Bird Master Eggplant Xylephone

After reading Monday’s post, I realized that I was crazed and scattered. I think that’s the state of my brain right now between nerves, finishing up with work, figuring out classes, and general craziness. I need to start making some lists to help sort everything in my head.

In knitting news, I’m just about done with the shall, Maluka. She’s off the needles and I just need to wind in ends. Next up hand warmers and socks for the Husband. Otherwise, knitting has been slow, but good. I have knitting this weekend so I really need to remember to print out the sock pattern and maybe finally figure out the pattern for my hand warmers. Some day I’ll even get my latest FO up. Someday.

I feel like I have a very deep and philosophical post percolating in my head, but I can’t remember it for the life of me. Of all the things to forget, that one’s fine. I’d hate to forget to finish a project for work or feeding the kid, who by the way is now potty trained! Mostly. 9 times out of 10 she successfully asks to use the potty. The other 1 out of 10…KABOOM! Pee or poop everywhere. She’s like a tiny bomb spraying pee over everything she walks on. Or sits on. The poop sort of stays contained until it isn’t and then ew. No, super ew. Fortunately, she is still willing to do pull ups for gymnastics or going out when we aren’t sure of a potty.

Aren’t you so happy you came to read today?

FO: Doctor Who Bag

Pattern: The Little Coco Bag by Kate Atherley
Yarn: Brown Sheep Nature Spun Sport
Needles: US 7 (maybe? I didn’t write it down)

Welcome to another installment of FO Friday!!! Yeah, it’s been a while.

The finished product!

I finally finished and photographed the Doctor Who bag! It’s not that it was a complex or difficult pattern, but I kept putting it aside between steps. Knit the bag and stash it away a couple months before felting. Now that it is felted, stick it in a corner for a long time until you get to sewing the lining. Now that the lining is done, do something else for another month before you stitch it in. If I had actually stopped my dithering, it would have been done much sooner. But dither I did.

My phone holder inside the bag.

I used The Little Coco Bag which I found on Ravelry. It is simple, easy to understand, and really creates a beautiful bag, but in hindsight, I would have done a different pattern. Having the loops go through the fabric of the bag rather than be part of the top made  the lining appear a bit odd to me, because it’s not closer to the edge. It’s not bad, just odd. And to be fair, it is growing on me (which means I’m totally wishy washy).

So pretty.

For anyone who is not cool enough to have watched the Tom Baker episodes of Doctor Who, the pattern is same as his famous scarf. Well, the original, anyway. I used the leftover yarn from the Doctor Who scarf from several years ago and followed the scarf color pattern. I did halve the number of rows for each color because I was doing stockinette rather than garter and I was also worried about not having enough yarn. I had plenty.

What it will look like when I wear it. Do you not see the cool spewing from this bag?

I bought fabric called Timey Wimey from Spoonflower to continue the Doctor Who theme. I of course couldn’t just do a simple lining. Why would I do that. Instead I created my first ever pocket and added a slot for my phone.

Pocket!

I still want to add a clasp to close the bag and need to add Velcro to the fabric that goes over the phone, but it’s done enough to use. I’m super happy with how it turned out. I haven’t used it yet, but plan to soon. The best part? I only lost about a gallon of blood sewing it together!

Someone helped model the pre-felted bag

More photos can be found on flicker.

Oy Part II

A couple days ago I regaled you with the latest illness. Did you think that was the end of it? That laryngitis was the last? In fact, it wasn’t. I know, right? I woke up a few times during Wednesday night with my right eye feeling very weird. That’s right, pink eye. I knew it as I tossed and turned and when I woke up, my eye was caked over.

At the doctor to confirm my goopy eye, the Doctor told me I also had a sinus infection. THEN, Friday morning I woke up with pink eye in my left eye. Oy, indeed.

I’d love to say that I knit like crazy while I was home sick, but I didn’t. I did home work and watched a ton of How I Met Your Mother. I am almost done with a pair of socks, though. Yay, me. I’m going stir crazy. I think a visit to a yarn shop is in order. Of course, I can’t buy any yarn, but I can smell and fondle it.

All About Shawls

Hey! It’s Friday. What? Were you expecting something?

