Relief!

I just bound off the body portion of my pignoli bag, and I am so relieved that it is done. It is huge! It's big enough to pass as a lap blanket. It takes up my entire light box...you can see the lovely pvc legs in this shot. :) At first I really enjoyed the mindless knitting, but during the last few days it became mind numbing. I knew that if I didn't push through it quickly I would put it down and never pick it up again. I will start the gusset and strap tomorrow in my knitting group. I am excited to finish it up so that I can felt it. I hope it turns out well after all this work.

It was my birthday last week, and my hubby treated me to a wonderful knitting kit. I got the Summer 2007 colourway and it is beautiful. I want to finish up this bag and the lotorp bag before I start the kit because I really want to enjoy the process. I will post some pictures of the kit in a day or so. I had a great birthday! My friends and family really spoiled me this year, and I got the chance to spend some good quality time with family.

Have a great Thursday everyone.

Pillow Talk

I finished my entrelac pillow at my knitting group this week. I had so much fun knitting this project, and I have enough yarn left to knit a second one. So, by next week I will have a pair of entrelac pillows. This is a quick little project, and it would make a great gift. Depending on the yarn used it can also be a very economical project.

I used 2 skeins of Noro Silk Garden Lite on size 7 needles. It is so soft, and it hasn't even been washed and blocked yet. I really like the Silk Garden Lite. I didn't have a lot of plant matter to deal with, and I only found one knot. It fits a 14 X 14 pillow form like a glove. It could be stretched to fit a 16 X16 pillow form, but I like the look of the 14. I added a simple crochet edge for shape, and I have a great coordinating fabric for the backing. I will probably wait to sew it together until next week. I am knitting two bags right now, and I am going to line on of them. I figure I might as well torture myself with sewing in one sitting.

If you are considering entrelac give it a try. It is honestly not scary at all. It reminds me of knitting toys because it is basically short row shaping. Once you realize the goal of each section you are in good shape. I am a visual learner so I used my gauge swatch as my instructions most of the time.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. I probably won't get much knitting done because I have to work, but at least I get to go on a mini road trip to the beach. I will take some pictures if the weather cooperates.

Why didn't somebody warn me?!?

NORO IS ADDICTIVE!

Yes, that's right....I am addicted to Noro. When I first encountered it at my LYS I hated it. It looked itchy and irregular. But now I love the inconsistencies, and the feel is so soft and rustic. I have discovered that I do not like Kureyon, but I really love the rest of the Noro line that I have come in contact with.

I saw a knitted purse a couple of weeks ago that I fell in love with at first sight. It is the Lotorp bag by Noro, and I have been hunting for the pattern ever since. Then last week at my knitting group one of the ladies pulled out the pattern! Yeah!! The pattern looked super easy, so I knew I wanted to make one. But my LYS only had one skein of Noro Iro, and that pattern calls for three. I was so bummed. So I came home and started looking online for some. I went to the online shop where I purchased the Silk Garden I used for my clapotis, and they had some lovely Iro in stock. Here are the three skeins I purchased. :)


Aren't they gorgeous! The yarn is so soft, and the colors are amazing. I cannot wait to start this project, but I do want to finish the Pignoli bag and my entrelac pillow first. Both of those projects should be done this weekend. Now I really have some strong motivation to finish.

I will post pictures of my entrelac pillow progress tomorrow. I am going to crochet an edging on it tomorrow in my knitting group, and then the entrelac portion will be done. I am dreading the actual sewing of the pillow, but I am going to try and do it right away. I know if I put it down I will never motivate myself to finish it. I hate sewing!

Have a nice Wednesday night everyone. See you tomorrow.

I actually knit a gauge swatch

I took a class at my LYS yesterday on entrelac, and I had a blast. The teacher there is the greatest, and I always enjoy hanging out in her classes. She can teach anyone anything...she definitely has a gift. The other ladies in the group were very nice, and it was fun to dive into a new technique with a group. The class focused on the technique, and we all did our gauge swatches. It was neat to see how the different yarns knit up. I decided to make a pillow so that I can get a feel for the technique before I commit to a large project. I really love the look of entrelac, and I am so excited that I am going to start my actual project from class today.

I chose Noro Silk Garden Lite for my pillow. I had so much fun with the Silk Garden on my Clapotis, and I have another Noro project in deck so I guess you could say that I like Noro. :) Here is a shot of my gauge swatch. There are mistakes in it of course, but overall I am very pleased with it.

I also got my Ravelry invite this week. It is so cool! I need to spend a while getting set up, but if you are on Ravelry let me know your ID so I can stop by your profile. I am of course MinervaTurkey. If you have not gotten your invite don't worry. They are adding people so fast now.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. I am going to spend my Sunday working on my Pignoli bag, and starting my entrelac pillow. What a great day!

