Origami Messenger Bag

 

A fellow knitter had a bag her mother had made her on one Thursday night.  I was fascinated as she described how it was made.  Of course I failed to commit it to mind and luckily Kate remembered.  Kate once demonstrated for me on paper, which I lost when moving my stuff.  Kate was kind enough to provide her take on the directions again.

A barely connected fact, I used to do a lot of origami.  And look how life loops around.

 

I often pick up the photographic fruit fabric when I see it if I like the look.  I have worn through the straps on my green pineapple bag and was wearing out my apple bag, so I knew eventually I would have to work to replace them.  Of course the first replacement bag I made was for my mother and had not gotten around to any for myself yet.  One reason was it takes space to quilt the fabric and the table in my parents’ den works so much better.

So once I had gotten over the sloth moving created, I laid out the kiwi fabric and tried to make a square (one yard wide).  Without a great guide, there was some tweaking.  I then went about cutting the sage green fabric and batting to match.  To keep the fabric from shifting through the layers, I basted it.  Of course, typical luck, the first time I basted I had failed to iron the fabric and ended up with creases.  So there for I ironed it and then basted it again.  After that I did the joyous task of quilting the square and strap.  I will admit the lines were not perfectly done, but were good enough for me.

 

The next step was to make bias tap to bind the edge.  I found some white fabric that worked well for contrast and reacquainted myself with the directions from here.  Since I thought I would make another bag I made 318” of double wide, which of course took a while to iron.

 

I then bound the edge and went to look at Kate’s instructions again.  Setting the square with a point at top, I folded the one edge over two thirds and then the other side edge over that.  To tack it down I folded up the inside edge of the bias tape and sewed underneath.  This kept the seam unobtrusive.  I then folded the project in half with the overlap on the outside.  I placed the strap down between the fold and sewed about ½ inch in on each side.

Then I had a beautiful new bag.

   

Fabric Venn Diagram

Sometimes I think people may be interested in how a project came to be.  Sometimes I may be incorrect.  I’m not sure if those two sometimes ever create a Venn diagram.  I sure hope not.  I do know that because of fabric now my niece’s clothing and min sometimes is an overlapping Venn Diagram.  As in I own dress and she owns dresses, and sometimes they are related because it was the same fabric.

So for some reason I had been telling a few of my favorite stories about my sister.  Only a few of the multitude (we are getting older).  I noticed that most of the stories were highlighting the times I felt she treated me badly.  (One was just to share why I giggle every time I go byBeauregard Street in Alexandria.)  Once I noticed that I felt I had to make it clear that she is for the most part an awesome sister, it is just certain stories are more fun to share.

The there were two stories I shared in conjunction with each other.  The link between the two was her alibi was to have misunderstood.  One was a repeatedly done when the night before I would have been at Lubertos (an excellent place to eat if you are nearDublin,PA) and got a cheese steak.  I would generally eat half and the chips and save the other half.  Then likely I would work the next afternoon at the pool and think about it for my next dinner.  I would go home and open the fridge and find it gone.  She had eaten it and when questioned “Oh, I thought you weren’t going to eat it.”  Not okay.  The second story was a dress I owned in high school.  She was away at college but would be home periodically.  She asked if she could borrow it and I said no I planned to wear it next week, which I did.  Then a few weeks latter I am thinking to myself I have not seen that dress recently.  I wait through another cycle of laundry and finally question my sister.  She had borrowed it, why did she think she could, “Oh, I thought you just meant that week I could not borrow it.”  But I was telling my sister I had been sharing the stories and she said what dress.  I said my white eyelet dress.  It didn’t ring any bells.  I have finally dug up the picture this morning (of course, I am uncertain of the other girls in the picture, I think one was Carrie).  After talking to her about it, I started thinking about how much I liked that dress and decided to recreate it.

I looked through patterns and then realized I likely already owned the pattern I needed.  And thankfully my dad looked through the drawers and found the pattern that was used for a couple dress when I was a senior in high school.  He found the pattern and to make sure it was the right one found a link on the internet that showcased McCall’s 3233.  Once he sent me the info on the pattern, I ordered some fabric from fabric.com.  I was looking for white eyelet, but none was available at the time, so I ended up getting Fancy Eyelet Ivory.  I think that ended up being the
better choice in the long run considering my propensity for paleness.  My mother actually asked me about two weeks ago if I was outside during the day.  I replied not usually considering work.  I do believe that anyone who explores the link will agree that the photo does not indicate any shinyness.  That off course was a bit misleading, but I came to accept the thread being shiny.

