Mitered Diamond Bag

Another Finished Object! Can you believe it.  But this will be it for a while, well with the exception of probably a Dale of Norway Hat I plan to knit out of KNit Picks Swish while I’m on planes next week. 

This is the Mitered Diamond Bag designed by Krisit Schueler and available in Interweave Felt 2008. 

Mitered Diamond Bag Pre-Felting

I had never done mitered squares before so this was a new skill for me, and I must say, I absolutely love this bag.  The design is ingenious, you only have to sew two little teeny tiny seams and you have a purse, then you knit a 5-stitch I-Cord handle.  I decided to use scraps of wool yarn, which you need about a 1/2 ounce for each square for.  So I have a very colorful bag.  If you decide to knit more of a patterned bag the pattern calls for 4 colors of wool, Cascade 220 is what it was designed in.  I have Cascade 220, Fisherman Wool from Lion’s Brand, some Cherry Tree Hill Wool, and some Lamb’s Pride Wool in this bag.  I was worried it might not felt well with the different types, but took a chance, and it turned out wonderful.  I felted it on SUnday. 

Mitered Diamond Bag Felted

It is absolutely the perfect size bag.  Now yesterday at work, at lunch, since it was snowing, I decided to start another one.  I will make one and only one change to this bag, I will knit some type of closure strap for it.  That is my only complaint, and I could add a snap or something to it, which I may do.  Well, I take it back, there was one other complaint, all those ends to weave in! But I tried weaving them in as best as I could when I knit it, and then trimmed them very crudely, as it was being felted, and it turned out fine.

It is absolutely huge.  In fact it is so huge that I could have put Django in it.  I tried, but he was having none of that.

Real Dogs Don’t Fit in Purses Mommy

Now Django is the one that came up with that caption, he is a bit prejudiced against little dogs. 

We actually had snow in St. Louis! We received 8 inches in the last two days.  Its prepping me for next weeks trip to Alaska.

Have a great day, I’m going to find some time to play in the snow. 

The Daunting Task Ahead

It has arrived, the yarn for the next 3 years of my life arrived on Wednesday. 

3 Year Project Plan

Isn’t it pretty.  I must say I’m very glad my sister picked out some orange yarn rather then cream, because after the bedspread and tablecloth being in Alabaster which is a very creamy cream color, I think I’m going to need a splash of color to save my sanity. 

The bedspread pattern is more of a formula then a pattern.  The main panels, tumbling leaf, the author didn’t even tell how many stitches to cast on, just the pattern repeat information.  I haven’t been able to find an errata for the book either, so I had to use my mad calculating skills to figure out how I wanted the project to go.  Additionally, the pattern calls for knitting each strip separately and hand-sewing it all together.  That is insane.  I know my skills at sewing lack tremendously, so I decided I’d combine it all together and knit it in one piece.  Now this led to another interesting dilemna.  There are 3 separate lace patterns, the Tumbling Leaf, Openwork Panel, and Godmother’s Lace which edges the piece.  Each has a different row count.  So I created an Excel spreadsheet which laid out 3500 rows, then the next 3 columns have the repeats of the different lace sections.  So for instance I can look at my chart and see if I’m on row 1186, I should be on row of 10 of Tumbling Leaf, Row 2 of Openwork Panel, and Row 16 of the Godmother’s Lace. 

Last night I casted on 740 stitches on Size 1 Addi’s.  My wrist hurts today.  I discovered one thing about knitting that infuriates me.  The fact that the U.S. differs in their needles sizes then Europe.  My size 1 Addi’s are 2.5 mm, my size 2 Crystal Palace (which is what I started on before I decided to knit it all in one piece) is 2.75 mm.  I say we should all just go by the mm and not the us size, its annoying.  But then, I’m having a crabby pants day.

However, I must say that I have the best young boss in the world, he’s several years younger then me, has an adorable family (whom I made the flower blanket for his new daughter due in a few months), and this morning he must have realized I was going to have a crabby pants day and he brought me this….

Yummy fancy chocolates

As soon as I finish my salad, I’m eating every last piece!

I’m currently giving up, well maybe postponing is a better work, on dieting. Not forever, but for the next few weeks.  Maybe when I return from Alaska I’ll find time to exercise.   Time has gotten the better of me, well that and my love of sleeping and not getting up to exercise, and the fact its been too cold or bad weather to walk at lunch.  Okay enough with the excuses, I just haven’t been motivated to do it.  End of story.

The Sweetest Face

Is this not the sweetest face on the planet earth.  Oh how I wish I was at home snuggling that beast.  He can always make me feel better.

Django snuggles like this too, but as soon as you get the camera he moves like the wind and you can’t catch him in snuggle mode.  Although Django doesn’t snuggle quite as intensely as Abner.  Abner will lay there for hours and hours while Django lasts about 15 minutes, then moves on. 

I still haven’t figured out what I’m going to take for airplane knitting.  I have nothing small on the needles, besides countless sock orphans, but I don’t want to knit socks.  I’m sure I’ll figure it out in the coming week and a half.  Maybe I’ll knit a hat to wear while I’m in Alaska when I’m on the plane to  Alaska and on the plane home I’ll knit with the Quivit I intend to purchase. 

Well I’m off to finish my salad, so I can eat those chocolates.

Gracie is Done!

I don’t think I’ve ever even shown anyone a picture of Gracie.  But she’s done.  Gracie is a shawl from Stahlman’s Shawls and Scarves. 

