A Sheep, Swap and Felted misfortunes.

It's the year of the sheep/goat!  That means it should be a good year for knitters right??  One of the best things ever happened to me during the year of the goat 2 cycles ago... the Angie was born!!  If she was born when she was due, she would have been a monkey, but since she was a month early, she's a goat.  Really it fits her hard head better!  (She's a Capricorn - so double hard head whammy)

I was in a card swap in the Tiny Owl Knits group on Ravelry - here's the cute card I got, yarn that will become a hexi and some tea to try!



I'm also in a Chinese New Year's swap in the same group.. alas I haven't gotten my package yet, I'll post when I do.  I made a crocheted sheep to send my swappee - 



He's from the now defunct knit.1 magazine from 2008!!  There were patterns for all the zodiac animals in that issue - still haven't made my horse!!

We were also supposed to send handmade fortune cookies.  I used Patton wool - I've used that successfully before - but then again I usually felt bags or slippers.  I also usually felt with jeans - but since the yarn was light colored I thought that blueish fortune cookies might seem weird so I put them in mesh bags to protect them from lint and threw them in with towels.  I also used to felt with a top loader and these were done with a front loader machine.  Either way I had issues!





I knit a round and I crocheted a round, both were very loose going in (loose fabric felts better)  they weren't even close to round coming out and pieces of the edges fused in weird pleated ways.



These were after I attempted to get them round again while they were wet before they dried.  I then tried steam blocking them round.. it helped a little, in a amputating your foot is better than amputating your lower leg kind of way..



I finally realized that one of the beauties of felting is that you can cut the item without it unraveling. SO I used a DVD to trace out a circle, and cut them.



When I was finally ready to assemble them, I realized the white ribbon I was going to use for the fortunes was wired edged, apparently all my solid color ribbon except black was wired edged.  SO I used red construction paper for the fortunes - red is the lucky New Year's color anyway!



My swappee seems to really like the package I sent her - so all turned out good!

Clue 1 is tomorrow!

The colors came out awful.  The top right is a bit purplier (without being purple) The bottom right is a deep dark blackberry purple.  The center bottom is more of a golden/camel tan, the top center is a dark chocolate.  The bottom is more of a darker sage, and the top left is a much lighter shade of the same green.  Hopefully as the project progresses I will get some daytime pictures.  I still need to make sure I have the right needles (don't know why I didn't check that before... aw geez, may have to hit an LYS... geez...)  

This is another she-knits KAL  for Kimmy, a slip stitch color work messenger shaped bag.  I love Sharon Dreiffus's bags ( I usually don't do mystery KAL because it can turn out to be a lot of work for a disappointing finished object.  But Sharon hasn't let me down yet!)  It is supposed to be all bulky weight yarn, which will be felted when done.  I didn't want to spend the $65 on Sharon's kit this time ( all the dorm shopping has made a dent in my wallet) so I went with knit picks instead.  I couldn't get the light green or purple I want in their bulky, but I have in previous felted projects, mixed 2 strands of their worsted with their bulky and it felted to an even fabric, so I went that route.

She has another simultaneous KAL going on for Sammy, a bag with I think it sounds like organizer pockets.  I bought both patterns together (cheaper that way)  but, haven't bought yarn for Sammy yet.  I want a variegated dark blue yarn.  It uses 3 skeins variegated/heathered/nonsolid bulky yarn, 2 of a solid mathcing bulky and 1 of another solid.  I want a REALLY deep blue bag.  I am leaning toward Aruncania, but that seems like a waste to felt! I MAY  do a swatch with some leftover Aruncania and some leftover knit picks bulky. and felt it.  If it felts together well, I may get 3 skeins of A from Webs, and the other 3 from Knit picks.

Until tomorrow - Happy Knitting! 

