Polgara Knits

Three more posts after today, and I’ll have posted every day for the month of November–woot!  My visitor stats have been very healthy during this time, so hopefully I’ll be able to maintain my momentum, and not fall back on the once-a-week style of posting I had before November.

I don’t have much in the way of yarn news today.  I’m still working with the Lion Suede, which, as I mentioned last night, works much better crocheted than knitted. Omigod yes. I’m even starting to like the yarn, although I still fully expect it to worm at some point. Sadly, I didn’t have the second ball with me yesterday, otherwise the project would be finished by now. Phooey.

I’ve been holding firm on the no-new-yarn-purchases, but it’s hard with that beaded Booga Bag sitting in a corner, pining for one more ball of mustard Patons wool. I try not to look at it.  I think my next bag will be a beaded Balloon, since I already know I have enough yarn for that, and I want to see a finished project with beads, already.

I’ve added a few more projects to Ravelry, including some of the yet-to-be-felted purses.  Yay! I have so many projects still to add, I’ll probably still be adding six months from now. 

Hmm. I need more tea.  Guess that means I’m done!

I got no knitting done since my last post.  I suck.  But, look at the cutiehead baby!

What have I been doing instead of knitting? Well, some cleaning (I can see my desk! Woot!). Some uprighting of the tree (damn cats!). Some writing of holiday cards. And some sorting of knitting projects into neat, organized little project bags. I also picked out buttons to decorate the white and turquoise clutch. (I need cooler buttons.) That’s been about it. But I’m tired of writing cards, so I may do some knitting right now. Yes, I believe that’s exactly what I’ll do! Yay, knitting!

The tree is up and decorated, I’ve downloaded new (to me) Christmas music from iTunes, and I bought some of my first presents from the Black Friday online sales–the season has officially begun!

My holiday knitting is coming along nicely, although I ran into a glitch with the beaded Booga Bag–not enough yarn.  Curses! I always forget how very much yarn BBs use.  For the next one I’ll definitely be cutting back on the stitches, probably about 20% to start.  For now, I either have to hit a Michael’s for another ball of mustard Patons (*shudder*), or make the top third brown.  The second option would be my first choice, except the beads make it more complicated.  I don’t think the change in color will work with the beads, so until I can think of a third option that doesn’t require me going to a craft store during the holidays (*shudder*), I’ve put that bag aside and started on another Pink Lady bag, this time in purple and blue.  I started it yesterday, and worked on it a bit after dinner while chilling with my friends, so it’s already half done–yay!

In non-bag knitting news, I’ve had some requests from family and friends that I’ll need to squeeze in, perhaps after I finish this latest bag.  And I have to start felting soon, as well.  Must procure more zippered pillowcases so I can do as many as possible in the same cycles, and save myself some quarters.

That’s it for today–happy shopping!

So far, I’m loving the beads!  They’re doing a very good job of jazzing up an otherwise boring, single-colored Booga Bag. My smallest crochet hook only just barely fits through the pony beads when it’s holding yarn, and not all the beads are exactly the same size, so there’s some struggling with the pulling and twisting and trying to force some beads onto the yarn, but otherwise it’s working quite well. I’m a bit concerned about the yarn, though–I was stupid and forgot to make the i-cord handle first, so now I’m worried about running out of yarn–but it’s a small worry, and cannot dampen the sense of accomplishment I get when I look at the rows of pretty beads.

I didn’t get very far on the beaded bag.  I ended up going out yesterday without my knitting bag, so I couldn’t get started until last night, wherein I got the bottom knitted up, but that’s it.  I went with the mustard yellow, if anyone’s interested.  Tonight, though, I hope to reach the point where I’m actually adding beads.

In other news, please keep Gracie in your thoughts, as she’s back in the hospital with a respiratory infection.

Bag #6 is finished! Well, ok, it still needs the handles to be kitchener-stitched together, but that requires concentration with no distractions, so I haven’t got to it yet, but otherwise, the knitting part is done!  And it’s beautiful, if I do say so myself. I like using the variegated stranded with a solid color.  Sadly, this has made me less enthused to do a bag in a single solid color, which is not good, as I don’t have enough variegated and novelty yarns to mix things up.  On the other hand, I think I’m now sufficiently motivated to try beads on the next purse. I have a little bag of 300 pony beads I picked up almost a year ago that should do the job nicely to dress up a Booga Bag.  Now I just need to decide which color to use with the metallic gold beads–olive green, forest green, mustard yellow, or brick red?

In other news, I hand felted a purse for the first time yesterday!  It was the turquoise and white clutch, and I used a bucket and plunger in the tub.  I beat that sucker for about 25 minutes and just couldn’t do it anymore, even though it could’ve used another 5-10 minutes.  It’s felted, but you can still see the stitch columns (not the rows, though).  I haven’t decided if I’m going to do it again, or wait until I have access to a non-coin-operated machine.  I think I’m waiting to see how my back feels tonight (it usually takes my muscles about 24 hours to protest new activities).  But the finished product is still cute!  Needs some rhinestone buttons for embellishment, though.

For my final ramble, I’m still undecided on what to make for the young girls in my life.  The Elann birdhouse scares me a little, because it requires embellishment techniques that are new to me, and therefore scary to try on something that will be gifted to someone else.  Perhaps I should abandon the idea of felted purses and make them the kitty hats from Stitch ‘n’ Bitch?  I’d really like to do purses, but I just can’t find the perfect pattern.

This is the part where I’d appreciate any ideas or links from you, my reader. (Bolded to catch the eye of those (like me) who only skim posts without pictures.)  My intended recipients are girls ages 3, 5, 6, 8 and 10.  And maybe the two-year-old, too, I haven’t decided.  I prefer felted purses because I’d never get around to lining an unfelted purse, but non-purse ideas are welcome too.  No sweaters, because I need something quick.