Gracie

I knit Gracie with Silky Wool, in a beautiful green.  Its a Lavold yarn and its yummy.  Last year when Webs was having an incredible sale, oh wait, I guess that was 2 years ago, I bought a ton more in a variety of colors.  I look forward to knitting with it.  I wore it today and its very warm, and is very large.  As  you can see, its draped across the back of my couch and reaches from end to end.

I know everyone always wants to see a modeling shot, so here you go. 

Modeling Gracie

Although getting a modeling shot of this shawl was not easy.  In fact it turned into quite the wrestling match.

In other news, I’ve ordered all the yarn for the anniversary presents.

I ended up going with cone yarn, mercanized cotton, color alabaster, from Webs for the bedspread and tablecloth. 

For the afghan for my sister I ended up purchasing Cascade Sierra.  Its 80% cotton and 20% wool.  I purchased this for 2 reasons 1) it was on clearance at Webs and so it ended up being less money per skein then Encore which is what I had decided on.  2) Its a washable yarn so the easy to care for aspect was taken care of.  And had my sister go and pick out what color, and she loved a color called maple Orange.  I’m a little nervous about a cotton yarn and this pattern, but I hope it’ll turn out okay, most cotton blankets are a bit cleaner and crisper styled, but we’ll see, I’m sure it’ll work out lovely.  And I ended up with a much nicer yarn for less money!

Since Basil rarely makes an appearance on this blog, I thought I’d show you a picture of him with me.  so you can see what a cuddly bird he indeed is. 

Snuggly Basil

As you can see he loves to get up really close to my face and snuggle, he also likes to hide and play in my hair.  He went to the vet yesterday to get his wings clipped, and he was charming all the girls.  He’s such a ladies man.

I also ordered from webs some Addi Lace Needles in Size 00 for my mother’s tablecloth.  I’m so excited about this particular project, I really want to make it my masterpiece.  I’ve never done anything quite so delicate.  I’m also excited about the bedspread, but a little daunted by it as well since its soooo huge.  I ordered 11,400 yards of yarn for it! 

Ay yi yi!  Well hope you have a had a good weekend, I’m off to go back to knitting my Mitered Diamond Felted Bag.  I’m hoping to have it done for my trip in 2 weeks.

Big Project Plans and I Need Yarn Advice

Django the Lap Dog

I realized this week that in the next 3 years I have some major family events.  2010 will come and on May 25 my sister will celebrate her 25th wedding anniversary, and on the July 4 my in-laws will celebrate their 40th.  2012 will bring on August 4 my parents 50th wedding anniversary.  My family, well me, enjoys celebrating anniversaries and I enjoy giving gifts.  For these big events I want to do something pretty big.  My sister I have determined will receive an afghan.  I e-mailed her six pictures yesterday and told her to choose.  She told me, you do realize our 25th is still a year away, and I said yes it will take me that long to finish this!  Plus by now I understand my pattern, I have to have lots of projects so when I get bored with one I work on another.  Also I realized that my sister reads my blog (she’s the Kat that comments) and there is absolutely no way I could keep this a secret from her. 

My parents 50th is in 3 years, I have more time obviously to plan for this.  But I want to do something even more difficult.  See back when I was about 13 I had this paper punch from my paper route.  I was curious if it’d punch material as well as it punched paper, so I used it on my mom’s crocheted lace tablecloth. It punched a hole like a charm.  Mom didn’t even notice for years until I finally fessed up about the age of 30.  So mom is going to receive a new lace tablecloth from me.  This is where I need advice:

1. Pattern suggestions….I have the two Modern Lace Knitting books which will probably ultimately be what I choose from, but I’ve seen on Ravelry some beautiful other choices as well.  so thought I’d ask for input.
2. Yarn.  What kind of yarn makes a good tablecloth.  Is there some crochet thread that is better then the other? 

In-Law’s 40th.  I’m not sure what I am going to do for this.  Maybe an afghan for them as well.  Maybe 2009 could be the year of the afghan for me.

Also any suggestions for a decent acrylic wool blend other than Encore for my sister’s afghan.  I may end up using Encore as I do find it very durable and easy to keep clean.  But I would love some other larger wool percentage options to check out.

In the meantime, I’ll go back to working on Gracie, Diamonds and Lace, Log Cabin and Forest Path Stole…..and figuring out Alaska knitting trip options.

Toodle-Pip

Update: Okay I decided what to knit for my in-laws.  A bedspread.  Yep, a lace bedspread from Heirloom knits.  I’m hoping I can track down the yarn actually used in the book for several of the bedspreads (although not the pattern I’ve choosen) but its apparently difficult to get in the U.S.  If I can get it, I’ll probably also use it for my parents tablecloth.    More on the individual patterns later.

Flower Baby Blanket

Only a week!  Now this was a quick project, started it on Sunday the 28th and finished it Sunday the 4th.  Well I finished weaving ends last night, but the knitting was completely done.  Now I just need to wash it and block it.

Flower Baby Blanket

I really love this project, it was quick and super cute.  It turned out somewhat small, but I think that’s okay, its for an infant and its done 4 months before the baby is due.  Its from Dawn Brocco and you can purchase pattern at her website.  It uses bulky yarn and size 10.5 needles, I used Gjestal Superwash from my stash.  Love using stash yarn.

I’m continuing now to work on my other in process projects and dreaming of my Alaska projects.  With 12 hours spent in flight and 3 hours spent at the airport each way, its 30 potential knitting hours.  I think one thing I’ll be taking for sure is one of my mitten kits, or possibly a laptop bag kit I bought from KnitPicks a while back.

Abner and Django had lots of fun with their grandparents here visiting.  They were on pretty good behavior.

Abner was as cute as always.  Here’s the proof.

Abner in his tent