Getting closer

More work on the straw hat bike helmet! 

I suddenly realized that my arbitrary deadline is drawing near. I had the idea that it would be part of my Shakespeare in the Park picnic outfit, and our tickets are for next week! This is why I need arbitrary deadlines, I guess.

Somehow I never took a photo of the shiny straw capeline I bought from Petersham but it looked exactly like their photo on Etsy:

Shiny Straw Capeline from Petersham’s

I’m sure they won’t mind me borrowing it, since I’m linking back to them (and you should buy one!)

Yesterday, I finally got around to shaping. Lots of steam from my kettle (I steamed the outside, then the inside, then just took the lid off the kettle and plopped the capeline on top), and I got this:

Partially shaped Capeline

It took a lot of work to make it fit around the helmet! I used pushpins (carefully pushed between the strands of straw, not through them) to hold in in place while shaping.

Next, I moved it all to the ironing board, to flatten out the brim, and get a crisp edge where brim meets crown, and heavily steamed the top and shaped it by hand to look more “hat-like” instead of just wonky. I weighted it with what was handy while it was cooling and drying:

Shaped!

Next will be applying a band and stitching in the lining. I’m a bit worried about the pull of the elastic causing problems with the straw. Maybe it needs a permanent hat stand when not in use? Hmmm...

Getting excited!

I have been dreaming of this project for a while and I am finally making it happen!

Years ago, I bought a Yakkay helmet from my local bike shop for a fantastic deal (70% off). It comes with a replaceable cloth cover, and looks like a cool hat rather than a dorky helmet. This thing became part of my identity, and I wore it for +/- 15 years. 

You're supposed to replace a helmet every three years. Oops.

Anyway it was time to replace it, and obviously I wanted another Yakkay. 

Trying to find a place to buy one (I'm in Canada, they're from Denmark) I found this gorgeous straw cover and fell in love! But €119 + shipping + customs/duties + the actual helmet is far out of my price range. 

So I didn't get it. But I didn't give up.

I got a helmet with a different cover (the Tokyo black rain cover) from Green Street, a bike shop in Peterborough (not exactly local, but as local as I could get).

 Next was searching for millinery suppliers that had what I needed at a price I could handle with reasonable shipping costs. Found what I was looking for at the Petersham's Etsy store. I think it was $14 for the capeline and another $14 for the shipping. 

Then I had to figure out the engineering required to keep the cover on the helmet. The cover has a sturdy band attached to wide elastic and a mesh liner. I got a yard of mesh for $10 at a local fabric store, and had wide black elastic and nylon webbing in my stash from previous projects (snowpants and a Hallowe'en costume).

I drafted a pattern from the existing covers, which was quite tricky, because what keeps it all together is tension. Fit has to be perfect, and the helmet is hard and slippery, so not like a dressform where you can drape and pin. I started with wide seam allowance and adjusted down as necessary, and it was necessary multiple times, because it seemed pretty good until I added the band, and then it seemed pretty good until I added the elastic. 

Anyway I am finally happy with the base! It stays on! 

Next step: shaping the straw capeline with steam, and figure out how to attach to the liner...

So far I've spent about $45 on the cover - not exactly cheap, but a lot less than €119!

I'm back!

Wow, this blog has been abandoned for a while! Whoops. I had an issue with a creepy creep who used it to find my home address and send me threats on Yelp. No really. People are the worst.

Anyway creeps better look out, because I now have superpowers including time travel! Not really. But my Hallowe'en costume for Five from Umbrella Academy might scare someone into thinking that? Maybe? No?

So I'll confess a fair amount of this is prefab - the socks, the shorts, the shirt, the tie. The jacket is from the Sally Ann, with bias tape hand sewn around the edges, and I embroidered a crest, which you can't see in that photo at all! Here it is:

And obviously the vest is a hand knit, because I always forget how much I hate knitting argyle:

So hello again! Maybe I'll start posting here more regularly if I actually get some projects done... or started... I have a couple of filmcrafty projects in mind, but have been too busy with pandemic baking to get much done. We shall see!

