Hey all, I was wondering if anyone has any good solutions for stretching the tops of knee/trouser socks. I received a few pairs of Lane Bryant trouser socks for Christmas and even they are way too tight for me at the knee. In the past I have just broken down and cut knotches in to loosen them up, but that only works if you're wearing pants and I'm more into dresses these days. I have poor circulation, plus it's damn uncomfortable, so I won't be able to wear them unless I find some solution.

Anyone know a good way to fix this without cutting them? Or, conversely, a good/easy way to alter them without it looking hideous? Thanks!

With socks, if they're bunching where the ankle and top of the foot meet, what needs to be adjusted to remedy it? Do I need to decrease more rows in the gusset? Do some crazy (long) short rows along the bottom/sides?

(I've finally worn my first pair and I followed Silver's Sock Class to make them. They turned out great, but I'm looking to customize the next pair to avoid the extra bunching bit at the ankle. I'm pretty good at making stuff up as I go along, but I hate frogging, so I like to get it right--or close to it--on the first try.)

Picking out a couple from the few I got, the memcard in the camera had too much other crap on it and filled up kinda quickly.

( Pics, and the ravings of a fatuous mother (sort of) beneath the cut )

Has been a tremjous long time since they've all been home for Christmas together. Carl (aged 21 and the youngest of the 3) lives less than a mile away but the other two boys live "down south" -- JE is going to Pinnacle College in Sacramento for a technical degree in CD mastering and production. Zane is living in Chico, working in a gas station/mini-mart and getting financing together to go to college in Theater Arts, sounds like.

I love them, and miss them through the year... but yeah, I'm glad they're on their own and not living in my house full time. ;)

This all started with the KnitPicks Andean Chullo pattern from their 2008 Winter catalog (I think..it's been a while!). The moment I saw it on the page, I *knew* it was the hat I had been searching for. (Don't look at me like that - I'm sure every knitter, at some point, has had one of those moments.) I thought about it, dreamed about it....and went to order the kit.....but Knitpicks was backordered. So, I saved it to my cart, and went on about my life.

I kept thinking about that hat....and the more I thought about it, the *less* I liked it. The shape wasn't correct - it was basically a multi-colored watch cap. The colors weren't right for me (even the alternate colorway they had was...not me)...but I still wanted it. I even called KnitPicks and asked them if I could create my own kit - but they said no, it ONLY came as the 2 kits, you couldn't (at that time) buy the pattern separate.

Well, OK then....I started looking for an alternative. I looked at a TON of chullo patterns...and finally hit pay dirt with the Blossoms Chullo by Deja Knits. THAT was the perfect hat.......except for the motifs. :lol: I immediately bought the pattern....and started trying to figure out what I was gonna do with it.

( What I did with the pattern - it got long! )

I had to share this with someone - since you really can't go out and accost people on the street to show them your latest project. And my husband was really getting tired of my "Isn't this the coolest hat EVER? I love the earflaps - isn't it *cool*! I'm glad it's cold....." :rotflmao:

So, at that SF con that I mentioned in January, Arisia, here in Cambridge, MA, has a Heinlein Society Blood Drive every year. To encourage people to sign up, they have a coterie of volunteers called the Naughty Nurses; who go completely over the top with the naughty part.

(a tame pic here).

many of the women who do it are 'normal' or size 14-18 inbetweenies; last night, the woman who organizes it suddenly came up to me and asked me if I'd like to be a naughty nurse. I am a size 28 death fat, so I'm not the Normal Naughty Nurse, shall we say.

Problem is, I've already spent my costume money for Arisia on a purple and black corset and a Friday I'm In Love t-shirt from Threadless. Soooo...I need suggestions from the studio audience on how I could do this (I told her if I could come up with a costume by the new year, I'd do it.

I am thinking of scouring Goodwill for scrubs, then turning them into hot pant chaps by the simple expedient of slicing open the outside seams, and putting rivets down the sides to then lace with shoelaces, corset-like. Anyone ever done this?

I would like to maybe find a red or white corset but money is really tight and so I suspect that's not going to happen (but if anyone is going to sell one in the next while that would fit a 28 with DDD-cups, do think of me).

I've also been looking for white pumps online (preferably a wedge) to go with the shoes. I wear a 10WW or 11W depending. But you know, white shoes after labour day and all...I know they're out there but I'm looking in the wrong places.

I would *really* like to do this and go out there being sexy as hell even at my size, but this is the sort of costume that thin girls can get off the rack for cheap and larger people need to spend more time on, and I've only got 3 weeks. If anyone has *any* ideas on what a death fat can do to totally rock the naughty nurse look on a shoestring budget, I really need an assist!

Just a heads-up, Joann.com is having a sale on yarn, every skein is on sale. They also have needles/hooks/notions/etc on sale too.

