Earlier this year, I was invited to be a member of GlamList.com. Signing up wasn’t a hassle and their sales are actually pretty amazing. I bought a camel dress from them sometime in May and they never shipped it until I became rather vocal and annoyed. My dress finally got to my house in June. Ridiculous! They signed me up for their VIP list to get access to the sales 12 hours before they go live, but that’s small cookies in return for all the trouble I had. The funny thing is that after I complained, it only took 1.5 weeks… Sure, that’s not really speedy, but it was coming from Canada using Puralator. I just don’t know why their service is so bad. I’ve been keeping up with their sales and I’d really like to participate, but then I think of the insanity that happened in the summer and I’m immediately turned off.

It’s a pity too because they’ve got this great knit dress in royal blue on sale right now… Maybe I can make it myself with size 0000 needles and threadweight yarn, y/n?

In other news, my holiday knitting has come to a standstill, but I’m still on track. I was knitting the Kiri shawl on the bus, and I didn’t really think before shoving it into my bag before getting off and some of it came undone. I really, really do not want to frog; it was going so quickly before my carelessness! I’ll have to study hard under bright lights to see how to fix it without ripping back. It’s three or so rows, but that’s about 900 stitches. No, thank you!!! But omg, Fino Alpaca with a twist is so pretty knitted up. It really is transformed by the pattern. I got it out of someone else’s stash of Ravelry and when it came, the colour looked a bit washed out and unassuming, but it looks so vibrant when actually knit! It’s a gorgeous transformation. I only hope lace shawls aren’t completely gauche to the person to whom I’m gifting it. It’s hard to feel people out without giving oneself away, but since we’ve got similar good taste, I’m hoping she’ll like it. ;]

I had more people on my list, but I’ve whittled it down to five people plus my three best friends here in WA. One of my good friends in TX is getting married soon, so I’ll skip on trying to squeeze her in for Christmas and instead make something really amazing for her wedding gift. I don’t know what yet. :) For my other friend, I don’t know if I should knit a scarf or a neckwarmer… scarves are so maddening and tedious!

I’m ignoring the election news today. I’ll surely go mad if I follow it like some of my friends are doing. I’ll just wait until the results are announced and either be elated beyond words (I really will scream or cry, I think) or start packing my bags so I can move to Europe accordingly.  My fingers and toes and eyes are crossed. ;) eta: the night is over and Obama won. All is good.

I’ve changed my layout again, since we’re past Halloween.

Brushing up on my French because I dug up a Phildar mag that I bought impulsively last year. I remembered there was a cute cape in it that I wanted to knit! Reading French knitting terms is actually not very difficult once you pick out what all the abbreviations mean. But it’s still a task… I spent an hour last night translating a pattern.  But it was good for practise and adding to my vocabulary, so I’m not complaining!

Anyway, I’m a fiend for cables. As I write this, I’m knitting the most tedious cable cardigan. Yesterday I was swearing I’d never knit cables again because I’m dying of boredom. I’m somewhat of a monogamous knitter; I can’t have two ongoing projects of the same type going on together. I can knit a jumper and a scarf at the same time, but not two jumpers or two scarves. But anyway, my vow against cables won’t last too long because I really can’t help myself when I see something this gorgeous! Cables add so much interest to any piece!

Pull à Torsades

Isn’t this beautiful? These cables, however, are significantly less arduous than the ones I’m working on now. I even love the colour… Charcoal grey is one of favourites, but I want to work in something a little more… I don’t know. Maybe a chocolate heather. This was a really popular shape/trend last winter, but I think it’s still beautiful. I don’t really keep with what in or out anyway; I only care about what looks good! Read the rest of this entry »

I am still looking for employment, but lack of money doesn’t stop me from wanting things I can’t (currently) have! I’ve been really in to charcoal, garnet and deep eggplant shades right now. Of course, I’m always into jewel tones no matter what season, but now I want cosmetics and shoes in the same shades!

Nordstrom Plush Square Cape (right)

Stella McCartney Oversize Cardigan

Stella McCartney Snood

I’m really into volume right now as well. I want to make the snood, but I wouldn’t be able to wear it with my hair being so huge, ha ha! I need to braid it down for the winter anyway, so maybe I’ll think about it. I have some sport weight alpaca yarn in charcoal that would be really nice for this. All I’d need is some black and a light grey for the stripe.

Shoes next time. x)

I haven’t been up to much lately. School is over for the next week, and then I start my summer course. My final course ever. I’m kind of aprehensive about going out into the REAL WORLD, but I’m sure things will work out fine.

Anyway, here’s a picture of a dress I bought for my birthday last year! Yellow is quickly becoming an obsession for me… I have 2 yellow dresses now, and I just bought a bunch of sungold yellow yarn for a tank top. I didn’t look at the fibre content and so I was surprised to find that it is 100% acrylic. But I can’t return it.  Hopefully, it will be okay. Acrylic tends to make me sweat like crazy, but since I’m creating light summer clothes, it should be alright.

Here’s the camisole I’m working on right now. I messed up on the lace, but I really couldn’t bring myself to rip back and fix it when I realised. Now my main concern is my decreases. My ssk decreases are always super visible next to my k2tog ones. :( But otherwise, I’m not bothered. Now I need buttons for this tank… some pretty faux pearl ones!

I used Addi Turbos for this and… I don’t get the hype, really. They’re nice, but I feel like I knit the same on them as I do on my Denises (which I loathe, btw). The only difference is that my knitting doesn’t ‘hang’ onto the needle with the Addis like they do with Denises. I think I’m about to invest in Knit Picks Options, but I hear some frequent and scary complaints about the quality of the cords they use. And buying a collection of $20+ needles in every length and size does not appeal to me. What to do!

Anyway, I leave you with a picture of mouth-watering cookies! I got the recipe from VeganYumYum (I don’t know how she got hers so beautiful-looking, but I’ll keep trying!), but modified it a bit since I don’t have all of the ingredients she listed (nor do I know where to even find them!). I also added sweet orange oil because orange + vanilla is so yummy to me.

Have a good weekend!

Ah, I’ve found a new love. I saw this dress on Basic Boutique, but unfortunately, it’s not in in my size! So, when I get home (in two months, I’m so excited!) I’m going to try and recreate it. Pretty gathering like this is insanely hard, so that will be a big challenge. And… bishop sleeves. But my mum is pretty handy with the machine, so maybe she’ll be of some help. :) But the gathering on this dress is beyond perfect. I wish I knew some place that I could try it on!

I have one Jovovich-Hawk dress, but it’s a party dress. This one looks nice enough to wear to work, right? And it’s deep purple and that is my colour. I wish I could skip the hassle, but I hate buying clothes online. I just found it at Net-A-Porter but I don’t understand the sizing; according to this site, I’m a size 10 for this dress? But I am really a 4.

But whatever, I’d totally prefer this in a silk jersey rather than the viscose/wool blend it comes in.