The wait is almost over

I signed up for Ravelry on July 1st, and at that time I had thousands of people ahead of me. I check my status all the time, and I was so happy today when I saw this:

• You signed up on July 1, 2007
• You are #11910 on the list.
• 195 people are ahead of you in line.
• 19960 people are behind you in line.
• 36% of the list has been invited so far

195 people! Wooohooo...I am almost in. Most of my friends have already received their invites, so I am so excited that I will be joining them soon. If you want to check your place in line click here. I have heard/read buzz that they will be going public soon anyway, so those of you further down on the list probably won't have to wait very long. I have to admit that they waiting has been pretty exciting. I have been trying to re-photograph all of my stash so that I can set up my account as soon as I receive my invite. My photo skills have improved a lot over the past couple of months, and I want to post decent pictures.

I hope everyone is having a great week. I will post in a day or two with some pictures of my progress on the pignoli bag.

My Secret Pal is the Best!

The world works in mysterious ways. I was having a pretty bad day (bad bad bad) today, but my spirits were lifted when I checked my PO box. I was pleasantly surprised to find my first package from my Secret Pal! She must have read through all of my posts, because everything she sent is just right. I wanted to take a picture of the box, but it is not in good shape. I couldn't wait until I got home to open it, of course, so I had my husband tear it open with his keys. I think I have mentioned before that I am not at all patient. :)

Here is a shot of the package goodies.


She sent some lovely decaf teas, a skein of jitterbug in the summer berries colourway, a set of multi-size stitch markers, and a lovely card. I love everything! The colourway is perfect. I love pinks and purples.

Thank you Secret Pal. You helped to save my Sunday.

Pignoli Bag Beginnings

I am a bag addict. I freely admit that fact, and it is no secret. My friends, family, and especially my husband are very aware of this....um...issue. Therefore, it has been a complete shocker to those around me that I have not yet knit myself a bag. I have seen many knit bags that I love, and I have seen even more felted bags that I love. But i had not found a pattern that I was excited about making myself until recently. Not until I stumbled onto the Pignoli pattern. This is a fantastic looking bag. I love the shape, the size, and the potential. Plus it's a free pattern! I knew it right away. This pattern was destined to be my first knitted/felted bag.

Only one problem. I was on a yarn diet. I need close to 1200 yards to make this bag. That's a lot of wool, and consequently a fair amount of cash. I am not a patient person, and I was too excited about this bag to wait. So, I searched my stash for enough yarn for the project. Eureka, I have enough Cascade 220 to knit this bag. I had set the Cascade aside for knitted toys, but I can always get a skein or two at a time later on for those projects. So, my plan is to use this bag as a stash buster. I am going to make wide stripes instead of a solid color bag. I started the bag a day or two ago, and I just started my second color band. Here is a progress shot.

The pattern is very easy. It's nice, mindless stockinette and reverse stockinette. I am going to make the bag a bit wider than the pattern, and the gusset/strap a bit longer. I found another knitting blogger who is knitting this project, Bean Counter. I am going to keep up with her progress. I am very excited to see how her color choices turn out. It's like our own little knit a long. :)

In other news, my hubby provided me with a small shopping spree at my LYS to use at a huge sale they had a week or so ago. He knew I was trying to stick to my yarn diet, so he wrote this off as an early birthday present. I picked up some great deals. I saved 25%-45% off of everything I got. Head over to my Flickr page to see my stash enhancement.

I am going to work on my new bag for a while tonight. I am so anxious to get it done. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

2 weeks flat!

Well, thank goodness for a nice sunny (and unbearably hot by 10am) morning! I finished my clapotis on Saturday, but I was not able to take any decent pictures until today. We haven't had any rain to speak of here in a month or so, but the day I finish my clapotis we get severe thunderstorms for two days straight. I am glad we got the rain, but I have been dying to take some pictures of this thing. Please ignore the out of control lawn.


This was my first monogamous knitting relationship. I did not work on anything else while I was knitting this. That is a very big deal for me since I get bored easily. I absolutely love this pattern, and I will definitely knit it again. It was easy to memorize, but was still engaging and fun. It took me exactly two weeks to finish it which is pretty fast for me. I added an extra increase section and an extra straight section. I wish I had made it a bit longer, but it still looks great. I used 8 skeins of Noro Silk Garden total, and I used size 8 addi turbos. I have about 300 yards left of the Noro, so I will probably make a hat and drawstring bag too.

Overall, I am very happy with it. It is very snuggly, and the stretch gives it a wonderful drape. I am going to give it a bath, and then block the edges lightly. Then my clapotis will go to its permanent home in my office. It will look lovely on the back of my HUGE office chair, and it will accompany me to meetings in our ice cold conference rooms.

On another note, I finally won a blog contest! Wooohooo! Yarn Pirate had a "Guess the Sex" contest in honor of her fairly new pregnancy, and I correctly guessed that she is having a boy. Congrats Georgia, and thanks for picking my name out of a hat. I love love love her sock yarns, so no matter what I win I know I will love it.

Well off to finish up an old project that has been waiting in the wings way too long. Hopefully I get it done quickly so I can share some photos. Happy Labor Day everybody!