Charming Handbag

After an unsuccessful attempt* at sewing myself a yoga mat tote bag** I decided to sew something else, namely, the Charming Handbag from “Bend-the-rules Sewing” by Amy Karol.

First, I cut up all the pieces

The outside fabric is from the Echino collection by Etsuko Furuya and the lining is by Amy Butler.

Then I pinned it all together to get an idea of how the finished product would look

I sewed up everything in 2 times. It was a pain because my machine isn’t working very well, either through machine trouble or user error. I’m really thinking I need to get it checked! You can’t imagine how much thread I wasted due to having to restart all the time. And, to add insult to injury, on my last seam I ran out of the lower bobbin thread and had to stop and fill that up before I could totally finish…

But it is now done. My stitches are all crooked and my seams are crooked but overall it looks ok. Now don’t go and look at close ups of the seams!

Sitting pretty in the sun

Here you can see one of the two pockets I added in the lining

I just love this fabric!

I’ll be using this bag as a knitting bag. It fits perfectly a sock project but it is big enough for a bigger project, not that I knit anything else than socks anyways…

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* I cut up my main piece of fabric and decided to try it for fit around my new yoga mat (I’m guessing someone smart would have tried before cutting). I then realized that the material of the yoga mat (terry cloth-ish) was sticking like velcro to my fabric and that I could never use the two together. Every other fabric I tried acted the same way.

** I started going to a yoga class with a friend. I’ve been three times already and I quite enjoy it. I went once to Pilates and enjoyed it too. Sadly I won’t be able to go back for another 6 weeks because I am starting a quilting class next week that falls at the same time as the Pilates class. But I’ll be back to class at the end of April!

Belated FO post – subject: Firestarter socks

Way back in September, I joined the Firestarter KAL with the goal to knit a pair of Firestarter socks, a beautiful pattern by Yarnissima. With the beginning of the KAL, the first sock was done fairly quickly in less than 2 weeks. Time passed and other socks were knit. A few months passed before the second Firestarter sock made its way into the rotation but soon after that, I had a completed mate and another pair of socks.

Stats
Sock #1 was knit between September 21 and October 1 2007. Sock #2 was knit between February 2 and February 14 2008.
Yarn: Phoenix Fiberworks colorway Nymph
Pattern: Firestarter socks by Yarnissima
Mods: one less repeat of the twisted stitches on the foot because of my row gauge. Also I didn’t knit them quite as long in the leg and I didn’t change needle sizes on the leg, although I think that would have been a good idea.

I enjoyed knitting these socks a lot. Figuring out the twisted stitches was a bit daunting at first but I figured it out quickly enough. Knitting my second Snicket sock after that was a walk in the park, no more need to use a cable needle! It was also my first time doing a toe-up with gusset sock so that was a learning experience too. I wont be afraid of doing more twisted stitches pattern and actually look forward to it. There are quite a few out there that are very pretty…

I haven’t worn these socks yet except for a few hours after finishing them. I’ve noticed that they slouch a bit but I think that wont be too much of a problem.

The color of the yarn is really fun and bright, I’m really looking forward to wearing them this spring with my pink crocs! : )

Spinning Monday

I haven’t worked much on last week’s fiber, although I think I’ve spun about half of it now. So instead of showing you the same bobbin again with just a bit more yarn I’ll show you what I could possibly be spinning next month.

This is a Grafton Fibers Corriedale batt that I bought last year at some Sheep & Wool festival. (Yay! Sheep & Wool season is coming up soon!) I’ve never spun out of a batt yet and am unsure as to the preparation. I’m guessing that since the colors are pretty much all blended up together I could just tear it in strips and spin those up one after the other. Do let me know if I should be doing something else!

I’m not officially participating in this year’s Project Spectrum but I notice that between my Sangria socks and this batt I’m well into this month’s theme (FEBRUARY / MARCH – FIRE – orange, red, pink).

I will keep spinning  the Lavender roving until all of it is on bobbins. But I might wait until I can have someone show me the Navajo plying until I do anything else with it. But I look forward to starting spinning the Grafton Fibers batt.

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I must post about my latest FO, my Firestarter socks… they’ve been done for a few weeks now but there’s always something else to post about. Hopefully next time!

May Day Sock Swap

After 2 fairly successful sock swaps (Sockapalooza and Monkey Sock) I’ve decided to join my 3rd sock swap. This one is organized by Lynne and Emily (who just had a baby!) and is named May Day Sock Swap.

This swap is a fairly small swap and is a secret swap so I wont tell you much about my pal’s preferences in case she comes and visits!

I’ve already chosen the yarn for her socks but am still debating on the pattern. The yarn I picked is Schaefer Lola in this gorgeous purple/burgundy colorway.

The pattern I’m thinking of knitting is the Red Dwarf socks by Turtlegirl. I think they’ll go together well.

I’ve cast on for a practice pair of Red Dwarf socks for myself with this gorgeous yarn that is Hand Maiden Casbah in Sangria.

I’m loving how it looks so far and the pattern is super fast and easy. In no time I had 2 repeats done.

The Casbah is a gorgeous yarn to knit with and I’m loving the fact that I can knit it up on 3.25mm. It makes a big difference when you’re used to knitting everything on 2.5mm!

