Well, I almost had a sweater...

I made another sweater! Kind of.

So remember how I skipped the gauge and recommendation for my last sweater and it ended up way too small? Well, this time I skipped the recommended yarn again but I DID complete the gauge and I was like, "Oh, perfect. If I knit this a little loosely then I can totally make the gauge even though it's the wrong yarn weight."

So coincidentally I have a really hard time reading instructions because right there on the FIRST PAGE it states:

"If you achieve gauge by working an aran / worsted weight yarn at a looser tension, your owls will not have the same neat definition, and the shaping will not look its best."

See, generally fine looking partial owls.

I realized this about half way through the pattern and I decided it didn't matter. Really, I don't mind if it's a little hole-y and psh, I'm sure the owls will look fine. I did not convince myself however so I actually knitted up a separate little swatch with the owls and yes, they did look fine. So I kept on trucking.

You know what else the instructions said?

"k to underarm, between 15-19 inches"

GUESS WHO DIDN'T WANT TO GET A MEASURING TAPE

In case you can't tell since I'm wearing a dress, that stops exactly at smallest point of my waist. So it's very cropped which is cute but not my style. At all.

The boyfriend chimed in helpfully: "You know, you should really stop expecting to get things right on the first try. Just accept that you're going to have to re-do them several times."

Hmph.

At the very least, I now know that I can make a sweater and it will look beautiful. (Because even though I took this apart last night I really do love this!)

This sweater only took me about 2 weeks, which I thought was pretty fast, so hopefully in another 2 weeks I'll have something that actually fits.

Extensive research on ravelry tells me if I hold the yarn double, it will come out just fine and dandy so that's the plan.

Is anyone on instagram? Or rather, since I'm the last person ever to sign up: hey, I'm joining instagram! You can follow me here. It will mostly be pictures of sewing and my cats. Let me know if you're on there!

And in case anyone is interested, here's the pattern I'm attempting to make. (If you actually bother to read the instructions, they're quite outstanding. I've had no problem following along and that's usually a big challenge for me when I knit.)

Halloween Ideas and Inspiration!

Guys, what are we doing for Halloween? I cannot decide on a costume and it seems like the stores don't have much out in terms of decorating. I went into a store to browse their Halloween wares and the aisle was jam packed... with people shopping for candy. Sigh.

I did buy 10 small bouquets of black flowers, taped them together and made a wreath. In the first 24 hours, the tape kept bursting open so I got a little lazier each time sticking it back together. But it has stayed together since.

 I really wanted to add black feathers to it, but in the 1560727 stores I went into, I could NOT find black feathers. To make up for the lack of feathers, I tried to highlight the snakes and spiders in it. Of course, all that happened was that many of the details got lost in all of the blackness. Oh, well. I still love it.

I also hung black cobwebs (with spiders), skeletons, and other fun pumpkins and death-inspired things. (But I forgot to take pictures of it all this morning, of course.)

The boyfriend wants to add orange lights, but guess what color the stores don't have??

We started buying decorations and talking costumes last month, but we haven't figured out what to do/be.  I obviously want to make my own costume. I probably won't make his because that's a lot of work - though I see nothing wrong with him picking up a $30 suit at Goodwill that I can tailor.

Part of the problem is that I don't want something that's only a costume. I want something that looks nice and elegant and I can wear other times during the year. So that narrows it down a bit.

Obviously I have flapper dresses that I could buy fun accessories for, but the boyfriend nixed that idea since I apparently dress up too much like a flapper during the year anyway. I could also easily be someone from the 50s or 60s or Mad Men or Pushing Daisies, but that seems like cheating since I wear those dresses every day.

So what does that leave? Here are some of my thoughts:

1940s Overalls, Trousers, Playsuit via Wearing History

I really love this pattern. As much as making pants scares me a little, I really love the high waisted trousers and even the overalls. Obviously the thinking here is Rosie the Riveter - and I could easily wear the pants in real life.

Via istock

I really love the idea of Alice in Wonderland. I'm not sure why since I'm not a fan of the movie or book, but the look has always intrigued me. The picture above is my favorite. She's a little scuffed up and tired and just wants her tea (though that looks a little like Listerine). Anyway, I think the boyfriend would look great as the Mad Hatter, but he's insisting on being the Caterpillar if we proceed and there's no graceful way to dress up as a Caterpillar...

Via Simple Simon

I have wanted to do this costume for the last few years and thought this was finally the year, but apparently this costume has been done . And apparently the birds get very heavy and drag on the clothes. Hmph.

Via FanPop

I really love Wednesday and Morticia. I was thinking the boyfriend and I could go as Morticia and Gomez, which he originally loved, but then he remembered he had a beard so it won't work. (What?!) So I guess I could still be Wednesday and walk around terribly depressed and somewhat homicidal.

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And then I keep seeing all these cool make-up tutorials and pictures popping up on pinterest. Some of them look ridiculously complex, but I think I could pull off some of them and then my costume won't matter as much. I could easily make a little black dress for them and also every day life and maybe even wear it to the Little Black Dress party in NYC (though I'm secretly hoping for the English Tea Party myself).

What's everyone else dressing up as? Are you making your own costume? Any bearded characters out there I can suggest to the boyfriend? Currently, he's stuck on the idea of Grizzly Adams.