MY Blog

don’t worry, it’s not you, it’s me. The last post I must have only hit “save” instead of “publish,” so things are a bit outa whack.

Although my knitting mojo’s been in a funk, I’ve actually been making progress on several things. First is the Brighton Bag, the inaugural product of the MY Sunday Knit-alongs. I finished. Not that it was a contest or anything (cuz I’m not competitive like that. . .right!), but I did think that I would peter out before the lining part. Sewing’s not my strong point.

But I plodded along on Sunday night:

You’ll note that I have all my very important tools nearby–my wonderful Necchi sewing machine, appropriately colored thread, pins, and the all important beer. I never sew without a beer–it keeps me thinking everything is going ok.

My round table sucks, so I do a lot of work on the floor.

I’d like to point out my wonderful new iron in this photo. I finally broke down and got a Rowenta. Holy cow, do I love ironing now! I kept ironing the bag lining, it was so much fun.

You’ll also note that my bag lining has absolutely no color in common with the knitted bag. So it doesn’t quite match–it does, however, “go,” if not in color, then in attitude. I truly heart this fabric, purchased at Purl Patchwork. The birds just make me happy! The green is there because I didn’t have quite enough bird fabric for the circumference of the bag. Drat. However, it at least “goes.”

Here are the two pieces together:

When I got to the store on Sunday, I added short red Grayson handles. But of course I forgot to take a picture. However, one other knit-alonger brought in her bag (which totally put mine to shame):

I was feeling sorta confident in a sewish way until I saw this beaut. The lining is perfect, and includes pockets. My bag definitely suffers in comparison. I had thought of giving mine to my mother for Mother’s Day, but now I’m re-thinking that.

Ok, the low-down on the Brighton Bag. I used one skein of Louet Euroflax linen, sport weight, in orange and size 6 needles. I made my bag only 9.5″ tall, instead of 13″, and in my lining I didn’t use the fusible interfacing. That was a mistake. Otherwise, I worked the pattern as written. Lastly, since my bag is shorter, I used shorter handles. My mom doesn’t put much on her shoulder.

I’ll leave you with a few shots of my posse’s annual cherry blossom party (on 4/19, in part celebrating thing 3’s birthday).

Here are the blossoms:

Here they are a few hours later:

(note the beer, lower left corner. The Japanese truly understand how to get beer into the mix. There’s nothing better than a lacquer box full of food, bottles full of beer, and trees full of cherry blossoms on a 75 degree day in the park)

And here’s Thing 3 with her post party hangover:

As always, there’ll be more to come.

and call ‘em done. First, my BSJ. I’m not that pleased with this. I used the Koigu KPPPM, but had a hard time with the pattern.

I love the koigu. I don’t love the outcome. I may try it again, although I have an aversion to making the same thing twice.

After the BSJ, I quickly knit up a baby cap using the new Candy yarn from JCA that we got in the shop. It’s a cotton/elastine blend, but not quite as sproingy as Fixation. This was a fun hat (the pattern’s on the label), and the yarn was great (for a cotton).

The pattern is actually knit on straight needles (but I did it in the round), and I added the icord on top. Easy peasy!

Right now, I’m in the throes of the 1st Modern Yarn knitalong–the Brighton bag from Knitty. No photos yet, but I’m using orange. The others in the group (which met for the first time last Sunday) are heavy into both the French blue and aqua. All are looking good! Photos will come next week.

My mojo is gone.  And not just my mojo of the knitting kind.  There’s just a sense of malaise right below the surface and I’m trying not to let it get to me.  Always look on the bright side of life. . .

This week has been full of ups and downs.

On the upside:

Thing 3 turned 4.  Woot!  The day after her birthday, she awoke asking “am I still 4 today?”

On the downside:

That “anteck” bag holds a tiny little gerbil awaiting its owner’s return from vacation.  Nothing sucks more than losing a pet you’re gerbil-sitting for.  (well, let’s put this in perspective–lots of things suck more, but it’s truly disheartening to have to call your business partner to say that “although we valiantly rushed the gerbil to the emergency animal clinic, he died while in our care” and then break that news to children). Thank God DH asked  “hey, what’s this” before opening it the next morning as he was scrounging for breakfast.

And while I’m not feeling the love for any of my knitterly goings-on, I did finish the shell of the Brighton Bag!

This was a good knit.  Mine is not nearly as big as the knitty one, but I wanted more of a handbag than tote, so that works for me.  Brighton Bag is the subject of first MY knitalong, so the next step involves actual sewing machine sewing.  Ha,  good luck with that.

On the slower side, I’m on the 2nd sock of my 3rd pair of sprung socks.

I heart this pattern.  I’m making it my sock pattern of choice.  This time, I’m going toe-up (even though the pattern is cuff-down).  I’m not going to do that again.  I like knitting cuff down better.  Anyway, the yarn was stitches east swag that I traded a MY t-shirt for.  It’s from the Neighborhood Fibre Co.  I really like it–not splitty at all, and this red is a great color.

But I’m feeling the need to get cranking on some other bigger project.  Nothing’s calling out to me so urgently yet.  The cavern cardi is appealing–a slightly bustier version of the cardi Risa’s working on, but I’m just not tempted to cast on yet.  Maybe this is the collective voice of all my UFOs speaking to me (finish me, finish me. . .).