For those wanting some of their own Lola or Casbah, both of them will be available at yarn4socks  on the next update on Sunday 24 at 9pm est.

Spinning Monday

Here are a couple pictures of what I am currently spinning. I started it about a couple weeks ago but haven’t touched it much since. I’m hoping to get a bit more spinning on it this week.

This roving is a total mystery to me. I have no idea what the fiber is and where it came from. I think someone gave it to me when I had just started spinning and there was no information with it. So I’ll just call it “The Lavender roving of unknown provenance” or L-RUP for short.

You can’t really tell in this picture but the roving is not only lavender but also light blue and pink. I think you can see it a bit better here. The darker purple to the left of the bobbin is what I used as a lead (I think that is what it is called).

I’m trying to spin a uniformly (or more uniformly) thick single here. The fiber spins very easily so I’m not having too much of a hard time doing so.

I forgot to weight the whole pile of roving before starting with it but I probably have something like 4 oz. When I’m done with the single I’m debating whether to leave it as a single or try figuring out navajo plying with it.

On a side note. Last week I finally managed to go for the first time to The Fiber Loft in Harvard. I was in the general area and made a special detour to go there. I really wanted to buy a niddy noddy and I even had made sure to check their schedule to see if they were open… Guess what, they were closed… Bummer.

Anyone know of another spinning store in the Boston area?

ETA: I found Mind’s Eye Yarns in Cambridge

If you had to choose for Valentine’s day…

What would you pick?

These are questions DH was asking me this morning while on our way to the train station. This whole discussion was triggered by a commercial on the radio:

DH: Between a puppy and candy?
Me: Candy

DH: Between yarn and a niddy-noddy?
Me: A niddy-noddy (I need a full size one in a bad way)

DH: Between a travel spinning wheel and a subscription to a sock club?
Me: ??????????

How can you possibly decide!

And just because it’s always prettier with a picture.

Spinning Monday

Before my move I told you about this roving I had spun up from a Perchance to Knit roving.

I bought this off of a destash sale she did about a year ago. It was 2.8oz of Corriedale in an unknown colorway which I’ll name “Retro”. It’s a mix of silver, yellow, orange and brown.
I started spinning it in June 2007 and finished spinning it this January.

I got about 220 yards of yarn with it and I’m pretty sure that if I’d had a full 4oz of the roving I would have enough for a pair of socks. Although I’m not sure I’d knit socks out of my handspun quite yet.

I think that it would have been a great candidate for Navajo plying but I don’t know the technique yet so I just plied the 2 strands together. This is what it looks like now.

It’s not my typical colors but I like the fun and retro-ness of it.

I can’t for the life of me manage to make the nice little piles like  Alyson does, even after she explained to me how she did it…

I’ve already started spinning my February fiber but I’ll keep it to show you next Monday!

Does this count as a sock?

A couple a weeks ago I agreed to test some yarn for Perfect Day Yarns and about a week ago I received these cute little samples to work with

We could knit anything we wanted with the yarn but I didn’t want to do a plain square. On my desk I saw this lying around waiting to be put away and I thought that I’d give it a try.

After a bit of knitting, this is what I came up with:

Isn’t that the cutest little sock? I love how it looks like the yarn is self striping at this size. Anything bigger and it would look a lot different.

Sadly, it is just too small for the key chain sock blocker. I guess I will just have to try again!

I’m back!

After over a week of silence I’m finally back on the Internet and in blogland.

The move went well. It took us forever but we got everything in the new apartment. It’s still a mess but it looks more like home everyday. The first thing I did was to make an appointment for the cable guy to come. He couldn’t come until yesterday… So for a week I was off of TV and Internet, ugh, that was tough. But I got a lot of unpacking done!

I didn’t get any knitting done for the first few days but last Wednesday I started working on my Snowflake Lace sock and got it done a few days later.

You’ll have to forgive me the flash but it’s really dark today and I can’t get a decent photograph otherwise.

I found the pattern easy enough. You just have to remember your yarn overs! I never tried to remember the whole 12 row repeat, but I got the hang of each row pretty quickly.

As soon as I bound off I cast on for the oldest mate-less sock in the pile. This would be my Firestarter socks that I knit back in September as part of the KAL. The pattern is going super fast this time as I’ve gotten used to twisted and traveling stitches.

I’m almost done with the gusset and should be turning the heel in no time. I’m really looking forward to wearing them, I think they’re the brightest socks in the stash.

Note: The yarn I used for the Snowflake socks is Lotus Yarns Aura in Walking with a Ghost and the yarn I used for the Firestarter socks is Phoenix Fiberworks in Nymph.

I just realized I never posted the sock I finished a couple weeks ago.

This is the January pattern for the Sockamania KAL “New Year socks”. I am knitting this pair for my M-I-L. I’m really lucky that she has the same size feet as me, just a tad bit wider so it makes it really easy for the sizing. The yarn I used is from One Sheep Hill a yarn I believe is exclusive to Yarnzilla. I won it about a year back on Flint Knits’ blog and it had been waiting for the perfect pattern until now. Now, I’m really hoping this yarn is superwash as my mother in law will not hand wash these socks…

So this is where things are at this point in time. I’m trying to catch up on work, moving in, blog reading and doing my own blogging. I guess I need a nap now! : )