MIA

Well I've been missing in action lately!! LoL... Its hard to knit, blog and have a life! I hope now that I have my own laptop that I can do better at this!!

Knit Nights!

Just briefly I'll touch on this and apologize for getting melancoly last time, we lost our dear friend Beaty at 9pm on Monday and its been hard. It was a kidney stone that did it believe it or not. It was found too late and sepsis had overtaken her body. We are all hugging and crying together and remembering her and its hard but we are moving on slowly. Thanks for all those who kept her in your prayers and thoughts!!

Ok, back to being on topic. I have so many updates on knitting its not funny!! I'll have to do a synopsis of everything or you'll be asleep in 5 minutes!! LoL...

I have made several new bags, many of them are my own patterns, I just figure that's my destiny now, to create. I have to learn how to write them down properly for other knitters.

I have been to a couple of knitting groups this week, one that is a regular at a local bookstore and another from my SnB group that I started at a different bookstore, it was so nice meeting new people and we all have knitting in common! I plan to do it again!!

I have been to several baseball games lately, the Cinci Reds and Dayton Dragons and have been caught knitting!! I figure if I'm sitting there, I might as well be knitting!!

I'm doing a local festival for my bags with some friends but the problem is that one of my friends keeps buying all the bags I make. I currently have no done bags left and four on the needles. One of those is already sold and its beach bag size!! She wants a total of 5 of these!! Ack!! But she is letting me make some for the festival first. I am hoping to be able to get orders and getting a website set up for all the ones I make. I'm also planning to make a bunch of the faerie crowns.

I have not done any needle felting, no time!! I really wanted to try it too!! I will do some on a few of my solid color bags.

Well that didn't take up as much time as I thought, to me it seems crazy busy but write it down and its like nothing!

Well I will post pics of my purses when I get them on the computer and put them in the FO section!!

Busy Summer Days

Well, I apparently suck at blogging, but it is summer and I haven't hardly had time to breathe!! And to think, the kids took the summer off!! They seem to be doing something hourly!! I have found the time to knit though and will get some new pics up and talk about my knitting in public but now just isn't the time.

Right now I am losing a good friend and it hurts, a sweet dear lady from work is in critical condition in the hospital and is unlikely to make it. I haven' t known her long but she is the sweetest, purest of heart elderly lady I have known and this is very hard. I want to be there to help the family but know that its really a family thing... I feel helpless and useless....

Sorry this is off topic, needed to get it out!!

Me=Slow Blogger

Sorry that I haven' t blogged in a few days, this is probably going to be a habit with me... I'm not real consistant!!

The camping trip was so fun, we had some great bonding, we stayed in a cabin with a microwave and tv/vcr so it wasn't so bad!! If you didn't count the mouse eating our s'mores goodies and all the spiders!!

I got two of the moms addicted to knitting in the round and felting, they went on Sunday looking for the supplies!! They were all fascinated!! And they loved my yarn tote (Suki) I've also had a freind ask for one and she says she knows at least 5 other people who would be interested in them too!! When am I going to find the time??

I'm currently making another Landscape bag for a girl at work, I fought with this one all weekend on the size, I didn't believe my own pattern about the CO stitches so ripped it out 3 times... Hint: always follow your own pattern!!

I finally got the yarn for the handle on my other bag so I'm going to finish that handle and felt it.

I also just signed up for a knitting class, gee another purse!! This one will be using Cotton (I think Cascade) and size 6 circulars... ack!!! I don't use anything under 13s normally... I don't have the patience... occasionally I've used 10's but SIXs....ACK!!! That will take me forever!!! But its supposed to be cute.

I'll put in pics soon and keep ya'll updated!!

Knit Nights a Bomb

Well I held my second Knit Night and no one came. I am trying to be patient but it is so hard, I want this to be a success!! I would love to meet others with the same hobby and we can learn from each other, mostly right now I would be doing the learning but still!! The good thing was that Taylor (my oldest) goes with me and it is such a great bonding experience for us!! I love our time together. I ended up yanking out her tooth that night too!! Hey, she asked me too!!

