Wine bottle carriers, finally!

Well, I finished up that batch of wine-bottle carriers!  Super excited!  I have started on some more, I think I have four left to make.

Some of them turned out slightly different than the others, but I think it is a result of the type of yarn.  The light blue one is still taller than all the rest, and perhaps the skinniest, though it is still large enough to fit a bottle of wine into.

I am contemplating on making these and trying to sell them on Etsy.  I need to double check with the woman who wrote the pattern, to make sure that she wont mind my doing that.  In the meantime I am really having tons of fun making them to give away as gifts!

I am also getting farther along on the little shrug that I am making.  I am making it in bright blue.  I don't usually wear blue as I think it brings out some nice dark circles under my eyes, ha!  However, a friend has convinced me to give it a second chance, so I am making this in bright blue, in part because I already had this dk weight yarn that I ended up not using for the project it was purchased for.

                                     
Obviously I haven't gotten really far along on it, but I'm moving in the right direction!  I hope it turns out as cute as the pattern looks, I am excited to get to wear it!

Other than that, I haven't really undertaken anything new.  I do need to start working on the patterns that I have mentioned on here before.  Hhmm, perhaps I will start thinking about that tonight!  Lets see if I can get some creative juices flowing!

I love making progress on projects!

I'm about half way through the last of the 5 wine-bottle carriers that I am making for my girlfriends.  This is a picture of one in progress, three completed but not felted, and then the one that I had completed earlier.

I hope to work on getting these felted tomorrow, though I am not sure that they will be dry enough to give away on Friday afternoon.  We'll have to see!  After this I have 4 more to make - one for me, one for each of my sisters, and one for the woman letting me use her washer all the time!  Haha.  I think I might take a break from them for a day or two before jumping back in.

I have been spending entirely too much time on Ravelry lately and I have about 500 patterns that I would like to make - yet another reason I need to knit faster!  I am starting to get my stash under control - almost everything I have now fits into a basket.  So I need to finish a baby blanket, and keep going on these wine bottle totes and I should be down to a reasonable level.

Once I have these totes done I am going to work on a new pattern for a little lovey.  It is an idea I have had for months now, but I just haven't had the time or the brainpower to put towards it.  When I figure out how I want it and whatnot I will post it on Rav and I will put the link here.

I interviewed for the job that I really want, I wont hear back until next Monday about it, though.  So I am anxiously awaiting word there.  If that happens, after some more basic necessities, I will be able to buy more yarn!  Which, of course, means knitting faster so that I can get to that yarn!

I have already begun brainstorming for Christmas presents, besides the girls.  I still haven't settled completely on which pattern each will receive, but I sure am having fun trying to decide!

Speaking of which, the clutch that I felted in the two tones of brown - I am not completely sure how to get even and straight cuts into each side for the handle.  And on the one that felted really small, can I just sew in a zipper and/or a lining for that?  I have seen some that have a lining but I am having difficulties finding good instructions for it.  Anyone here have a good suggestion on where I might find some of that information?

Can I just be an amazing knitter yet? So impatient!

So, I finished knitting a second version of my door stopper.  This is it prior to felting, about 54" long.  I paid a lot more attention to its size as it shrunk in felting.  I fully closed one side of the tube, and half closed the other side so that they would felt that way and I would have to do less seaming afterwards.

I don't have a picture of it yet because it is still drying before I put the beans in it to fill it up.  However, I shrunk it to 36" long, to match the width of my front door.  It is a little wider than I might prefer, but I am sure that it will be fine.

I am really interested in felting these days, though I have concerns when I am doing it.  I want to felt a couple of bags for Christmas gifts this year.  Perhaps after all of the practice I will have in felting these wine bottle holders for my friends will give me some more confidence and I will just have more experience in knowing what to look for.

I really want to be a faster knitter.  I have so, so many patterns that I am dying to try.  I just can't seem to get there fast enough!  I know I have only been knitting and crocheting for 9 months, but gosh darnitt I wanna be amazing already!  Chop chop!  Hahah.

I also really want to try a bunch of different dresses and skirts.  Part of the problem with those, of course, is the yarn itself.  I fully understand why natural yarn is expensive.  However, that doesn't make it any less frustrating for me!  So I am doing my best to make due, to check Craigslist and shop just the sales.  It does mean that I can't buy from the local shops for the time being, though.  I have two sweaters from the thrift store that I am pulling apart.  I am thinking of using some of the yarn to work on a skirt in the green and a dress in the purple.  I figure when I run out of the purple yarn I can create an accent in white cotton, which I already have, and make it look cute that way.  But, we'll see how it goes!

I think I have kept up with pictures on here of my projects, but in case I have missed some I also have them on Rav under my profile 'hopesndreams' if you want to check them out over there.  As I think I have mentioned before, too, I have my first pattern up there as well for a bedside rug.  Bedside Rug  Right there in fact!

Felting results

So, I had a chance to felt my purses the other day.  I learned a TON, hah!  So, lets start with the before picture, just as a reminder.

So the knit bag is on the left and the single crochet bag on the right.  As you can see the knit is just slightly wider than the crochet, but because it is felted, that doesn't matter.  They were both 10" high from bottom to top, plus the base which wasn't very wide.

Last night I put both into a pillow case, tied it up (to keep the loose fibers from getting into the machine) and put them on a hot/warm washing cycle.  This was a top loading washer with a center agitator.  The hot water loosens up the fibers so that they are open to one another, and the agitation makes the little microscopic hooks within the wool fiber catch together and result in shrinking the item.  That is what I wanted it to do.  Every few minutes I checked to check on the progress.  What I think I failed to do was check on both of them every time.  This is the final result.  The knit bag is on the left, the crochet on the right.

As you can see...I screwed up.  Apparently stockinette-stitch knit items felt A LOT faster than single crocheted items.  I should have taken out the knit bag much earlier, or I should have felted them separately.  So, that is a good thing to know.  The crochet bag isn't exactly what I was hoping for, but it is close.  I'm not positive if I screwed up on that one or if that is just how it comes out. I expected it to be slightly wider, I suppose.  The crochet bag shrunk, length wise, about an inch.  The knit bag shrunk about 3.  Either way the crochet bag it is cute and nicely sized.  I am thinking about turning the smaller one into a wallet - adding a zipper or something so that stuff doesn't fall out.  But we'll see.  When I decide I will show you that, too.

In any case this was a really good learning experience and I will take away lots of lessons from my mess up.  I am slightly annoyed, but I can't really beat myself up too much over it.  Things happen.  And honestly, I only need one bag, I only made the second because I had more yarn.  If I wanted I could make yet another because I still have plenty of yarn left over.  I will think about it!

In the same load I decided to put the new baby bonnet that I made as well.  It was exceedingly stiff and kind of rough.  I didn't add any detergent, just the hot water.  Apparently it was enough to "kill" the acrylic, because now the hat is floppy and super soft.  Killing acrylic yarn is what you do rather than blocking.  Because it isn't wool it wont keep its shape (especially in stockinette) unless you kill it.  I have heard of people using an iron over top of a piece to kill the acrylic - apparently washing in super hot water has a similar effect.  Also a great thing to know!  Now the item that I "killed" in the wash wasn't in stockinette stitch.  I am not positive that it will turn out the same way, I will have to test it some time.  But in the meantime I am really happy with how it softened up the baby bonnet, now it is super cute and soft enough for baby.  

This is where a baby head goes!

This is the opposite side view.  The circular pattern actually goes up onto the baby head, otherwise it would not come up far enough on the head.  I will try to get a baby to put this on so that you can understand a bit better, perhaps.