This is the finished product. I love it for a project bag, but I'm not sure how it will work for a purse. I'm going down to MD in a few days and will see my Aunt on Sunday -- hopefully she'll like it. 

One Week Later

And the bag is ready for felting. It's sort of a mishmash of all the other bags I have made from various patterns -- it has a twisted stitch at the corners like Meema's Marsupial Purse, I used an i-cord bindoff like the Satchel and I put i-cord handles on it like the tote I made for my mother. Hopefully the felting will go well (this is my first KnitPicks felting experience) and none of the colors will run. I should wait until morning to wash it as the wee man is sleeping, but I'm bored and there's nothing I care to watch on TV to keep me occupied. No one has been doing much blogging lately either. You bastards!

Off to felt. Pictures to come tomorrow!

Technical Thoughts and Yarn Pictures

Yesterday I discovered Bloglinesand I love them. It's really just a web based RSS reader but it also allows you to put a little reference in your blog template to display blogs you read. I love this! Now I don't have to keep adding them to the template. So of course this leads me to thinking, I should just make a little file of all my other template stuff (finished objects, in the wings, etc.) and load it up. So much smarter and quicker. But I refuse to open up that segment of my brain, pretty soon I'd have a database set up and who knows where that would end.

I now have all my yarn but I don't think I have enough for my next felted bag. I ordered 4 skeins of the KnitPicks Wool of the Andes and I think I need more. The colors are not my favorites, but I hope my Aunt likes them.

A bunch of photos below. I made a swatch for Clapotis out of the MCY last night and I really don't like it. I think I'm going to have to get something with at least a little silk in it to be happy. I'm either going to make a bunting out of the MCY or sell it. The color is just not something I would wear myself.

Umbilical Cord Hat. Colors are much more vivid IRL. 

Clapotis swatch -- I don't like it. 

MCY Yarn. 

For my mother's vest. 

For my aunt's bag -- a dark green, dark teal and tan.  

A tie-dye project from a couple of weeks ago. 

MCY is here!

But it's not exactly what I expected. This is what I thought it would look like: mulberry colorway instead those darks are not as dark and overall the colors are a bit muddy rather than jewel toned. And it feels nice but it's not as soft as I was expecting based on reviews I've read. Oh well, maybe it will soften it up with washing. No KnitPicks yet. :(

Tomorrow Should Be a Good Yarn Day

Both my MCY yarn (for Clapotis) and my KnitPicks (for my mother's vest and my aunt's bag) order should be here. Yay!

Annoyed with Branching Out, or rather annoyed with myself and depressed about having to pick up stitches, last night I cleaned out my knitting bag. In doing so I found some Lorna's Laces Shepherd's Worsted that I was given as part of my knitting class a few months ago. I forgot how much I love this yarn. It is so soft and dreamy to work with. For something to do while watching the Browns game I started the Umbilical Cord from SnB. Of course when I was down to the last 4 stitches I managed to drop them and then had to frog down to before the decreases. I picked up the stitches and then went to bed. This morning I finished the hat. Of course it will be too big for the baby (even though I got gauge) but I blocked it big and I think it will work for the munchkin. I'm going to make another for Baby Cashew.

We're Back!

We went on a mini-vacation up to Lake Conneaut in PA. It's about 2 hours from Cleveland. Some of our friends go up for this week every year with their family and they invited us to stay a few days. It was lovely -- a perfect old-fashioned type of vacation spot. Our friend's mother (in her 70s) came here as a child and she says it's still very much the same. We plan on going back next year.

While I was up there I decided I have to frog part of Branching Out. Sigh. I was doing so well when I was working on it when the munchkin was asleep but as soon as I got over-confident and tried to do some with him awake it got all wonky. Now I need to figure out if I can pick up stitches or if I need to frog the whole thing.

Ta-da! 

Bumble bee boy and the inside of the satchel. I just did one pocket. 

My lace work -- I'm addicted. 

Satchel's Knitting is Finished

Now I just need to sew on the pockets and strap and it's done! Yay! That was a lot of freaking knitting. It looks nice -- I'll post pics after it's all stitched up.

I started Branching Out last night (this was the third attempt) and I love it! Chris is not a fan, but he says this is about all lacey stuff not just this one in particular. I'm not quite sure what I'll do with it when I'm done. Do you just wear it as a scarf? Can anyone see its laciness that way? I might do them as Christmas gifts for 2 of my sister-in-laws. It at least looks fancy.

I Frogged too Much

And did lots of cursing. One aspect of motherhood (at least for me) is that my sailor mouth has been filled with the phrase "Bad words, bad words" when necessary. However, pregnancy and knitting are doing a lot to turn my language colorful again.

This afternoon I went to finish the i-cord bindoff around the flap of the satchel but instead of picking up stitches and purling, I knitted them. The result was not pretty on the right side so I decided to frog away. While frogging I managed to also un-do about half of the bindoff of the top of the bag itself. Lots of bad words were uttered (munchkin was out with Chris so no harm done.) I have now picked up all of the dropped stitches, picked up the sides of the flap and have about 1/3 of the bindoff finished. I really want this thing done.

A Night by Ourselves

Last night our munchkin spent the night at his grandparents' house. We didn't have anything specifically planned, we just want to get him used to the idea as we're going on a two-night trip to Toronto in October (to see Dead Can Dance!) Anyway, we went out to see "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". While I didn't love the movie (I hated the original -- too mean) I loved the stylization and colors. Very similar to my like of "A Clockwork Orange".

One benefit of not having a little person around would be sleeping in, or so you would think. Instead, it turns out I'm trained to wake up half-way through the night and need to move into little man's bed before I can return to sleep. And then, I wake up at 6:30. Sigh. I was able to doze until 8:30 but it's just not the same as deep sleep.

On a knitting note, I have started Branching Off and have yet to finish the damn satchel. That strap is just really boring -- 65" of stockinette. And I ordered more yarn for the Babywearer. I have issues.

Combination Knitting

I decided to switch to Combination Knitting as my purl was driving me nuts in Western style Continental. I think because I don't really wrap my yarn around any of my fingers it wasn't ever going to really work. But anyway, I love it! My purl stitches are much more even than they were before (they were much looser) and it goes a lot faster without a lot of work.

I am almost finished with the flap on the satchel. Tonight at SnB I will do the accord bind-off and maybe start on the strap. Then just the pockets and I'm ready to felt!