Remember a few weeks ago how I decided to rip out a shawl I had been making for months? I’m still ripping it out. Holy crap is it a pain. I’m trying to wind back 3 strands not always of the same color without making a knot (and I’m quite talented at making knots when I frog). I think I only have a 3rd left. Then I will be knitting that again. Only prettier.

A few weeks ago, I was trying to figure out what shawl to make and posted a poll. People actually voted! I know, I’m as shocked as you. 16 people voted and the results are:

• Silver Leaves Shawlette (6 votes)
• EZ 100th Anniversary Camping Half-Cirlce (5 votes)
• Cotton Baram Boo Kudzu Shawlette (4 votes)
• Maluka (1 vote)

Poor, poor Maluka.

So. The question now becomes, do I listen to the voters and go with the Silver Leaves Shawlette or do I ignore the majority and go with a different one? Don’t be sad, but I’m going rebel! That’s right, a rebel without a clue! See how free and alive I am by ignoring what you all said?

Well, okay, not quite. The more I looked at them, the more two of the shawls just really connected. Of course, they were the least voted on shawls. I like to think that it’s because I’m an individual and dance to the beat of a different drummer. More like,  Zumba to the beat of a different drummer. A very horrible and crazy drummer.

I’m going to make the Cotton Baram Boo Kudzu Shawlette (4 votes) first. One of the photos on the Ravelry page just resonated with me; and since,  I have always wanted to try to make something with beads but haven’t done it yet, I thought now was the time.

Is this not beautiful?

As of right now, I’m going to make it with the gray yarn I bought at Rhinebeck.

X, Mommy! The yarn looks like the letter X!

The color may be too dark for the design, so I still need to swatch it out to make sure it’s the right yarn for the job. Otherwise, I have a bazillion other skeins. One may work. Maybe one of my greens. We’ll see.

I also really, really like poor, unloved Maluka (1 vote). It’s just simple and clean and I love the 3 lace stitches in the edging. It will most likely be made with leftover yarn from Knitpicks. Assuming I have enough left.

I’ve used at least one skein from this picture.

So, I’m sorry voters that I’m completely and utterly ignoring your responses. Just pretend that it’s backwards day and that I’m actually making the winners but saying I’m going to make the losers. I really do love all 4 shawls so I suspect the other two will be made sooner than later.

And special thanks to Tryslora and Yarnkettle for leaving comments. Hearing your perspectives really helped. Tryslora gets gluten- and carb-free cookies and Yarnkettle gets cookies that taste good!

Ribbit

We interrupt our regularly scheduled FO Friday to give you, Froggy Friday!!!!

Do you see Kermit the Frog yelling “YAY!!!,” too?

Years and years ago, the Sister gave me a beautiful shawl kit.

All those colors!

The shawl was made by stranding 3, uh, strands of yarn together and slowly switching each out with the next color up. As you continue to do that, you get this soft, beautiful color change from dark into light. I LOVED the color concept, but kind of hated the pattern. (sorry, sister!) So the kit remained in my bin for a while. Yes, I didn’t have to make the shawl in the kit, but I was afraid of veering because of the color feature. What if it didn’t work in most patterns?

Then, while cataloging my yarn, I realized that I didn’t hate the shawl itself, just the edging. The inside was basic and if I could find the right edging, I’d have a pretty shawl I could wear. So, I cast on in July and worked on this in the background of a bazillion other projects.

Color ch-ch-changes

And then last week at gymnastics, I decided I wasn’t in love. I was making something that was good enough.  I knew if I wasn’t in love, I’d probably never really wear it. For several months I would knit this shawl and would look at each leftover skein and think about making Clapotis with the same color fading. If I was dreaming about making another shawl, I knew I would not wear this one. And if I was dreaming about another shawl, I knew I could make a different pattern with this technique. Of course, I also blame the Eliina Shawl.

Is this not absolutely beautiful? (not my photo, obviously)

So my original shawl is to be frogged and this will be made in it’s place, assuming a test of the edging looks okay. Now that I know how to work the color transitions, I feel confident working on a different pattern. Now I’m excited about what it’s going to make.

Goodbye little shawl. You are going to a better place.