Labor Day weekend wrap-up

Sorry this is so late! My weekend extended to Wednesday last week, and then Thursday and Friday were hellish getting caught up at work. This weekend past I finished up the last bits of knitting that needed to be done on the stuff I'd done in Florida, and I started uploading the pictures to Flickr, but the site was having problems, so they wouldn't load. And that brings us to now.

First, let me just show you this crappy picture of my mom. I snapped it when she wasn't paying attention. Part of the backstory is that Mom and I did a lot of shopping for crafty things while I was down in Florida. She's very crafty, and I needed help lining my bags, but when we were at Wal-Mart, she bought a CONE of Peaches & Cream, and I bought her some knitting needles because she said that she wanted to make placemats. So anyway, I had just gotten out of the shower, and was going to my room across the hall, looked out at the living room, and there she was, happily working away all on her own, without being prompted! So I snuck in to my room and grabbed the camera and snapped a picture real quickly. The flash went off, and that startled her, so she started laughing, but put down her needles. We haven't gotten to purling yet and I'm a bit worried about the casting off, since we didn't cover that either, but hopefully I can talk her through that on the phone, because remember, she doesn't have the internet. YET. We're working on it.

Ok, on to the FINISHED OBJECTS:

Number ONE:


My mom helped me line my tote. I bought this fabric at Purl Patchwork, and wasnt sure it would be the right shade of brown, but it looks SO CUTE! We even cut one of those plastic sheets that people use for crafts so that it would fit into the bottom of the tote, to help give it a flat bottom and then my mom sewed the lining to be the right size on her sewing machine, and then hand stitched it around the top. I didn't mean for her to do so much of the work, but she was really excited about it. I guess she doesnt get the chance to do too much sewing these days, so it was extra fun for her. Plus, it was better for me, because my stitches suck. The only thing I didn't get a picture of yet was the sushi wallet, which I also finished, but it wasn't nearly as nicely done because I worked on it.

Number TWO:

Yarn: Reynolds' Utopia, 100% "Courtelle" Acrylic

Pattern: Cargo from Knitty, Medium size (can I just say, as one who doesn't have kids, that it would be much easier for this knitter if designers would refer to the patterns in terms of age, like small = 6-8 mo., medium = 8 to 12 mo., etc.? Because I have NO IDEA what size kid these pants will fit. I just know they're really too large for a small baby.)

Needles: US #7 DPNs. I did the whole thing on double pointed needles. I couldn't get the circular to behave, and it was stretching out my stitches, so i switched back to the DPNs, and it was fine. I just had to be really vigilant about dropping stitches off, since they were pretty short DPNs.

Notes: The yarn softened up a lot after washing and machine drying, which was a relief, because when I was working on them, the legs were so stiff that they could stand up on their own! I got the buttons from my grandma's button box, which I inherited when she died. They are perfect, and I was happy I didn't have to wait to buy new ones. I used one ply of the yarn to sew them on, and I made sure they were on there really good so that the baby won't be able to get them off. I think the pattern could have been a little clearer in the details for those of us who aren't natural experts, but I figured it out as I went along, and although I did worry about it a lot because it was a present, it did work out ok. I don't think I will EVER make these again, but they were a fun challenge, and I think the recipients will like them. I have almost a whole ball left of the Utopia, which is a little annoying. I bought two balls at my LYS when I saw it because I didn't have the pattern with me, and didn't know the yardage, but did know that I'd wanted to make them for someone possibly. The color was just this PERFECT shade of khaki (they just call it color 112) that I knew I had to take a chance that the acrylic would soften up. Yes, I would've prefered cotton, but I was there, the yarn was there, and they're only going to fit for a few months anyway, right? Sheesh.

Number THREE:

I called Continental before my flight to ask about knitting needles, since the terror alert was raised to orange, and I'd had such a miserable time in London that I wanted to make sure, and she told me that I could take them as long as they were "wooden or plastic and not too long." I don't know if that's technically true, but I wasn't going to test it. This yarn is Nashua Hand Knits Equinox Stripe. I got one ball for my birthday from a friend, and later I found a second ball from the same dye lot on sale at my LYS so I bought that too. I figured I'd eventually make it into a scarf. It's super bulky, but I used size 11 bamboo needles and knit this on the plane down and just a bit going back. I finished weaving in the ends last weekend. Here's a detail of the yarn colors. They fade from black, grey and tan to shades of brown to something that can almost be called light blue...so pretty.


Number FOUR:

I started this down at my mom's so that I wouldn't finish the scarf before the plane ride home. It's Sugar & Cream, "shades of green" colorway in the "Simple Ridge Dishcloth" pattern from the ball band. I also bought about five more balls of the Peaches & Cream and Sugar & Cream down in FL, since they are so cheap there (I don't have a car so I have no ready access to big box craft stores for basics like that.).
Spanky said, "How many dishcloths are you planning to knit?" She doesn't think that's a good use of my knitting time, but it's very relaxing and a good place holder between bigger projects.

Number FIVE would be the Sushi wallet, but I need to take a picture of the finished lining on that one. Maybe I'll take a picture of Salwa holding it, when I give it to her next Monday. I'm so glad that is done, but there is enough yarn left that I might attempt to try to squeeze out a stripy version of the same pattern for myself. I bought some velcro down in FL in case the zipper didn't fit (it was a smidge too big), so I can use that on my own wallet, whenever I get around to knitting it up. I have to start the Anouk now for the next baby.

But as it was, I had a very relaxing, happy visit with my mom. We have a contentious relationship sometimes, because she refuses to treat me like an adult, but except for a couple of times when I just lost my temper and then apologized, we had a great time. I miss her bunches living so far away. When I left Florida all I could think about was getting away and trying something different, but now all I think about is the precious people I left behind. Too bad that the state refuses to move with the times and recognize my people or I'd probably move back. Well, ok, MAYBE I'd move back. There's still the matter of the hideous weather. :)