It's done!

I finally finished the Stag Bag! Overall, I'm happy with it. I found a great lightweight cotton canvas to line it with - the dots match the dark yarn perfectly! I made it a tote rather than a shoulder bag, although the handles are big enough to fit over my shoulder, but not too long so the bag hits the ground when carried as a tote.

So, how did I line it? Well, since my sewing skills have deteriorated significantly since 7th grade Home Ec, I just winged it, taking some guidance from Grumperina's post on how she lined her knitted tote (check out the awesome ribbon handle tabs!). I made an inside-out bag just smaller than the Stag Bag (18 x 17 inches!) and sewed a couple of pockets onto it, then slid strips of plastic canvas into the top to give it more strength. I lined the handles with strips of fabric and hand-sewed it all together.

With the dense knitted fabric, the canvas lining, and the plastic reinforcements, it's a really sturdy bag and I hope it gets a lot of use this winter. This project was a real challenge for me, and totally worth it. AND! I have a whole extra skein of the beige Lamb's Pride left over! I can't decide whether to make a hat or mitts...




And here's the finished Eyelet Yoke Sweater from Lion Brand; the dye lot change isn't even noticeable!

Zombie knitting!

Because I can never pass up posting fun knitting ideas:

My Picture-free post

I don't have my camera! I forgot it at my parents house this weekend! I might not be back before Christmas! What am I going to do?

I will still mention my weekend work. I finished the body of my stag bag. I am blocking it right now, but I don't know what I was thinking. I didn't knit the sides up before I did it! I now have a fuzzy bag and will have to find a nice seam when it is dry. It is huge! I was imagining it to be purse-ish bag size, but it's going to fit my lunch, book, and cat with room to spare. I think that a liner is required so it doesn't stretch to the floor when I stuff it full of my vagabond life. It sure would be great if Tippi could give a tutorial of how to add a liner...

My other weekend project was the socks that I've been working on all year. I finally got the bug to finish them, but I just finished the second heel and I don't have enough yarn! I'm about two inches shy. I really can't follow whatever rule I laid out all that time ago. I am constantly running out of yarn for projects. Gah. This makes me mad only because I should have enough for two socks, but I guess I like the sock to be longer than normal. Maybe I just have legs a piano can stand on :) In any event, I might try and find the yarn again--does dye lot matter all that much? On the other hand, I probably won't wear these things.

I feel like my whole weekend was a waste!

Eyelet yoke sweater

Here is the second holiday project I've got underway - it's the Eyelet Yoke Sweater from Lion Brand. The pattern calls for Cotton Ease but I'm using up some Patons Shetland Chunky that I had in my stash. The only modification I've made to the pattern is to add the white dots in the body of the sweater. I'm really happy with how it's turning our so far. On the Stag Bag front, I'm still looking for the perfect lining fabric...

Wonder Washer

As I was glancing through various blogs today (avoiding school like the plague), I came across a post about this:
It's the Wonder Washer and I thought it was too cool not to post about it. I could felt any wool I lay hands on any time I want! I could also wash new fabric without waiting until I have a load of laundry too. So, I doubt I'll buy this (practicality and space and all...), but it is fun to dream.

Stag Bag Front

Here's the front of my stag bag:


I think I knit the top wrong, but I looked at the directions several times...It doesn't look weird or bad so I'm not going to stress about it. I just hope the bottom knits the same way. :) I also dropped a stitch, and while I'm not an expert picking up dropped stitches under normal situations, it was quite the problem when I had two choices of yarn. I can't wait to finish this...just in time for deer hunting season

Ta Da!

I thought my camera had died this week so I was a bit frazzled about this whole knit-along, but all is good! And I have both sides of the front done now. Hopefully I will have the whole front done by the end of the weekend. It's knitting up to be a very large bag--bigger than I thought originally!

Stag Bag progress + first holiday project

Here is the Stag Bag so far, all pinned up for blocking. After I sewed the side seams I fulled the bag lightly to tighten it up, and now it has a nice fuzzy, dense, felty kind of feel. The mohair in Lamb's Pride really fuzzes up, which I like. I've started knitting handles, which I think I will do differently than the pattern; I will probably make two tote-like handles rather than one long shoulder strap. I'm also debating whether I will do an applied I-cord along the side seams or just leave them. In any case, I'm pretty happy with it so far - it's huge! And I do love big bags. Oh, and I will be lining it, too, at some point.


And here is a new work in progress, the first sock I've ever knitted, which will be a Christmas gift. The yarn is superwash merino and so far, it's going pretty well. I'm using a really basic pattern from Getting Started Knitting Socks by Ann Budd. I haven't gotten to the really terrifying parts of the pattern yet (heel, instep, toes) but I'm cautiously optimistic.

