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Shopping

Omigod sewing!

It’s still true–I hate sewing.

I braved Valley traffic to go to Jo-Ann’s last night after work, where I was rewarded with a renewed stock of magnetic snaps.  Woot! I, um, bought them all.  I had to! Three packages of three snaps each, for only $1.29 per pack?  Hells yes! I also bought three different fabric squares/remnants for possible liners, needle and thread, a thimble (so glad for that one!), a roll of stuff to iron seams instead of sewing (another woot!), a bottle of liquid seaming stuff to avoid sewing (didn’t actually use this one), a button I didn’t use (too small), and a crochet magazine.

I got home, had my yummy pot roast dinner, watched Jeopardy, and then pulled out the ironing board. And then dusted it, because it had been that long since I’d last used it as more than a hanger for plastic bags. The iron, also rarely used, still worked the way I vaguely remembered, so that was cool.

Then it came to the lining part. I’d printed directions from HelloKnitty.com–they didn’t help much.  My first attempt failed, because my bag is oval, not square, so the liner was too small.  Good thing I bought spare squares! My second attempt went better–I layed out the fabric, put the bag on top, folded the fabric, then cut around the bag. Unscientific, but I hate measuring tapes. I folded seams, ironed that nifty stitch witchery stuff to glue them together (not a very strong glue, unfortunately), popping it into the bag over and over for a trial and error approach to getting the right size.  Got it close enough, then attempted to sew actual stitches over the glue, to make it extra strong.  Ha! Did one side seam, remembered why I hate sewing, and decided the second side wasn’t worth it.

A Date With Cookie Monster purseI added the magnetic snaps to the lining (woot! easy peasy!), then put the seamed up lining in the bag, and pinned the top to the inside edge of the bag–nearly perfect size! Woot! (Good thing in the end that the glue wasn’t that strong.) Then came more sewing, since I couldn’t just leave the pins in the bag–phooey. This is where I was very glad I’d purchased the thimble. In the end, the stitch was uneven and very ugly, but did I care? No! It was finished, the lining was attached, and I’d only lost one needle in the process! (I found it later.)

A Date With Cookie Monster purseThen came the shiny button embellishment for the outside.  The button I’d purchased was way too small, so I pulled out the pretty plastic “jewels” from last weekend and found a pretty blue one that worked nicely.  Then I had to glue it to the pin-back, except, I had to find the glue gun.  (It was in the storage box on the top corner shelf of my closet–joy.) I don’t know why I keep using glue guns, ’cause the glue rarely holds.  The jewel popped off the first time I tried to attach the pin to the bag, so I had to add layers and layers of hot glue around all the seams and along the top of the pin back.  It should at least last through the auction–I hope.

In all, not including the trip to Jo-Ann’s (where I didn’t buy yarn, btw–go me!), it took me 2.5 hours to line that stupid bag. OMIGOD do I hate sewing!

Gratuitous baby pic!

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

Cutiehead

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!

Categories
Knitting and Crochet

new knitter!

Susan and her first scarf!This is my friend and coworker Susan.  Although an avid sewer and quilter (and talented!), she was never a knitter until she went on vacation to Europe last month and stayed with a friend who sat her down and taught her the ropes.  Around her neck is her first ever finished project, a scarf she made with no pattern.  Her first FO, and already I envy her adventurous spirit to knit without a pattern, just letting her needles take her where they wanted to go.  She’s already started her second project, a feather and fan scarf, and seems to be hooked but good.  Whee!

Categories
Knitting and Crochet

Bead bandwagon

WIP: Beaded Booga BagSo 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. 😀

Categories
Knitting and Crochet

Busy little knitting bee

WIP: Little Coco
WIP: Little Coco
(waiting for felting)
It’s a fuzzy picture, but check out the cool stitch pattern on the bottom of the bag.
WIP: Pink Lady Bag
WIP: Pink Lady Bag
(top left; bottom is knit)

I finished bag #5 last night, and immediately started bag #6, this time using Lion Brand’s feltable wool.  I’m using the same pattern that I used for my very first felted bag three years ago, which I conveniently found when I was cleaning my bedroom last week.  It’s call the Pink Lady Bag from Designs by Shelley, and it’s very easy, although it does involve the kitchener stitch to seam the handle. The Lion Brand is about 50 yards shorter than the listed required yardage, but I was in the mood to do something variegated, so while I’m hoping the 200 yards was just optimistic, I’m double-stranding two different colors (one purple, one variegated) just in case–since I bought two of everything at Michael’s last week, that gives me two sets of the mix.

I’m really enjoying this whole “cranking out as many bags as I can” strategy–takes the indecision out of my next project, which is what frequently stalls me out when I finish a project. With so many incredible patterns and yarns to choose from, I can never decide what to do next! I’m getting a little tired of the Booga/Little Coco type bags, though, and while I adore the Balloon bag pattern, it requires stitching the handles before felting, which I hate doing.  Hopefully this Pink Lady Bag is as easy as I remember, so I can get a few under my belt before going back to one of the other patterns.