Bags, bags, bags!!

Ok, I'm officially bag crazy! I love these felted bags. It's a quick project with a really cute end product and I feel like I've actually done something with my time. I finished the bag part of the one for my older sister, it's the same colors as the last one I made, but it's mainly the ganet color since there was the most of that left. I also got the yarn in for the one for my little sister. She wanted grey and green. The colors are very pretty, but there's not much contrast. I'm a little worried about how well the stripes will show up. But, if she doesn't like it I can always keep it around for an auction my friend wants to have to benefit another friend's assistance dogs. The yarn is also bulky weight, I thought it was worsted. I guess it will make the bag a little bigger, but I'm working on the same size needles and the pattern does call for either worsted or bulky. I can just let it go another cycle in the washing machine and it should shrink down to the same size.

Once I finish the straps on my older sisters bag, I'm going to felt it and post more pictures.

NY trip

First off, here's my finished felted bag:


I love it and already have some requests from my sisters! Anything to keep me knitting! I can't believe how much it shrunk.

I've been in NY for a week visiting family and planning my wedding. I managed to squeeze in time to get the craft barter quilt pinned. I think it's absolutely gorgeous (I'm a little biased, you'll have to judge for yourself). I'm tempted to make something similar for myself. But I've got lots of other quilting projects to do first!
I just have to tie it and put the binding on. I'm going to use pearl cotton to tie it and the binding will be the same black that's used for the outer border. It should be done soon, but the 100 degree weather may slow me down a little. Who wants to have a huge quilt (super queen) sitting on their lap to tie in the dead of the summer? But I do really want to finish. This may be a time for air conditioning to come to the rescue.

Felted Bag WooHoo!!

Here's the first hat and scarf I made. Very simple scarf, just garter stitch. And the hat was a simple knit two, purl two ribbing.
I've been having tons of fun with the felted bag I'm making. It's almost done. I've got it drying right now.
This is what it looked like prefelting with a close up of the corner detail:














The felting process didn't take too long. I just put the bag and straps in with nothing else and after 4 agitation cycles it looked like it was felted enough. I'm blocking it right now and it will probably take a little while to dry. I was hoping it would be done by the time I left to see my family so I could show it off a little. But, I doubt it will be. I had a hard time finding the perfect sized boxes to fit inside. But I found a few boxes to fill it out pretty well. Here's what it looks like drying:
It had to be trimmed cause the mohair was crazy. I still need to trim the inside, but that can wait. It's adorable! I can't wait to use it. It's a nice purse size, but I have to see how practical it will be.

Blue and white quilt, take two

Well, looky here, it works! Here's my blue and white quilt that I'm making for myself and my hubby. I need to get backing material and layer it and then I'll quilt it by hand. That will take a while and I don't think that I'll have any desire to do it in the middle of the summer.

I'm excited to take picture of all my projects now and post them. I finished surprise project #2 a few nights ago (I can't post pictures of that until I give it to the person it's a surprise for). I've got two more surprise projects to go, but they're on hold for a little bit. It's the same pattern over and over again with different yarn. So, I'm going to make a felted bag. It's the My Little Companion one from Knit Kits or something like that. I'm a little disappointed with the instructions, but I love the yarn (Brown Sheep, Lamb's Pride). It just has the most beautiful sheen. I finished the bottom of the bag last night at our local S&B, and this morning I learned how to pick up stitches around the edges to start the body of the bag. I'll post pictures as I go along.

Blue and White quilt

WooHoo! I just realized how to publish pictures on this thing. Let's give it a try. Here's a picture of the blue and white quilt I'm making for me and my husband. Well, nevermind, that doesn't seem to be working for me. Damn Mac's.

First 8K

I ran my very first 8K yesterday. That's almost 5 miles! I did absolutely horrible and finished with a time of 52 minutes (place 316 out of 408). I'm a very slow runner and I've never really cared about it, but I'm starting to get a bit more serious and would like to actually finish with respectable times. Maybe one day, but I'm not thinking it will happen any time soon! No matter how slow I was, it was a good distraction from eating my way through the 4th of July.

I spent the rest of the day working on my knitting surprise project #2. I would really like to finish that so I can start making a felted bag that requires the same size circular needles. All day Sunday was spent working on my craft barter project where I'm making a quilt for a friend who's knitting me a sweater. I've got the top pieced except for the borders. It's going to be tied so it should not be too much longer til it's finished (but I've been saying that since I started). I don't nkow what quilt project to do after that. I think I'll work on finishing a blue and white quilt I started for me and my husband. I didn't have quite enough backing material (like a quarter of an inch short) and I thought I could cover it with the binding. But with all the effort that I put into that quilt, I'm not going to do a bad job on the backing. I'll have to unpin it and go buy some nice backing material.