A Vegan RAOK

Sarah regularly rocks my world, but today she gets some extra points for setting up a Vegan Random Act of Kindness site for the vegan crafty divas out there. She just put the site up so there is not a lot going on yet, but the way it works is at least one time a year you send a little gift to someone random on the list to brighten their day. It is fun and unexpected. All you need to sign up is a mailing address and either a blog or a Flickr account so if you are crafty and love surprises go over to VeganRAK.com and sign up.

My Chinese Charm Bag

I can't remember the exact date I started this project, but my guess is late 2004. Here is the Chinese Charm bag sans the charm that I have had in my stash for far too long. The knitting was finished years ago, but the lining just couldn't find its way into the bag. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't motivate myself to put my knitting through my sewing machine. Saturday morning I decided to just go for it, at this point it really doesn't matter if I ruin the bag. The sewing part only took about 10 minutes and most of that time was spent waiting for the iron to heat up. The bag came out really nice and I am just glad to have it done so that I can move on with my life.

The pattern is from Stitch n' Bitch and the yarn is from South West Trading Company and it is the Phoenix 100% soysilk in purplexed. The bag uses two balls and there is just under half of the second ball remaining. Ribbon yarns are a funny thing, on the ball they don't appeal to me at all, but I love the way they look all knitted up.

My Bamboo Ballerina tank

I forgot to mention that I finished the Bamboo Ballerina from SWTC last week. Here is the finished tank surrounded by paper made from recycled elephant poop- yummy!!! I ended up making a smaller size than the pattern since all of our store models are insanely anorexic and normal clothes don't fit them; even the size I made ended up being slightly too large. At some point Sarah and I are going to make models in our sizes. That way we can wear the items we make for the store after the season is over.
The pattern is free purchase and uses 3-5 balls depending on the size you make. The pattern was super easy and I would recommend it to a beginning knitter. The shaping is very flattering to all sizes which is something you don't see very often. I have 2oz. of bamboo left so I might make a facecloth with the leftovers since I really like working with the yarn.

A fun weekend

I don't really have time to post so this picture will illustrate my weekend and my current WIP.
This is Stephanie Pearl-McPhee aka the Yarn Harlot at the Bluegrass Festival of Books holding my current sock- Fiber Trends Cascade Walking Away sock.

The good stuff just keeps coming

Monday another package from Sarah arrived in my mailbox. This time she sent me a mini-scrapbook that she made for my store. It is so little and cute; I can't wait to fill it up. Thank you, Sarah!!!

An old/new yarn to hate

I have been working on a package for my secret pal and my goal for this round is to include one handmade item in each of three packages. Since I have all of the contents of the first package ready to go, I spent Tuesday night re-reading my pal's blog trying to find inspiration to make her something. Then, I went through my stash to see if anything called out to me and there it was- an unused skein of Crystal Palace cotton chenille in bright blue. I have had this yarn for a few years now; it was one of two skeins destined to become the flower face cloths from Weekend Knitting. After finishing about 2/3 of the first one I gave up on the idea of finishing the face cloth. I thought it was because I was working with bamboo needles (which I hate,) but after picking up the yarn again and trying it on three different types of needle I realize that I hate this yarn. I made the Mason Dixon Washcloth with the yarn and it came out beautifully, but the knitting was a constant struggle with the yarn. Cotton chenille is now officially banned from my stash.

Here is the facecloth tied closed with some yummy soap inside.

Here is the open facecloth. Normally it wouldn't look so wavy, but I didn't want to take out the cord.

I really like the pattern for the Mason Dixon washcloth from the Mason Dixon Knitting book; I am not sure why I passed over it before. I love the way you can thread ribbon through the eyelet holes and make a little spa gift bag. This pattern is moving to the top of my gift pattern list. I am going to try it again using Blue Sky organic cotton, yummy!!

Since I am on the topic of Mason Dixon Knitting, a book that I just can't put down, I decided to buy my secret pal a copy. She is a southern knitter, but probably not one who would think to buy a $30 knitting book even though it is filled with projects that she would adore. In my research I discovered that Elmore-Pisgah the maker of Sugar and Cream yarns, a favorite of the Mason Dixon girls, is now offering a Mason Dixon Knitting yarn pack with colors featured in the book. I bought her the pack to go with the book in her May package.

New books and finished projects

Thursday, I came home to a surprise from the lovely Sarah. It was a package from Amazon containing Cat Bordhi's book Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles. I have been pining over this books for quite sometime now. Not only does it contain instructions for doing socks on circs, but also toe-up socks. I hope this book is the motivation I need to start the toe-up socks I have been putting of for over a month now. My goal for the year was to have socks on the needles at all times until I work down my sock yarn stash that I have been unknowingly accumulating. I finished my first pair, but have yet to sit down and cast-on for pair number two.

Yesterday, after a long day at the shop, I came home to yet another surprise from Sarah- the Color in Spinning book. I have been wanting this book for such a long time, but I have never seen it in real life. I knew that it was a good guide on dyeing for spinning, but until yesterday I had no idea how comprehensive this book is. It covers everything from subtle to drastic color changes, the effects of plying on color changes, various dyeing techniques and comprehensive spinning instruction. A lot of the book is dedicated to color theory and the author uses lots of pictures to help you understand what happens when you combine color A and color B. I can already tell that this is going to be my primary source for spinning a dying information. Speaking of spinning, I learned to Navajo ply yesterday and I am completely obsessed with it. The yarn comes out round and fluffy and I love that it doesn't require more than two bobbins. Why didn't someone tell me about this method sooner?

In project finishing news, I have finished knitting the skull bag and the front of the Bamboo Ballerina. I also started two other projects even though I said only one per week; I have no discipline. Both projects were small- a crochet visor and the apple protector from Knitorama and both projects are complete so they aren't contributing to my UFO count. I did the apple protector in the round instead of flat since the seams on such a small item were too bulky for my taste. Anyway, this was a fun little project to mix things up.

My sweater is coming along nicely. I am keeping it slow and steady, but it is the one project that I seem to keep up with. Since I can't wear the sweater until next fall or winter there is little stress to finish it right away, but I love the yarn and needles I am using so the pleasure of knitting it is what keeps me going. Has anyone knit anything with the Soysilk Pure from SWTC? I keep fondling this yarn and I really want to find a project for it. I am thinking that I would like to make a sweater or cardigan with it, but I am really not sure. Any suggestions are welcome.