Yes, I've been knitting! Can't post a pic yet as my project is a) unfinished and b)not yet given to the intended recipient. I'm pretty sure she's completely unaware that I have a blog, but you never know. I made one more of the penny bags, for the DiscoDame, since she thought they were entirely too cute (and she's my only little chickadee, so she can have one too). I do have pics:


The drawstring closure allows it to be worn as a bracelet:


It's sooo little, it looks like an amulet or charm bag:


But I guess a lucky penny is a charm, n'est pas?
Anyway, the knit project (super secret! shhh!)is mostly miles of seed stitch. I can hear you groaning, you know. My friend will, I hope, be thrilled to have it. She's been the recipient of my handiwork before now, and always seems appreciative -- which means I'll always be willing to make more for her! I haven't even thought about working on a shawl, or picking up the second sock for my Moc Croc pair. It's officially been over a year since I started that pair of socks; it's hard to work up any enthusiam for the second sock. Perservere!

I'll Fly Away, Part Deux

Ohboyohboyoboy! I'm all set to go on vacation again, and this time I'll actually leave town! It's not till next month,hope the anticipation doesn't just eat me up!
I'm heading for Texas, to see my dear old Dad & my sister & MY NIECES!!! I spoke to my sis, and got the word that the littlest niece had received her package. She was, of course, tickled to death to get a package with her name on it -- as any little girl would be! and had to open it, even though the birthday is not until tomorrow. From the sound of things, I believe she was thrilled with the contents. So, since she's already seen her gifts, I can now post pics - notice my wonderful model, Teddy Bear, standing in for a toddler:

I only had one good shot of the back of the shrug, & managed to turn it blue during editing, so I'll have to take several shots of the niece in it.

Teddy looks good, doesn't he? Here's the little drawstring bag:

It's the crocheted element in this ensemble. I wish I'd gotten a pic of the Lucky Penny bag; it's incredibly cute. BTW, you may see that I'm making the pics bigger--I had a comment from a reader tha they were awfully small, so I'll make them bigger from now on.

More FO's

4/7/09 Saturday I sewed the buttons onto Tess' Lily (top), made a teeny little drawstring bag for her lucky penny & put it inside her drawstring purse, packed all her handknit & crocheted goodies for mailing. I did take pics, will post them later. The box of goodies got mailed Monday 4/6, so it should arrive in time for her birthday! I'm tickled pink. And I crocheted another of the little purses for a coworker's grandchild, adding the lucky penny bag to it too. The penny bags are made from the Pretty Purses drawstring bag pattern, only in crochet thread instead of yarn -- Whew! it'll wear out the fingers! But they are soooo cute!

FO, WIP, and last day of vacation

This past weekend I bought some elastic cord, and threaded three pieces through the ribbing on the Bobbled Tam (aka Afterbirth Hat). It fits!

Edited 4/11/09 to add photos & delete rant caused by Blogger failure to upload pics the first time I tried it.

And now I seem to have lost contact with Blogger. Of course! This may be why I blog only once in a while, since there's only so much aggravation I can take.

I've made progress on Tess' Lily, finishing the lacy "skirt" portion of this little apron-style top on Saturday, and taking a few pictures Sunday.


Well, I actually have better things to do than twiddle my thumbs while Blogger fails, so I'll just save this now & move on.

Things to do ...today(?)

I have been cleaning out my documents saved on the computer, which are mostly knit & crochet patterns. I'm moving them to disks, labled by the type of item that the patterns produce. Unfortunately, some of the stuff I "saved" wasn't saved well, and the older files are the most corrupt. Also, a lot of stuff got saved as HTML docs, which require internet access to work, but I want them resaved so that I don't have to get on the Internets -- I've been copying them to word docs, and inserting the graphics, & saving the thing in that format. Then I can delete the link. Our poor old Dell equipment may be on it's last legs, so I'm trying to lighten it's load a bit. This is taking a very long time, simply because of the age & slowness of the equipment. But it's gotta happen, I'm not losing all these patterns I've collected!

I'm on vacation today, and should be knitting Niece #2's Tropical Lily top. I've decided it needs the lifeline every 4th row, to try to keep the stitch count correct. I'd like to have 6 more repeats of the pattern, before making the bodice. On Ravelry, I looked at other knitters' results for this pattern; no one else seems to have had the same problem I did. So, I'm UNIQUE! Wonderful.

