Back to your regularly scheduled whatever....

Back to the knitting! :-)

I can't show two of my current projects because their recipients read this blog (sometimes, anyway) so after Christmas I'll be able to show them.

I finally got a picture of my felted Vintage Bubble Bag. I didn't make it quite as tall as called for in the pattern because I was worried about running out of the black yarn. I ended up with about 5 yards left after the I-cord handles, so that was a good call.

Here it is again pre-felting:

and post-felting:

The shiny things on the bottom are the feet I put on there. I'm not totally thrilled with the shape of the bottom so I may try to hand-felt out more of the "nipples" on the bottom where the three-needle bind-off ended. They're not really noticeable in this picture, but in real life I'm not happy with them. Of course it's smaller than any of the bags I use, so it might be a non-issue. I also made the I-cord longer and tied it in knots rather than sewing them to the bag's top edge. I love the look of felted I-cord tied in knots.

One of the things we did while my parents were here was to have a little birthday party for DH, my Dad, and me since we've all got October birthdays. I put one picture in a previous post, but here's another with me opening my birthday gift. With help, of course:

Can you tell that the kids were picking up on my excitement?

And here I've decorated the spine of my needle binder since I'm one of a number of local knitters who have the same set:



And of course, the inside:


I wrote my name (in large letters) on the front interior cover, and I labeled each pocket with the needle tip size or cable length. My Mom also got me some extra cables, the size tags, and the View Sizer. It's an absolutely fabulous set and I've got 4 sets in use at the moment. I love them!!
The momentous event yesterday was the procurement of costumes. For the last few years I've made the kids' costumes, but I finally clued in to the fact that purchased costumes are MUCH less expensive, not to mention easier for me. I remember when I was in elementary school we wore our costumes to school and had a costume parade, so we got a fair bit of use from them. Not to mention the dress-up times afterward. They don't allow costumes at school here, so I don't feel the need to spend the time and money on costumes that won't be worn as much. Not to mention that it would take me forever to make a costume like Ryan's this year, and there's no way I have the technical know-how to put the neat fiber optics in Gillian's costume.

Here they are:

I couldn't capture it on camera, but Gillian's dress' skirt has fiber-optic threads that light up when you push a button. It's way cool!!! She's a ballerina princess. Ryan is a dinosaur, and he's been so cute! When his hood is up he's a dinosaur who tickles you, and when he pulls his hood down he says "Here's Ryan!"

This picture shows the back of Ryan's costume, which I find pretty amazing. If I'd made a costume like this the materials alone would've been more than $30, and the time involved would have been tremendous. They've had such a good time in their costumes. It's been a real riot watching them play.

To finish off this post, here's a picture of the beauteous yarns that I won through the Sivia Harding KAL group. These luscious balls of Kid Silk Haze came via Gill (short for Gillian, the same as my DD) at the WoollyWorkshop in England. I'm SO thrilled!!!! There was a drawing for prizes if you entered your project info in the group database, and I won one of the prizes.

I've decided that there's no comparison between Feza's Kid Mohair and this wonderful Kid Silk Haze. I kept seeing garments made from KSH and wondered how in the world people could stand to have it next to their skin. The scarf I made from Feza's Kid Mohair is unwearable next to the skin for more than five minutes, but I can see (after quite a bit of fondling and holding it next to my neck) that KSH is a completely different story. I'm a believer.