07.25.07
Modifications are Good
I think we all remember the embroidery disaster that was the purple felted coin purse…I do feel sorry for my secret pal, Jennifer, because she got gypped.
Why?
Well, the other night I was looking through the book, One Skein Wonders, trying to re-acquaint myself with the pattern that I am going to use for some other Christmas presents when I happened upon the Felted Accessory Bag on pg. 18. Cute I thought, I’d never noticed it before…then it hit me! I could modify what I’d already felted for the Felted Coin Purse into the Felted Accessory Bag! They’d just been hanging out in the living room waiting on me to sew them up anyway. Yippee.
I got right to it and finished the green one before going to bed. I was so excited!!! In order to avoid another ‘dark as the tomb’ photo, I had a little outdoor photo shoot upon completion of the pink one:
How much cuter are these?!? Way cuter. The buttons are from the Wal-Mart craft department, believe it or not. Yarn used is Lion Brand wool in Lemongrass and Rose. These little lovelies are going to be gifted to my 2 teenage cousins for Christmas this year. If they don’t like them I am going to take them back. Seriously.
07.23.07
Mystery Project Revealed
This weekend I was able to reveal the mystery project to it’s recipient, so now I can reveal it here.
I know it’s hard to tell what this is from the picture but it’s a neckwarmer! The lighting in my apartment is HORRIBLE and it doesn’t help that this picture was taken about 11:00 at night with clearly no hope for any natural lighting. Karen has been asking me to make her one for a while, so I thought it would be a good birthday gift for her. It is made using Rowan All Seasons Cotton, 1 skein of color 213 which is an army green. The buttons are from her mom’s stash of ‘vintage’ buttons.
I was going to do a modelled bathroom mirror shot, but when I tried it on before I packaged it up to give to her I was only in my bra. Don’t want to post any R rated pics here! 
I also gave her a couple of washcloths with her initial:
I test knit these a while back for a yahoo group that I am in, SusansKnitPatterns. I believe that she has the entire alphabet available for purchase at her website for $5.
TDFKAL update: My Jumbo cable needles have arrived…I hope to be back on track with my Sybellia scarf ASAP!
07.18.07
Current Progress
I think it is time for a little confession in order to keep myself honest and on track. I currently have *nine* projects that sit started and UNFINISHED at my house. This is really unacceptable. Therefore, I am not going to allow myself to start anymore projects until I at least finish something from my UFO list.
I ordered a jumbo cable needle set off of ebay, so until that arrives I have got Sybellia on hold. I got notification yesterday that they were being shipped so hopefully I can get back on my TDFKAL project soon! Here is a photo of where I currently stand:
This picture is definitely better for showing off the cable! This really will be a lovely scarf when it is completed. Since it is so time consuming, I have set myself a little goal in order to also be able to cross off other things on my to-do list and complete other Christmas gifts. This scarf calls for 5 skeins of yarn, so I am going to try and knit 1 skeins worth of scarf per month. I believe this is reasonable AND if I keep on track will mean that I finish the scarf with time to spare in November!
This week I have mainly been working on a Moss Grid Handtowel from Mason Dixon Knitting.
I have been wanting to make a whole bunch of these ever since the book came out. However, they take me forever!!! Size 4 needles and #3 crochet thread does make for speedy knitting. But it will be worth it I know! I have 1 skein of Euroflax that I will use to make one as well…I wanted to test out the pattern in this cheapy thread first. I like it! A set of these would be really lovely!
Sadly, the LYS here is going out of business…not for want of patrons, but because the owner just doesn’t want the store anymore and couldn’t find a buyer. Maria and I went over yesterday and bought a few things that we REALLY wanted since it was the beginning of the sale (30% off). We are gong to go back next month when things are 50% off and try and ’stock up’ on some other items.
07.13.07
A Little Update
I am still plodding along on my TDFKAL project, the Sybellia scarf. Thank you to everyone who gave me such nice and helpful comments!!! I have not made it all the way through a second repeat but I did try the dpn like Stacie suggested – she always has such good ideas. I am going to have to get a package of those shorter dpns because the ones I have are about 7 inches, and it was just flopping around yesterday when I was trying to use it. However, the flopping does seem to be the lesser of two evils since it is so much easier to knit from the dpn! (I am however reminded as to why I don’t like to use dpns.)
I think I may have found the perfect TDFKAL project for next year to help me learn intarsia:
This is Damask the free pattern of the week from Berroco (with a very cute purse strap I might add). I like everything about this purse; it looks so classy! AND since it is felted any beginner intarsia mistakes will be hidden! The yarn used for this is called Peruvia so I will have to do a little bit of research on that between now and then. This is definitely going on the ‘to do’ list which just keeps getting longer and longer…
07.11.07
My First Cable
Here it is everybody! I hope that you can make out from this not-so-great and blurry picture that this is in fact my very first cable. Even though this yarn (Berroco Softwist) is incredibly splitty, even though I was practically a nervous wreck throughout the first CF8, I have managed to complete the first repeat in the scarf that I have chosen for my grandmother for Christmas which is also doubling as my TDFKAL project in the mountain climbing/polka dot jersey division.
