Meet Gimli

Pleased with the helmet.  In hind-sight, I would have made the helmet in the darker grey and then used the lighter grey for the details . . . but I already had the light grey in my stash.  I had planned to use a similar coloured grey felt, but none was to be found.

Finished Gimli helmet

And I'm especially pleased with the beard 'cuz that makes the whole costume work--if I do say so myself.

Finished dwarf beard

The beard wasn't hard, but it was a little tedious cutting all those strands and then attaching them.  Still, the effort was well worth it!  The grey bands around the braids really finish off the beard nicely too.  

Helmet and beard worn together

Meet the little dwarf--even without his axe and tunic, he's one happy dude.  He'll be in full battle garb come Halloween night.  I'll have to remember to post some photos.

I must confess it was a nice change to leave the bedspread and work on some "quick" projects.  I needed the change of pace.

A Little Something . . .

So my kids were thinking about Halloween costumes.  One of the boys decided he wanted to be Gimli from Lord of the Rings--a noble character.

http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Gimli

One thing led to another . . .  so now I'm making a helmet and beard for someone's costume.  To be fair, I made the offer 'cuz I know crocheters and knitters are resourceful people.  If they can't find something, they make it.  Simple as that!  We couldn't find fake beards or even helmets, so we decided to make our own.

Gimli's helmet in progress--almost done too!

This is the helmet--almost done.  There's no detail as of yet.  We plan to add it later and embellish with golden thread.  I'm using a pattern I found on Ravelry: Viking Hat has horns and some knobby bits 'round the brim.  I've eliminated both.  My hope is to add a darker grey for the details and roughly embroider it in gold thread.

Yarn for the beard and helmet detail

The beard will be an interesting challenge, but I found lots of orange yarn and two great patterns to try.  I'm sure one of them will prove satisfactory.  If nothing else, it will be a fun experiment.

Both patterns came from Ravelry: Epic Viking Beard is pictured on the left and Viking or Dwarven Beard is on the right.  I'm leaning towards the latter.  The base is already complete and enough lengths of orange yarn have been cut to start threading the beard.

I'll keep you posted.
Later,

Thanksgiving

So here's a little something to celebrate the day and the weekend.  Here's hoping you will spend it with friends and family.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Photo credit: Martin Cathrae / Foter / CC BY-SA

I am especially thankful for supportive and loving people in my life: my dear hubby and my children.  At the same time I am saddened by the loss of someone whom I had believed to be a friend.  Nothing like stressful times to reveal the true nature of some individuals.  At least I can see clearly now . . . 

Ups and Downs

UP: Yay for me!  I  got to do some crafting this week after all.  It's not a lot, but it's something.  I'll get whatever I can get. :)

White centres for the grannies

I finished and submitted a major project this week--that was stressful 'cuz I was trying to keep up with my coursework while still going to work and caring for my family.  Most days I felt like a chicken with her head cut off! :S

A different perspective of grannies

DOWN: To make matters worse, there is stress everywhere I go.  I don't want to get into too much detail here, but suffice to say that it is hard work getting along with other people whether it be family members, co-workers or complete strangers (especially when there are conflicting values and philosophies).  And I've lost some supportive people due to relocation to other cities.  Perhaps all the stress is affecting my perception, too?  And its not just me either.  I think my family is affected by all the stress.

In any case, we're hangin' in there as best we can.  We hope our big move to our own place will help towards alleviating some of those stresses.  Maybe with this big project out of the way, I can muster some crafting time too.  I need it!   Everything I read points to the healing properties of crafting (be it knitting or crochet).  I think I'll sneak in some crochet time as soon as I log off here.

Have a good week and send me some good karma . . . 
Later,