Momma needs a new bag

I have been a little busier than I let on here, I just am lazy about documenting it.

Always when I can't find what I'm looking for, I get this crazy thought in my head that may-be I can make one!

Several years ago I acquired this cute little sling bag from a girl in Malaysia. It is obviously a mass marketed bag with an oriental design on it, but it has become my favorite bag and I don't want to use it for everyday and wear it out. Especially since I now find carrying a lot of crap around in the heat way too uncomfortable.

So now I need another one, you know how that goes, change things up a bit. After unsuccessfully trolling the flea market my brain went ...Uh Helllloooo.... make one!

So grabbing up some cotton that I had laying around, I make my way to the back yard flip open the lounge chair plug in my iPod and I started experimenting with a hook. 

Crochet some, rip some out, start over, remeasure, another do - over...oh wait, I have some beads in here too. No that doesn't look right, rip that out - oh maybe I should measure... 

Most people would probably draw their design on paper first ...riiight!

Finally, after practically a whole day of messing around with nothing but ...I came up with a bag I am not embarrassed to wear in public!

Finished bag : 5x6 strap is long enough to cross over the body. Scalloped edge on the flap. Yarn Sublime Organic Cotton, worsted weight.

So now I have this cute little bag, just big enough for my wallet, keys if I must, emergency crackers and a small knitting project. = P

Pumped up on my success I decided...Oh heeyy   I can make another one in this crazy hand painted sock yarn I didn't know what to do with!!

Hmmm....not so much. I still don't know what to make with it. Well, mayhap I'll ponder that while I am on my way to Bushnell.

Challenges

To start with... here is the reason why I needed Maria's help with this scarf...I could not have been more dense when it came to reading the end of this pattern. I must have frogged the last section a dozen times before I cried "Uncle". Seriously...does this look like a triangle to you? All I kept getting out of it was something that looked like a sock heel.
Thank God for Ravelry! I was at a loss. I get it now. I saved Maria's instructions but I think it is stuck in my head for good/ We'll find out for sure when I make my next one.


My Baby Love blanket is finished. I completely underestimated the amount of yarn it was going to use. I ended up using four full skeins of Red Heart Soft Baby. I was just trying to figure out what I was going to knit with the last bit of yarn as I finished the blanket when I realized I did not even have enough left to make an IPod sock out of it. This one turned out to be a good stash burner for sure. I decided this one will be earmarked for the Linus Project. It was a quick enough knit that if I need a gift I can whip one up in a short amount of time. This project has put me over the mile and damn close to the two mile mark.
I see that a lot of the girls are close to their mile if not over it already and still with 20 more days left in the Knit a Mile Challenge.

Every one has started talking about the February Challenge but I think I am going to bow out of that one. I have even looked to see what it is yet.

I have a couple of other projects in mind that I want to make. Plus I have Sarah's shower to concentrate on.
Invites have been sent, and for anyone that cares, they do happen to have been made out of recycled paper :)

I finally got back to my Bagstopper too. I have only the four balls of Isabella so I modified the pattern a little and decreased by 10 so that the bag would be taller this time. Super easy pattern. I gotta say though, the cotton in this yarn is not very fun to knit with. It kinda drags on my fingers and makes them sore. Not like the Peaches N Cream I buy for face cloths. Good thing I am not going to be wearing this yarn.

So on Saturday night Kelp has a few of her co-workers over for a knitting party. Kelp is a fairly new knitter and is trying to teach these gals how to knit. Good luck with that I say. So I am on my way home, giver her a call to see how things went and she says, still knitting. EXCELLENT!

Well I am almost home (1100 pm mind you) when I decide to take a detour and run over there. Really, all I had waiting for me at home was the usual brother's Saturday night in witht the WII golf. Like I was going to miss that fun!

Of course I have some knitting with me, that is a given. Usually I am a solitary knitter, or maybe knit with one other person. I have never been in a knitting group before. Well I guess I am in one now!! We had such a good time that the girls all want to do it again. I love it when I can teach someone new to knit and In fact, both girls were so hooked they stayed up half the night knitting when they finally got home, and can't wait for the next time. Kelp had them on a good start by the time I got there, and boy oh boy, talk about some ambitious newbies, they are both making afghan's for a first project. Of course, given tonite's blizzardy cold weather, an afghan souds like a damn good idea!

Oh and by the time I got home I think it was 1:30 am and the brother's were just leaving. And oh shucky darns, I missed all that colorful swearing because they can't golf worth a shi-ot!...LOL

I think I will truly be looking forward to my own Saturday night diversion!

Me And My Shadow

Friday was a terrific day! To start with it was my day off, (sorta) what could be better! Then the gods were smiling on me and gave me a nice little snow storm to play in :)


I was able to get caught up on a number of things around the house, listen to a book for a while and play in the snow some with Bingo. He loves it as much as I do.

This is just me playing with my new little red camera!! Bingo likes to play sno plow as I call it, and he borrows his face into the snow and tosses it. He cracks me up but unfortuately I could not quite capture it on camera. You would never guess he is almost 10.


