Category: handmade

update: i’ve fixed some broken links and tomorrow may edit this … it’s my blog, i can do that if I want to.

Ok. Let’s see. Not everything has recently been ripped but i’ve come close…

Last week I finished:

half of a Saturday Market Bag for B who turned 11 last week. She’s 11 and I decided she didn’t need the full thing. It’s just over one ball of Sugar n Cream. I have two more so I’ll either be making her mum or mine one.

This week I “finished” the beginning prototype (aka huge swatch). I made this in acrylic b/c that’s all I have lying around. Trust me, I DETEST what it is made of and what it is. I wish I had huge stashed of cotton and wool everywhere, but I don’t. (I’m slowly slowly acquiring). I really like this bag (size small, in red or khaki) and this one (size small in olive or grey) [tho i wish both were available in other colors, such as forest green or periwinkle blue (i think) or dark brown] but can’t quite justify another bag purchase after buying this great bag last January. if I want it, I have to put lots of effort into making it. Since my Singer is in pieces it must be knit or crochet. My ultimate goal is to knit it in cottons or some blend — I want it to be able to be abused and still look halfway decent. I don’t want to spend tons of money on yarns. Anyway. I made the strap too long and it stretched — on Monday had an adventure at work shortening it. (I have a picture somewhere I need to upload). I have yet to weave in any ends and I just untied my knot and seperated my bindoff seam and ripped back about 10 inches. I then had a massive problem. I have a small “emergency” stash of crochet hooks but wanted to do the three needle bindoff b/c I thought it was really cool. Thus: 2 very sharpened pencils and the crochet hook (and I think a sock needle which is what I had with me) can indeed perform a 3-needle bindoff. I don’t recommend using them for general knitting but they uhm work! Anyway .. the bag is a bit too small in depth and the next one i’ll make bigger but it’s getting there. I’m pretty happy with how it’s behaving. I washed it today so now it’s nice and super soft. :) There are a large pile of “mods” and “addons” I still want to do with the bag. It’s kinda fun. Maybe at the end I’ll finally have my *perfect* one bag.

yesterday I actually swatched and then caston for a baby sweater of Bernat cottontots. I swatched but didn’t measure it. I don’t have the recommended needles. I first tried the 7s as i believe i knit tight. hah hah ! i’m no where near gauge. that didn’t stop me yesterday from knitting a good solid 10 rows of the back. Tonight I looked at it and recast on with 5’s. Which is good because now I’m closer to gauge *and* they are circs so hopefully the ends won’t pop off my dpns! We’ll see how it goes. I figure babies grow so fast it’s ok if it’s a bit big for a while, right? Hopefully next week I’ll have something to show besides three rows of knit.

My sock hasn’t had a good deal of TLC lately. I’m worried about the baby sweater and have been tweaking my bag a good deal. [I forgot to provide room for a sock? what wasn’t I thinking?]. Hopefully next week will be better.

Two last bits of candyshop news:
1) I went to Seaport Monday after work. I am very happy they only take cash or personal checks in person and that I only had $15 in my wallet. After much debate I bought a nice set of dpns from Brittany (US 1.5 what a weird size!) — I almost bought the Bryson, but they don’t go down to the size 1s. I think I’ll probably have to frog what I’m working on or just cast on for another sock on our upcoming trip. No one had US1’s … the Brysons are droolworthy but we’ll see how I do with these Brittanys. I just wish their packaging was a bit nicer.

2) Last week I said that the Brooklyn Craft fair was that upcoming Sunday. We all know that I can’t tell time and don’t really read! it’s THIS sunday and I’ve been promised that we can go to The Yarn Tree after and drool at stuff (and maybe just maybe buy some roving to play with).

Ugg. This post is much more meandering than I want. I didn’t sit to start to write it until an hour ago — even though I have spent the past week thinking about what to write. Sorry! I am going to post it in all its embarassing glory (see I didn’t even fix the style sheet for nicer image placement) as a reminder for me to write early, write often, and rewrite.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve actually put some real “of substance” knitting updates here.

Let’s see…

I’ll start backwards.

(Note: many of these are camera phone pics. I have a very OLD camera phone, and it’s slowly falling apart so maybe soon better camera phone pics will be taken. The rest are from my canon s1. It’s very gray outside so the colors are way off. Sorry! And please ignore the dust!!)

My first pair of socks was fun to knit, except that I have a nice knack for tangling yarn. Sock #2 became a challenge and it was very exciting to see the yarn go from:

and my jaywalker has made some progress (as well as enjoyed a walk in the park last week):

this is the “wonderful” template bag i’m working on. Holding two strands of some acrylic together. I could follow a pattern but the thing is if the bag (and size) *doesn’t* work for me, why bother? I think this will be too small as I forgot to include space for sock knitting. We’ll see.

Lastly, I’ve been working on Jodie’s Saturday Market Bag from the June Mag Knits. I really like it, but wish I had a different color of Sugr-n-Cream to knit it in (I have two more balls of this color, ugg, what was I thinking??) I’ve made a few small changes to the pattern and have completed four repeats of the first side. I must say I had a minor heart attack when I saw “Drop yo from prior row”. (You want me to what?!) But I think it’s a good intro to lace — the pattern is pretty easy and I’m enjoying watching it take form. I have that hank of gorgeous yarn from MDSWF waiting to be knit..

As from my reading sidebar I’m looking into spinning. We’ll see. I have some time today (they are fixing our shower faucet) so maybe I’ll try to make a spindle, not that I have anything to spin..

This weekend is the Brooklyn Craft Fair. Looks like fun, I should hide my wallet. :)