Black Sheep

Knitter’s Purse

I got my Jordana Paige Knitter’s Purse on Friday! As promised, I took a bunch of pics so that you can see how much it fits for yourselves. Hopefully, my pics will give you a fairly good representation of it. But first, let me just say that I love it and would recommend it to any knitter who wants a nice looking bag to carry her knitting project in. It has two compartments. One side is smaller and has organizer pockets, and quite a few of them. There is only one pocket big enough to hold something the size of a cell-phone. I would rather see a couple of pockets at least this size so my ipod can fit in one of them, but that’s okay. The smaller half is big enough to hold a medium-sized book. In the pic I have the Stitch and Bitch book on that side and it fits just fine.

The larger side is very, very roomy. Much roomier than I anticipated. You could easily hold a sweater sized project in there. The project size also has a nice little snapping circlet that you can put your working yarn through. I love that. Some knit bloggers have mistakenly thought this was a key holder. I suppose one could maybe use it for a key holder, but it’s meant to hold your working thread. There are also straps to hold straight knitting needles.

so here are some pics so you can see for yourself. The first one shows you all that I put in the purse:

This one has all of that stuff inside the purse:

And here is the inside of the purse empty:

Oh, and I forgot to mention, the purse actually comes with size 6 clover knitting needles and a little Jordana Paige pencil. Nice little touches, I think.

Okay, on to other things. I was rather crafty this weekend. I attempted to make some Elvis stitch markers for my friend who is moving to Fresno. Illanna from Knit Powers to Peace has an excellent tutorial on how to make charmed stitch markers out of Shrinky Dinks. Remember those? What a blast from the past, eh? So I thought it would be the height of kitsch to make elvis shrinky dink stitch markers for my friend. I hope she likes them. I had fun making them, regardless.

And last but not least, here is the right front of Lucky Clover, just at the begining of the raglan shaping. The front of the cardigan is kind of challenging because there is a lot to keep track of. You have to keep track of your pattern rows, while keeping track of decreases and increases on the waist edge, while keeping track of decreases on the neck edge. Just a heads up for anyone about to start the fronts. It’s actually nice. Keeps me alert.

One more thing..I am going to move my site to a new server this week. I am hoping it all goes smoothly, but just in case it doesn’t, just thought I’d let you know what was going on in case my site breaks or something.

Hope you are all having a wonderful Monday! Take care

11 comments March 28th, 2005

twenty dolla socks

I took a little detour from Lucky Clover and Earl and knitted me up some koigu socks. Oooo boy. Me likey Koigu. The colors! The yarn is just beautiful. I used KPPPM in dye code p319. And I used a simple “checkerboard anlet” pattern from Foxy Knits. This was the yarn I bought at Stitches last month. It took me about a day to knit up the first one (It was last weekend), and then all week to knit up the second one. That pesky job gets in the way of my knitting time . Here’s a closeup pic of the checkerboard pattern. And here’s a pic of one of them off. They are far from perfect. One of the things that bothers me is that there is a little hole on the ankle where I picked up some heel stitches. I have no idea what the deal is with that. But I really enjoyed knitting them and I see more sock knitting in my future.

Now I need to cast on for one of the fronts of Lucky Clover. Here is the back blocking.

I was hoping that I’d have my knitters purse by the time I posted this, but I don’t. As soon as I get it I will take some good shots of it with stuff in it so you can see how much it holds, as per Heather’s request .

Also, I think I am getting involved in another craft…My friend at work has been taking a jewelry making class and she showed me a few things. I want to learn how to make beaded stitch markers like the ones I got at Stitches and she showed me how. We kind of reverse-engineered it. But then she showed me some of the jewelry she’s been making and now I’m really interested in taking a class! It looks like fun.

that’s all for now…See you in a few days!

7 comments March 24th, 2005

Happy St. Paddy’s Day

Wow, has it already been almost a week since I posted? This month is going by faaast. Here is my progress on the back of the Lucky Clover Wrap. As you can see, I messed up a couple of the clovers on the bottom. As I moved up toward the top I got the hang of it and was more careful to line everything up. I have just started the arm decreases. I’m hoping I will be done with the back this weekend. Then the largest part of the sweater will be over and done with. Not getting sick of it yet, though. Lace is fun because you don’t really get bored. At least not so far .