I had the fabric shipped to my parents’ house so that I could work on it the weekend I was up there.  I the morning of Saturday had to go out and pick up a zipper and that is how I came to buy patterns for baby dresses.  Since I had already cut out the pattern on the eyelet material I knew I had plenty of extra.  I would like to not since I had cut the pattern to the size used in 2001 and not folded it down, I added some extra to the seams.  I am slightly different physically a decade later.  The only other thing I changed was to add lining (next time I would just make a slip and not sew in the seams) and make the straps thicker.  My sister asked if I did that to avoid the hassle of turning thinner straps.  No that was not my primary reason.  My primary reason was that I did not want to be a hassle to wear a bra and I hate it when the bra straps show.  I also felt that this dress may have my most successful zipper to date.  This was the dress I was wearing when asked incredulously about making my dress to wear to the wedding.  And I was told it did not look home-made.  Of course I was asked if I made the design, and I replied no I bought the fabric as eyelet fabric.  I love the scalloped edges, even though those made me have to tinker with the pattern.  I’m sorry the picture is limited, but last night when I tried to take it with it on it made a shiny 7 across my chest and stomach, which was just too strange.  And I need to stand for the dress form to use it to show anything with a skirt.  The dress, as can be seen, is not a replica of the original, but has been inspired by.  The length is to right above my knees.

So as I said I knew I had plenty of extra fabric (I feel like so leftover amount is so often obnoxious).  What made it not obnoxious, was having a little niece I had a use for it.  I picked up McCall’s 5791 to makeErin a pretty ivory dress.  Funnily the pattern was called to be lined, so I did not have to remind myself to do it.  I had not though about the ribbon, but Tuesday night was able to decide on the beautiful orange ribbon that had lead to me purchasing yarn to make a scarf.  I made the scarf, but then decided I liked it better without the ribbon.  One issue was turning the ties a bunch of white particles erupted over my room.  I did once again French seam, I love that look.  Another was apparently I wound the bobbin thread wrong, so it tangled and I repeatedly had to remove the plate on the sewing machine to get it out.  Repeatedly, failing to think maybe the bobbin is the problem considering you just clean out the fuzz last weekend.

What was amusing was the width of the skirt before gathered.  It would have been indecently short on me of course, but had at least 30% extra when around my hips.  And I think anyone will know my weight is exponential to my niece’s.

Once finished I did think, too bad she is already baptized.  Such a pretty dress.

A field of flowers

Hooray, with one post I can and must talk about two projects.  Because one led to the other.

I’ll start with my skirt first.  For the past few years I have been adding to a wardrobe a dress bought with my birthday in mind.  Last yeah I actually got two, one was more suited for the going out function and one was actually for the actual day.  Since I did not even wear the going out one for my birthday event, it did not even manage to hold onto the title with qualifications.  This year I thought well let me see if any patterns call to me and I find fabric for it.

I took a trip to G-Street and the fabric did.  It was just the cheerful print I wanted.  I bought the amount I thought would be necessary.  When getting it cut, the worker said oh we also have this in pink, I thank her but shared that I loved it the way it was.

With the big flowers and the brightness I felt it called for a full skirt.  I also was wise enough to buy material to line it, partly because a large portion was white and partly because I like lining my skirts.

I paired the bottom of McCall’s 5382 with the top of Simplicity’s 2648.  I wanted to wear the dress on my birthday (late March) and that meant to work.  I like the look of the top with the small sleeves, but I really wanted a full skirt.  I did of course know that as usual, I was making it more difficult.  In my defense, I present the following two points.  I like a challenge (perhaps more than I should).  Also what is the point being able to make my own clothing if I can not get exactly how I want it.