Stag Bag update

I'm a little slower of a knitter than Tippi, so here is my progress on the Stag Bag:


I have all month, right?
This is super fun yarn to knit with. It's so soft--it made me realize that I should venture out beyond wool and acrylic sometimes.

While I wasn't knitting the Stag Bag...

I continued to work on my striped henley sweater:

I am making this up as I go so this might not make it to the final stages. I got the henley idea from Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting Around. I originally wanted to make a fair isle, but I don't think I'll have enough yarn. I'm using my Chaco yarn I bought at Smiley's Yarn Riot back in January:

At that price, I should have bought a lot more!

I also started knitting the Pea Pod Baby Set from Knitting Daily.
This is how far I got:
I had a horrific ball of Red Heart supersaver yarn and thought I'd use it up, but the gauge was way off so I ran out before I could work on the arms. I love this pattern though and I think the Berroco yarn I am using for the Stag Bag will work great for this pattern. I will continue to hold onto the impulse buy yarn that I have no desire to use anymore :(

Finally, here's a picture of the finished owl:

Softies

I haven't posted anything too exciting for a while, so I'll add to that streak by sharing this link I found today:

Softies Central

It's all about handcrafted toys. They're all so cute! I particularily love August 28th's post of the Candy Corn Vampire!

I couldn't wait

I know you are but what am I?

I was hoping to use the yarn specified in the Stag Bag pattern, and like Rita, I'd surveyed the colors and decided that the Chocolate & Fennel really were the best combination. However, the yarn store didn't have either Ultra Alpaca Light or Ultra Alpaca, and it's the only yarn store I've been to here that has nice salespeople, so rather than give my money to New York Yarn Nazis I went with my old favorite, Lamb's Pride, from the nice people. I chose a really dark reddish purple and a slightly heathered wheat color; I really really love this yarn and these two colors, but I hope my choices don't turn out to be too contrasty.


A bonus result of this change of plans is that the bag will turn out larger, and I love big bags. So then, let the great experiment begin!

For the little ones

I had a lot of Cotton-Ease left over from Snakey, so I crocheted a granny square baby blanket for a coworker who is pregnant. I have become very fond of the new Cotton-Ease; it's really soft and comes in great colors, and it's machine washable.










And this is a toddler jacket from a free Berocco pattern. I used some of the Wool-Ease I'd originally intended for the Pink Sweater That Never Was. This was a really easy pattern and I think it turned out well, I just hope it fits well. I'm still debating whether to add some kind of fastener, like a frog clasp or something.













So...this means that my project bag is empty! I'm going shopping for the Stag Bag yarn on Wednesday (yarn store is closed on Tuesdays - wtf?) and I can't wait to start on it. I'm also planning a Christmas gift knitting program, hopefully to be revealed soon.

Knit-along

I guess this is my inaugural post for the Stag Bag knit-along. I went to the yarn store this weekend to purchase the yarn. I wasn't sure if I was going to follow the colors in the pattern, but after looking at all the options, I thought the brown and fennel were the best choices:


Apparently this is brand new yarn, which I didn't know. I had the store employee opening boxes of yarn just so I could see what my options were. I felt kind of bad...

Snakey

Here's Wyatt with the snake I finally finished, from Knitted Toys by Zoe Mellor. It's made in Cotton-Ease; he's about 4 feet long and is very soft & squishy.

And here's a quick bathmat I'm making to use up the three huge skeins of Sugar 'n Creme I impulse-bought a few weeks ago (so cheap!). I'm using it six-stranded here. It's a nice natural color with pink, purple, and blue flecks. If there is any left over I will make a dishrag or two.

Weekend Update

I had high hopes of sitting down and reading the last Harry Potter book this weekend, but then decided that I enjoy savoring books. That decision gave me a lot of time to reorganize my yarn stash--sadly, since my moratorium on yarn buying was lifted I really haven't bought anything, and yet my yarn stash hasn't gone anywhere either. I posted earlier about making some washcloths and here's one I made this weekend (using up one skein of Sugar'nCream):
I will probably be making more--they're fun and fast and I really need more washcloths. The pattern is the Stepped Ridge pattern from Dishcloth Botique.

I also (almost) finished this guy:
He still needs eyes and a scarf but I didn't have any matching Red Heart Soft yarn in a color I liked. I got this pattern from Lucinda Guy's book And So To Bed... I thought the pattern was rather confusing and totally wrong in some parts, but with a little thought, I figured out what it meant. This was a lesson in seams. I've never stitched purl seams before. It was good practice. On the bright side, because I made that mushroom sweater, the insartia part was really easy. And I did not make this owl because of Harry Potter...it was just a cute toy!

