a good soak

I finished knitting my Geddy Tee last night! I had put it down for a few days this week (after finishing the body last Friday) because I had the impression that picking up stitches for the arms and neck was going to be annoying. It absolutely was not. The arms were super fast, and even the neck was a breeze. I picked up the neck in the morning yesterday and was binding off at the end of the day with a short amount of knitting time. I was feeling kind of like a knitting super hero. 

My next hurdle was weaving in ends! I sent a photo the knit night ladies after binding off and then intended on putting it aside to work on my throw blanket. Better sense prevailed and I got a needle to take care of the ends right away. If I had not, I'm sure it would have been another couple of weeks before that was done. There were a lot from the granny squares, though they were mostly woven in as I crocheted so I just snipped those off, and the rest in the body and ribbing weren't actually that difficult to do, I just don't love it. I chatted on the phone while doing them, so it went by fast. 

This morning I felt motivated to get it blocked right away; I'm hoping to wear it to work one day this coming week! Given how vibrant this yarn is I was not altogether surprised to see some dye coming out in the water, but it did mean I soaked this for very little time and mostly with the granny squares parked up on the side out of the water. I did not want the green to catch onto those bright pinks and muddy them up. 

I haven't pinned anything except the bottom ribbing, which I want to tame to be as wide as the body, or at least as close as possible. It is currently puckering the bottom in way more than I really want (and more than the pattern photos suggest is correct).  When I first laid it out it was 26" across, so nearly 52". This is supposed to be a 48", so I slid the fabric around a little bit vertically to make it longer. It is now measuring closer to 24.5", so 49" which is close enough. I tried it on before blocking and mostly liked how it fit so I'm a bit nervous about how it will be after blocking. Way too big? Way too long? I knit it longer than recommended by 2" to avoid it being too short so this would be ironic. It feels like some of the "spring" has come out of the fabric but that could come back as it dries. This is always the price I pay for not doing a gauge swatch - suspense while blocking! 

nesting baskets

This set of very satisfying baskets was what occupied me in the evenings most of this past weekend. I have been doing so much knitting lately, I wanted to play with some crochet for a change. The yarn for this project has been hanging around in plain sight in my craft closet for a very long time. I purposely put them where I'd see them, and kind of in the way of getting my ball winder out, because when I bought them I intended to start these right away. Ha! Best laid plans... 

I'm pretty sure it was cruising around Pinterest that led me to this lined basket. I was intrigued both by the nesting habit and the two color design. Curious, I went and found the pattern (free on Ravelry) and now here we are many moons later. I have a well behaved lineup of colorful cylinders. I played around with the middle size to see what swapping the variegated and solid would look like. I like it both ways, but the solid ball of yarn has more yardage than the variegated ball does, so I wouldn't have wanted to do all of them solid on the outside. This way I used up every last bit of yarn. (Disclaimer: I did make the second one last and ended up making it one row shorter than the others to do so.)

I love how the variegation behaves differently depending on the circumference of the basket. I especially like the pooling of the largest one. These are nested up and settled in with the other things I'll be sending to my mom at some point soon for an extremely handmade Mother's Day. I have another set of solid/variegated yarn to make another set for myself, but my RSI says I should take a break from crochet and go back to knitting for a bit! 

 

a quick mushroomy bag

I have been watching a lot of knitting YouTube lately which means I have been seeing a lot of lovely project bags. I've enjoyed my Firefly Totes very much (both big and small), and I've made small drawstring bags too. What I've seen that I haven't tried yet has been kind of angular, boxy bottom, zippered top project bags that look like they're kind of a standard type. I don't have a pattern for it myself so I went looking. I ended up using a YouTube tutorial from Voolenvine that was very clear to follow and looked like it was about the type I was seeing. 

I ended up not using the measurements given in the tutorial just because the scrap of this awesome mushroom fabric was a bit bigger. I kind of wish I had cut it down because the depth of the bag would be better suited to something wider, but I learned. No squares! Use rectangles :) Instead of fusible fleece, I used scrap batting I had on hand and just quilted the outer panels with straight lines spaced maybe 3/4" apart (followed an easy to see line on my sewing machine, no other reason for the spacing other than it seemed about right). No regrets there. It is sturdy and I think the vertical quilting helps it stand up as well. A fusible fleece may have been more robust, but I'm using what I've got and I've got a LOT of batting scraps.

I made the tab out of scraps of a cute snail print, a bit wider than called for - I cut a 4x3 piece (instead of 3x3) and made it 1" wide since my D ring was bigger. I ended up skipping the handle mostly because I didn't have a lobster claw finding to hand. I think I can hook a carabiner or something similar to the ring should I want something longer. Maybe a tassel! The inside is a heavy toile that is also in the canvas family. I've had it forever and it's nice to have another place to peek at it. It pairs quite well, if quirkily, with the mushrooms. 

I enjoyed making this, and it's going to be nice to use for something, whether travel or craft projects. If I make it again I'll fix the ratios. In the end, it's pretty darn close to the ones I have been seeing so that's awesome to know. I've seen a few other zipper installation configurations and it will be fun to understand those, too, if I can find a tutorial. I've been having a good time coming up with prints and zipper color combinations, so let the adventures continue.

big day for my geddy tee!

