Of a beret, socks, and a skirt

Well, I've just about finished my coordinate for the meetup, and I still have a week to wait. Maybe I can do some more crafting and sewing (or house cleaning and reorganizing) in the mean time.

Anyway, I thought I'd share with you a few of the pieces I've finished this week. I was able to knit up the beret in a surprisingly short two days, using the "Beret Tam" pattern (the English version) by Tricofolk. This pattern can be found on Ravelry.com, but you have to log in (accounts are free).

The finished beret~

Worn~

Next time I'd make the portion before the decreases (just after the ribbing on the edge)  a bit longer; I think the beret needs to be a bit deeper to keep its "beret shape" on my head. Anyway, I'm pleased with the result over all.

At long last I finished those laceup knee socks I've been knitting. I borrowed the mini-melon lace pattern from the "Victorian Lace Socks" pattern by Lorri Ann Romesberg, also on Ravelry.

(Ugh, please excuse the floor--the lighting was best in here. And excuse the flash. Which we had to use anyway.)

I like the result, but they're a trifle on the loose side--something to watch out for next time, I suppose. The socks, I think, fit especially well with the theme I've decided on for my black white and red coordinate. I'd like to go with a "mad circus" theme, since it seems like a fun theme and one that would lend itself fairly easily to looking gothic.

Anyway, to conclude, I have at long last sewn that black and white fabric into a skirt! Worn, without a petti:

(Please excuse the background! Also, I might ought to say that's a Tshirt, not an actual vest ensemble. I wish it was!)
It looks long, but next time I will add four extra inches at least to allow for petticoat poofage. Oh well, if my bloomers show despite all efforts, we can call it ero? It might fit with the mad circus look, anyway. I need to make some bloomers that have elastic in the legs; my only pair so far does not (they have drawstrings instead) and it's hard to make them stay up where they won't be seen.

Problems aside, I'm proud of this skirt in part because it's the first piece I have been able to completely finish on the inside (yay for French seams!). And the fabric is just really beautiful. I'll leave you with a button detail shot.(The metal is more silver in real life.)

Of kneesocks, lace and chandeliers

So then, what has your ballroom host been up to this past week or so? Well, a substantial portion of the answer would be: knitting. Do any of you happen to remember that tiny strip of red knitting from one of my early posts, which I promised would someday transform into a lace-up knee sock before your very eyes?

Well, so it has...

I haven't added the ribbon to lace it up yet, but almost-completing this inspires me to get finished more quickly with the other sock! I loosely followed the "Victorian Lace Socks" pattern by Lorri Ann Romesberg on Ravelry.com. The primary stitch--the mini-melon stitch--is based on a Victorian lace pattern. The yarn is Country brand.

Not many of you besides my fellow A:tLA fans will appreciate this, but I must admit that whenever it came time to make the "melons" I had the urge to declare, "I am Melon Lord! Mwa ha ha!" ~a la Toph. An urge I gave into more often than not.
  
Speaking of knitting, recently we took a trip to Micheals' (a crafts store here in the US) and my portion of the spoils were mostly of the yarn variety.

I already have some Vanna's Glamour yarn in black with golden metallic flecks, but I fell in love with the grey and silver version too. This yarn reminds me of delicate, spider-web lace--the kind my spider-fay characters would spin.

I remain fascinated by the Yoh-esque black x white asthetic I mentioned before, and I'm in the process of putting together a coordinate that captures it. I have the perfect kneesocks--a pair black with white chandeliers, which may be seen on this page (scroll down) at Goodgoth.com, but there's just one problem. The socks are not the best quality, and to my dismay they're getting holes in the toe. So, I have attempted to recreate the pattern in black and white yarn. It took a lot of stitch-counting and close examination of the sock, and I had to write down the pattern of black and white stitches in each row as I went along. But I don't think it came out too shabbily.

As you can see, the scale of the pattern is much larger in my knitting, because the yarn is so much thicker. (I'm using two different brands of yarn for this practice piece: the black and slightly finer yarn is Simply Soft and the white is, I believe, Bernat Satin). I would like to see if I can adjust the stitch count to make the chandeliers small enough that they would look good on socks. Of course, using a smaller yarn would help too.

All the same, I plan to use this piece of knitting as some kind of decorative...something, probably for my room. You see, I'm in the process of organizing and loli-gothify-ing my things, and it's still in the hectic stage. But if I start with the decorative crafting now, it will give me a head start--and besides, all organizing and no DIY makes DuskRose a very dull goth loli.

So, have you been knitting anything lately? Is there anything that you'd like to knit but don't quite have the courage to begin? I hadn't worked at all with different colors of yarn before making this chandelier, and replicating the sock pattern was another new challenge. That's to say, don't be afraid of trying something new. I know it sounds cliche, but I a little encouragement is never a bad thing. So if you've knit or crocheted anything recently, or just want to, let me know in a comment!