Since this was a period ago and I do not remember all the issues I will share what I do.  With the amount of fabric I had bought and the pattern on it there was limited available material for the top pieces because I wanted those pieces to only be white.  So I had issues when I tried to seam the armholes between the material and the lining.  I just thought I could seem more than I could and still turn it.  That was wrong.  When I went to remove the stitches I was too vigorous and ripped it the fabric.  Also gunk ended up the iron which ended up on the nice white fabric.  With the limited fabric, time running out (often I work up until the last possible outline), and still not entirely sure matching up the pieces would be simple I decided for the birthday at least it would be a skirt.

With the skirt I had altered it from being gathered even before it became a skirt and instead darts (I have highlighted those in blue)  in the front and back pieces.  That actually worked out smoothly, since I was partially winging it.  I went with that decision because I like the crispness of the darts to make the change in circumference more gradual than gathers.  Plus gathering annoys me because I cannot make it completely uniform.  With the blue dress of the previous post, I went with the gathers because the other option was pleats and I thought that would alter the overall look, plus drive me insane with the amount I would need to do.

To sum up, the dress became a skirt and was exactly what I wanted for my birthday outfit.  So bright, cheerful and springy.  Also good it was not a dress, because it was a chilly day.

So now for the second project.  I had several large scrapes of flower fabric left over.  When heading up to see my parents and sister, I decided I would give it to her along with a couple other things.  I felt she could use the pieces for something forErin.  Of course I end up needing to go to Joann’s for another project (next one to be discussed) and decide to look through the baby dress patterns.  There is a reason I was excited about a niece being a niece and not a nephew.  Not because I think girls are better than boys, but because little girly things can be fun to make.  More ruffles and embellishments than little boys clothing.  So I found a pattern that looked like it would work well, and somehow instead of giving the pattern with the fabric to my sister (she can sew) I decide to make the dress myself.

The pattern I used was McCall’s 6309.  I chose not to include the back ruffles because, frankly, I found them odd and stupid.  Just my opinion.  Of course, with the way things usually work out, there were spots where the fabric did not quite make it, but I figured I could make it work.

I decided to practice French seams and had to seam the back because of there being enough fabric, just not enough connected for that piece.  So after I have gone through the seaming of the wrong sides together, trimming, then sewing the right sides together and ironing the piece, I realize I had sewed one upside down.  Since it was not incredibly noticeable, I decided to leave it that way. I do like French seams, just look over at how nicely all the ends of encapsulated – no worries about fraying from contact and washing .  I figure practicing on small clothing will make them more rote, so the extra sewing will not seem as burdensome when my clothing.

The fabric failing at points to be enough led to me making a thinner channel for the elastic then recommended.  That was the hardest part of the project, getting the elastic through, it took at least 4 attempts.  The straps were easy to turn once I had attached a needle and
thread and gotten the initial turn done.  The hardest part was figuring out where the
squares to place the straps were with it all bunched up.  I of course would stretch it out, but having only two hands, stretching it out and then holding the pattern to it and estimating the seam allowance was tricky.  I probably should have marked it before the elastic.  Well anything can be a learning experience.

And that is how it came to be that my niece and I can now coordinate.

You are making your dress for the wedding?

So I had not realized it had been half a year.  Funny how things can easily slip from your mind.  Well I will do my best to share some projects not sure it will matter.

First I will start with my shiny new dress.  And the use of shiny is apt with the sheen.  I believe the fabric used was crepe backed satin.  I did not bother to note it when I bought it.  That is sometimes a flaw in my projects, I fail to properly note things and time can go by before I get around to making the project.

This dress came from a dress I saw on Modcloth.  I really enjoyed the detail of the back balanced against the front.  I believe it was January of 2010 when I decided to attempt creating it.  So I found a pattern as close as I could, to at least get the fullness of the skirt.  I could not find a pattern out that would do for the top.  The necessary space to lay out the fabric to cut out the skirt and the issue of not exactly having a pattern for the top were probably the reasons the dress went on the back burner.

So come this May I get invited to the wedding of a former roommate.  It is on July 2^nd and as I was thinking about what to wear, I thought hmm if I can make the dress that is the perfect match.  I was already excited about seeing Jessica get married, but it added to the excitement to have the excuse to make and wear the dress.

I finally take the time to lay out the fabric and cut out the skirt.  To set myself in the right direction with the top part, I make a mockup of the foundation pieces using the top part of the pattern as a guide for sizes and muslim.

