Chugging along.

Last time I posted, I wrote about all the ends I was weaving in in anticipation of being able to felt them this weekend. Since my workweek is Tuesday through Saturday, my weekend starts tomorrow, which is when I expect to fire up the washer to get all those pieces whipped into shape. Once that's done and all the pieces are dry, I'll be able to start putting the bag together: I have to put on the handles, put in the plastic canvas reinforcements, attach the feet, then sew a liner and attach the zipper. The zipper will probably be the trickiest bit - I'm not especially confident sewing on zippers, but I guess there's a first time for everything.

Also since last time, I took some better photos of the Glacier gloves. They're not even blurry! I haven't done much more knitting on them because I made a mistake and I have to have my head in the right place to tackle fixing a messed up cable that I should have known better than to mess up. It's my own fault for not paying attention to the chart.

Since I had finished my commuting project, I decided that I wanted to cast on something easy, so on Wednesday evening I started another Little Owl baby hat. I'm making it out of the same yarn I used last time, Rowan Lima. It's such a lovely, soft yarn! What's surprising me about this project is how fast the knitting is going. All I have left to do is knit another inch of the hat, then I can do the ribbing around the face and add the eye and talon details. My friends at knit night suggested that it would be hysterical if the talons held a dead mouse, so I think I'm going to knit up one of Ysolda Teague's Mousies and consider it a baby toy. Maybe I can find some kind of rattle insert which might make it a little more fun for whichever baby gets this hat.

Well, that's all I have for now, next time I hope I'll have some photos of some felted hydrangeas as well as more progress on the gloves. It's beginning to get cold around here! Until next time, Friends.

Never-Ending Ends

During the week I finished knitting all the flowers for my Hydrangea bag, so this weekend I began weaving in all the ends. Each flower has eight ends to weave in, and there are 41 flowers (but I made a few extra, just in case) so that means there are officially 328 ends to deal with. Thank goodness there was a Harry Potter marathon on television, so I could kind of zone out while I was working on them. I've woven in all the ends at the tips of all the flowers and I only have half a dozen or so flowers that I have to do the base of each petal. Once I've done all those, then I'll get started on the felting. Luckily, there isn't a real deadline for this project - I'll probably submit it for next year's State Fair, so it doesn't have to be done until the end of July or so.

I also made some progress on the Glacier gloves, getting about an inch or so of each hand chart done. The pattern is a lot less difficult than I expected it to be. I think that having done this kind of complex cable work before is serving me well this time around. I'm still in love with the yarn - it has a lovely sheen to it and its softness impressive. I'm still not sure how warm they'll be, but I think I might have a few more weeks before it gets cold enough for me to find out. I wish I had some good photos of them for you, but I have to wait for daylight to get some good shots.

Of course, now that I've finished the actual knitting for the felted bag, I don't have anything to work on during my commute to the office. I've considered starting on a few more baby sweaters, since they're small and they go fast. I've also thought about starting another pair of socks, but I haven't finished the intarsia-in-the-round socks, so my size 1 circulars are tied up in that project. Another project I've considered is a moebius or some sort of cowl/shawlette pattern that has an easily memorize-able stitch pattern that will travel well. I'm completely undecided.  I think I'll take another look through my stash and see what looks good.

Anyway, that's all I have for tonight. Until next time, Friends.

Fridays are for finished things!

I have two finished projects this week: the Big Snowy Owl from the Purl Bee and the Schmidt vest I started about six weeks ago. The owl was probably about seven hours of actual knitting, although it took me a week to finish it, due to a variety of factors. The first was that I didn't have any polyfill to stuff it with, so I had to make a trip to the craft store for that. Then I didn't have any size 15 double pointed needles to do the eyes with, so I had to borrow some from a kind friend. After that, I had to wash the eyes because the grey yarn I used had so much spinning oil left in it that it smelled bad. Finally, when the eyes were dry, I was able to sew them on then knit the beak! I think I may make a few more of these owls, but I might just size them down and do them with worsted- or fingering-weight yarn. I think some tiny owls would be fun. They might even make nice Christmas ornaments. I'll have to let that idea marinate for a little while.

The Schmidt vest finished up much faster than I expected, but it probably helped that I was stuck in traffic for about an hour a few nights ago. You see, I thought it would be no big deal to go across the river to Indiana and back to buy some needles. It's only a mile across the bridge to Jeffersonville and the buses were running every half hour or so, so it couldn't be that bad, even with Shermageddon. Or so I thought. The flaw in my plan was that there was a Taylor Swift concert that night at the Yum! Center, which happens to be located right next to the bridge. So not only was there the usual rush hour traffic trying to leave downtown, there was additional traffic trying to get downtown for the show. It was gridlock. There were people (in heels! and sassy pants!) actually walking across the bridge faster than our bus could cross it. What should have taken an hour, at most, took two and a half. But that worked to my advantage, as I was able to knit the armhole and the collar while I was on the bus. I was even able to weave in all the ends. Once I finally got home, I gave it a good, long soak in some Eucalan and laid it out to dry. I think it looks pretty good with the Barbara Walker braided cable I used. I just hope it fits my brother in law. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

In WIPs news, I've begun knitting the little flowers for my Hydrangea bag. The pattern calls for plenty of them, but they knit up very quickly and it doesn't take much effort to weave in the ends. If I put in a little effort this weekend, there's a chance I could have the better part of them done by Tuesday. I may decide to to save that for my commute, though, as I'm feeling like I should do a little more on the striped intarsia socks that are taking me forever to finish. We'll see how that goes - I might also decide to cast on another baby project such as the super-secret one I have in mind for my friend Molly. It's going to be awesome! And I hope no one tells her what it is. It's a surprise for her baby shower. I sure hope I get an invitation.

Anyway, that's all I have for tonight. I hope you have a nice weekend, Friends!