Ravelry....

is such a HUGE vortex of time-wasting mojo.... I'm trying to convince myself that this will save me all kinds of time later on, being more organized... yeah, right, finding dozens of new things I want to knit, that will save me *LOADS* of time....

But, it's sure fun to play on!

We're all ready here...

I haven't had time to post since we got back from our trip. I finished the stag bag before we left except for some finishing, which I did when we got back.

I really really love it. Seriously love it.
Here's the back

And the insides, just in case you want to see that too...
Remember when I showed you a picture of this a while back as a hint? It was an extreme closeup and I was hoping you couldn't tell it's scale.

Well here it is all finished. It's a bookmark. It's made from embroidery floss on 0000 needles. I did it with double knitting because I didn't want to fiddle with double pointed needles on something this small. Instead, half of the stitches are slipped one way, turn it over and stitch the slipped stitches, and slip the stitched ones, the other way. Same thing but only 2 needles.

Just for the record, it's 12 stitches per inch.

Last night I whipped up this Pygmy Puff for C. She has named it Penelope. (I was thinking it would be Arnold, but she wanted it to be a girl... *shrug*).

I also made a snitch washcloth on our trip, finished it while we were there, and now I can't find it. I think we're completely unpacked too, so I'm really baffled as to where it went. Maybe a house elf has decided to pick it up...

We're just waiting for the book to come out now. Just under 12 hours...

True to form...

I cannot follow the directions on a pattern without changing them.

My children and my house conspired to keep me from starting the stag bag until today (Wednesday), even though the yarn was dry on Sunday. Well except for when my DH put it outside and it got dewy again. I'm chomping at the bit here. I thought I had a shot at finishing it before the movie, but gave up on that idea yesterday. It should definitely be done for me to carry my new book out of the store at 12:01 though.

I start out thinking I'm going to make it just like the pattern. Really.

Well, except the color, but that doesn't really count.

And well, those chevrons. Those are a little bit like construction arrows. It could be cooler with something else there.

Then I sit down to start making it, and it's stranding *flat*? You want me to PURL with 2 strands? Um, why?

Yeah, so I changed it. It's now all made in 1 piece. added the swirly design, charted it out both directions so it can go around the stag, and figured out how many stitches that was. Figured out a fill stitch pattern for the back so I can carry both colors around the back. Did a provisional cast on, so when I'm done I can graft the bottom together, and then started working it all in the round.

But other than that it's exactly like the pattern.

Sheepy Time catch up

I'm using one post to catch up on all the soaker knitting I've been doing when I was too busy knitting and taking care of 3 kids to post about knitting.

I figured I better start working on some pants instead of shorts. These are fibonacci sequence striped longies, made with Reynold's Turnberry Tweed wool. And those of you who felt them in person, they did get a lot softer when I blocked them *whew!*

I've been working on the soaker pattern and this is one that I made in that process. Internal drawstring and I was working out a good ruffle. I like how it came out on this one. Lamb's Pride yarn.

Dinosaur soaker. This is Purewool and some random bits of leftover wool. That Pterodactyl was a PITA.

I finished these shorts a while ago but just finished weaving in the ends and adding the flowers and drawstring. It's purewool (again). Also, I had to take pictures of them a million times because those colors don't want to come out right. This is pretty darn close.

Needle Felting

So while I was at the fiber festival I decided I was going to try needle felting. I got some books from the library, but I've been kind of avoiding it. I was intimidated.

I shouldn't have been

Needle felting is both awesomely cool and fun but also pretty easy.


Just make sure you don't do it when you're pissed off....
These are a custom order. She picked out the blue/green yarn (100purewool, btw) and asked for hibiscus flowers in a dark pink.

I had SO much fun doing these and it's not too difficult at all.

Of the books I got from the library, I would recommend Needle Felting: Simple Techniques, Beautiful Projects, by Linda Lenich and Jennifer Kooy Zoeterman the most, followed closely by Indygo Junction's Needle Felting: 22 Stylish Projects for Home and Fashion, by Amy Barickman. Both have good explanation of the technique, and both have some projects that are cool and some that are just weird.

Inspired

I have been eyeing this Stag Bag on Knitting Daily for a while now. I saw this post a few days ago and that was it, I had to do it.

But, I have no money, or, well I have money, but I have to pay people with it so Molly can be less crazy, so it has to be made from the stash. I dived in and came out with 6 skeins of undyed something like DK weight wool/mohair from who knows where (it's Spinnerin, and is old). It's a bag, who cares if the gauge isn't exactly right. So late last night I ended up doing this:
I think I am going to call it my Prongs bag. Fortunately my husband humors me when I go off like this. He helped me skein 4 balls of yarn and then I went to work mixing up whatever I had to get these colors. I wanted vaguely Gryffindor colors, but I wanted the red to be a dark, brownish red, since I didn't think I'd love a red stag and trees. I am so excited I can hardly stand waiting for the yarn to dry.













Oh, and I also got sucked in by the Yarn Harlot in to the Mystery Stole 3 group. Apparently I wasn't the only one because it went up about 2000 people on the day that the Harlot blogged about it.

It's too late to join now, though, so if you want to make the stole you'll have to wait for fall when it's for sale. Or you can make one of her previous mystery stoles now, the patterns are on her site, and they're beautiful.

You'll note, though, that I'm not making the stole until I know what it is. Sorry, but I can't make a lace stole when I have no clue what it is. Not when Harry Potter 7 is getting ready to come out and I'm trying to stock my store. Though I am laughing hysterically at some of the guesses that people are making on the group. Goats? Spiders? ALF?!?! Seriously, people... what are you thinking? And there's NO FACE in the first 2 clues, I don't care what anyone says.

Crazy...

Bad blogger

I have been really bad at keeping my blog up to date lately. What can I say, the pattern and store is keeping me busy, and I'm busy with other fiber things, and, well, having all 3 kids home for the summer is really kicking my ass. We only got 1 session of special needs camp for Molly. And she's had some food infractions. It's been fun (not.)

Here are some fibery pictures to entertain you in the mean time.

Yes, I caved and made a spindle too. I love it.
I borrowed my mom's wood burner to decorate it.
And I've been spinning with it....


A friend of mine is convinced that those ballband dishcloths are crack (you know, once you start, you just can't stop). Possibly because so many people in our group seem to be unable to stop making them.

But I'm going to have to disagree. The dishcloths are fun, even slightly addictive. You may not be able to make just one, but you can easily stop after 2 or 5...


Spinning is crack.

My first yarn. Plied and everything. There's more, too.