Two Finished Projects!
What happens when an order for 100 spinning tutorials comes in, needed asap; spinning and knitting a felted bag start to finish in two weeks; throw in a couple days of watching Baby Faith; squeezing in dashes of violin practice for the mini concert at a retirement home today; with all the regular tasks of running a business?
Exhaustion.
Spinning and knitting in the evenings and knitting while printing, and printing, and more printing. I lost track of the hours it took to print, compile, cut, punch and bind 100 tutorials. Taking that box full to the PO was a huge relief!
Thursday was spent spinning and knitting the last of of bag. My calculations were off with the roving. At the lofty rate of spinning it was going to take more like nine oz. of roving. I had eight oz.
"Ed, can you please make me a set of needles, this morning?" My champion pulls through. :-) One needle is ebony, the near one is cocobolo. Purposely mismatched.
The last 10 rounds where knit on 9mm/#13 needles with sharp tips and sleek bodies. The last ounce of roving was respun into a smaller yarn and the shoulder strap tackled by late evening.
I wanted a bit more padding on the shoulder strap so slip-stitched the middle stitches and did a seed stitch on the outside ones to keep it from rolling. It didn't work. The slip stitching pulled the edges inwards. It was 1:30am. Past Bedtime. Up by 7 to fix the strap by stitching the edges together the length of the underside. It worked.
It was waaaay wider than I'd wanted. I should not have cast on so many! Lots of hot, hot water, soap, and kneading. And the height shrunk a lot, but not the length, except for the bottom. Poor color in this photo, I was in too big of a hurry. I wanted to take it to the spinning session at 10am at the YS before Aurora took it to class that afternoon.
MC had a great suggestion: Buttons! We played around with folding it, then I poured over the wonderful selection of buttons that Celia carries. Aurora stopped by with Baby Faith whom she'd picked up for a babysitting session, just in time to find the perfect buttons. Since the bag is for a classmate it was great having her input!
The finished bag! It certainly is not the book bag I sent out to make. Not all is lost if Classmate doesn't end up buying it. It still turned out pretty cool, I think.
I finish writing up the pattern later. I still want to make a book bag so will try again, another time.
What does a yarn gauge have to do with anything in this post?
Take two wooden yarn gauges and tap them together in front of young baby!
She loved them!
Exhaustion.
Spinning and knitting in the evenings and knitting while printing, and printing, and more printing. I lost track of the hours it took to print, compile, cut, punch and bind 100 tutorials. Taking that box full to the PO was a huge relief!
Thursday was spent spinning and knitting the last of of bag. My calculations were off with the roving. At the lofty rate of spinning it was going to take more like nine oz. of roving. I had eight oz.
"Ed, can you please make me a set of needles, this morning?" My champion pulls through. :-) One needle is ebony, the near one is cocobolo. Purposely mismatched.
The last 10 rounds where knit on 9mm/#13 needles with sharp tips and sleek bodies. The last ounce of roving was respun into a smaller yarn and the shoulder strap tackled by late evening.
I wanted a bit more padding on the shoulder strap so slip-stitched the middle stitches and did a seed stitch on the outside ones to keep it from rolling. It didn't work. The slip stitching pulled the edges inwards. It was 1:30am. Past Bedtime. Up by 7 to fix the strap by stitching the edges together the length of the underside. It worked.
It was waaaay wider than I'd wanted. I should not have cast on so many! Lots of hot, hot water, soap, and kneading. And the height shrunk a lot, but not the length, except for the bottom. Poor color in this photo, I was in too big of a hurry. I wanted to take it to the spinning session at 10am at the YS before Aurora took it to class that afternoon.
MC had a great suggestion: Buttons! We played around with folding it, then I poured over the wonderful selection of buttons that Celia carries. Aurora stopped by with Baby Faith whom she'd picked up for a babysitting session, just in time to find the perfect buttons. Since the bag is for a classmate it was great having her input!
The finished bag! It certainly is not the book bag I sent out to make. Not all is lost if Classmate doesn't end up buying it. It still turned out pretty cool, I think.
I finish writing up the pattern later. I still want to make a book bag so will try again, another time.
What does a yarn gauge have to do with anything in this post?
Take two wooden yarn gauges and tap them together in front of young baby!
She loved them!
posted by Fiberjoy at 11:34 AM
13 Comments:
Love the finished bag just as it is, Wanda! You sound like you've been running full stop - I hope you get a chance for a break, and a rest, soon. :0)
O'Dear Wanda, you've been a whirlwind of activity! I love the bag, in fact, I love the colours in the 'off' photo as much as the real ones!
Faith continues to tickle me, and I think I would react the same way (albeit with different reasons) those WPI gauges are the finest I've ever seen.
I hope you get some peaceful hours to recover.
Faith is just the yummiest baby! Sorry if this is a dumb question, but how does the yarn gauge work?
Do you wrap the yarn around it?
Thanks Charity and Marianne!
I've just been vegging a bit in the late afternoon sun while working on the Red Sweater. It's been a relaxing transition from the "concert" earlier.
Marjorie, it's not a dumb question, it baffles many people. There is a flat, cut out section that is one inch wide. Yarn is wrapped round and round from one end of the cutout to the other. The total number of wraps across that inch, with the yarn snugged but not tight against each other, around the tool is the Wraps Per Inch. Anything can be used that measures an inch, including a ruler. It's just kind of nice to have a smaller dedicated item out of a pretty wood. :-)The WPI helps determine the type of yarn: lace, sporting, DK, etc.
well I really love that bag, well done you! I can hear the delightfully clunky sound of the wood tapping together...the delights of first learnings are to be cherished!
The bag came out beautiful!
We're out here cheering for you (big grin) and ever so grateful for all the booklets!
That bag is fabulous - and I'm sure that the pattern will sell. So clever with the beautiful button on it.
And baby Faith is growing so fast - wow. Love the photos of her enjoying the yarn gauges!
Quick.... we need the pattern! It's wonderful.
cool bag - I love the needles (super hubby to the rescue) and baby Faith - She just gets cuter and cuter and I LOVE the first picture of her watching the tapping together... :D
Love the bag!
Love the needles!
And love the gauges....
Who isn't in love with baby Faith!
You'd better take some time out, dearest Wanda, or you'll stop having fun! I know, these piled up jobs all seem to come together don't they?
I love the yarn gauge, but I love even more the idea of purposely odd needles. So easy to keep track of where you're at. And the woods Ed uses are stunning. I feel a buying session coming on!
Oh my Wanda you are such a busy bee and I love the bag and the button completes it perfectly.
More lovely photos of the sweet Faith :)
Cool! I love the needles, and that is one cute baby!
Post a Comment
<< Home