YAPB

Yet another project bag.  I'm addicted to them.  I can't stop making them.  I don't need any more.  I have more than you can imagine, but I like making them.  

So here's the latest small project bag:  Zinnia!

 

Isn't she adorable?  In this photograph, she's filled with 2 skeins of sock yarn, and believe me, I can still fit in another skein.  She's just perfect for socks, scarves, even lace shawls.  And who says you have to use her for knitting or crochet?  You can use her for just about anything!  

When I travel, I'll put in all the goodies for English Paper piecing.  A little container with scissors, thread, etc, all the fabric pieces in their own ziplock plastic bags.

One of the grands uses her project bag to hold her ballet gear.

Where?

http://fritzl.etsy.com

llama llama

Do you love llamas with their long eyelashes?  I do, too.  So here's a cutie patootie small project bag featuring those adorable critters.

And because you need to see this, here's the Llama Llama Duck Song.  

Now doesn't that make you happy? 

Where?  Etsy, of course.

http://fritzl.etsy.com

Flowerpot

Spring will be here.  It will be here.  Promise.  Enough of the snow and winter.  So, to celebrate, I made a little project bag, just perfect for a couple of skeins of sock yarn, needles, etc, etc.  

Last two pics show the lining. 

So now I'm thinking that maybe I should make a bag with the top trim as the main exterior fabric.  After I do the llama llama bag.  That's next in the queue.  No pics, 'cause there's nothing to see.

Where?

Etsy, of course!

Chickie Bag

Chickie Bag!  Goofy, dotty, and stripy chickens with a few daisies thrown in.  Is this not adorable? I love chickens.  Chicken fabric, chicken jokes, chicken dinners.  Cluck, cluck, cluck.

Stuffed Chickie

Chickie lining

Chickie opened up

Cinched Chickie

Stuffed Chickie at the food of my stairs

And on a non-Chickie note, here's one of my knitting projects.

What's this going to be?  You'll see.  It's a surprise.

I only frogged it 4 times.  3 times because I didn't like the size and then a fourth time because I was unhappy with how the squares came together.

I frog, tink, unpick because I am. A knitter, crocheter, and quilter.  Undoing is my life.

Bag Lady

I love project bags.  I can never have too many of them, either.  I swear my knitting WIPs exist so I can make more project bags.  So take a peak at my latest two bags, both on sale in my Etsy shop.

http://fritzl.etsy.com

 This one is my Batik medium project bag, and it easily holds 4 skeins of sock yarn!

This one is Tea Party Small Project Bag, and it holds 2 skeins of sock yarn.

I cut out another medium one this morning.  This is a disease. 

Clean as a whistle.

I'm not sure how clean a whistle is, but I have the means to make me that immaculate:   I treat myself to handmade soap from seaspritesoaps.

She makes the nicest soap around.  Long lasting, lovely smells, and very very pretty.  Here's the one I started yesterday:  Sanibel Island.  Mmmmm. Yummy.  Too bad we don't have smell-a-vision.

My latest bag.  This one is the "Artist" size bag, and it's for my sister, who crochets and needs larger bags than I do.

My favorite part of these bags is that adorable ruffly look with the lining.  It just makes me smile.  


The starry quilt continues.  At some point I have to decide how to finish a side, but I'm not quite sure how.  I'm learning as I go.  If anyone has a  brilliant idea, please let me know.  I'm thinking of bordering it with the off-white Kona. 

The Yarnarian (remember her?) gets prolix.

Remember the Yarnarian?  She who dyed yarn and knitted obsessively?  Remember her?  Nah, I didn't think you did.  Well, she's still dyeing and knitting, but now seems to be working on secret knitting projects.  It would be so nice to show you pics of socks and shawls, but I can't do that.  Everything is a mystery.  (Sometimes I think the projects are mysteries to me. )  I've become the invisible knitter!

On the dyeing front, I'm slowly scaling back from all the activity.  I'm still interested in it, but less so.  Everything changes and moves on.  I still have lots of stock, so will continue dyeing, and when I'm finished with my stock, then we'll see where I go from there.  Mostly I'm interested in OOAK yarns, yarns that I can dye without writing down formulas (formulae?).  Just playing is what I'm saying.  I also have tons of lace yarn, and will gradually use that up, too.

