FO Friday - A larger bag!

I had to go get some brown fabric to make the handles and finish up this bag. More zebra print on the handles felt like over kill.

The bag measures 9.5 inches across the top and 6 inches tall. The bottom of the bag measures 10 inches long by 3.25 inches wide.

I really like the size of this bag! I can fit a small knitting project with a wallet and phone. Or I could probably fit a medium knitting project and make it a knitting bag.

Monday, I'll start the instructions for constructing one of these bags, starting with drawing out the pattern. For now, a materials list:

• 1/2 yard exterior fabric - heavy weight quilting cotton or lighter weight home decor fabric - You can also use 2 fat quarters
• 1 yard interior fabric - quilting cotton - You can also use 2 fat quarters
• 1 5/8 yard medium weight interfacing
• 9 inch hex purse frame - I bought mine from Sun Belt Fashion. It seemed sketchy when I placed the order since I didn't get any acknowledgement of my order but a few days later, my order showed up. An alternative source is Ghees.
• 4 bag feet - Also Sun Belt Fashion, Ghees, or Joanns
• 4 rectangular rings, interior width measures 1 inch - I bought mine at Joanns. If you choose to buy a different size, just know that you should alter your purse strap width.
• plastic mesh grid - for something solid in the bottom. You can find this at your local craft store
• matching thread
• ruler, rotary cutters, scissors, paper, pen/pencil, pins, and other general sewing needs.

A walking foot and a heavy duty needle for your sewing machine is recommended for when you're topstitching through some of the bulkier parts of this.

FO Friday - Bags!

I've been on a bit of a sewing binge, aside from the quilting. I love bags, I really do. I also really love bags that have a frame for the opening. I had made bags in the past and sometimes they worked out well, sometimes they didn't. The recent bags have been working out really well.

First up is the Cavernous Carpetbag from U-Handbag. I've had a 10" tubular bag frame sitting around for a couple of years and was trying to find a cute pattern to use it on.

I've also been an admirerer of the U-Handbag blog and it looks like in the last couple of years, she added this pattern. Her pattern is written for an 8 inch frame or a 12 inch frame. I had to modify the pattern for my 10 inch frame. Thank goodness for math skills and ratios!

The one thing I would do differently? The pattern called for quilting cotton for both the exterior and interior and fusible fleece. I had a home decor fabric that was slightly heavier than quilting cotton and I didn't want to make it too stiff so I used regular medium weight interfacing instead of the quilting cotton. I should have stuck with the fusible fleece since the bag body isn't as stiff as I would like it. Overall, I'm happy!



Next up is a little clutch that I had designed. A couple of years ago, I had made U-handbag's Hex Open Bag Frame. I didn't quite like the size and I wanted a wider bottom. At the time, I didn't quite understand the bag making concept and so I didn't quite get there. I've recently been reading up and watching Craftsy videos and the bag came together. It's a little small but I'm also working on a slightly larger one.

It's a good size for make up or to act as the catch all bag in your bigger bag.

I do know how I made this and my thought process for this bag so coming soon, hopefully Monday, I'll start walking through the pattern drafting process and then the bag making process.

Leggy Lettuce

The lettuce is getting leggy

FO Friday - Icelandic Sweater!

My Icelandic sweater is finished! It was about 556 yards of yarn, much less than I had anticipated. It is incredibly warm! It is so warm that I really don't think I need sleeves to wear it here in DC. If I ever moved to Iceland, I can see needing sleeves there for the winter but it's too warm for that here. The pattern is the Lett Lopi Vest. You'll have to scroll down to the bottom to see the link.

WIP Wednesday - Ready for Spring!

I've got some plants started in preparation for the longer days and more sunlight. There are a couple of orchids in the back along with a basil stalk that I'm trying to root. The lettuce and scallions I had read about as being able to grow from the scraps. I think I started with 3 or 4 leaves of lettuce last week and now it's a little head. The scallions have already been harvested once. I did notice today, while changing out the water, that there are some healthy looking roots and some that look like they may be on their way to rotting. I think it's from the standing water. Once I'm comfortable with the new water farm column, it will be moved there to get more air in the roots.

In other hand crafted, WIPs, I'm still working on the third Honey Cowl. It's a slower progress this time around.

And I'm now on the second Skyp Sock! Of course, this pair will probably be finished when it's too warm out for wool socks but at least I'll be a pair ahead for next year!

In the background of that picture, you can also see a zebra striped bag. I'll write a little more about that bag in an upcoming post. It was the product of this past Saturday night.

FO Friday - A quilt!

This is not my first quilt but it is the one I'm happiest with. The quilts I'd made in the past were for full/queen sized beds and they weren't very manageable on the sewing machine and I only partially knew what I was doing. I only knew what I could read from books. I didn't know any quilters and there weren't things like Craftsy to give you some lessons and hints and tips.

I started out with the Bungle Jungle and Kona Snow layer cakes and made a bunch of half square triangles. I wanted to keep the piecing simple. The order of the squares were randomly arranged with an eye out to avoid having the same pattern next to each other and keeping all of the colors evenly spaced around.



