WIP-it Wednesday: 16 of 52

Err..."Wednesday," more appropriately. Didn't have the time to blog yesterday, I'm afraid, so we'll pretend this one was on time.






First, the Wide Stripes blanket. It's hard to tell, but it is making slow progress. I now have 03 of 07 chocolate skeins knit up in the bottom stripe. For sure, I'll be finished with it by the end of next month, then I can unravel the provisional cast-on and work my way up the rest of the blanket. I'm still hoping to finish it this calendar year. (At the rate of 03 skeins/month, I should be done in December.)







Next is a sweater cast on. This one isn't too interesting yet, so I really do not have much to say about it. I'm taking things slow since I'm having to alter as I go. I do not want another mess like the last sweater I had on needles.

WIP-it Wednesday: 15 of 52

Kittens, last week you were guessing what I was up to. About 20 minutes ago, I finished it.







I believe it was my friend Katie who guessed I was making a monkey. Susan guessed it was a monster and she wouldn't be far off: he's a pattern from Rebecca Danger who *is* the "monster lady."

I had been planning to make this little guy as part of a set to send off to live with someone else, but then...it happened.

Danger! Danger! Someone seems to have fallen for the monkey.







"Mama! You no take my monkey!"

Well played, little girl, well played. It's OK, I wasn't feeling much like gift knitting anyway.

He's even started settling in and making friends.

Keyka Lou Bucket Bag

Kittens, I have been a ball of anxiety lately and yesterday, I reached the point that I had to DO SOMETHING, or I just may die. Seriously.

I needed something quick and would yield a finished object in little time.

I needed something that would use pre-existing supplies and not cost too much for a pattern.

I needed something different then I've worked on before.

And most importantly, it had to be something useful...and to my taste.

I set my mind to sew myself a new bag, and for a long time I've been eying Keyka Lou's designs. (It just so happens that she's having an anniversary sale right now if you're in the market for a new bag as well.) I've had this inexpensive brown corduroy sitting in stash for forever now; I honestly have no idea when I bought it or why I did. It's always been there. After assessing that I had just under a half yard of the fabric, I decided to make a Bucket Bag. I bought the pattern, printed it out to the correct size, and then played around a bit with what I had in stash until I was happy.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the results. The only way I could be any more happy would be if I had enough corduroy for the front pocket to be brown as well. Everything in this project--minus the corduroy-- is a leftover from one of my current projects, and it uses this adorable fabric I reclaimed from a Gymboree shirt I bought for The Girl and she never had a chance to wear. Who doesn't love ponies on some level or another?

Ponies. ♥

I've never sewn a bag before, and I'm sure I've denigrated my own sewing skills enough on this blog to paint the picture that I'm not a very experienced sewer. If I haven't, let me say it loud and clear: I AM NOT A VERY EXPERIENCED OR CAREFUL SEWER. My work is sloppy, and the eagle eyed out there will be able to see spots that I fudged or didn't get things quite right.

Overall, I'd say I did a pretty good job.







And for as much as I hate to get bogged down in putzy details, I really enjoy top stitching.

Even for someone like me, this pattern was pretty easy to follow and produced a pleasing result. I had a couple of places that I became stuck, but after reading through a few times and looking more closely at the provided pictures, I figured it out and was able to move along. I want to say this bag took 4-5 hours from beginning to end.

I definitely recommend these for anyone.

WIP-it Wednesday: 14 of 52

Wordless. (It's just easier that way, kittens.)