Market Bag is Complete :)

I finished the market bag on July 9, but I have been lazy about posting it. I really love it. I think it would make a great purse if it were lined and had a little closure added to it, but at the same time, I keep picturing a long baguette sticking out of it. Not sure how I will actually use it yet. The pattern is from Lion Brand's website. I used an H hook and Sugar 'n Cream cotton yarn in Cornflower Blue. I think I want to put an edging in a different color around the handles, but I'm not sure yet. I have also been trying some new and exciting stuff, like fused plastic and duplicate stitch. I will post some pictures as soon as I have them.

Market Bag Update

Well, I have been making good progress on my market bag. Here is the body of the bag. Now all that is left is to crochet the handles.

Unfortunately, my supply of yarn has dwindled to this small little ball.
I was hoping that I would not have to tackle the untangling of the last part of the sweater. I started unraveling it in the dark and made a real mess of things. Note to self: playing with yarn around a campfire is not a good idea, for a number of reasons.
But I did it. I untangled that mess of yarn and now I have enough to complete the market bag.
I started the handle last night, and I love it so much, I might want to make it into a purse instead of a market bag. All it will take is some lining and a closure.

Crochet mania

I haven't been posting very much lately because my internet is not very dependable right now, something I hope to remedy soon. Anyway, I have been in a crochet phase recently. I think it is because I am avoiding my sweater, and if I knit, I would have to work on the sweater :)

Anyway, I crocheted this hacky sack for my honey with embroidery floss and a really small crochet hook. I made up the pattern as I went and I think the size is pretty good.
I stuffed it with aquarium gravel, which gave it a really nice weight and feel.
Then I worked on the March Ravelry square for my afghan CAL. Ok, ok I am a little behind. Oh and by the way, I hate this square. It took me forever to get started. I kept making mistakes. I almost completely gave up, but made myself keep going. The square never actually looked square and now that it's finished, it doesn't sit flat. It's acrylic yarn, so blocking won't help much either. And the color combination is awful. I think I will use this square in the kitchen as a dishcloth :)
Finally, I have started a market bag as part of a CAL. Here is my progess so far, using Sugar and Cream cotton yarn and a size H hook. So far so good :)

P is for Purse

This is the first purse I ever felted. My mom gave me the yarns for a Christmas gift along with the book Pursenalities. The pattern for this purse came from the book. By the way, I love that book. It has a good variety of purse patterns and really great instructions on how to felt.

Anyway, I love this purse, and I use it all the time. It's nice and big, so I can carry my book and my knitting in my purse. And that is a dream come true for me. However, the large size also makes it difficult to find important things like my wallet, cell-phone, keys and lip balm, so I decided to make a lining. Now, my sewing skills are lacking, and I have not used a sewing machine in years, but I still decided to try. I actually bought myself a sewing machine with some of my Christmas money, and this was my first time using it. For the lining, I used an old dress, red and glittery. I even made a pocket for my important items to live in. It is not perfect by any means, but I am very happy with how it turned out.

Also, I finished my CAL square for February last night. Here it is, the two-tone square. It's crocheted in the same colors as the last two squares. I don't really like the second square this month, so I will have to find something myself. This square turned out a little bigger than the other two squares, but that can be fixed later.

Pumpkin Purse

Wow! I have been away for longer than I wanted to be. My computer had a virus. We fought valiantly, and I think we beat it. Yay!!

Anyway, here is the purse that I have been working on recently. I have all of this orange-ish wool and green wool, and looking at the two of them sitting together in my stash made me think of pumpkins. I decided that I wanted to make a felted pumpkin purse. The only tricky part in my mind was making the different sections of the pumpkin actually plump out like they do on real pumpkins. I started and frogged at least three times before finding the magic solution. This purse was knit in sections: six to be exact. Each section incorporates short rows to create the necessary shaping. Then the six sections were joined together to form this:

Time to bring in the green. I decided to knit a green strip to go around the rim of the purse. It will hopefully simulate the green top of the pumkin while also helping the purse to maintain its plump shape which I love so much.Here are the two parts pinned together. I think it looks pretty awesome so far. When I have them sewn together, I want to add some leaves and vines. I was thinking about trying to make the handle look like a leafy vine also, but I have not quite figured out how to make that happen yet.
Oh well, time to put on the thinking hat (and maybe the frogging hat) again.

So Much for Goals....

Back in November, I wrote a post about my new goal of finishing all of my UFOs before starting anything new. Well, I finished my baby gift for Sarah, and I started to finish my granny square purse and stuffed frog, but still working on both projects. Just the fact that I said "started to finish" makes me realize what a lofty goal it is for me to complete all of my UFOs. Anyway, so much for goals. Yesterday, I cast on for a new felted purse. I am creating my own pattern for this one; it has been living in my head for a long time, and I am finally letting it out. I also picked out a sweater pattern, and today I bought some yarn to knit the sweater. Yes, I am officially starting two new projects while at least 4 others sit on the sidelines in various stages of completion :P I will post pictures of all new projects as soon as there is something worth posting :)

Hope everyone is enjoying their holidays. I know I am; I got a Wii for Christmas, and I can barely stop playing long enough to get any knitting done :D Its so much fun!

My New Goals...

My new goal is to finish some of the many projects I have started. I also decided to do some charity knitting.