What really calls me these days is designing lace shawls.  I can't get enough of them.  I love finding a pattern in one of my stitch books, and then totally changing it to something else.  I love working on transitions from one pattern to the next.  I adore Never-ending Borders (NEB).  I love charts!  Love making them and following them.  Always have, too.  There's something about a grid that calls to me.

So what's in my brain besides lace?  Sewing.  I am not very good at it, but I plod ahead, try not to be a perfectionist and just enjoy the process.  I'm wild about making project bags, and keep giving them away to admirers.  I'm even thinking of selling a few in my Etsy shop, just for a change.  Here are the latest 2 bags, made yesterday. This is a bigger project bag, perfect for shawls as they get bigger and even for sweaters.

This is a sock project bag with a change in proportions to highlight the lining.  I wanted more of it to show, so I put the tie band a little lower on the bag.  Makes for a smaller bag, but it's so cute and pretty that I don't care.  Besides it comfortably holds a ball of yarn, the needles and the socks.

The other thing I did with with these 2 bags was change the proportions of the top band to the main exterior.  I wanted a bit more of it to show.  I'm not completely happy with it yet.  Have to find the perfect spot to sew in the tie band.  The bigger bag needs more fruffle showing from the lining, and the little bag needs a tad less.  But I still love them.

I think I've made at least 10 project bags since I started this lunacy.  And here's the best part, I showed our MA daughter, who is a brand new sewer, how to make them.  We bought her the pattern and I think I've created a mad bag maker.  She can't get enough of them either.  Such fun! 

That's enough babble for today.  Gotta go work on something mysterious and secret!

Bag Lady

 I've become a bag lady.  Can't get enough of them.  I donated a couple of bags to family members last weekend and found myself bagless.  Well, not exactly.  I have a gazillion project bags, but I was down to only 2 of the ones I've been making.  So, what's a girl to do?  Make a couple more, natch.

 The first one is from some fabric by Riley Blake, and it's a sock project size.

The next two are bigger project size.  I fussy cut the pink one to center that pretty print.  It is centered, but my photograph isn't. 

I might be bagged-out, at least for a week or two.

The Light and Dark Lace Club sign-ups are now closed.  I did list a few yarns on Etsy.  You can see them over on the right.

Passover news:  There are matzoh crumbs everywhere.  Too bad I don't have white floors. 

Off to block the most humongous shawl I've ever knitted.  It's enormous.  I'm small so it quite overwhelms me, but for my taller and larger customes (which probably is everybody), it'll really swoop and look quite elegant.  No pics.  Mystery KAL, you know.

It's snowing.

We really need rain or snow around here.  Otherwise it's drought time.  Still, I'm glad I"m hanging out at home today.

New project bags:

I can't get enough of sewing these adorable guys.  They are such fun to do.  I love how the lining peeps out when you cinch the bag closed.

And what's in them?

A scarf for Hiz Hubz.  That's the top pic.  Almost done, which is good, since I'm so bored with it.  He likes them long and skinny.

A pair of socks for elder DD, who decided (finally) that she likes my woolly socks.

Both are knitted from a new yarn I'm checking out.  It's a merino/Donegal tweed yarn that is so soft.  Looks rough and tough, and feels like a baby's bottom.  That soft and pretty.  Very nice to work with, too.  I was also concerned that those nubs would aggravate me, but you don't even feel them as you knit.

Would You Believe?

Two posts in two days?   Well, it's kind of hard to post without pictures. 

New bag, yet again:  This one is the next size up from yesterday's little project bag, and it's perfect for holding my lace shawls WIPs.  Can't show you the shawl, of course, 'cause it's yet another mystery shawl.  But you can see its bag.

Here's the lining fabric, which is the same as the ties.  I used the back of this really ugly fabric, and it looks so nice on the wrong side.

Here's the top part of the bag.  I love how you can use 3 different fabrics and get something really cute.

I love making these.  Takes me a couple of hours because I walk down to the dyeing dungeon to press, and that's 2 floors below.  Yep, I do it on purpose.  The sewing becomes a little bit of an aerobic activity.  My knees don't like it, but too bad.  It's good for them to get used.

Here is a pair of socks I made Miss P.  This was out of some ancient Bambi yarn that I had hidden away, and the socks are so cozy and snuggly.  I think she'll like them.

And, if that is not enough, here is Arachne's Delight, now up for sale.

Arachne's Delight was the Oct selection for the Light and Dark Lace Club, and it's been 4 months, and she's ready for the rest of the world.

An intermediate pattern with an adorable Never-Ending Border.