And here is the side/bottom panel of Earl. As I mentioned in my last post I frogged everything and started over because the large side panels were too wide. This time I am combining the two hanks because there is quite a bit of color variation between the two. I’m knitting two rows of one hank and two rows of another. The colors are much more blended together now.

In other knitting news, I finally got my first issue of Interweave Knits yesterday! I was stoked. There are some cute projects in there…I really like the lacy shrug, A Good Bias, they call that little number.

I ordered a Jordana Paige knitter’s purse in black the other day. It’s my birthday gift to myself. I always like to buy myself something I really want for my b-day. I am getting back a good amount of cash from the IRS so what the hell. I was tempted to buy yarn for Butterfly but decided against. I think that I am in full Summer Knitting mode right now. I will wait and knit Butterfly next fall, if I still feel like knitting it then. Actually, what I really need to do is get my ass going on the baby things for my SIL. Her baby shower is in May so I’d best be getting that done.

Thank you all so much for you kind birthday wishes. I am feeling much better now . Like I said, chocolate has medicinal properties.

10 comments March 17th, 2005

how to feel better

Alright…Yesterday was my birthday. I took the day off so that I could spend the day with my husband. When I woke up I was feeling a little bit depressed about turning 36. As the morning progressed, I started getting really depressed. So what does a girl do when she is depressed about getting older? She eats fudge. Not just any fudge. Fudge made at a chocolate shop on Cannery Row in Monterey. That’s right. The hubby and I jumped in the car and drove down the coast to Cannery Row. And, boy, was our mission accomplished, and then some. We got regular, old fashioned plain fudge, we got peanut butter fudge, and we got some caramel fudge. And we’re talking big ‘ole hunks of it that we’ll be feeding on for a week. God damn if it didn’t uplift my mood 100 percent! We walked around Cannery Row for a bit and soaked in the sun. The weather here the past couple of days has been awesome. It was actually kind of hot yesterday.

In knitting news, I am plugging along on the Lucky Clover wrap. It’s taking some time to knit but it’s fun. I don’t have pics because I’m too lazy. Today I’ve been working on Earl. I blocked the two side pieces yesterday and finished the bottom panel this morning. Unfortunately, I realized that the side panels are waaaay to wide. So I spent some time futzing with measurements and then ripped and re-knit the side panels. Really, quite an annoying job, but worth it in the end.

Well, I gotta jet. There’s fudge to be eaten. Hope you are all having a great weekend.

8 comments March 12th, 2005

Drafting Silk Hankie

I couldn’t stand it any longer. I had to play with the silk hankie that I got from the Chasing Rainbows booth at Stitches. I decided that, since I haven’t seen this on the web anywhere, it would be kind of cool to take pics of the process and post them here for you. So here you go:

Step 1:

Here is the silk hankie itself. According to (argh! I don’t have her name in front of me…will post it when I get home tonight) the owner who sold me the hankie, it is silk that is “practically from the cocoon” that she has dyed.

Step 2:

Here I am pulling off a very thin layer of silk hankie from the top.

Step 3:

Next you pock a hole in the middle of the square of hankie.

Step 4:

Then you stretch the hole as much as you can…

step 5:

As you can see, it stretches quite a lot. At some point you will see a weak spot in the circle. You pull apart the weak spot so you have a long piece of silk.

Step 6:

To join, all you have to do is place the silk on top of the piece that you are knitting with. It is really sticky so it will stay.

Interesting, eh? I’m knitting up a lacy scarf with it. The scarf itself is not much to look at. It’s kind of rustic looking, I guess. But, my, is it ever soft. It’s the softest thing I have ever touched. I’ll show you the scarf when I am all done with it.

In other knitting news:

1. I’m plugging away at the lucky clover wrap. I really enjoy knitting this! It’s my first real lace garment and I’m having fun with it.
2. I bought some more recycled silk yarn and am working on Earl as my “at work” project.
3. Am getting really antsy to start knitting with the koigu that I bought at stitches!

One more thing before I go..Here is a picture of the SCU library knitting group:

One of our members, Paula (the one standing on the right) is leaving for another job . We are all sad to see her go. we wanted to get a pic of all of us before she leaves.

7 comments March 9th, 2005