I even got to visit with my brother and his family for a belated Christmas. I got him a foot massager with heat for his poor diabetic feet and he got me a pedicure spa for mine. It is scary how we sometimes think alike.


I finished making the tassels for my shadow hat. I love this pattern, it has such a huge range of possibilities. I cant wait to make another one! The tassels are two Icords with fringies on the ends. I have plenty of other yarn to try it out again. It gave me a chance to try shadow knitting, which completely intimidates me, as well as trying a new stitch. I love that little braided thing it has going. Like I said before, those Canadians really have it going on!


Still stash busting I located four balls of a cotton yarn that I picked up a couple years ago at Stitches Midwest, and thought I would give Amys Everlasting Bagstopper a try. It is very like the bag I made a few years ago for my yoga mat. All y/o and knits.




Of course, since the yarn I bought was a bigger gauge, the bag came out wider, no biggie, but I only had 4 balls of it, Classic Elite, it turned out short and squatty. Just as I was about to sew the webbed handles on it, I changed my mind and decided to frog the whole thing and start over, decreasing the width of the bottom to make it taller. Maybe I will do that next weekend.

I also had this Shell Beaded Scarf kit laying around from Stitches. I was soooo afraid to try it because of the beads, but it was a must on on my list. The shadow hat inspired me to pull it out of hiding. What a dream to knit. Super easy pattern. The hardest part was picking up all the beads off the floor after I twice spilled a whole strand. The entire pattern is knit. The beading was so much simpler than I thought. I finished this bad boy in one day, Ok so I did nothing else but knit, but still. It was so much fun, I could not put it down, til I realized that I did not read the entire directions. The scarf measures 32 inches... who the hell wants a cool scarf like this to be 32 inches. Frogging again, and started over with only four repeats instead of 5. I want a much longer scarf. Teach me to read the whole page won't it....probably not, that would be me plunging in head long and suffering the consequences.

I don't mind really, I had so much fun making it the first time, and I am having fun the second time around too. I will definitely make another one of these!

Wishing everyone a Happy and Safe New Year!

Merry Christmas Bag

Now that the recipient has her gift, I can post the pictures of the completed bag. This was a fun project, I find most felting projects fun, I guess because they knit up so fast, and take shape fast. Then the end piece is so much different than what you started out with, even in color.

Here is what it looks like per the pattern. Now, having made one, this is how I would change it. To start with, I have to have inside pocket, so I would have to add one on inside as well. The bag is roomy enough on the inside to accommodate an extra pocket. The felting instructions called for the bag and pocket to be felted first then sewn on. What a pain in the patutey! I have to use a tapestry needle with a point to get it through both fabrics, thing 2 to change, sew pocket first, then felt. I think given the size it came out, it would have been fine to do it this way.

Here is a shot of the inside and snap closures.

The striped part is actually a pocket.

There was an error in the pattern when it came to the trim, no biggie, I just had to add 10 more inches to the icord for the trim. I like my bags to hang off my shoulder so I would have made the straps much longer for my self and perhaps even thicker.

When I put the snaps on I went to the fabric store to get the kit since I did not have a tool to put them on with. Well I never dreamed it would be so damn difficult to get them on right. I think I ruined 3 snaps in my attempt to put them on.

Plus I smashed my finger and broke a nail. There must be an easier way to do them than having a stupid little "anvil" and hitting it with the hammer. Obviously JoAnne Fabrics did not have the easier answer.

To felt the bag in the front loader I did something a little different this time. My previous felts took for-ever to become felted. I zip everything up inside a pillow case cover to protect my machine (yes I know, that is a given) then I zipped myself over to Walgreen's and bought a pair of those spikey blue dryer balls for softening. Threw the bag, balls and a heavy towel for balance in the machine, used the Express Wash setting on hot/cold and went to work. I had to run it a second cycle, but it was mostly finished the first time around. I dry flat on my shoe rack in the dyer and that is that. Could not have been easier this time. If I had not been so pressed for time I would have turned the machine off mid-cycle the second time round.

All in all, I am pretty pleased with how it turned out, as was the recipient.

Times a flyin'

Time flies when your having fun! It also gets away from you when the Work Monster has a strong hold! The Work Monster has had it's grip on me for some time now. What with all the prep for our re-accreditation and in addition to my other additional assignments, one of our own taking a powder on us a couple of weeks ago, all that has created an extra strain on everyone involved.

The assessors are now in the building, which means even more work and stress. To top things off, the closer we get to Christmas, the more demanding my job becomes, what with the area's lawless looking for their own peculiar type of Christmas cheer. Then Five minutes from walking out the door last night ( and I was soo ready, believe you me) I get an armed robbery call with two down. Of course that ensued a flurry of activity that was so adrenalin pumping that I had no idea how I was going to get to sleep when I finally got home just before 3 am.

