yeah, I can see that I'm going to be needing more coffee

I cling to my cup of coffee this morning as I type this entry ... it's my lifeline to the awake world (lol).  I was up late last night working on the costume, and technically I could call it nearly done.  But looking at it now with my eyes pinned open, it's apparent that I cannot sew in a straight line.  I can crochet in a straight line, but not sew.  And no, apparently dark blue thread sewn in a crooked line does not look good on the light blue material. (arg!) So you know I'll be ripping those stitches out and will give it another try.

And just how did those patternless rectangles come out?  Well ... the crochet trim looks good on them.  Lets concentrate on that thought instead of what shape my rectangles actually are, OK? (lol)

The trim was done with the Lame ... I ended up crocheting the variegated and the black together utilizing the single crochet stitch instead of the broomstick lace. This is because,

The pattern lied. It said 2 1/4 yards of trim were needed for the costume. Uh, yeah, more like 12-14 yards would have been needed if I added it the way they wanted it.

So this means I did not have enough fiber to crochet the true required trim. Instead of each "rectangle" receiving four rows of trim, along with the sleeves, and the bottom of the costume, I improvised! And, even if I do say so myself, the trim looks great! ... No trim for the sleeves, but for each "rectangle" and the bottom of the costume there's a beautiful stripe of this Lame single crochet trim. You gotta love that!

The third problem I had is that I ran out of the black Lame. With this in mind, I'd like to share a tip with you, my readers.  (But first let me get in a sip of coffee ... ahhh!).  Anytime you buy a dark colored fiber to crochet/knit with -- BUY EXTRA!! This is because most are sold by weight, not length. And to make a fiber dark, it requires more dye. And more dye means that fiber will weigh more and you'll get less than you would have compaired to it's lighter color cousin! Thankfully, I had an extra spool of the black Lame on hand!

So, while we're giggling about my sewing adventures, I'd like to switch gears and mention that I received a question from Deb yesterday. She had questions about a MAM afghan. (MAM stands for "mile a minute" where thin and long panels are created and later joined to create an afghan.) Apparently she was having difficulty with her tension. She reports that she's a tight crocheter, so I suggested she bump up her crochet hook size until she comes close to matching the needed gauge. And that brings us to one of my coffee breaks from yesterday. Yes, I was surfing the Internet, and apparently found that there's a music CD called "Loose Crochet." (Click here to hear a sample; you'll need Windows Media Player to hear it.) I don't know, they kind of sound like a local band with a grass roots/grunge sound. What do you think?

Alright, my coffee cup is empty and this means my break is over. Got to go finish that costume and get ready to do lunch duty this afternoon while gettting to work on the sample for the publisher and prepare for tomorrow's classes and get the plans in motion for my son's upcoming birthday and tend to that dryer that keeps buzzing and .... yeah, I can see that I'm going to be needing more coffee. J

BTW: If you're signed up for receiving alerts for my journal entries, you may on occasion receive quite a few.  I don't know why, but there are times that the journal entry just does not digest html coding well, and that means I have to go back in and fix it so that what you read is relatively clear thoughts instead of a bunch of jumbomumbo.