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!

Remote Control Caddy

Here is my remote control caddy. I am not sure what to call it, so I am calling it a caddy. After the felting this past weekend, I sewed the main pouch into three compartments for my three main remote controls.

I just knit an extra wide scarf. I reversed the stockinette stitch for the bottom part, so that the folded pouch would have a right side out also. Then I felted. The other end just folds over the side of the chair and under the seat cushion. And voila!!

I am so happy I did a felted gauge swatch. It worked out perfectly, and my measurements and estimated change in size due to felting were also perfect. It fits all three remotes, and the felting makes it sturdy enough to hold their weight.

You can see my kitty got into the picture, too. She just can't resist a photo opp. :)

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

Felted Cat Toy

This is one of my favorite things to knit. I created the pattern myself. Its super easy, and I can knit a bunch of them in one night. Basically the toy is carrot-shaped. It was originally supposed to look like a mouse, and the first one I knit had an attempt at embroidered eyes and mouth. I even knit little ears. Then I realized that my cat doesn't care if the toy really looks like a mouse or not. She just wants it stuffed with catnip, so I stuff with a mixture of polyfil and really good catnip.



Man, does she love this toy!!!

She prefers natural yarns, and she really likes when I felt the toys, so that's what I do. I knit the toy on straight needles and just sew up the seam before felting, leaving a little spot for stuffing. Then after felting, I stuff with polyfil and catnip, sew it up and leave the ends of the yarn dangling like a tail. Those ends can also be used when playing with the toy, making it much more fun.

Maybe I did use a little too much catnip. Kitty looks wasted!!! :P

The Frog 2

Just a couple of days ago, I finished knitting the frog. I think that the head was the most difficult part to figure out. I could not figure out what shape to use for the head. I settled on a shape with two eyes bulging from the top of his head. I will finish them with white and black circles to make them really look like eyes.













The head, arms and legs were all knit flat and then sewed together. The body I knit in the round on dpns.


Now the whole thing gets felted, then stuffed when he is dry. I am pretty happy with how he looks so far.


Meanwhile I have started a new project. I got a great deal on some ribbon yarn, which I have never knit with before. I found a book at the library all about knitting with ribbon yarn and chose a cute purse pattern. I am modifying the design just a little. The original design calls for beads that are knitted in the purse in a geometric pattern. I have decided to leave those out and add some beaded embellishment after the purse is completed. Here is a picture of how the knitting is progressing. I really like how the colors are coming out in the ribbon yarn. Its actually really fun to knit with.







I am looking forward to the finished purse.

Since the frog is ready for felting, this will be a felting weekend. I have a number of projects just waiting for felting day to arrive. I love felting, and I am excited to see how it all turns out. :)