I really did feel like I was climbing a mountain while I was making my way through the first row that included the cable stitch, row 13 – of all rows! This cable stitch pattern is 22 rows long, but only about 5 of the rows involve any cabling – 3 rows that just have one CF8 and then 2 rows that have 2! (I am going from memory on this, but I believe that to be correct.)
So, how did it all go down? Well, the first row, naturally I was a nervous wreck. I had to slip 5 stitches onto the cable needle and then work 3 stitches from the LH needle. THEN I had to slip 2 stitches from the cable needle back onto the LH needle and purl them. At this point I was feeling a little bit confused because I didn’t know which 2 stitches I was supposed to slip back onto the LH needle, but fortunately the 1 time this week that I will use any common sense was last night and I slipped the correct two. With 3 stitches left on the cable needle I was then to work the 3 stitches in the pattern stitch from the cable needle.
Am I the only one that finds it difficult to knit from a needle the size of a toothpick when using a size 8? I perservered, like the mountain climber I was attempting to be and about 2 hours later I had completed the entire cable repeat. (Considering that I’d done about 7 rows last night, that means that I only did 15 rows.)
The rest of the scarf is a twisted rib pattern which means there is a whole lot of P1 TBL and K1 TBL. I may never be able to K and P through the front loop again. I am glad that I chose this pattern for my Tour de France watching since it is only July. This is going to take me forever!
07.09.07
Mystery Project and A New KAL
Last week I joined the Tour de France KAL where I am going to try and complete my first cabled project, the Sybellia scarf. I found the yarn on ebay for about $2.85/skein but unfortunately they sent me a different color than what I thought I was getting. I am not going to get all bent out of shape since this is for my grandmother and she isn’t going to care or know the difference. I don’t want to have to go through all of the hassle of returning the yarn since the post office is the last place I ever want to be. Besides Berroco Softwist #6433 is a lovely color for a grandmother:
I’ve got to go ahead and get this wound into some balls so that I can start my project for the KAL! I’m a little nervous about doing cables, but I’m also excited about it. The pattern consists of some twisted ribbing and then a CF8. (I think I can handle that.) I think I have a cable needle in with my ‘learn to knit’ kit, if I can only find that kit!
So, while I haven’t even started on my KAL project, I have been knitting while I watch ‘le tour’. I was able to complete a mystery project last night while watching the recap.
One of my readers is going to be very interested in trying to solve this mystery this I imagine. I will fill you in with all of the details later on in the month…
Wish me luck as I begin cabling! I hope to start tonight!
07.03.07
The Big Reveal
Yesterday afternoon was a good day for getting mail as I had 2 packages waiting on me when I got home from work. The first one was from my secret pal, Chikngirl (aka Emily)!
She sent me a Karen Neuburger spa foot set in Rose Blossom! HOW NICE!! It’s too hot for me to wear the socks right now (even though I know I will love them when winter rolls around) but I did put on some of the foot lotion last night before bed and it was really nice. It has such a nice, soft smell and not greasy at all! Thank you Emily! I can’t wait to visit your blog and get to know you! 
The second item in my mailbox was the Ultra Alpaca that I ordered for the Brea Bag from Berroco Yarns.
I chose the color, Blue Violet #6240. I originally thought that it would be really cute with jeans which is basically all I wear, but now I sort of wish I’d gotten the Rose Spice. Ah well, this is a nice color, and I think I will be satisified with it once it is finished.
I also started a new project last night, one that I’ve been wanting to do for a while. Dream Swatch (this link will open PDF) from Knit & Tonic:
My yarn is in no way luxurious (Aunt Lydia’s “Shimmer” Fashion in Lt. Blue), but I think that it is going to make a great head scarf when I am finished! I am excited about finishing this one. It is really fun to knit! I had the random skein of Aunt Lydia’s just lying around, and I liked the color and have a lot of clothes that will match it so I thought it would be an acceptable choice. I’d bought it last year when I was going to make a Twitterpated for one of my cousins but ended up choosing a different yarn because I didn’t think this would have enough yardage.
07.02.07
I’m No Seamstress
I motivated myself to finish a felted coin purse (which Lion Brand is now calling the “make it yours purse”) yesterday because I really wanted to send it to my secret pal.
I ended up felting it again about a week ago, so I turned out just a little bigger than the pattern calls for it to be. I am more satisfied with this size than I was previously. Probably about 5 in x 8 in (a guess since I didn’t measure), just big enough to take as a clutch purse but still small enough to put into a bigger purse.
This project showcases just how much I have got to practice my sewing. I am so bad at it. I had to teach myself how to do the blanket stitch, which I thought would be so easy to do. Well, I had to consult about 4 different books before I found one with instructions that I could actually follow. So once I figured that out, I had to try and get my stitches evenly spaced on the purse. Ha. I didn’t do such a hot job of that…
I was also going to embroider something on it like the pattern says to do using the chain embroidery stitch, but after 3 failed attempts at that and 1 attempt at some sort of daisy I just gave up. Maybe my pal is handy enough to add something and if not, maybe she will like it plain.
I have 2 more purses to sew up for Christmas presents for my cousins, so I will at least have an opportunity to hone my skills a little bit more. I don’t know if I will try to embroider on those or not, I might just buy some embellishments of some sort and stick them on there because I think that it really would look cuter with something on it. I didn’t think embroidery was supposed to be hard. 