From there I go on to try to get the top pieces for the pattern set.  I change over to the crepe backed satin and find with the thickness the gathering will not hold throughout the center of each piece and so I have to switch to pleating.  That probably caused me to sit back into my seat and think it over for at least 5 minutes.  So with this thick fabric I test out the highest iron heat allowed on a scrap and it is definitely not hot enough to enforce pleats.  Well maybe if I was willing to devote 15 minutes to pleat it could have gotten there.  But I was not willing to.  Instead I look around for advice on the internet and decide to try starch.  I even go out of my way to bike to Whole Foods early the next morning (it was a Saturday) to buy the organic type.  Of course there is not any at that Whole Foods, so I went with the less environmentally friendly type from Walgreens.  Why, because I was on a mission; also I had more faith in the ozone killing kind, I was just willing to try the other kind first.  For your information, spraying generously with starch and waiting for it to dry fixed the how to pleat the material problem.

So with many attempts to make the pleats perfect I finally get to the part where I am going to sew the pieces all together.  It is now 3 days before the wedding.  I had already attached the front to the midsection and was trying to determine the proper angle for the back slashes.  It was then I realize that on the two front pieces the pleats are going the same direction and not mirroring each other.  I do not even waste the brain energy on figuring how I could have been working for a couple weeks on these pieces and not have realized it.  Instead I suddenly cannot find the seam ripper, so I focus on that instead. And hoping that the material will work in the opposite direction, so I will not have to restarch and repleat.

Luck was with me, and then I move on to making it fit perfectly.  At first the front touched where it hit the midsection, but that did not encourage it to curve in the right manner.  And it was a little difficult to work on the back section, a point when I wish I had a helper.  I double folded the hem to make it neat and hand stitched in the zipper so there would be no seam.  I did the zipper on Friday and then am ready to add the hooks.  This is when I find that with straightening up my room, I do not know where they are.  I decided to get sleep and just pick up some more in the morning.  As you can see I hooked the back pieces together and above the zipper.

And that is how the dress came to be.  I wore is successfully to the wedding.  And here is a picture of me with the beautiful bride.

I titled the post because I mentioned to a friend that I was working on my dress for the wedding and he was aghast at the idea.  I could not believe I have known someone for any length of time and they would give me such a response.  I replied with yes and I made the dress I am currently wearing, most of my dresses I have made.  After I finished the dress I shared the photos and was told that he knew someone growing up who made her own cloths and she always looked frumpy.  I don’t think this dress looks frumpy.

Argyle!

My sister was kind enough to take a picture of my nephew in the argyle vest I knit for him.  How did the vest come about?  Well my sister said that Trey would like an argyle vest.  I thought this over and asked would Trey like one or would his mother like him to have one.  The response was a contrite I would.  I don’t know if it was actually contrite, and it probably was not, but I will assign it that for purposes of story telling.  So anyone who knows my sister, just willingly suspend disbelief and believe she was contrite.

My love of argyle has been shared before and so I was a pretty easy mark with this request.  Plus I figure she still has a lot of control over dressing him since he is 3 (her control over getting the picture she wants will be discussed later).

I decided to use Valley Yarn Northampton since it comes in a variety of colors and is such a reasonable price.  I also decided to start knitting in the round because I like using my knitpicks options circular needles and skipping seams.  Of course once I got done the ribbing I realized that I had not thought this through.  So I rip out all those stitches and start again in two pieces.  Of course my flaw that time was to forget to bring my 6s and make the whole vest on the same size needle and not downgrade for ribbing.  Please don’t kick me out of the knitting club.  I devised this vest based on his chest size.  Both sides have argyle, because I like it that way and it is my own pattern.  I over stitched the cream lines because I found tension problems when I would only do one stitch in a color.  You can see that where the diamonds meet up.  The method of knitting was intarsia with floats.  I also got to use the nifty yarn bobbins I got from Webs.  They were only a problem when overfull, once down to the proper amount of size they worked like a charm.