Here is my first chemo cap. It is knit from a really soft and fuzzy green acrylic yarn, with black eyelash yarn accent. I used a diamond lace pattern that you can't see very clearly.


Here is a close-up of the lace pattern. Not a great picture.


I have decided that the first project I want to complete is my granny square purse. I completed the body of the purse tonight. Here is one side of purse.

Here is the other side. Note the opposite colors in the squares.



Now I just have to make a strap, make a lining, and weave in all the thread ends!!


Whew!! There are a lot of ends to weave in.

2 Bags and a Snake

Here is some of my latest work. I have been busy :) First, my market bag. I crochetd this bag using used plastic grocery bags. I cut the bags into strips and then crocheted them together. I based the bag shape on a paper grocery bag shape. It really does not photograph well, unfortunately.
Here is another shot, filled with groceries. Still did not photograph well :) I do like the colors that came through from the different grocery bags. I will definitely do this again, but will try a different bag shape.
Here is my progress on my granny square purse. I call it autumn sunflowers. This is most of one side of the bag, all sewn together. I am about halfway through the other side and am excited to see how it all turns out when finished.
I am also working on a stuffed rainbow snake. It started out as a skinny scarf with a ruffle on the end. I started knitting with an unidentified yarn that I inherited from a friend of a friend's grandma's stash. Whooh, that's a mouthful :) The yarn didn't look great as a scarf, and my fiancee suggested that I try making it into a snake. So I extended the ruffle to become the head, and I decreased the other end to become the tail. I started stuffing it with polyfil, but it doesn't have the feel that I want, so I think I will add some beans?
Anyway, what do you think of my creations??

Bridal Emergency Kit

Well, I just got back from a little vacation. I drove from Oregon to Illinois for my sister's wedding. It was a busy vacation, and that is why I have not been posting recently. But now, I am back. My fiance and I were both in the wedding. I was the maid of honor, and he was an usher. Our cat traveled with us in the car. Here is a picture of her sitting under the car seat. Her head is sticking out. Isn't she cute?

She was a pretty good passenger, all things considered.

Anyway, my mom found this list of things to include in a bridal emergency kit online and suggested that I put one together for my sister. So I decided to go one step further and I knit a small purse for the kit. I chose white, since she was wearing white, and green, since that was the color of the bridesmaid dresses. I also made the bridesmaids' jewelry, which you can see in an earlier post (http://loca-for-crafts.blogspot.com/2008/07/beaded-flower.html). Here is the bridal emergency kit......

I attached the beaded flower that I had made earlier. Read about that here: http://loca-for-crafts.blogspot.com/2008/07/bridesmaid-jewelry.html
And here is a picture of all the goodies inside. Some of the items are harispray, tissues, hairpins, sewing kit, breathmints, hand wipes, chapstick, hand lotion........ It was pretty stuffed. If I had to do it again, I would make sure to include band-aids. The possibilities are endless.Anyway, the wedding was great. I am originally from Ireland, and a lot of family made the trip to Illinois from Ireland. It was fun to see them all, but I am glad to be home :)

Wonderful Knitting Weekend!!

A few weeks ago, my honey asked me if I would knit him some gloves. I answered, "Of course," although I was very nervous about the prospect. I had never knit gloves before. I did knit mittens once. They did not turn out so well. They are so large that they slip off my hands, and one of them is considerably larger than the other. Yeah, you could say I was nervous about knitting gloves....I mean gloves with five whole fingers!!

But, apparently I have gotten better at knitting since I tried those mittens. I mean, these gloves turned out awesome. I used a yarn from JoAnn Fabrics. My sister gave it to me as a gift. Debbie Mumm Traditions yarn in Chocolate Raspberry. The yarn knit up really nicely. It is so soft and the color change is really neat. And, perhaps the most surprising of all.....the gloves are both the same size, and they fit. Success :)


This weekend was also felting weekend. I threw all my felting projects in the washer with some awesome Kookaburra soap and off we went.....Here are all my felting projects drying in the sun. Well, actually there was no sun, but they dried outside.

There's 4 cat toys waiting to be stuffed with stuffing and catnip, a small purse that needs to be shaved a little, a remote control holder pouch thingy of my own design, and a bright green frog waiting to be stuffed.

Hopefully, he will look more like a frog when he is finished. I plan to use some felt to make his bulging eyes look more like eyes. He obviously needs to be stuffed, and I plan to sew his feet and hands so that they look more webbed-like.

Altogether, it was a wonderful knitting weekend :P

Ribbon Yarn Purse is Complete :)

Ta Da!! I finished my ribbon yarn purse. It was knit in Lion Brand Incredible ribbon yarn. The color is Autumn Leaves. I like the color a lot and I like how the purse knit. The pattern was really easy to follow and it was easy to shape. I got it from the book Knitting with Ribbon Yarn by Tracy Chapman.

I used different size needles than the pattern called for. I used size 8 and 10 aluminum needles. There is something about metal needles that I really like. I think it is because I used them when I was younger.

I'm not sure that I like the twisted cord handles on the purse. They seem wimpy for the purse. If I ever knit this style again, I would change the handles to something more substantial.

This is a fun book...some really fun accessory projects. There is a cool flower pattern pillow I would like to try sometime. And, surprisingly, ribbon yarn was fun and easy to knit with (I was not expecting that).