I am not actually in the "adverbs and adjectives always suck" camp of stylistic advice or anything, but wow, I just tried to read a story in which the overabundance of them threw me right out. I don't think I've ever had that happen before. Not recently anyway.

I counted over twenty adjectives and adverbs in the first paragraph of six sentences with 130 words in total. And that was not including nouns being modified by other nouns in some sort of tacked on thesaurus, like if I wrote "the purple prose, this murky miasma of adjectives,..." I counted only the two adjectives, not the whole mess -- what do you call that kind of construction anyway? (The story didn't do it with alliterations though, I just did that in my example for humor, it was just two nouns, both modified with adjectives, saying the same thing, one after another.) That was even more jarring than the adjectives. The writer should just have settled on one of the two choices.

I am seeking opinions on switching 100% pure alpaca for 100% pure wool which is the yarn that is suggested yarn to knit a heavily cabled cardigan. Is this a good idea?

I have not yet knit with pure alpaca and am wondering if this yarn can be substituted for wool with success. I'd hate to spend weeks knitting only to find out that I should have stuck with wool

Thanks for your input.

For Christmas, my wonderful, but woefully needle-craft ignorant sister gave me three skeins of a lovely angora/wool blend. Unfortunately, she tore off the price label on all three, which also tore the brand label. I'm wanting to check this yarn out on Ravelry for ideas, but I have no idea what it is, my searches come up with nothing matching, and the LYS she bought it from is closed till Tuesday.

Under the cut is a photo of the label, in case anyone can recognize it. The unripped parts read -

Made in Italy. Suggested needles US 6 (4mm), suggested tension 22st x 30rows, 25g ball 125 yards. Content - 70$ Angora, (maybe)30% Wool(...this is where the rip starts, and i don't know if it may have a bit of a third fiber in it). Below the rip where the brand is - handwash only, max temp 30C, handle with care. suitable for dry cleaning with special treatment, advice should be sought from professional dry cleaner. cool iron, max 110 C, do not use chlorine based bleach, no tumble dry.

The label is baby pink with brown lettering (my camera phone is awful). The yarn itself is a lovely grey lavender/orange/pink variegated color, and for an angora yarn, it doesn't shed too bad. Its about a DK weight thickness.

( mystery yarn label )

How does one safely rip out a few rows on circular needles? I'm a newbie with knitting in the round and need to go about 5 rows back, but I'm afraid to ruin the whole project.

Dress, Cardigan- Evans
Pin- Primark
Tights- Ebay and Simply Be (wearing 2 prs)
Shoes- Clarks

Haven't posted for a while, but thought I'd post my outfit of the Christmas Day- felt lovely in my new red Evans silk dress. My sister and I were mucking around with the camera outside taking photos of each other and she snapped a few quite flattering ones of me. I'm a size 26-30uk, deathfat, and 5"8 tall.

( Read more... )

Hi everyone! To celebrate the holidays I'm having a sale at my store janebonbon! http://www.etsy.com/shop/janebonbon?ga_search_query=janebonbon&ga_search_type=seller_usernames Just mention Fatshionista in the checkout and I'll refund you ! I hope everyone has an excellent new year!

Pattern: Instant Gratification Scarf
Yarn: Three skeins of Araucania Yarns "Magallanes" in colourway 303.
Needles: One 5.5 mm SRK bamboo circular
Details: I cast on 40 stitches and carried on until I was out of yarn; scarf is about one foot wide and a smidge over eight feet long. Because of the significant difference between the thickest and thinnest parts of the yarn, I worked stitches with the thin sections extra-loosely so that they wouldn't pull the scarf in. The patten lives up to its name ... the twisted drop stitch is very easy, goes by at light speed, and shows off this thick/thin yarn very nicely. Yarn note: Magallanes has no dyelots ... my three skeins (which were the last three orphans on a clearance shelf) had perfectly matched hues of green, but one skein was predominantly of that colour while the other two had greater amounts of cream, grey/green, and black/brown. I opted to use the greenest skein in the middle and the more varied skeins at each end ... the skein changes are detectable when the scarf is laid out flat in bright light if one is looking for them, but not when in its natural state of being draped/wrapped around shoulders/neck.

( Green and snuggly )

Hey everyone, I'm sydney. I went to a Christmas Eve party, and decided to dress up a little more than I usually would.

( see the outfit! )

Hello, and happy holidays! I received the above coat in Seal (grey) in 1X however it is too small and the website is sold out of any other size. I can't find it on ebay either. I am IN LOVE with this coat and am hoping someone else here bought/received the wrong size and is willing to swap or would be willing to give theirs up. I would pay up to $80 for it, and need a 2X. Thanks so much!