I'm also very happy with the hand sewn binding. I think all of the bead embroidery work has helped to improve my skill with needle and thread!

WIP Wednesday - Snowquester!

Most of the DC region is trapped indoors because it's March and we're expecting a large snow storm. They're telling us 4-8 inches of snow but all I'm seeing is large wet clumps of snow that aren't sticking to the ground. Of course, I'm in the middle of the city so the ground probably isn't cold enough for it to stick.

This week, I've got a few things going on. I'm very close to finishing up the baby quilt. I'm sewing in the binding on the fourth side of the blanket and then it's wash and block!


The Honey Cowl was coming along until I started binding off and found it to be way too long! So, this is what it did look like. Now, it's been ripped out.


I also picked back up the Maple Leaf Shawl. I know it has been at least 2 years since I last worked on it, probably at least 3 since I've been living in my current place for 2 years and was madly cleaning and sorting through things the year prior. Turns out, I'm a lot farther along than I had thought so, I'm hoping to finish it off!

FO Friday - Ishbel

I finished Ishbel! 3 skeins of sport weight madeline tosh. It's huge but that's how I wanted it. I love the color! The pattern was a quick and easy knit.

WIP Wednesday - Spinning Along

The quilt is still moving but it doesn't look that much different from last week. I'd like to get to the binding this weekend and then I can move on!

On the wheel, I've been spinning another Bullseye Bump in the Moody Valentine color. Last week, you saw white and grey, this week, you see



I'm trying to finish this up so that I can move onto the next set of Bullseye Bumps. I bought two of the Galaxy color in the hopes of spinning them up and plying them together so I have a nice gradient 2 ply yarn that I can knit into a top down raglan.

As for knitting projects, Ishbel is done and blocking. I took a break from the Icelandic sweater because I do actually have to figure out which color design I want to knit on the yoke. So, instead, I started another Honey Cowl (#3) knit with another of the Bullseye Bumps. I like how this stitch pattern makes for a very even blending of the colors


I also started a sock. The pattern is mindless but not boring. The yarn is some Lana Grossa and is a wool/nylon mix. I was getting tired of my hand knit socks all getting holes in them so I wanted to try out a more hard wearing yarn.

WIP Wednesday - sewing the quilt

I have a few projects in the works, as usual.

I'm finding spinning to be quite soothing. I'm spinning on another Bullseye Bump. The colorway is called "Moody Valentine" and started with a dark purple and moved to the grey and the white that you can see in the picture. After the white is pink and then blank. I plan on Navajo plying  the single when I'm done and aiming for a sport or DK weight.

On the needles is Ishbel, but that is paused because I ran out of yarn. I'm waiting for the yarn to get here and will hopefully finish knitting this before the end of the month.

I also have my Icelandic souvenir sweater. It's knit bottom up and I think I'm only a couple of inches away from the under arm. I had to do some major recalculations on the pattern since their largest size was for a 36 inch chest and the hip to underarm measurement was 6.5 inches making for a really short torso!

Finally, the baby blanket. It has been pieced and a border added on. I finally bit the bullet and pinned it to the minky I'm using the back it and started sewing. I sit down for a few minutes and sew a little bit on the machine. I also hope to be done with this by the end of the month and get it off in the mail.

FO Friday - Rock Island

The yarn is Jojoland Harmony (cobweb weight) and was acquired from a friend in a yarn swap. I came home with way too much lace weight so I figured that I really needed to do something about the thousands of yards of lace weight in my possession. There are many more lace shawls to come this year!

The pattern is called Rock Island and it is by Jared Flood. The crispness of the lace pattern has always intrigued me. The border is knit as one long strip and then you pick up along the side and start knitting in towards the center so that the number of stitches on the needles decrease as you go. The border strip felt like it took forever. Once I picked up the body, it zoomed along from there.

FO Friday - Java Sparrow

I started with this


and spun it really really thin and took, what feels like, forever. Really, I started in November or so. I then Navajo plied it into a 3 ply yarn and to keep the colors together.





There are a couple of sections that I'm not too happy about but I'm hoping it's not noticeable once knitted up.

WIP Wednesday - 2/6/2013

I know, I haven't posted in a few weeks!

I had been in and out for a bit. I was down in Orlando for the Disney Marathon weekend where I ran the half marathon and the first 10k of the full marathon for a weekend total of almost 20 miles. Yes, I was trying to do the Goofy Challenge which was to run both the half and full but technically, I shouldn't have been running any of it due to a strained glute/IT band so I'm happy with what I was able to do.

Then there was Vogue Knitting Live and I showed you the dress I had made.

Well, now, we're back the day to day so here is what I've got going on for projects.

I'm working on the Rock Island Shawl by Jared Flood. You start knitting the outer borders, then pick up along the edge of the border and knit in. The number of stitches is decreasing every couple of rows. I'm getting there, slowly but surely. This should be done before the month is through.


I also got some old fiber off the wheels (I'll show it to you on Friday) and moved onto the next Bullseye Bump from Loop!.