More miscellany

Wow, Rita's sewing really puts mine to shame, but here it is anyway - my first baby steps toward both learning to sew and beginning a wardrobe recycling regimen with the bags of reject clothes on the floor of my closet. These tote bags made from tank tops are going to get stuffed into my regular everyday handbag so they'll be handy for library books & small grocery store trips.



Here's a little sweater, from Simple Knits for Cherished Babies by Erika Knight, for my niece-to-be. It's super-tiny! It's made with Cotton-Ease, which I really enjoyed knitting with.




Back in December I made a bunch of small felted bowls to give as gifts, but I made more sets than I gave away so I finally put the rest to use by nesting them tightly, stuffing the smallest ones & inverting them, then sewing them all together to make pincushions. And in keeping with my original intentions, I gave them to two coworkers who like to craft.

New Shirts

I finally finished a couple of shirts and thought I'd share the final products. They are both from the same pattern: Simplicity 4589. I was a little uncertain about how to read the pattern directions at first, but I figured it out and, obviously, both shirts are very simple.


The brown shirt is pretty great. I already wore it to work and didn't feel like a tool in it. The yellow shirt's arm holes are a little wide and I'm thinking I'll take a small tuck under the arm eventually. I wish this pattern had darts, but I think that might be a step beyond my current abilities...always something to work on.
Since these are my first attempt at sewing clothes, I'm pretty happy. Years of semi-quilting has at least given me the basics on how to use my sewing machine and how to sew things together. I am next going to work on making skirts and I'm also thinking of making a pair of linen pants with really wide legs.

On the knitting front I'm slowly working on these socks:

There has to be a Rita's Rule about knitting socks, but I'm too lazy to write one up right now. I have one finished and I'm working on the second one now. Maybe I'll have it done for the fall. We'll see.

This & that

I finished the Debbie Bliss Martine cardigan and I'm pretty happy with it, but it's very big in the body (hard to tell from the photos), so I'm giving it to my sister who's pregnant and starting to show - I think this style of one-button sweater is perfect for a big belly.





Here are the results of some more thrift-store un-knitting. These are both cotton; the red and tan are really soft, and the green is a really fine tape-like yarn. I don't have anything in mind for them yet, they're just going into the stash.




I just received the new Norah Gaughan pattern booklet, Vol.1, from Berroco, and I *love* it. I've actually never yet knit with Berroco yarn but I'm a big fan of their patterns.

And finally, the recent posts on TECHknitting on joining methods are amazing! She shows several ways to join new yarn *without leaving tails* that will need to be woven in! I can't wait to try them out.

Sewing pieces

I finally have some time to post my finished projects. First, the grocery bag:

It's by no means as stylish or pretty as I imagined, but it gets the job done. I have enough fabric to make another one, but I'm trying to decide if I can make a messenger bag out of it. I want to be able to ride my bike to the grocery store, but I can't carry things back in a bag like this.

I also finally finished a shirt I've been meaning to alter for some time now:

I'm really happy with the way it turned out. The elastic around the bottom might work on some 16 year old, but I really wanted it loose and longer like a tunic. I wasn't sure what kind of fabric I should go with because the shirt is so busy. I didn't think a solid piece would work. When I found my final choice, I was fairly pleased. It compliments the red in the shirt and the flowers, but it's muted as well.

Street Knitting

I was reading my Daily Awesome and the newest post was on Swedish street knitters and it posted pictures from Masquerade. The pictures are great.

Recycled Yarn-O-Rama

It's the finished Twinkle sweater! I actually made this weeks ago, wore it once, then ripped it out and re-did it and I'm much happier with it this time, although it's not 100%. It's just the right weight for a summer jacket. I used two strands of navy Cascade Sierra (wool & cotton) and one strand of a purple cotton from a Gap sweater I bought at a thrift store years ago and ripped up for the yarn. I still have a lot of the purple left so look for it in future projects...


This is the adult version of the Ballet T-Shirt from the Teva Durham book Loop-d-Loop. It is also made with recycled yarn - slightly nubby cream & tan cotton from an American Eagle Outfitters sweater I didn't wear much. This top is so easy to make and I love wearing it. I made mine much longer than the book version, and like the kid's version, I added a single-crochet border around the neck and hem to minimize rolling.


I've been doing a lot of yarn shopping in my closet lately! This is a pink marled cotton Land's End sweater that was a gift. I love the double-pink color and the light, soft yarn, but the shape just wasn't right, so I'm remaking it into the Martine short-sleeved cardigan from a Debbie Bliss book.













And Rita might recognize this Bass sweater from a legendary outlet shopping trip. Regrettably this acrylic & wool sweater didn't make it into regular wardrobe rotation, but since I do love the color, I pulled it apart and it's waiting for the right pattern to come along.