Falling behind

I've got more projects than I can shake a stick at right now. Stay tuned for:
- Max the blueberry
- A couple more hats
- Some mini-quilt surprises
- A mesh-knit backpack that Teri requested

I think that's all that's on the needles or queued for the sewing machine. Now get back to work!

Legos, Beach, Family

Well, San Diego really isn't a lot of fun right now, but it sure was a week ago when we were down there. Shout out to Teri, Bob, Bryce, and Juliet - hang in there.

Look, that Lego-lion ate Bryce & Juliet!

Legoland was fun, so was Mission Beach. Here's Bryce preparing for a dip.

And here's Juliet enjoying her seaweed island.

A couple of sand monsters...(Max rather regretted this later, when trying to get all the sand off again. Juliet didn't mind the sand one bit.)

And here's the cute hat that we got Max at Legoland, that he lost within an hour of playing in the surf. We miss you cute Lion Lego hat. Ah well.

The La Mesa train was fun to explore. Go Green Butterflys!

Felted bag? Check!

Finally, another post!

I finished my felted bag tonight. It was all dry from blocking and I stabbed the holes to insert the handles. It turned out fun! I like the color combo, but it's a shame that the variegated yarn stripe doesn't show up very well on the bag proper. It was really pretty before it felted, now it's just a little lighter stripe. Ah well - it's supposed to match the handles.

Colin's really impressed that the floppy giant-size thing I was knitting felted down into an actual handbag-looking object. Wish I'd taken a "before" picture, but I was just so impatient to try the felting that I didn't think about taking a snap until it was already in the wash. TOO LATE! You'll just have to make do with the "after" picture, plus a few stats.


Stats:

• Yarn: KnitPicks Wool of the Andes in Chocolate (3-5 balls? can't remember, unwilling to check ;-) and Winter Night (less than 1 ball), plus Shamrock in Doyle (2 balls). Probably should have held the yarn double to make it even sturdier. It's pretty sturdy, but a little floppier than I wanted.
• Needles: 10 1/2 circular (36 inch)
• Pattern: Took inspiration and general instructions from this Booga Bag pattern, plus the picture of the Oregon Tote.
• Original knitted size: 14 inches (height), 16 inches wide (side to side), 9 1/2 inches (base width)
• Felted size: 7 inches (height), 13 inches wide (side to side), 6 inches deep (base width)
• Capacity: 1 hardback book, 2 balls of yarn, a circular needle and a swatch. Well, so far at least.

Very little progress on other projects. I really want to do Juno, but am having issues with yarn. I found this Alpaca/wool/cashmere blend that feels just wonderful, but doesn't give me good stitch definition for the cables. I might try some different needle sizes, but I'm not sure it'll work. I do like the denim color, though (see inside bag above). Definitely need more swatching before I can commit to a sweater's worth of yarn. And anyway the Local Yarn Shop is sold out of Rowan Mag 40, so I can't get the pattern right now anyway.