Bichons In Berry Sauce

Abby explores Letchworth State Park

I haven't posted in a long while! It's been busy with all the wedding plans and work, and both our families came to visit (from Arizona and Maine!) to help with the important wedding preparations. Like cake tasting. And most importantly, gown choosing. We ordered my gown, and it's beautiful. If you want to see an artsy hair teased out dramatic photo (which sadly does not show the buttons down the back and the long silky ties) click here. Except Cary. Stay away.

I've been doing a medium amount of knitting-- mostly on my ribbed jacket, and a couple scarves. Some crafting has been going on as well, mostly in the cross-stitching/waxed paper/scrapbooking forms. I have lots to show you in the next few weeks!

While Cary's mom was here, she and her sewing machine were nice enough to line the Elizabeth bag for me! I would say that I helped, but really all I did was supply the fabric, and maybe do some makeshift ironing with a pharmacology book as my ironing board. My new mom-in-law is a super-sewer, and makes all sorts of things. One day I'd like to learn and invest in a machine, but for now, all I have is the one on QVC for $19.99 that my mom ordered for me to repair hems. It works ok, but anything thicker than shirt cloth, and it jams up. Anyway, here is the finished product, all lined and pretty:

Pattern: Elizabeth Bag by Julie Anderson
Yarn: Noro Kureyon, colorway #124
Needles: Boye circular, size 10.5

I gave the bag to its rightful owner, Dianne, last week. She LOVES it. She's the kind of person you want to make handknits for-- so appreciative, and truely enjoying her new bag. The lining turned out really well too. We lined the strap and sewed the strap lining to the bag lining so that the bag doesn't stretch or pull-- all of the weight pulls on the fabric.

Lots more to come on crafting, knitting, wedding planning, and bridesmaid dresses!

Posted by Nancy at 05:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I had been putting off felting Dianne's Elizabeth bag. After a whole lot of knitting (this bag could have easily been a very large top), I was worried about putting it through the wash. Yes, I did my test swatch, and yes, I felted the test swatch, but still. This thing is huge! I had my doubts that it would come out a reasonable size.

After the first trip through the wash, I didn't see much difference. Except that things were very very fuzzy. The second trip showed some increased stiffness, and more fluffiness, but not a lot of shrinkage. Finally, on the third and fourth trips the bag started to shrink. And it looks so cute! Dianne did a great job in picking out the colors; they melt together very nicely.

This is after I went at the bag with a razor. It was super-fluffy! It still needs a bit of a touch-up, but I only had one new disposable razor, and I sure wasn't sacrificing one of my Venus blades! More wool-shaving to come. I also need to make a trip to Joann's to get some fabric and interfacing. This is my first ever bag, so I'm planning on getting some extra fabric for my mess ups. I want to line it, all the way up the strap to give it some extra support, and put in a zippered pocket. I also want to put some interfacing in to give it shape, and a hard bottom part so it sits right. Eek! That sounds like an awful lot. Good thing I have this coming weekend off again.

I don't need a bath, I'll just lick them clean, ok?

Abby, my boyfriend, and I went to lunch on Park Avenue today (a spiffy tree lined street with lots of little restaurants and outdoor seating). It was really nice outside, and the places there are usually pet friendly. Abby was a good little girl and for the most part was laying down underneath our table as we ate. Afterward, we went for a walk along the streets. Lots of trees = lots of messages for Abby to read. She was pooped out when we got home. And quite dirty! Look at those paws!

Posted by Nancy at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Abby and I have been quite busy lately. Abby was hard at work in my boyfriend's kitchen, shredding a bit more of the phonebook, working a little bit more on the cabinets, and probably practicing 'lie down' in secret. She's such a good girl. I was a little less busy, just working and preparing for Easter. Cary's family came to visit us for the weekend, and we all had a great time. Abby may be going through a little withdrawl.. she was crying as everyone was leaving yesterday. I felt bad and gave her a chewstick to work on this morning, now all is well.

I've been working steadily on the Elizabeth bag, but it looks pretty much the same as my last post. I have about 20 more rounds until the shaping for the top, then hopefully it will begin to look like something. So, how do you spice up a picture of a bag? Put a bichon in it of course!

I'm going to try and finish up the Ribbon Scarf in the next few days. I have 2 or 3 more rows to go, but at over 1,000 stitches per row, it's quite a bit of work. When the scarf and this bag are out of the way, I found out this weekend what my new project will be: a baby sweater! Cary's brother and sister-in-law are expecting, probably in December. Baby clothes! My favorite knitting. Any thoughts on a good unisex sweater pattern?

Posted by Nancy at 01:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

I came back from vacation yesterday and was a little puzzled. All these comments to my blog, all these people subscribed on bloglines. What happened??? While catching up on my blog reading, I discovered Miss Grumperina mentioned me in a meme. It must be that if you get the Grumpster seal of approval, it's worth a visit!

I went to the Caribbean for a week with my family; it was loads of fun and I got a few knitted things done. More on that tomorrow. Before I left I got a good deal done on the Noro bag for my coworker. I really like how the stripes are working out. I opted not to bring the bag on vacation with me-- too bulky for beach knitting.

Little Abby went to live with my boyfriend for a week. Really, I'm not sure she knows where she lives. Whenever I'm at work she's at his house, and she's quite accustomed to living in his kitchen while we're out. Her latest project is the yellow-pages.. we'd been keeping it in one of the bottom kitchen cupboards. She broke in, and is in the process of shredding it. Working backward, she's up to the letter v.

Posted by Nancy at 11:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The Elizabeth Bag is officially started! I swatched like a good girl, and even practiced felting. It came out looking pretty sharp, doesn't even look knitted! I suppose that is the point.. Abby thinks my swatch is pretty great too. I've found it quite a few places now-- among her toys, in the spare bedroom, on my bed. Apparently it's her new toy. My little bichon has good (and expensive!) taste. Noro yarn is not cheap. I will probably have 3ish skeins of extra-- any ideas what to do with it?

So far I have finished the bottom. I'm at the point now where I need to go around my rectangle and pick up stitches for the sides. My little miss likes to snuggle with my knitting when I'm not around.. and put my yarn in knots when I'm not around. A few days ago I woke up to about 1/3 a skein of Noro in a tangled mess, and an innocent looking bichon looking at me like she didn't have the faintest idea what happened.

Posted by Nancy at 01:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (26)

But I do get free yarn! Sorta. One of my co-workers (who has great taste) had been admiring a felted Noro bag she saw, and asked if I could make something like that. Never having made a bag before, and definitely never felting anything before, I said sure. It can't be that hard, right? Another of my co-workers, who really is a knitting library, brought in some basic felting books for me to borrow. I have some studying and experimenting to do.

Out of all the Kureyon colorways I gave Dianne to choose from, she picked a beautiful one with reds, purples, and maybe a hint of blue. I found a great 10 skein deal on Ebay, and convinced her I could make a neat multi-directional scarf with any leftovers.

While knit-blog surfing a couple days ago, I ran across a beautiful knitted wrap on treschicVeronique's site, in the same Noro Kureyon colorway Dianne picked, #124. It looks beautiful, bright, and vivid all knitted up.

Next, Di needed to pick a bag style.. I gave her a great selection of Black Sheep bags to choose from. Being that Dianne has excellent taste, of course she picked the right one.

I'm going to try to talk the boyfriend into going to the yarn store with me today to pick up the pattern. It calls for 3 skeins of Cascade 220, which means about six skeins of the noro, so there should be plenty of leftovers for the scarf and a practice felted swatch.

Posted by Nancy at 01:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)