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.

Funkalicious Wrap

While you were all dancing in the new year, the stroke of midnight found me casting on for this drop stitch wrap.
I am officially in love with my steamer. The yarn was soft to begin with and I made it to the size specified, but I wanted to give it more width and so I pinned it to the press board and my steamer went to town on it. Not only did I get the size I wanted, but the thing makes the yarn so much softer and it smells so nice! I even believe it makes the colors pop ever so much.
It is six feet long and about 3 feet wide so it has plenty of wrapablilty. (Spellchecker will have a field day with that one!)
There is a story that goes with this wrap called 'How A Stash Gets Borned.' I shall save that story for another day - like tomorrow. But for now, I am enjoying this latest little creation. I snuggled with it for a little bit and it is now safely enshrined in it's bag ready for someone to claim it - for a price.

I'd Like to Thank the Academy...

This message appeared in my Ravelry mailbox:

"1:23 PM
Request to feature your photo: Very Thick - Not So Quick Afghan
Sent at 8:20 AM Yesterday

We’d like to feature your photo on the Ravelry page for Triple Wave Afghan by Martingale & Company."

I'm so farklemt. That would be 'choked up' for those who do not speak Yiddish. One of my favorite afghans will be the poster child for the Triple Wave afghan on Ravelry. This is enough to make one proud and humble all at the same time. I don't know if it's really a big deal but it feels like a big deal. I went over to Ravelry and did a search on Triple Wave and there she is...my baby!

Excuse me while I get a little misty...