Count Down to Vacation
Only three days left until vacation. And I’m getting my knitting ducks in a row.
The merino belt is coming along, nearly 26 inches now. I may not finish it before I leave as I was hoping, but that’s because I’m trying to finish…
…Maggie’s purse so I can wrap it for her birthday and delivery it when we’re in Chicago next week. Thanks so much to Amy who felted the purse in her top-loader for me and delivering it so quickly. It’s felted just the right amount. I used the “Black Beauty” pattern from the book Pursenalities. I used Cascade 220 again, this time in dark grey and coral. The crocheted edges made the purse felt up kind of wonky. But it gives it character, right? I think I’m still going to add some embroidery to the flap and I need to find the perfect button too. But it should be ready to deliver next week.
Here are some photos of my sample needle case I made. It’s big enough to hold everything with room to grow. Exactly what I was looking for. I hate having things in my closet that I don’t wear anymore. But it’s hard to get rid of things like my hula shirt from the time I was pregnant with Ella. Ta da! I’ll just cut it up and put it in the needle case, along with scrap fabric from our wedding quilt and Ella’s playhouse curtains. When I make my real needle case with the silk fabric, this one will be passed on to Ella.
Last night I started to make a swatch of the Cascade Indulgence for my Blaze sweater. Ohhhh, it’s so nice. I’m excited about this yarn. So soft, and easy to knit. I’m looking into some knitting techniques on how to knit cables without a cable needle. It’s supposed to go faster once you get the hang of it.
I’ve got a big blue box full of knitting projects ready for our trip. I’m glad the minivan has space. Now I need to pack those non-essentials like clothing and toiletries.
Leaving Comments
Some people haven’t been able to leave comments and I need your help to figure this out.
If you’re reading this, please try to leave a comment telling me what browser you’re using and whether you use mac/windows. If you can’t leave a comment, I would really appreciate it if you could e-mail me at dena(at)childsfamily(dot)com and tell me the browser & system you’re using and what error message you get. This is getting really frustrating.
On the brighter side of things, I’m half way done knitting a purse for my niece. My plan is to finish it by tomorrow afternoon so I can felt it in my friends machine (Thanks Amy) while we knit. My deadline is to get it finished so I can wrap it and delivery it next week on our giant road trip.
I also made a sample knitting needle case on Father’s Day. I’m so glad I made a sample first. Now I know what I’ll do differently the next time. But it turned out well. (Thanks for everything Cherie) I’ll post pictures and details later this week.
Thanks in advance for helping me figure out this blog comment problem.
Needle Case Fabric
I have the beginning of some lovely needle cases.
My friend Cherie took me to Delectable Mountain Cloth in Brattleboro to look for some fabric for the needle cases I want to make. They had so much beautiful silk it was hard to decide what I wanted. Fortunately Cherie helped me make some color choices, not my strongest skill. I loved the funky green pattern and started there. I knew I wanted purple too. Eventually, I was able to decide on three fabrics and resisted the buttons on the way out the door.
I haven’t made the pattern yet, but I have some specific ideas of what features I want in the needle case. I know I hate sewing, but I wasn’t seeing exactly what I wanted out there. I’ve bought fabric in the past for other sewing projects I never got around to doing or finishing. So why do I think that I’ll ever get around to this project? First motivator, I’m making three cases, two of which will be holiday gifts for some special people. The other motivator, the organizer in me can’t wait to see all of my needles lined up in the case. And I love the fabric too.
Vacuuming an Enormous Potato
I can’t believe I would ever say this, but I hate vacuuming enormous potatoes.
Ella’s kindergarten class is putting on a production of The Enormous Potato this Thursday and Friday. They needed some help making the Enormous Potato. I volunteered to make the potato even though I’m not a good sewer and I really don’t like sewing. (Despite all the years of patient teaching from my mother.) You know the saying, “Measure twice, cut once?” Well I should have measured twice, bought once. When I sat down on Sunday to start the potato, I didn’t even have close to the amount of fabric I needed. What was I thinking? Back to the fabric store on Monday where I bought too much fabric this time, better than not enough.
Well it turns out the sewing was not the hardest part of this project, sewing actually went well. The time consuming part was the stuffing and vacuuming of the potato. I was given five bags of shredded poly foam. But this wasn’t enough for an “enormous” potato. So I supplemented with balloons and newspaper. But the really annoying part was that the evil shredded poly foam stuck to the fleece fabric like really strong Velcro. Tape worked a little and vacuuming worked all right. But the foam was stubborn and I probably spent over an hour trying to get it off of the fabric so that the potato didn’t look like it came from a snow hill, rather than a potato hill.
The potato does look enormous and mostly brown now. Off to school to drop off the potato