So I am close to being done around Thanksgiving and decide take advantage of seeing Trey to see if the size is right.  Another flaw in my work, I used the average length for a toddler and not the actual length of my nephew who according to his mother has a long torso.  According to his aunt is abnormal, although I may have a long one too and just make accommodations for it because I can try things on all the time.  I like to blame the abnormalness.  However, I have been told by a friend that blame gets us nowhere.  I see the correctness of this statement, but not being at fault and being right makes me feel so good.  Of course driving away all my friends probably would not.  So it is not his fault he does not lie completely within the averages for toddlers.  I was wrong to rely on that assumption.  The end result was I knit two more pieces of ribbing and Kitchenered the pieces on to the bottom of the ribbing, so that the vest would not be cropped.  You think I would have learned from the blue pretzels sweater.  That has not yet been re-knit because the yarn really liked itself and it has not been successfully deconstructed yet.

I sent the vest off when I finally got back to it after Christmas knitting and sewing was done.  So my sister goes to take the picture she asks him to smile.  And here you can see her lack of control in getting the exact picture she wants.  I would say this is what happens when you take too many pictures, even the subject gets tired of it.  I think the last is my favorite.

A hodgepodge

I have realized that I never posted last year’s Christmas present for my sister.  It was another year of knitting up until the deadline.  I was not actually still knitting her present when she arrived at my parents house at lease.  I did however make part of my mother’s present on Christmas day and the second part was finished after.  I should probably work on my timing.  It has improved slightly as nothing was finished after Christmas this year.

So last year I made my sister a beautiful pair of socks out of Miss Babs Yummy Superwash Sock & Baby Yarn – 2 ply in Moss Monochrome.  It was a beautiful colorway.  She got socks, because I was informed after giving her a cardigan that did not fit due to pregnancy, I should give her something that would fit even in pregnancy.  And for once it was not my sister dictating the orders stated above.  Other instances show that she really took to the role of older sibling.

The pattern I chose to use was Nebula by Cookie A.  I love the way the socks mirror each other and the panels spiral around the sock.  For my sister’s socks, I did 16 of the cable repeats before starting the heel flap.  What makes the stitching define itself so well is knitting through the back for the knit stitches.  And I love that effect.

I found the pattern to be quite enjoyable and did not have that mush of a problem memorizing the stitch patterns.  Of course when I switched socks I had to make sure I learned to do the new one so that the socks would mirror.

I really loved the socks and therefore about 2 weeks after I finished my sisters I started another pair.  This time I was going to keep them and I made them out of the skein I had only used a smidge of for the Dame.  That yarn was the Miss Babs Yummy Superwash Sock & Baby Yarn – 2 ply in the Ironweed Monochrome colorway.  I would like to say that these were done shortly later, however I got distracted by other projects.  I did finally finish them by the end of May (and may have sent a petty competitive email stating I had finished before someone else).  The only difference besides color is that I only did 15 cable repeats before the heel flap.  I am against making 7 inch long legs for socks.  It just seems longer than necessary and too short to be cool enough to be knee socks.

The aforementioned gifts for my mother where a Calorimetry by Kathryn Schoendorf in Miss Babs Yowza Whata Skein in Mosswood.  That is such a neat and handy pattern.  I also made one of those for myself.  It is a nice alternative to a hat.  The other gift that I never got a picture of because it was left as a present when I had to go get a train was A Noble Cowl by Emily Kausalik.  That was also a very wonderful pattern.

To round this out without bothering too much what my mom got this Christmas was a replacement of her quilted bag.  This time Oranges!  The straps of her peapod bags were wearing out.  I forgot to bring the pattern, so used the peapod bag as a guide.  You may notice the extra sold fabric where the straps are coming down, that is because I did make the straps long enough to hit the solid fabric and refused to turn anymore fabric tubes.  Turning two quilted fabric tubes was not the highlight of my Christmas vacation.  I also defend my choice to make the bag at my parents on Christmas Eve was not because of poor timing, but the fact that their sewing machine has a table that makes it easier to quilt fabric and mine does not.

That covers many projects.  Projects not related to Christmas to follow.

She’s my sister and this is her Cardigan

So my Aunt Paula knits many more items for the niece and nephew than I do.  And that is fine because it takes the pressure off of me to make hats in a timely manner.  My sister has expectations of new hats each year before it snows.  She can be a bit unreasonable.