Rats, Triscuits, Socks, Aphrodite

 I am slowly, very slowly coming out of my knitting funk.  Can I blame  my phone?  The ability to check out Ravelry, Twitter and IM during my lunch hour seriously encroaches on lunchtime knitting.  Not to mention Sudoku at my finger tips.  It's kind of ironic that the more time I spend on Ravelry, the less time I have for knitting.

I did knock out a few projects recently though.  As some of you may know Felix Jung recently lost his big brother Ocs.  Since I spent time in Philly visiting with his mom, Min last week I thought I would bring him a couple of toys.  First his "Triscuit" (Its supposed to be a mouse, but I don't think so)



Since I wasn't happy with the Triscuit, I decided to use Wendy Johnson's pattern for a felted mouse.  Which I think came out more like a rat.  I knew I had a winner when I pulled it out of the washing machine at the laundromat , by the tail , and the woman who worked there screamed!  Yes!!




The funnel is to stuff the rat's ass with catnip.

Here's a pic of Fe sleeping it off after:


I also finished my first sock and started my second last week.



And I finally started working on my VJAC afghan - after receiving my starter squares in February! I know leave it to me to wait for a heat wave to start an afghan! 

Oh, and I also am almost done with a "minion" just need bigger googly eyes.  And I made a Angel/Dunkin Donuts inspired Valkyrie.  ( Angie's room is Dunkn Donuts Pink and Dunkin Donuts Orange - a fact she didn't realize until later) Both of these projects are crochet.

You Are Aphrodite!

A total shining star with a ton of admirers And no wonder: you live life to the fullest! When things get bad, you can easily take off to a happier place But occasionally, you need to deal with problems head on

What Goddess Are You?

Blogthings: We'll Tell You The Truth... Someone Has To!

   

Ravelympics Update

The Olympics have been going on for a week now, so I figure it's time for an update on my project for the Ravelympics.  I will admit that I am spending most of my knitting time on my Shoshie shawlette.  It is the project I was most nervous about finishing, but I now think I can have it finished today and blocking tomorrow!

 

I broke my crochet hook that I use to put the beads on my loops, and that slowed me down a little bit - so much for steel huh?

I did work on my felted bowl at lunchtime Mon-Wed  I am on the sides (doubling the yarn there since I am making them higher than the original pattern.)  I want to be finished by Monday so that I can felt it when I go do laundry on Monday.  I figure I can finish it up tomorrow while watching the race at Fontana- it's nice and circular so mindless knit stitches. 

 

 

 After I broke my hook, I worked on my second snowflake mitt to get it started until I got a new hook.  I'm not worried about finishing, mitts go fast even when there is colorwork involved!

 

Why does it take so long to dry?

My autumn is felted and drying.  I still have to futz with the braid.

Another Creepy Cute Crochet!

 

Meet the Vampyre Queen!  My latest evil minion!   You have no idea how hard her hair was to do!!

Here she is before assembly:

I am FINALLY ready to felt my Autumn ( the name of the mystery bag I was making) YAY!  I made a whole bunch of changes near the end, but of course I am prone to that.  I added a side cell/glasses pocket, 2 other interior pockets on the long side, and decided I didn't like the way the Eco-alpaca scarf bunched up in the "belt" loops.  A few other knitters posted on the Rav group that they had made a second i-cord braid to go through the loops.  I liked the way that looked a lot better.  SO last night I whipped out three i-cords and braided them.  I guess the scarf will be a scarf! LOL

The back & outer pocket of the bag (yes only I post the back first)

The front of the bag.

Really bad picture of the interior pockets!

So now it's off to the washing machine for felting!  I can't wait to see how it comes out!  I've done a lot of felting, but it is an inexact science to be sure, so even though I think I know how it will come out, only the washer knows for sure!  Pic's of the finished bag in a few days!!

Project Updates

I have revived my dumpling bag.  It was relegated to the almost done pile, because I wasn't happy with how the vine looked after felting.  I recently saw several dumpling bags that were embroidered after felting, and they looked good.  So I thought about it, and I bought the heaviest embroidery floss that AC Moore and Michaels carry.  I got gold, black and white,  I think I'm only going to use the gold and white. 