I finished another purse, its a nice purple/turquoise mix with a pink stripe, pink bottom and soon to be made pink handle. But I ran out of yarn so I can't make the handle yet..... borrowing some from a friend if it matches but that won't be til next week. I'll show pics as usual!

Well I'm going camping with my Taylor this weekend (so far, not much Abbey (youngest) and I can do together), its a mother/daughter retreat with her brownie troop. I'm taking my knitting, I'm making one of those landscape purses for someone who wants one!! Taylor finger knits and loves it and will probably show the others. I am taking a ton of squeaky yarn for them to play with!! I am so glad its going to be a nice weekend, we were supposed to go last weekend but luckily it was cancelled!!

Kool-Aid = Fun

Oh, I am way over my head with all this knitting, felting, dyeing, and soon to be needle felting!! First off, I got to the library to pick up my reserved books... 15 beautiful, colorful, bright and shiny books on knitting, needle felting, bag felting.... OOoohhh the excitement!! I've been marking pages for hours!! I don't understand why ppl say I'm obsessed!! Sheesh!!

I finished the yarn tote and put on the handle, I've been using it today!! It's gorgeous!! Secret: My hubby designed how the straps needed put on!! The size is perfect for my projects!!

Now on to the main event!! Kool Aid Dyeing:

This was an awesome learning experience!! I had just felted the tote and thought I would be adventuress.... I read the directions like 20 times and kept them handy. I used the ones from Knitty.com.

I picked out my colors (was going to do a solid color but that seemed too easy!!): a lovely yellow, green and orange. My plan is to alternate colors with yellow between them all so I don't get the nasty brown. What a great plan!! So I set everything up and got ready... Whoops, no baster... fine, I'll just use a measuring spoon to pour it.

I get so excited I forgot one important step: GLOVES!! So I turned a little orange til I got a clue (tip of the day: gloves are much easier to put on dry hands). I

t was all going well but for the yellow... it wasn't dark enough... put in another packet (repeat 3 times). I even remembered to squeeze the color down and everything. Just wish I hadn't had to use so many yellow packets but I was just loving it!! I decided to microwave it to set it and that even went well but I had to let it cool to rinse and I was running late for a party so off I went.

I came back and all was well except for some of the undissolved powder from the cheap yellow packets was clinging to the yarn and I cannot get it off but I assume when I felt it it will dissolve.

Basically to sum it up, it was fun, easy and the results were AWESOME!!

Behold, my citrus hand dyed yarn:

And this what makes it a bumpy ride!!

Omg... LoL...

First off, yes its been a week since I posted but I didn't figure anyone read this silly blog but it turns out they do!! Wow... thanks to all you readers!!

I have been working like mad all week to finish the Suki tote, my friend Jen and I have been doing one at the same time and she finished days before me but took a few extra days on the handle. I finished yesterday!! I took my own pattern on the handle but the rest was following the pattern in the book!! Horray I did a whole pattern!! Probably one of the few times, its just too hard to do, my creative (and lazy) side calls out too often!!

Back to the tote!! Ok so I began the process of felting it last night at like 11pm (I was so excited) and learned that sweater bags don't work, fuzz hell erupted from it, quickly switched to a pillow case. (I am using the Wool of the Andes from Knit Picks and it knits nice, and the colors are great but warning... it does bleed!) I let it go for about 10 min, checked, it was doing ok, let it go another 10 and decided it was done, took it out (no one ever mentioned the stench of wool! Ack), dried it, and blocked it. This was still huge!! 15x13" and I was so not happy with the handle, it was a twist handle and kept falling apart! Anyway I got it ready for drying and went to bed (2 hours later).

This morning I got up and decided it was just still too big for what I wanted and I didn't like some of the seams. So I decided we would felt some more!! (Here comes the funny part, go pee....) Now those who don't know me... I tend to get distracted.... (see where I'm going) and I got on the computer as it was agitating..... When my brain woke up and I remember, Hey I'm felting and ran to the washing machine, it had shrunk to HALF its already felted size!! The handle is well felted but short and I am laughing so hard I can't see straight. The thing is I love it!! I think it is the right size and it is way sturdy (to put it lightly).

Ok so it wasn't that funny but you weren't here!! And now onto kool-aid dyeing!!!.......