Tiny Knitting, HUGE Bag

I’ve been knitting in a small way. A teeny tiny way. See this? It’s a miniature log cabin afghan, just started. In sock yarn. It’s probably going to be no more than 5 inches wide and maybe 6 or so inches tall. The photo is deceiving; it’s probably no bigger than a postage stamp now.

What’s it for? Why knit something so painfully small? Well, that part I can’t say. But I do hope it’s going to be fabulous. I like small knitted things. I’m fascinated by knitted miniatures, and how detailed they can be despite their miniscule size. Have you seen this video on YouTube? It’s miniature knitting as a true art form:

In contrast to the really small, something really big came in the mail today!

It’s the Namaste Hermosa Tote, in eggplant, of course! OMG is this thing HUGE! It’s not really a purse, like the other bags are. It’s more a giant tote, with a nice firm bottom that stands well on its own. It has an attached “saddlebag” thingy on the outside, great for stashing knitting tools, or purse-y stuff or whatever. There are pockets on the inside and out, and the main compartment is so cavernous that one could easily carry an afghan in progress or a REALLY big sweater to knit group. There’s also a large pocket on the outside perfect for carrying sheet patterns so they don’t get rumpled by being jammed in the bag.

What I don’t know is whether this bag will be an everyday use sort of thing. It’s really so big I wonder if It’ll get in my way more than not. But, I also bought this:

It’s the Namaste Small Clutch, also in eggplant. It’s sort of a wallet, but bigger, and I’m hoping that this in combination with the clutch will make it easy to grab the money and other necessities of life, for those times when I need to just leave the tote and go. I’ll do the ol’ purse switcharoo tomorrow, so I’ll be able to give a review of what I like and don’t like in the coming days. Wish me luck!

I have more to tell but it will have to wait for another day. My pillow beckons. Ciao!

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Just This One Thing…

There’s just this:

Namaste Laguna. In eggplant. Nirvana. That is all.

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Lady Hawk Knitting

See? I promised a photo of the hat today. At least it looks like a hat by now! I’m hoping to have it done by the end of this weekend, because other projects await! I love a simple hat. I have yarn to make at least one other hat and maybe a scarf too. We’ll see. Hopefully Diana will be wearing this by Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, what’s on your list? For me, it’s a Jordana Paige Rio bag in eggplant. I saw it at Stitches East this year in person and I would have bought it on the spot, but the booth was closed that day. But, the color is YUM. My most favorite shade of purple. And I got to hold and see the bag up close, to see how it’s organized and how big it is, and how it closes. Oh my, I am going to love this bag.

I’d also like to make another version of this hat. It’s a discontinued pattern from Knit Picks, but it turned out to be one of my favorites. The original one that I made is just a hair too big and the weight of the long cap causes it to slide off my head. So I’d like to make another, this time with smaller needles and green and red stripes.

Winter is here! It’s come really cold and pretty early for us this year. I’m not too sad, though, because it just means more knitting! I’ve found that I feel better when I’ve knit even just a few stitches each day, so I’m really trying to do that. Knitting is comfort food for the dark days of winter.

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Great Group Today!

Today was knit group at the Borders in Bowie. And, despite the crappy weather, or perhaps because of it, we had the biggest turnout ever! I think all of the “regulars” were there, plus we welcomed several new folks… including Tammy and Pam. At one point the only partly cloudy skies opened up and delivered a fast and heavy downpour! It was ok, though, because we were treated to a lovely rainbow afterward.

Knitting is so much fun when you do it among friends, though I do admit that not much knitting was done on my part! The theme of the day was Show and Tell. Several of us brought some of our booty from Stitches, and Jo brought her weaving projects from her recent weaving class. They were amazing! And the yarns passed around were yummy. I wanted to take them all home with me.

Here’s a gallery of photos from today’s fun. As usual, click on the photo to enlarge it and read more details about each one.

Today Lola brought her copy of Sweater 101, which is a timeless classic in sweater making. I do think I’m going to have to get one. It is available now as a hard bound book and an e-book, which I think is a FABULOUS idea since the book is chock full of worksheets that one can just print out and add notes and details to it. I think this is going on my Christmas list for sure, as is the Rio bag by Jordana Paige, in eggplant, of course.

All for now, I think I am about to turn into a pumpkin. Happy knitting!

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…And Then the Tears Came

I was having a great day today. I went shopping with my mom, who bought me some really gorgeous amethyst earrings for my new earholes. It’s been a while since we’ve been able to go shopping together but I think she finally feels well enough and that feels really great to me.

Then I took Diana to the pool where she met up with a friend and I settled in for an evening of knitting.

That’s when I saw it. a dropped stitch, right at the cable cross of my baby sweater. I managed to rip back to the row with the dropped stitch:

But am doubting my fortitude for picking up ladder by ladder and re-knitting. This yarn is so splitty and hard to do cables with. But tonight, I got some encouragement, of a very high order.

I did a search on Ravelry for fixing cables and up popped a message by Janet Szabo, the Queen of Cables, in my book, where she stated that she’s about to have a DVD come out on cables. In the DVD are techniques for fixing them She invited folks to drop her a line and say if they wanted to be informed when the DVD is released, which of course I did. I mentioned that I am in the middle of trying to fix my first cable. She must have been online because she replied within minutes and offered to look at a photo of my poor cable if I had one. (I had taken the photo for this blog post not 10 minutes before… LOVE my macro photography settings on my camera!)

So I sent her the photo, and basically she suggested that I do what I had been planning to do, that is, re-knit, ladder by ladder, but she also suggested that I use some straight cable needles, like the Brittany cable needles, so I ordered some. Hopefully they should be here soon. In the meantime, I’m stepping back from the sweater.

Thanks, Janet!

Just When I Thought my Birthday Was Over…

My DH told me before that something he got for my birthday didn’t come in time. Well that was two weeks ago, so I was starting to think it was becoming a non-issue. But then, today, this came:

It’s the Namaste Newport bag in the Peacock colorway. I know folks are simply rabid for this bag in this color so it must have been backordered. I’m going to love it… it’s smaller than my others but it does have a firm bottom. Great for knitting in the car, which is where most of mine gets done.

It does, however, have an imperfection:

It looks like it got caught in the sewing machine! It has several places where it is stitched with several layers of thread and there are extra strings. I’m going to try snipping them and see if it holds up. If it doesn’t, I’ll send it back… but I think this bag and I are going to be fast friends. Thanks, hubby!

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