I went over the vines with the gold.  I tried out french knots with the white and wasn't happy.  I then tried a funny three petaled flower with a beaded french knot in the center.  So eventually the bag will be done.

My mystery bag has all 4 sides done- I need to knit the top and do a icord bind off and seam the sides, then I'll be ready for the final clue.  I did cheat a little and wove all the ends in ( which I'm assuming is in clue 5 somewhere. )  One of the KAL participants had mentioned that it would be easier when the bag was flat.  Also that the stem stitch embroidery  was easier.  I don't have a picture of the stem stitch outline and veining on the leaf.







Look how many ends I wove in!!

Pictures

Ok it's 4:38 I should be at work. We have a big ice storm here, but I usually don't let weather bother me. Well after 10 minutes I only chipped out a hole the size of my hand in the ice on my car. Not to mention I had to walk on the grass as the crunchiness gave it some traction. I was actually bracing my foot on the tire while chipping, and as I park on a slight hill, I'm not sure how to avoid sliding away from the car on that side. And there's the issue of my street is a serious hill, my driveway is a serious uphill. and there are 2 hard turns on downhills between me and I-80. At 3:30 I can hear the cars on the highway and that sounds clear- but I have to get there first. So I decided f this and called and told them I'd come in between 9:30 and 10 and stay until 3. Never was late for snow, but screw this ice.

Now the pics. This is actually a glass pendant bead I'm using for the button on my tony bag.



And here's the finished bag:



I also finished weaving in the ends off my stole and doing the single crochet border. Now it just needs blocking.



It came out a bit wider than I anticipated, so I'm a little nervous about it turning into a blanket when blocked.

Knitting updates

Ok, the squatty bag is drying and still needs a button. I like the way the V came out not totally in love with the black on the handle.



Here's the dumpling bag- just has to dry so I can put the white in and it'll be good to go, and hopefully by that time I'll take a better picture!



And I'm on the last skein of Noro Taiyo for my wrap.



I really love how it's coming out.

Felting updates

I needed a new bag in red - since Tony went from orange to red. So using the trusty Amanda's squatty bag from knitting daily I added in the black V.



I was going to use a black and white button, but when I was in Michael's today I saw some really beautiful red/black/white glass pendant beads. So I guess it depends on how big the loop felts up.


I also redid the dumpling bag from Fall 2008 Interweave knits. I didn't have the yarn called for, but I went with 2 stands of cascade 220 and one strand of lion wool. I also went up one needle size to 15. I used some thick shell rings that I really hope survive the felting process. To echo the 49er colors, I made the viney thing in goldenrod.



I was also going to through some white on as well, but while having coffee and dessert at Mara's with Grace this afternoon, I had expressed my concern that it would turn pink. She suggested I try the yarns in hot water together before felting. So I took the little snips of red and black out of the garbage and nuked them for 1 minute with some hot water and a piece of the white yarn




As you can see it did turn pink. A pretty shade of pink, but pink none the less. Pink - while appropriate on a Dallas Cowboy inspired bag, is not appropriate on a 49er bag. So I pulled out all the white, and will come back and make white french knots after the felting has dried.


Yes, I went to Mara's and had the most wonderful hazelnut mousse cake you can imagine. With what has quickly evolved into my favorite Mara's drink a large Cafe Dulce.. Yum. As usual I was late, and forgot to bring actual knitting. Grace was working on what I assumed would be a shawl in Noro sock. The way the colors were working together with 2 strands together was wonderful. i especially liked when the purple started lining up with the gold, gorgeous. I just love Noro's colorways, and Grace can make a gorgeous shawl out of twine I think.

Curt went out bowling, and Angel had been out with her fencing friends. I think after 7 days together ( ok Angie has been in and out with practice and a tournament and hanging with her friends) we just needed an afternoon away from each other! currently Angie is putting everything away in her room after "THE PAINT JOB" Before and after pictures will be posted probably this weekend.

