Post Halloween

Any trick-or-treaters at your place?  We never got any when we lived at the farmhouse, but it was nice to see some last night.  

Pumpkin dude--just hangin' out.

My boys were out on their own with their friends.  I'm glad they're growing up to be responsible young men, but I do miss those little rituals, like taking them out to trick-or-treat.  

Pumpkins on the deck

Hope it was a nice weekend for you.  I haven't  done much--it's been a "day off".  Today we deal with the time change and the fast-approaching darkness (I'm a summer girl with it's warm breezes and light-filled evenings). So Halloween always has me feeling melancholy (Winter is just 'round the corner).

All lit up for Halloween

There has been some knitting--well, very little knitting.  Maybe therein lies the problem?  Knitting cures all ills, including melancholy.   Persevere I must, so I hope to do more knitting in the upcoming weeks.  There are Christmas knits that need finishing.

Happy Post-Halloween

How was your Halloween night?  Did you get many tricker-treaters?  We get no visitors that night--too far out in the country, I guess (That will, no doubt, change next year when we are living in town again).

courtesy of photo site

I failed to get a photo of my boys dressed up.  We dropped them off at a friend's house and they got dressed there, so photo opportunity missed (I'll get them dressed up once we're moved into our new place).

Right now I'm up to my eyeballs in boxes, boxes and more boxes.  So please forgive this short post and the lack of crafty content.  Next weekend is our final one in the farmhouse and then we're back in town in our own place . . . .

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,

Happy Halloween ;)

Any ghoulies at your place?

Pumpkins Courtesy of Free Photo Website
(whose name eludes me at this time)

Over at our little spot in the country, I don't expect too many trick-or-treaters tonight.  One of my neighbours claimed to have had only two visitors last year, so chances are  . . . .


We had some Halloween fun planned this past weekend: pumpkin carving and cookie deocrating (I'd share some pictures but I'm still without any internet access so I can't just update a post on a whim).  And my niece will go out  to gather some treats, but neither boy was interested in doing so.  That's a first!  My oldest doesn't want to go 'cuz of his nut allergies.  Most of the stuff he gets he won't be able to eat (although my younger son initially offered to trade all his chips for all of the other's chocolate stuff). And the younger one didn't know what sort of costume to wear.  So we're planning to watch some scary movies and hope everyone has a good time.  Its a school night anyways.


Have a great evening!

Happy Halloween!

Festive Jack-o-lanterns

What are your plans for the weekend?  My boys will be designing and carving their own pumpkins with their dad.  We'll even watch a few scary movies.  Then this evening, we'll visit the neighbours to collect treats.

I've also been busy on various WIPs: my pinwheel blanket is more dinner plate than coaster; the crochet continues for the Bernat CAL (the squares are getting progressively more difficult); made very little progress on hubby's slippers; however, did finish my skull hat for Bernat blog (plan to make more of those with a few modifications).

More important, last week's stash flash inspired me to photograph and catalogue the rest of my stash.  Most of my yarn is attached to specific projects (unless the yarn was gifted or is leftover from another project).  If you're already on Ravelry, you may notice that my previously blank stash page is now full of yarn entries.  So much yarn.  So little time.


More Halloween Fun

Have a great weekend!

Happy Halloween

Howdy and how's your Halloween?  We've been busy carving pumpkins the last few nights.  Fun to watch the kids think of face designs and then help their dad scoop out all the pumpkin guts.

Today we put finishing touches on kids' costumes (and happy to say that dear hubby was handy with a needle and thread).  After an early supper, hubby did his best work painting the boys' faces.   Aren't they just cute?

My little rockers had fun trick 'r treatin'.  Although windy, its a warm night here on the east coast, with a full moon to light the way. 

Hope yours is a good night too!