So this is a picture of Erin wearing a beautiful sweater and booties made by her Great Aunt Paula.  It was pasted on that social networking site facebook by my sister and she then commented “Now if only someone would make me a sweater like that…”.  Aunt Paula then emailed me with a link to the post and “She’s your sister!!”

I thought of a cardigan I had been meaning to make for while and some yarn I could use. The yarn was Miss Babs Yowza Whatta Skien.  I had purchased enough for a sweater in both cadet and verdigris.  I also own several unmade sock skeins.  I adore the colorways of Miss Babs.  They fall perfectly in line with my preferences.  But I realized I was getting quite a collection, and so had to stop acquiring until there was not enough to fill its own container.  The pattern was the Gooseberry Cardigan by Hannah Fettig from Interweave Knits, Weekend 2009.

When I suggested that to my aunt, she indicated that I have already made her lots of things.  But I believe my sister appreciates them.  Of course when knitting I may have been looking for her to commit an egregious sin so I could keep the cardigan.  Courtney did not mortally offend me (not even slightly offend me in a way I could dramatize to justify keeping the cardigan) and so she got it for Christmas.

I did a good job with speed on the sweater considering I started knitting the day before Thanksgiving.  I did hit some slow downs due to work days that drained me and a Christmas Stocking that had a snag, so I had to knit right up to the last minute.  And the collar of the sweater was confusing me on which side I should consider the right side.  In the end, whether it started with knit rib or purl rib was not a major deal.  Of course I decide that after undoing the picked up stitches once.  So to get the cardigan done I did with go some sleep.  But I think I did pretty well for a lack of sleep.

I am including a close up of the ribbing, because it was the last thing I did and sticks in my mind as an important part of the cardigan.

One fun part was finding the buttons.  I took my dad with me because we were doing other errands like buying food for dinner.  It was funny to see his outrage at the cost of 1 inch buttons.  In the end I got ¾ inch buttons because I could find a total of 8 in a style I liked, and that made it easier for him to watch me buy them.  In the future, I may not bring my father button shopping.

So with some light blocking on Christmas afternoon (it’s okay because they were coming for dinner) and sewing on the buttons it was wrapped for the gift exchange.  After Courtney tried it on, she said it’s like Erin’s isn’t it.  And then she asks why it is not the same color.  My response – I got for coordination and complementary, not matching.  This is also why the owls sweaters were all different colors.

This picture although fuzzy because taken in sports mode as my sister rotated, shows the sweater off better in its color and fit.

If you are curious about the snowman in the pictures, it was her idea and sometimes it’s best to humor the crazy family.  The rotating was as well.

A Parliment of Owls

Don’t be fooled into thinking that smile is just happily innocent.  This is what Erin looks like when my sister is holding her and moving her closer to your face.  As that happens, she will open her mouth wider to go around your nose and then begin gnawing on it.  Don’t worry she does not have teeth yet.  When I complain about it, my sister goes well you just stayed there.  I did because I was shocked at the behavior and had to witness it.

But to talk about the real reason I put the picture up it was to show the sweater off.  Aren’t the owls wonderful.  And wasn’t that a fun color I was able to use because my sister had a girl.

What is better than simply a baby owls sweater, why another in a kids size.  Here is my 3½ year old nephew modeling the deep green version.  I used Valley Yarns Northampton for the baby and Bulky for the kid size.

What would make the picture even more complete, and adult version for my sister (also in bulky).  This one I could test the size of by trying it on, and once I did that my hope was that she had thinner arms than me.  The sleeves fit, but the stitches were pulled very tight around the bicep.  It was not attractive.

She put them all on for our trip to the pumpkin patch.

She also claims that my brother in law would like one as well.  She has told me this several times.  My response – “Until I have it in writing with a signature that he will wear it, I will not make it.”  I figure this will never happen, since I have heard him in the background when on the phone with her saying vehemently “No I do not.”

In case you are wondering, in total there were 86 buttons found and sewn on.  Yes, it was monotonous.  But worth it for the end result.

And this is what I did with my pumpkin with some help from a very handy assistant.

It’s Jon Stewart.