Off to Shop Rite for ingredients for New Year's Eve. I'm looking at it as I survived 2008 yay! 2009 has just got to be better... right? ....... right?

Tony's doing Jailtime

Ok, now that I have your attention. it's a jail and bail fundraiser the Brienne Davis foundation scholarship fund. She was the Nascar official killed last April in an auto accident. The scholarship is for a $10,000 scholarship awarded yearly to a promising female to attend nascar Tech. Juan Pablo Montoya, David Stremme, Ron Hornaday, Aric Amirola, Ricky Stenhouse and Michael McDowell also participated.

On to other stuff. As you can see I'm posting really early today. yes, I am already home from work. Yay! I already took care of my appointment I left for and Angie is off from school for the holiday which makes it pretty cool. So we'll be hanging out all day, other than getting our nails done, I'm not sure what she wants to do. She is still in her coma so I can't ask her until later.

have to take pre-felting pics. i needed a break from the ripple ghan from hell, so i knocked out 2 of the dumpling bags from the last issue of Interweave Knits. I did one in a dark red and one in black. i still have to do the embroidery part before I can felt them though. I am STILL waiting on my Malabrigo yarn which supposedly shipped out on Friday. Jeepers, and I just realized I'm not actually sure if the postal service is working today due to the holiday. Arrrghhhhhhhh. I ordered yarn from a dyer in Morristown over the weekend, so I think she posted on her blog, she was mailing them out on Monday - That's not here yet either ( even though there are definitely 3 pairs of socks ahead of that sock yarn I want it in my greedy little paws.)

How odd is this, I was at the executive board meeting (hee hee hee) of the fencing booster club last night ( yes me, hee hee hee). It was a last minute thing, because since the general meeting was cancelled last month due to the Jewsh holiday, we needed to meet up before the winter sports kick off meeting next week. Since it was last minute, we couldn't reserve a room at the school so we had it at Applebees. Let me tell you a Sam Adams oktoberfest makes it much easier to make it through one of those. but I digress - The treasurer saw my bag ( which I've been using for a year now) and asked if i made it. She then told me her niece works in one of the yarn stores in Montclair but couldn't remember which one. Of course I've been dying to go to both stores I know of, but A) need to find time B) need to find them w/o getting lost C) need some $$. Sigh.....

Well. I'm hungry. Maybe the smells of breakfast will wake the dead (angie)

Ria

I hate that D^## Tote!

I really hate this tote. I threw it in the washer to felt. It did absolutely nothing the first full wash cycle. i set it on a second, it shrunk. But it got all wonky. The bottom of the tote felted a lot tighter than the top of the bag, giving it a fluted appearance. I 'm not sure what I'm going to do, see if i can sew it a bit to get the shape better? Or as you can see in the photo below, maybe cut it into two bags?
I have been thinking about trying out needle felting for embellishments. If I made 2 bags from the one tote i could experiment a little.
This is the tote before felting on my exercise ball (does that count as using the ball?)
If you look very carefully just a hair right to the center of this picture you will see it looks like the color of the wool changes. See it? This was not a dye lot screw up. It was actually about 8 or 9 inches after I had changed skeins, so it was mid-skein. I don't know why that was, and I figured I was felting it, I figured it would blend. but now, I wonder, that was the top 7 inches of the tote. I wonder if the weird colored yarn felted less than the "normal" yarn?

If anyone reading this post has any experience felting Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool, i'd appreciate a comment. I have felted many bags and never had this type of issue.

I am going to finish this D^%% Bag

I have been working on a felted tote for what seems like forever! to be honest I only work on it a couple days a week on lunch, and as it has been hot lately, playing with a large piece of wool is not quite so attractive. So my socks keep getting the attention. I am however only 4 inches away from being able to seam t up and felt. So I brought it inside from my car, and I am determined to finish knitting it this week!! Preferably before I do laundry next. I just need to stop playing on Ravelry long enough to actually knit!!