When The Knitting Fairy Smiles Upon You...

you get two finished objects in about as many days. Ladies and Gents (cuz I know there are some of you out there lurking) I give you: The cabled purse! This took only a few hours to knit. The thing that nearly killed me was trying to line it. I stayed up until 6:45am trying to get a lining in it. I read all the articles about how easy it is to line a knitted or crocheted purse and I couldn't do it. This morning (I got up before noon) I called Lois, who is our group's ace seamstress and the person who usually lines my bags and asked her to talk me through it.
"Lining bags is easy." says she. "An idiot can do it."
Well, that explains it.

I'm not an idiot.

She talked me through it and it does look a lot better but not perfect. So she and I will look it over on Sunday and she will teach me how to do what an idiot can do. I am not sure if I will be raised or lowered to the level of an idiot but I will learn how to do a lining so I don't have to rely on the incredibly busy Lois. But come on you have to admit that, lining or no lining, the bag is gorgeous!

And then there's: the hooded baby blanket! This was probably a quicker knit than the purse. I finished it this evening and I think I started it yesterday (the last 24-48 hours are something of a blur) perhaps the day before. I know it was started the morning after I finished the bag and I finished that on Monday. So the blanket was started on Tuesday and finished on Wednesday evening. (Excuse me while I talk to myself.)

I had this Baby Clouds yarn because I was going to use that to make the Funkalicious Wrap and decided it wasn't the best use of the yarn. So when this pattern came up and it was supposed to be made with a dual strand of worsted weight on size 10.5 needles; I thought I could make up my own version of the pattern. So swap out the worsted weight for super chunky. Ditch the 10.5s for 15s decrease the number of stitches, calculate the correct number of stitches and there you are: a soft, cuddly hooded blanket for a baby.

And in case you're wondering: there are two different models in the photos. Belle is posing with the purse and Gannon is posing with the baby blanket - though I don't imagine he liked being photographed with a baby blanket. But we all sometimes have to do what we have to do (even if we don't like it) to be able to do what we want to do.

Let that be a lesson to you.

The Bon- Bon Cape from 'After Dark'

Because there is more to life than the latest scandal (and trust me, there is more to say on that) I have actually finished a project!

Here's the cape from After Knits by Jil Eaton. I tried it on my nephew's daughter who proudly told me she was too and it was a little too big. So, I'm guessing this will fit a 3 year old nicely.

Megan's mom asked me to make one in her size and I just might do that. This was a pretty quick knit. I think I worked on it for two knitting sessions which means if it were the only thing I was working on, it could have been done in a day. I blocked the heck out of the hemline and still it rolls, but I learned how to bobbles!

It was made with Red Heart Super Saver in Watercolor. It's a little rough, but should soften up. I believe I used number 9 needles, though it could have been 8. I added the pom-pom because I just like making them and will use them on anything I can. This will go right over to the last few days of the sale at Pleasant Home. (We didn't sell anything yesterday, but I believe we have already made what was my goal!) We're also doing the Sing-Along Messiah this afternoon, so I have to get a move on back to church!

Announcing the Great Yarn Give Away!!

Ok, maybe not great...but certainly not bad yarn give away.
Here's the deal. I have 13 boxes of yarn and I don't mean small boxes. I mean storage boxes, the kind you have to get a guy at K-Mart to pull down off the shelves. I have nearly 100lbs of yarn. It has taken over the house. So the box you see here is full of yarn from top to the bottom and this is the actual box with the actual yarn that can and will go to one of you.

To let you know: I don't do expensive yarn see The Great Yarn Debate so this is garden fare yarn some of it is sport weight, some chunky, most is worsted. Colors are all over the map: black, white, blue, different wines and red, pink, green, variegated.

There's Paton's Classic merino, Paton's Canadiana, Red Heart, Lion Brand Wool-Ease and Jiffy, Sensations boucle and mohair, Bernat's Softee Chunky and some that I don't remember the brand names.

There's at least a dozen skeins. There's enough for booties, hats, even a scarf or two.

So How Do You Get It?
Simple: you have to do 2 comments. One on any post in the blog and the other on this post to let me know which post your comment is on. In others words; say I am Anita Purl (get it, I need a purl? Oh, I crack me up.) I make a comment on 'The Head 2 Toe Project" (December 2007) and I come back to this post and say: Anita Purl: The Head 2 Toe Project.

That's it - I would be entered in my own contest. Wouldn't it be a hoot if I won?

Next, every one who comments will have their names placed in a hat and the hubby-bubby will select the winner. The winner will be selected and announced on November 28, 2008 (which happens to be my birthday.) The winner will give me an address to send the goods and off they go. Now my h-b would prefer I keep this box and give away the rest, but that's not gonna happen.

That's the whole deal. Trust me, if this goes well, there's more than enough yarn for me to do this again in May (to celebrate my wedding anniversary!)

Happy posting!

No, it doesn't count if you've commented before - you have to do a fresh one!

Quick Knit Scarf

Well, I'm just a knitting fool since the Ravelympics started. I still have the olympic scarf and the cai afghan to go, but this was almost done so i thought it would be best to go ahead and finish it up.

This scarf goes with the hat (that's Marilyn modeling it). They're both made with Red Heart yarn on size 9 needles. The hat was modified from a pattern found in Quick Knit - Cool Accessories and the scarf was made up from a stitch I found in a stitch dictionary and thought it would make a great scarf. and so it does.

this cute little set will be sold at the November Bazaar - come on by and buy it!