A chic (snug) sweater

So I went to the Rally to Restore Sanity/Fear.  The main reason I went was because I had a guest who really wanted to go.  Also since I was going to be in the area that weekend and a large percentage of people were talking about going, I figured why not.  As you can see there was not a great desire on my part, more circumstances.

So we go to get the metro later than intended, but at least got to start the day off with pancakes.  So the metro was of course very backed up (not the worst I saw that day though).  So we walked to the Mall, made our way up the crowd, but never could see that much.  Heard enough and then went on to find lunch.  This was of course also a trial (redirected many times and finally walking a roundabout route to Gallery Place).  Then checking out the metro to ride back to my place, found that the turnstiles were actually closed for periods of time (I have never seen that).  Later that night at a Halloween party other attendees were talking about how they were torn between the feeling they should be there and the thought of watching it from their homes and actually know what was going on.  I responded that it was funny because I have absolutely no urge to be there in such an event.  I hate crowds, it is a hassle to get there and leave, and you usually are so disassociated.  I did enjoy the signs and when standing in the crowd brought out my knitting to work on.  I mean it was not going to distract me from the event, just occupy the moments when waiting to try to hear something.

What I was working on what my Breton striped sweater.  I had cast it on originally in Amsterdam, but even though I did the calculations over and over in my head I ended up with it way to wide to be a shaped sweater with about 2 inches of ease.  Since math was not working for me when in Paris I just lopped off about 40 stitches and ended up with a snug sweater instead.  For the hems I would knit 3 rows and then purl, knit 2 rows and then on the next row pick up the cast on edges.

I finally finished the sweater this weekend (other projects came up) and here is the final result.  Sorry no pictures of the crowd at the rally, just didn’t know how interested anyone would be in peoples’ heads.

Kangaroos a hopping

So Blue Pretzels as I named it, which was the Sherwood Pattern made in the Sapphire Heather colorway of Wool of the Andes, will be unraveled when it returns to its birthplace. Why, because apparently the style my nephew wears does not include midriff bearing sweaters. There is no problem in the width, because the ribbing pattern gives it a wide range of widths. After a suggestion by my friends that I could wear it as a tube top (the body was knit from the bottom up in the round) I decided to test that theory and found it to be true. I opted not to document this. So the sleeves are too short too. I made a 2T because the options were 2T or 4T for the smallest size. It’s have when he will turn 3 in April.

Also I heard when he put it on he yelled “It’s scratchy”. I asked Courtney was it really that scratchy, because the heather colorway felt a little rougher than the other colorways I have knit with, but I did not think that it was intolerable. She told me that he can be dramatic and gets that from his father, which I scoffed at.

But she tells me he does like his new hat. See since he did not need a new hat, it took me a while to get around to it. Especially since I kept either knitting it the wrong size or decreasing too early to make a very pointed hat. The last time I got it right, and it only took an afternoon to knit the hat. I did a picot edge because I grew enamored with the edge when I made my kilthose (which will be discussed next). Then I did an overstitching of kangaroos. I chose that because my sister showed me a hat with penguins on it that she liked. I thought it was cute, but nothing that drew me. Penguins did not seem that pertinent for Trey. I then thought of kangaroos and the stuffed animal that I had gotten him from Australia. It was a kangaroo with a joey head attached by a string to the bottom of the pouch. Apparently one time, Joe was going up the stairs and heard him say uh-oh. The joey had become disconnected.  So maybe not kid appropriate.  The kangaroos were also inspired by the awesome decoration on the Australian embassy at Christmastime.  I was flattered when Courtney said she did not realize the kangaroos were overstitched.

Joe apparently thought it was dinosaurs, while Trey was clever enough to figure it out immediately. Although when I got home and was a little tipsy and saw what Joe had said about the hat I could see it.  Of course the dinosaur I see is the one from Jurassic Park that totally decimates someone.

In other news I stumbled on the site Mint, and find it so helpful. It will pull information from all my accounts, well not all of them. I guess its understandable that First Savings of Perkasie is not available. The only issue is this week I wanted to update the credit card account that requires I answer two questions before accessing the account and I could not remember the correct way to answer. Such as if asking my about my first car did I put the make and mode or just the model. It’s a very annoying process considering it is only used for ezpass (another headache). Well that’s enough for now.