Finally, I've pulled out the sewing machine. You can see my sewing area here.


I'm currently working my way through the Charming Stars Quilt from the Moda Bake Shop. This is going to be the light blanket on my bed. The current blanket is way too warm for this weather and even though it's at or above freezing at night outside, I still need to have the ceiling fan on to keep me cool.

FO Friday 1/25/2013

I finished up a couple of things last weekend that I'm really excited to share with you! First was my travel project. It was simple knitting that I could carry around with me and doesn't require much brain power to knit. This was part of the Woolgirl Fairy Tales kit for Peter Pan. The pattern is called "The Cowl That Never Grew Up"



Next up is something I'm really excited about. I wanted to knit a dress for Vogue Knitting Live. It's a knitting convention. It was in New York City! I started with the pattern for Textured Tunic with Side Slits from Stephanie Japel. This is the sweater on the cover of her book Fitted Knits. One morning, I woke up with the idea to lengthen the sweater and make it into a dress.

If there is interest, I can go into details about the modifications I made but to sum it up I:

• recalculated the pattern to knit this in a DK weight yarn (Lousia Harding Grace wool/silk) instead of the aran the pattern called for.
• moved the basket stitch section at the chest to the high waist for more of an empire waist look. I looked through the various project pictures in ravelry and really didn't like how it looked as a band across the boobs
• included waist shaping. The pattern didn't have waist shaping. I liked the shaped look of the sweater on the cover of the book which they pinned.
• changed the hem/bottom slits so that there is just a slit on my right side rather than slits with buttons on both sides.
• knitted straight down for the sleeves rather than create a bell sleeve as the pattern called for

WIP Wednesday

I'm STILL working on that dress. I had bound off the bottom hem and finished the sleeves and it was done but I really didn't like how the bottom hem was so I sat down yesterday and rippppppped. Now I'm working on knitting it back again. I also have to finish knitting it by tomorrow morning so that I can wash and let it dry while I'm down at Disney World!

I started a new travel project! The pattern is called "The Cowl That Wouldn't Grow Up" and the pattern and yarn are both part of the Woolgirl Fairy Tales kit for Peter Pan. I even got a cute little Peter Pan stitch marker with the kit!

Swings!

Happy New Year!

Over the weekend, I made a day trip to New York City with a couple of friends to see an interactive art installation from the artist Ann Hamilton. It took place at the Park Ave Armory and this past weekend was the last weekend.

There are swings and pulleys and a curtain in the middle that moves up and down. It was fun and brought us back to our childhoods. It was interesting to see the system of pulleys and how each swing worked with the others to move the curtain. It was also interesting to see all of the other people interacting with the entire exhibit.

Flash My Stash 2012

At the end of the year, I like to do a quick accounting of my yarn and fiber stash. This year, I went through and made sure everything was photographed and figured, why not, I'll take another Flash Your Stash picture. So here it is, year ending 2012. And it all fits on a queen size bed!

FO Friday

I keep forgetting to do my Friday post!

Last week's surprise project was a Baby Surprise Jacket (BSJ) with a matching hat. One of my friends is having a baby and I had never made a BSJ before and the construction technique has always intrigued me so I figured this was a great time to try my hand at it.

The yarn used is some Madelinetosh Vintage. It's a superwash worsted weight wool. I didn't want mom to have to worry about hand washing it if the kid threw up on it. I'm sure she'll have a lot more important things to worry about.



I found some cute buttons at the yarn store to put on this.



Finally, I had some leftover yarn so I decided to make a hat!

WIP Wednesday - 12/19/2012

Along with the Melody's Shawl that I'm actively knitting on and will hopefully finish soon, I've got a few other projects in the works that you HAVEN'T seen yet.

The purple dress is making progress and is now down to my hips


I cast on for my scrappy socks last week. I have so many sock yarn scraps lying around and I have keep having grand plans of making a scrap blanket. You know what? A sock is more realistic. I'll be knitting 1-2 inch sections with scraps. Sections of the foot and leg will not intermingle with the toe and heel so that if any part wears out, I can easily pull the yarn out and reknit. I'm using Judy's Magic Cast On to cast on at the toe and knitting a basic toe up sock. The heel will be short rows.



I also picked back up on a beading projects: Laura McCabe's Treasure Necklace. This was one of the classes I took with Northern VA Bead Society. It's many components which usually get easier as you make more of them. It does take some dedicated time though. It's called Treasure Necklace because these are individual vessels. The crystal rivoli acts as a lid to the little vessel underneath and you can actually put something in it once it's complete!

Yarn Swap Hangover

I went to a yarn swap with the intention of leaving with less yardage than I arrived with. That was unsuccessful. I also came back with a lot of lace weight. And so, I determined that 2013 will involve knitting a lot of shawls. I did give away four shawls last year to family and I'm personally running low on them.

I can't wait to get started. With the rest of December, I'll be working on finishing up some of the existing projects. I've got a few days in Vegas so Melody's Shawl will be the primary project. Five hours on the plane each way is a lot of knitting time!