Needless to say- I did not get to catch up on my show and knit last night. :( And with Christmas so close.
I did get my Knit Picks order (Yay) and now that I am finished with the bamboo socks, I have a set of size 1's that I don't have to be in fear of breaking! I also got this very pretty sock yarn in Grass to make those cute little anklets out of. And the I have cast on my nephew's surprise socks. Not that I got very far with them yet, I started them on the 1's and knit for about an inch when I decided nah, then ripped them out again and re-cast on the 2's.



Yesterday I made some real headway on the Blue Sky Bag!
The thing about felting is that it knits up real fast, when you sit down to do it. This was a fun one too. Easy and classic looking. I added the I-cord trim and handles the other night after work. The pattern had a misprint for the trim and was off about 10 inches, but there is really no guessing what is involved in this pattern so it was an easy adjustment to correct.


Since the Work Monster woke me up at the crack of dawn (so to speak) yesterday morning, I put that time to good use and worked up the pocket for the bag.

And this is the Pre-felt stage. I only have to weave in the ends and throw it into the washer. The pocket and bag are felted prior to sewing it on. My nice Sears repairman and I had a lengthy conversation about how I could control the felting process in my front loader. It should make it go faster this time.

I am so close to wrapping this one up I can practically taste it!

I just have to mention the wonderful gift that one of our residents dropped off at the station the other night. A gentleman and his son came in with several Croft and Barrel bags full of brand new toys and clothing for the needy. I am not just talking bout a few small bags, it was those large purchase bags. They each carried about 4 bags in full of items, then told me there were clothes also in the bags. They both made several trips from the car and brought in two boxes of toys as well.

When I removed the bags from the lobby, I could not believe the booty! Each bag was full of an assortment of toys, hats, gloves, and a variety of shirts and sweatshirts and several bottles of shampoo, all of it was BRAND NEW!! I separated the items, as the clothes will go to the homeless shelter along with the shampoo. ( We actually have two separate charities we are collecting for.) I can tell you, it brought tears to my slightly jaded eyes. I truly believe the human touch can make a difference in a homeless person's life.

Good Grief Charlie Brown!

Well could I feel any more stupid than I do right now... Sock's for Pete's sake... I can do them in my sleep... well I thought, and well, apparently not. I was happily ripping out my stocking when I noticed, oh horrors of horrors...I forgot to turn the heel... and did I not notice that it looked kinda funny?? Worse, I took a damn picture of it and put it on the Internet, so that nice person in Istanbul that read my blog could see what an idiot I am.

All I can say is Good Grief Charlie Brown! I wonder where my head is sometimes!

Well, I always say that a little public humiliation is also good for the soul...like I don't get enough of that on my job...LOL

Anyway my little stocking is ripped back to the do over part, and sadly, I did not get to work on it. I had planned on running to Hobby Lobby on Monday to look for a green, but I spent the day fighting with Sears to get my washer fixed instead. Fun times!



I think maybe I have Adult ADD! I just flit from project to project, willy nilly. Instead of going to the store in the evening and finishing up one project, I decided to work on the mystery bag...ok the cat is out. It is a bag. Can you tell? I am up to the little snappy parts and then the pocket. The pattern is called Blue Sky Bag from Pursenality Plus. I planned on it to be a Christmas present but if I don't stop spreading my self out I will never be done in time.
Flit again...

I decided I needed to make two pairs of socks for a last minute, overdo Christmas gifts, so I ordered4 skeins of Lorna's Laces charcoal from my favorite Ebay store.
Of course I don't wait for the yarn to get here, but dig around in that ridiculously over stuffed sock yarn bag an pull out a ball of Bamboo yarn from Southwest Trading Co. that I bought at Stitches Midwest this summer.
I have to say, bamboo is absolutely amazing! It feels so incredibly silky on the needles, I can't wait to have it on my foot.Sorry, just another pair of plain ole' boring socks. No exciting pattern for me. I knit for comfort now, since I need to be careful of what I put on my feet. My days of toe socks and cutesy patterns seem to be over.

Here is where I am at with the hats. I currently have 11 finished and 5 scarves. As soon as Sears decides to show up and repair my washer (which better be in the morning) I will get them all washed and packed up to go to the P.A.D.S. shelter. I plan on delivering them along with some donated baby clothes on my next day off, which is Tuesday.

I wanted to have more of them made by now, but I will have to pause on the hat making till I get my other Christmas gifts finished. The little bit of shopping I have done made me realize I am running out of time.

Time to Flit again.

Rust bag

I am pretty happy with the way this one turned out.

Bag for me

I just finished knitting this bag last night for me.

It will be interesting to see how it felts up.

Lucy Bag

This bag I knitted and felted last week. Hand felting is a work out!

The pattern is the Lucy Bag from Two Old Bags.

They have awesome patterns.

This bag is destined to be someones happy new bag. I stuffed it so it looked full and hung it up with a price tag on it in my girlfriends shop.

Tammy's Bag

Post Felting

This little baby I whipped up the other nite.

I had this idea stuck in my head and this was the result. Pre felting picture.