Woe and Consternation
Oh botheration! I’ve realised too late that the perfect perfume to wear as Mrs. Coulter (for that is who I’ve decided I’m going to prom as) is Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab‘s Penny Dreadful and my imp is empty. If I ordered now, a bottle wouldn’t get here in time so now I must rummage through my remaining collection for something appropriate.
Penny Dreadful
Also called Gallows Literature. A dime novel rife with melodrama, horror, madness and cruelty; a ten cent analogy of vice and virtue in conflict. Soft perfume evocative of noir heroines over rich red grave loam.
It really does smell like something a noir heroine would wear and I don’t have anything like this in my big bottle collection. I am a girl who by and large wears floral scents (generally rosy) and while Penny Dreadful is flowery at heart, it’s that earthy, musky spiciness I swear must be sandalwood (the dirt note) I’m needing. (It’s either sandalwood or patchouli or vetiver–the base note is similar to the base note in my White Musk bodywash from The Body Shop. What can I say? I like smelling like dirt.) The only other “sexy” scent I have is Bengal, while beautiful, is not the scent impression I want to create. I may have to experiment a bit with layering: De Sade (pure “leather” scent created from vegan oils–I suspect it has a bit of tobacco and honey and vetiver to create that impression) and a slightly more “mature” rose in my stash. I wear Rose Red on a daily basis during the chill winter months, but it’s too bright and young. (The three perfume successes with regards to Bear: Alice, Pumpkin II, and Rose Red.) Halp!
However, perfumery was not what I initially intended to post about. I figured it was time to reveal to the internets my finished hat/mitten/scarf set, despite the fact that I’ve been wearing them for over a week now.
Scarf, hat, and mittens!
Le chapeau. A wee bit small, but thankfully it stretches.
Next time I'll use a bazillion cast-on stitches. I have an enormous head. Also, my bangs are really long.
My mittens. The right (the first one I made) is a bit bigger because I wasn't knitting as tightly.
I love mittens. I feel like I'm five years old again.
Aside from the scarf, these were all my first attempts and it probably shows. Nevertheless, I’m pretty proud of them. I didn’t really follow any patterns, although I took some samples from STITCH ‘N’ BITCH as a guide: scaling the hat up (although not enough apparently) and eschewing the rib pattern except for a border and scaling the mittens down and swapping the garter stitch cuffs for same blue & white ribbed as the scarf and hat. I also apparently knit these all backwards on my double-pointed needles (something I’ve remedied with my second pair of mittens) as I the stockinette stitch on both the hat and mittens are from row upon row of purls. Oops.