Meantime, I updated the links to all of the free knitting patterns I posted previously, if anyone still wants them!

Naya Cardigan

Wow, long time since I've posted!

Thought I'd write up the cardigan I made for the kid this xmas, since last time I made one of these, I made cryptic comments in the "notes" section on Ravelry about how to shape the collar, but no real explanation.

So, here is the pattern for the Naya Cardigan! One size, for a 36" chest measurement. I called it "Naya" because that's what the kid's Magic the Gathering deck is, and those are the mana types I put on the front. You could move the mana symbols around if you like; they are all the same size.

Getting ready for the holidays

I may not be posting, but I am doing stuff! I've been hibernating a bit since the election happened. I realised the other day that it's kind of funny that everyone is worried that he is going to send the U.S. back to the pre-civil-rights 1950s, and I am responding by retreating into the kitchen like 1950s Mom. Ah well.

I've been working (slowly) on this turtleneck:

Afraid the turtle is too small for my big head though. Because it's on dpns, I can't really stretch it to see. But I found my 2mm circ, so I can transfer it over to see. Meanwhile, it's getting cold for running, so I made this earwarmer headband:

Surprisingly quick knit, for 2x2 rib on 2mm needles! Will test it tomorrow morning. Also made this cowl in an hour:

So satisfying to start and finish something after putting the kid to bed, and wear it the next day! Unlike this scarf, which I'm still sort of slowly plugging away at:

Meh. And I've cast on these for the kid's teacher's xmas present:

Yes, mittens again. Can't fail. If I have time, I might make a hat too, since I have enough yarn.

In other holiday news, it hit me this week that November is half over, and I ought to be doing party prep! So yesterday I made candied peel:

and shortbread dough, and Imperial Cheddar biscuit dough, and today I am doing hamantaschen dough and puff pastry. I also made a "test loaf" of this pain aux figues, which I think will be a new staple! Yum.

And raisin bread, because it makes the best toast.

Most importantly, fruitcake today! Because it needs time to soak up some whiskey. Yum.

Hallowe'en cookies!

Made some more Hallowe'en cookies, and thought I'd do a quick tutorial on the decorations.

I love the classic sugar cookie recipe from the Cake & Cooky Cookbook, brushed with milk and sprinkled with sugar or sprinkles. Generally, this means sugar or sprinkles all over the cookie sheet, cooked on, keeping me from lifting off the cookies without breaking them. So this time, I made stencils out of heavy paper, by tracing the cookie cutters and then cutting inside the lines (the idea being, if the stencil is slightly smaller than the cookie, there will be less spillover). After I had done a few, I realised at one point that folding up the edges of the stencil would result in even less spilling.

Then I made separate stencils for the Jack O'Lantern face and ghost eyes.

A slightly tedious process, but much less time than icing, and after the first sheet I had a pretty good assembly line going, doing the white sugar first, then the orange, then all the black (eyes, faces, cats) at once.

They look like more work than they are!

The Flash!

This is a lifetime first for me: I finished a Hallowe'en costume one full week before Hallowe'en!

I am frankly astounded, and at loose ends. But miracle of miracles, it is true. Despite having to re-do the leggings from scratch because they were too small (curse you Burda and the randomness of your seam allowances). The costume is basically a hoodie and leggings (Burda 9482), with a bit of felt decoration, appliquéd using the old classic zigzag wheel on the Supermatic. Before I started, I asked the kid if he'd possibly wear it to school or elsewhere after Hallowe'en was over (in which case, I'd use something that would hold up in the laundry better than felt). He said, "No." I guess he's too old for that kind of thing.

When I asked him to try it on for size, he said, "Hmm, I could wear this to school!" Sigh.

The boots are yellow felt, cut to fit over the kid's rainboots. There's an elastic strap that goes under the heel to hold them on (I hope).

The tricky part was making the wing/lightning thingies sticking out of his helmet and boots. I ended up using multiple layers of felt fused together with Wonder Web for stability, and zigzagged around the edges.

There was a lot of zigzagging with this costume. But it's done done done! A week in advance! I guess I can always kill time making more sugar cookies.