I was reading the Harlot's blog, and I can surely identify with her dorkiness: after reading about her February Lady sweater meeting EZ's February Baby sweater, I went to her 4/10/08 blog entry, enlarged the photo of me & my tiny socks, and printed it! DiscoDame put it on the 'fridge, sure to put me off my feed for a while.

Are we there yet?

I finished the red hat, well sort of...the ribbing isn't snug enough to keep the thing on my head, so I'll need to get some elastic thread and make some adjustments. I'm pretty sure I can just thread it through the purl bumps on the inside of the brim. The weather is trying (& failing & trying & failing..)to change over to spring-like, so I'm not in a hurry for the hat or it's coordinating scarf. You know what, they can both go to the hibernation pile. I started knitting Tropical Lily for Niece #2, and ran into a problem--I lost a stitch somewhere. I'll have to try to slip a smaller circular needle into a row several below where I stopped, always a fun maneuver, which may be a little trickier with the Cottontots yarn. This can't go to hibernation; it's got to be sent off before her birthday. But I've been so tired in the evenings lately that I haven't started trying this fiddly bit. And last night I just wanted to knit something..so I dragged out a project from hibernation: the Feather and Fan shawl! Oh, I love my shawl; I love the Lornas Laces Baltic Sea colorway, I love the weight of it, I just don't know if I can put off finishing this shawl while I get on with more timely projects. Decisions, decisions!

I went into Bliss Yarns yesterday, to ask what their plans were for WWKIP day. So far, they have no plan at all. I'd really like to attend a knit-in at Centennial Park, if "someone" will just do the work of getting it together. I don't want to be the organizer; let somebody else do all that stuff, I just want to attend! And for pete's sake, don't make it a knit for charity event! Or at least, offer that as an option only. I have never knit or crocheted for charity, although I do give away most of my handiwork. SO! I'm in Bliss Yarns, and while I'm there I gotta check out the 50% off room. Big mistake. They had Jagger Spun Zephhyr in there...colors in the basket were mushroom and petal pink. I picked up two balls in mushroom, then checked out the mini-wall of bins. There's a yarn I'm forever picking up, fondling, then putting back: Garnstudio's Silke-Tweed! I got two each in shades 02 & 07. I figured I'd better get out before I spent all the grocery $, so up to the counter with my finds I go. There's 3 balls of the Jagger Spun in aqua sitting up there, so I ask if it's actually being purchased. The gal who was holding it wasn't sure about the color; she brought up the stuff she wanted to match & we looked it over. Turns out she only wanted enough for a scarf, so I got two more balls in aqua! Woo-Hoo! and Aaacchh! for the budget. I really need to get a handle on the yarn purchases. The only part of this last purchase that I have an idea about it the Drops, which will be socks...someday.

Well, I've got to get busy on some housework now...I know, what a drag. Close your eyes, it'll be over soon.

Holding pattern

The middle of the month..does it feel like that pause at the top of the first long rumble downslope on the roller-coaster? Maybe it's just me. I had a surprise over the weekend, or not really--the afterbirth of a large ruminant mammal has turned into a hat! I finished it Saturday, and have now started a scarf to coordinate with it. It can't "match", because the Whispers yarn isn't available anymore. The half-skein of red left from the hat will become very subtle stripes in the scarf, which will mainly be another Sensations yarn, Angel Hair. It's nice & soft, and very nearly the same shade of red, and has eyelash wisps as well. It's core is a roving-look (I think it's blended wool & acrylic), wrapped with a tiny chainette eyelash. Drat, I haven't got a picture of the finished hat! Guess I'll get that this weekend. I had a dreadful moment last Thursday, when I realized that #1's birthday was just around the corner, and I had nothing started! Crochet to the rescue!! On Saturday I finished the Pretty Purses pattern(s), in two different Sugar'nCream yarns, and Monday I put a tiny box in the mail to #1. She'll have a small (would hold a soup can) drawstring purse, and an even tinier envelope-style shoulder bag. And now I'm planning something for Niece II, something in cotton, of the tank top or short-sleeve sweater, also in cotton, but knitted. There are lots of cute patterns out there. So far, the tank tops I've been interested in all seem to use about 200 to 275 yards worsted wt cotton. I believe I'll start looking for Handicrafter on sale somewhere. I figure 4 or 5 hanks should work.
I'm a bit bummed that I don't have a shot of the Afterbirth Hat; here's some cuteness to compensate for that:



Miss Hinky Boo invades TomTom's favorite nap spot! He confronts her, although he knows it's hopeless.