You," "ONE," and "I'll Be There" and I love all of those songs. So pop-y and I love her voice even if they autotuned it some, hehe. ;)

What JPOP singers are you all listening to right now??


XOXOXOXOXO

Monthly Post - Justice & Shopping in the Children's Section

Work is just so busy. It's really hard to maintain this friggin' blog when all I want to do after I get home from work is just crash. And drink beer. And yeah, not do anything in particular. I do get out on the weekends every now and again, though. This weekend I went shopping, and last weekend my parents drove all the way from Pittsburgh (with my sister and the dog as well) to visit me. Crazy! I can't stand road trips. So yeah. F that noise. But anyway...this weekend, it looks like my boyfriend's parents are driving all the way from Colorado to visit us. Last year, they came around Labor Day and his dad wired our house for us...so nice of him. I hope he lets me buy him something nicer than beer this time around, hehe. At any rate...


So yes, the title of the post...well, addressing the second half now that I've addressed the first... I realllly love shopping in the children's section. I mean, who wouldn't, especially if you love cute prints and designs, pastel colors, bright colors, stuff that you generally do not see in the 'adults' or even 'juniors' clothing sections. I used to get a lot of my 'kiddie' clothes from the store called delia*s but sadly around 2008ish, they moved out of the mall that was closest to me (the STL Galleria) because the friggin' Apple store bought out their space. I hate Apple. But that's another rant for another day. They moved to the Chesterfield Mall, and that's kind of a long drive for me...back then, as well as now. So I kinda stopped going there. And it's not really a "kid's only" store, I mean, it's more like late teens. And lately I have been shopping at Justice. Their clothing is wayyyy more for little kid's and girls than delia*s, though. So that means I always feel EXTRA creepy going in there. I try to buy online as much as possible to prevent giving off the "pedo vibes" when I walk into the store...but it's not always possible seeing as how their clothing doesn't always fit properly. Generally if I get a big enough size, I don't have to worry about it being too small/tight. But then I have to worry about awkward fits! Thankfully I JUST got my sewing machine back, after about 7 years without it....(I still used it off and on when I visited my parents in PA, but it wasn't always at my disposal) so that means if I need to alter clothing, I can! Rejoice!


But yeah so you may be wondering, why shop in the children's section/kiddie stores if you are, like me, in your early/mid/late twenties? (I'm going to be 25 on Dec 1st...guess that makes me mid-twenties now?) Here is a list of pros and cons:


Pros
- Really fucking cheap.
- Insanely cute designs you can't find in adult clothing stores/weird & awesome types of fabric & colors.


Cons
- Stuff doesn't always fit correctly if it all.
- You might feel like a pedophile if you aren't shopping online.



I bought this dress last night:


And this bolero:


Together?

Pretty legit!!!

How about you guys? Do you like to shop in the kiddie sections? xD