It's not done, but a milestone has been reached - the body and bottom ribbing are complete. I made it 1" longer in the body than recommended as well as 1" longer in the ribbing. I'm not sure if I'm going to end up regretting that in the final fit, but I am not exactly a cropped tee kind of shape. We shall see. I am going to decide now that I'll be brave and rip back and fix it if I don't love it after blocking. 

I'm a bit bummed about that one splash of pooling across the chest from the second skein, but that's what I get for not alternating skeins with a hand dyed, though tonal, yarn. I'm going to live with it and call it a feature. I have loved working with this yarn, and a woman at knit night this week put her finger on it when she said "Hella stitch definition!" I think that's what I love the most about how it looks. How it feels is pretty much the #1 feature - the silk in the blend is very apparent. It's also kind of hefty, so it will be interesting to see how this blocks out and drapes on me once everything is all done. I think it's going to be great. 

I just have to do ribbing around the armholes and the neckline now. "Just" may be understating how annoying it is likely to be, but it still feels like I'm in the home stretch. 

ring blanket progress

I have been making steady progress on my blanket project. This is about a month's worth of progress, and I have just two more stripes left! It has been great knitting for staff meetings and breaks at work when I don't have much brain power to devote to something but I still want to knit. This is where I am after this evening's knit night at the LYS. 

The yarn has been really nice to work with. It's just cotton, but it seems a bit softer and more slippy on the needles than other cottons which makes the knitting really easy on my hands. I'm still not a fan of ribbing, and this is a LOT of ribbing in the bigger rings, but I'm finding it a good opportunity to try out some different ways to knit rather than the lever style I usually use. I'm not a great continental knitter because I feel my tension is way looser and it's all messy but it is ok to do for a bit. I have actually have more luck with Norwegian purling than I do continental purling, so I've been playing with that, too. I don't think I will ever be an ambi-knitter, but it's fun to try.

new books

Look what arrived this week! I have been feeling in a shoppy mood lately, and I found myself wanting some fun non-wearable projects to contemplate. Mom told me about the animal book a while back, and I can't remember where I first saw the blanket one. These will be fun, for sure. 

I am quite enamored with the bright colors and geometric patterns in the blanket book. Also, it's a library of 100 patterns for strips - endless possibilities! It is a bit overwhelming to consider "the" design I want to do, so I may make a few strips here and there in colors that I like and see what happens in terms of turning them into a finished blanket or two. Some of the strips in the blanket below are appealing - that pink and white one especially. And the pom poms!

Pretty much the first thing that caught my eye in the mythical creature menagerie was this unicorn. I mean... c'mon. It looks fiddly but fun, just like the rest of the book. Not sure if I'll start there or if I need to do a dragon first. There are a lot of super cute options - I may need to pace myself. 

Speaking of which, I do still have a few yarn projects going that I want to finish before starting any of these. Granted, this is crochet, but I also have a couple small crochet projects started, too. Maybe if I finish one of those, I can start one of these. Either way, I am very excited that both of these books have now nestled into my library. 

bag lady reprise

Late in the evening of my "bag lady Saturday" I found myself wondering what would happen if I downsized the pattern I was using for the zippered project bags to make smaller ones. Voila! They are super cute.  I used a fun stripe print for the inside, and combined a pretty purple flower print with some sassy alpacas.

I was inspired by the piles of scraps leftover from the baby quilt I made recently, and I sort of improvised my way through the sizes based on whatever the scraps told me. I suppose I could measure and try to replicate this again, but of course I didn't write anything down so this could be like those dinners you sometimes make only once because there's some random combination of leftovers in the fridge. 

I made two, one for me and one for a friend. I think I'll keep the one with the little tab and give her the one with the purple zipper. 

bag lady

Today was quite a day! I spent the lion’s share of the day in my sewing room bookending a big organizing/clean up with sewing these perky springy bags. 

The first finish was the veggie quilted tote bag. I saw a tutorial on YouTube a while ago for a quilted tote and this has been on my mind ever since. Last night it got downright distracting - all I could think about was how much I wanted to make it! So this morning after watering my herbs outside, I sat down to realize the vision. It does not disappoint. I’m looking forward to using it at the farmer’s market next week. Both fabrics were from a box mom sent me, they must have been in her stash. (Bottom row, second over for the adorable tiny vegetable lining fabric). I was too lazy to make the fabric straps as called for, but I did have some navy cotton webbing in my stash which looks great. I ended up ordering some more webbing online because this was such a good solution, and I’d like to make more. 

 

The other three bags are project bags for hand stitching (or whatever, I suppose). Mom introduced me to these the last time she was here for the holidays, and I rewatched the tutorial so I could make some more. This is from an Elizabeth Ann Can Stitch video, and they are kind of addicting once you get into it. I loved pulling together the different fabric combinations and using the zippers as extra pops of color. These are all somewhat “precious” fabrics to me - I have resolved to use the lovelies instead of letting them sit around in piles. That bright blue bird print is a Tula Pink impulse buy from Golden State Quilting and I LOVE it with the royal blue zipper. I’m going to be keeping the gray/green birds with the eye watering neon lining and the other two will be gifted to mom and Samara. 

It has been a while since I have felt this relaxed and spacious. I had other adulting things to do too, which usually gets in my head, but none of it was urgent and I was actually able to put them aside for the day. That is pretty much unheard of. So proud of that and happy to have gotten some color play in today. Just look at them! Spring has sprung!