Sunday, September 09, 2007

Just like me, they want to be, cloche to you......

As part of this weekend's endevors, I made a cloche hat. My Nani turned 80 this week and next weekend my family is throwing a Roaring 20's themed birthday party at home in Chicago. I ordered a real vintage dress from ebay (it has armpit stains, ewww. I hand washed it and they didn't come out. I had to change out the water and soap at least 10 times, the water was black almost every time. So gross, but I am wearing it). ANYWAY, I needed a cloche to go with it but I really wasn't into spending any more money, so I decided to make one myself. I had a hell of a time finding directions online, and buying patterns would have been antoher $15. Screw that. I have a winter hat that is a cloche, so I decided to see what I could do....

First I traced the parts of my hat. I figured that to get the right shape, I would need to have four top pieces so I folded the hat into quarters.



Then I made a mock hat out of 60 cents worth of cotton.



It fits!



Then I traced that pieces onto medium weight white felt. I think that this would look good on really heavy felt or darker felt. The white is a little too translucent, but I needed that color for my ensemble.



Sewed it together and added a flower. Viola!




It still needs to be blocked a little. Or ironed. Whatever, it works. However, between the hat and the dress and the blue fake mink that I bought to make a stole, I feel more like Miss Hanagan from Annie than a gatsby girl. Although the though of always having a drink in my hand at this party might not be a bad idea.

I know that only two people read this, but if anyone would be intersted in me making a pdf of my pattern pieces, let me know.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Week Recap

Last week was one busy-ass week. First off was the annual Arizona Hydrological Society conference. Not only was I *lucky* enough to spend all day Wednesday in a water well rehabilitation class, but then I had two additional days of conferencing. Some of it was good. Other parts made me want to kill myself. The food kicked ass. The comedy troupe at lunch on Friday, not so much. Seriously, who thinks comedy troops are a good idea? I also realized that most people in my field are dorks. Too bad. There were a few normal people, but the were all younger. Maybe there is hope for us all yet. Then again, I would rather have a dork who has nothing better to do spend their time on figuring out our water crisis in the southwest. God knows I would get distracted by knitting or something shiny. Anyway, The conference was at the Westin La Paloma. We used to live up there before buying the house. I had forgotten how pretty Tucson can be when you don't live amongst the thugs and car filled lawns like we do.



Sunday was the baby shower for Kali and Shawn. I was a little nervous because scheduling conflicts only really allowed us to plan the night before, and I guess some during the conference during breaks. Anyway, it went off without a hitch. Kali looks adorable pregnant. I think she now weighs like 10 pounds or something. Of coure I have no pictures of people, but I do have pictures of knitting! Baby Hardeman, aka Baby K, aka Wayne Bo will be sporting this little number come winter.




Pattern: Basic hat and a sweater pattern on Jimmy Beans that I can't remember the name of rihg now.
Yarn: Crap. Blanking on that too. I think it is All Seasons Cotton.
Needles: Again, I suck. 6's?
Time: You guessed it! No idea. I wasn't keeping track because I couldn't post it right away for secrecy purposes. I think that the sweater took 3 or 4 nights. The hat took 2 nights.
Comments: I can barely remeber what I did to make this sweater, let alone comment on it. I do know that I made the arms a few rows wider because I hear that it can be hard to get baby hands through things.

I also made Nautilus from Knitty with the leftover yarn. This was a pretty quick knit. Maybe a couple of nights. I would like to make it bigger next time and maybe with safety eyes instead of gluing felt. Yes, I know he is sideways. I didn't mess wiht things directly after importing, and now I can't rotate it and get it to save that way. Stupid Mac. That is also why the formatting is weird on these posts. Steve says it is the browser. He is wrong.



After all that action, you would think that we would be sleeping in on Monday. Au contrair mon frere. Steve had a race at 6:30 AM. A M! We got up at 4:30 and headed out to Saguaro East. I guess it is the only race in a national park. The could be lying, but I am too lazy to look it up. Anyway, it was 8 miles and Steve said it was the hardest race he has ever run. He did awesome, though. He finished in 50:13 and was 14th overall, 3rd in his age group. Good practice for the marathon next month. Here he is running right before the finish. Those old dudes are just walking. They didn't beat him or anything.