like a pro i pack your dance floor

It's Halloween weekend, which I swore I would boycott (so, so bad at costumes)...but when I found a tutorial about making a mustache, there was no choice but to do it. It perfectly completed my brother's costume! (It could have been a bit pointier, but oh well.)

I happened to have some really nice natural alpaca roving that I was saving for...well, whenever I decided to try to spin again. The mustache doesn't take too much, so I figured it was a worthy cause. It was really easy! You just stab it over and over until you have the shape you want, and then it'll be felted into a mustache shape. I sped the process along by washing it in warm water with some dish soap while rubbing it; I think it went a bit quicker and yielded a thicker, more secure piece of fabric.

Since it's alpaca, it was a bit fuzzy...but Paul had been concerned that it wouldn't be bushy enough, so I guess the fuzziness added to the ungroomed quality of Eugene Hutz. I trimmed it a little with scissors because it was too big and the shape wasn't quite right; one of the joys of felting is that it won't unravel or fall apart when you cut it. Pretty cool!

Add some eyelash glue and you're good to go!

a day without a trace of reason

Well, these socks are half done...meaning I have one finished. I'm trying to force myself to knit through the second one (they're intended to be a Christmas gift, so I keep telling myself I have time and then Christmas Eve will roll around with 2" left to go). Luckily I have a trip to take this weekend, so I've loaded podcasts onto my iPod and am only allowing myself to bring this one project with. Now I have no choice but to finish them, right?

I really am happy with the pattern, though. The cabling pulls in a lot- they'll be snug socks- but the color is gorgeous and works really well with the cables. This is adapted-ish from the book Alt Fiber...basically I was being lazy and angsty about what cable pattern to use, and she has a nice, simple one. I was struggling with getting the ribbing to flow nicely into the cables.

Alright, time to go...hopefully knitting pictures will result from this weekend!

we don't dive, we cannonball

Seriously, interwebs, cats in crochet hats don't work. My cat especially- I don't know how that artist got hers to sit still (although the poor thing doesn't look very happy about his/her hat).

It was my mother's birthday yesterday, and as a gag I thought it would be hilarious to make Kitty the above hat as a much poorer copy of the one from the Etsy artist. Since I took all of ten minutes to make mine and used entirely the wrong size crochet hook for the yarn, didn't weave in any ends, and made the saddest pom pom ever...I'm happy with it. Kitty is not.

She still runs away when I pick it up.

Lesson learned, cats do not like hats despite what Dr. Seuss (and the blogosphere) tells us.