Finished, and mostly happy with it. Stupid thing got some dark fuzz on it during felting, but I do not have time to deal with that right now. Also, the sunglasses case lost the fluffy yarn during felting. Ah well.

Here is the main view of The Beast, a backpacky sort of thing.

See, these straps in the back allow me to call it a pack. Yep.

Cell phone and interior pockets both came out beautifully.

Sunglasses case, a last minute inspiration from the voices in my head. It looked cute going into the washing machine.

It came out, well, you can put sunglasses in it. Bummer about the eyelash coming off during felting.

And that’s about it. I’m getting ready to be offline for a couple of weeks and the site will be undergoing a little revamping during that time. My plan is to have tons of FO’s to show when I return. We’ll see about that.

Nope, haven’t had that nervous breakdown just yet. Working on it. Working on it day and night.

Anyway. Made one more project bag, because this KAL beast bag is going on and on and I just wanted to finish something!

The reason The Beast keeps going on and on is the thing wants more features every time I think it is ready to felt. This morning at 5 am I was making it a cell phone pocket!

Really, seriously now, I’m just going to finish the few miles of i-cord for the straps and then it is going in the washer.

I just rinsed out my latest attempt at blue/green/purple self-patterning and I just have two words for it. Woo and hoo.

So my bag for the KAL is turning itself into this enormous freakish project that is entirely beyond my control. The thing is self-creating right on the needles. I’m scared.

Took a break from working on it to play with my sewing machine a bit this evening. It has been acting up and I thought it would be a good idea to make adjustments while doing a small, unimportant project rather than something major. So we have the cherry sock bag.

Now, every time I cut out a sock/project bag I end up with one extra piece in each fabric, because you only need two for the bottom. So tonight I thought I was all smart and stuff, folded the extras in half, and attached them as pockets. I firmly believe you can never have enough pockets. Ever.

By the time I noticed this little problem, the bag had been finished and I certainly do not care enough to rip it out and redo it. So maybe the upside down pocket will become a fad? Sure.

I also played with a project from craftster (aka the source of all temptation) and melted some beads in the oven. That was really fun. Possibly too much fun. It can also be done while I’m dyeing or whatever in the kitchen. All about the multi-tasking don’t you know.

Terri says she got the two patterns to test, I can’t wait to see if they work. I have another half dozen charted to work on while I’m offline at the end of the month.

But right now I really, really need to go face the monster KAL bag. Goodnight.

Just a couple little projects in between trying to knock out the KAL bag and finish this twin shopping seat cover. Dyeing, of course. I wish this yarn had been done for the KAL, I really do.

I finished the orange and pink fluffy scarf, and immediately started another. I take back all the bad things I ever said about weird yarns and giant needles. This is great fun.

So I went to the fishing gear store the other day. I came home with a line counter that works wonderfully, but I need to attach it to something solid. This method was ok until I accidentally reset the counter while adjusting the clamp. Oops.

Even more fun was this little tackle binder. Now all of my circular needles are in a neatly zippered case, clearly marked with their size and length. Much better than digging through a tote and practicing my curse words. I got the medium and it also has little zipper pockets for stitch markers or whatever other random stuff follows you as you knit.

This is some yarn I did with liquid food coloring earlier this week. The purple came out a bit dark, but if it patterns like I think it will, all will be well.

I also went to my first knitting group tonight, it was great. There’s just something about being in a room full of people who share your obsessions.

Time to turn off the computer for now. I have got to finish my KAL bag before the deadline sneaks up and kicks me in the butt. I also have to re-write the mystery dishcloth patterns and get them to Terri for testing. My first drafts looked awful even on paper so I redid them.

Whee, I joined a knitalong. My first official one ever. Now let’s see if you can notice a pattern of what is going on in my knitting bag right now.

This is the start of my bag for the knitalong.

This is a fluffy scarf I am actually knitting on size 35 needles, and not completely hating it.

And my socks still need heels and feet bits done.

Yeah, that is a lot of pink and orange! I cast on a red/white/blue dishcloth last night just to give my poor eyeballs a break.

This entire entry will be about this bag. So if you hate this bag, are completely indifferent to this bag, or whatever, come back another day.

Finally it is ready to be felted.

And it has been felted.

This is the first bag I have ever wanted to keep. So I am. Hah.

My favorite part – I just knit a tube, and then sewed up the bottom in a squarish way.

After felting my tube is magically a structured little bag.

I made the i-cord ridiculously long, so that I could make the decision about strap number and length after felting. I ended up cutting about 10″ off and making this a nice little shoulder bag. At this length it swung around my knees. Not so good.

Swatches, how I hate them. Here are the green/blue and the rainbow yarn I dyed, in swatch form.

Here, because I am a full service kind of person, is what they look like after felting.

The green has been claimed by a friend of my sister’s who loves all things green.

The rainbow stuff will be finding a home soon. I don’t really care for it. Shh.

My dislike of orange is suffering greatly lately, and I made some more of the orange/yellow/pink stuff, only with much larger color sections. Yeah, I’ll swatch it when it is dry.

The truck dishcloth is being test-knit still, the ‘mystery pair’ dishcloth patterns are charted but not written yet. I’ll do that next time I have to tolerate another basketball playoff on tv. The bag with the green/blue/purple yarn is done and ready to felt as soon as I finish the dreaded i-cord. Hopefully I can do that while the kids frolic at the park today.

So for two days I have been hacking down this tree. Bush. I don’t really know. It is green with lots of branches and it was blocking my satellite dish. My hands are all beat up, my arms are killing me, so don’t expect anything but lots of patterns and dyeing coming up for a bit.

Like this lovely cotton, which I like in spite of the fact that I take issue with the dye manufacturer calling tha shade of green “lime.” Not really lime. Not to me.

Ooh, before I shredded my hands on the treething, I learned a new skill. An eleven year old girl taught me. That was kind of cool.

The pattern for the truck dishcloth is being test knit by the lovely and talented Emily. The pattern that came to my twisty little brain this evening is actually a set of two cloths that will be revealed as a pair. I’ll have to find some test knitters who can keep a secret.

The frog cloth is finally done. Pardon the camera angle, I promise he looks much better in person. The pattern will be up on my free patterns pages sometime later today.

Nothing else exciting happened. I balled up the rainbow dyed wool and it looks nice. I know, swatch it. I was busy making you people a frog, ok? Even though my wrists hurt and my fingers are sore. The suffering I put up with for my art. Hee. I’ll swatch it tonight maybe. Perhaps.