More bags

Churning out one per day. It takes approximately just over 2 hours to complete one.
At the moment it is a nice diversion from things and I am taking my time making them. I have even been making up some zipper pulls from my bead box. My signature is the dragonfly charm on the zipper pulls, although I find I can be talked into mushrooms, giraffes and turtles :P

They almost equal my knitting WIPs.

Some things I have learnt part 2:

•  The handles are better with the heavier Shapewell (finally found out what it's called) it's a devil to turn in the right way but has a much better finish.
• Zipper pulls are fun :)
• After sewing the lining and the outer, before you cut the corners, sew through all layers just over the zip and pull tabs, this gives a neater finish for the interior right near the zip:

Before: Messy.

Now it looks way better!

My favourites, the big one is for jumpers.

Zipper pull for smaller bag.

Large bag's zipper pull.

Latest bag from this morning, the silver in this one is metallic.

It's fun finding beads that compliment the bags.

Miss A's mushroom bag,

She even found a button that matches.

Find the cat...

Where is Andy??

Andy loves cat caves, he will either make one himself or meow for us to help him.  It is better if we help because he literally digs himself into one. Nothing is safe, blankets, quilts, dressing gowns. He will stay in them for hours!

  

  

I will call it a day now and go knit on my honey cowl.

New Projects - inside and out

I have finally gotten around to having a go with Wollmeise.

First I swatched (but not with the colour I was going to use):

To me it feels like cotton to knit with but it came out much softer after washing and blocking.

Deciding on a project was hardest, in the end Raiun won. My project or  Rav Link

Specs:
3.25mm needles
Wollmeise twin in Petit Poison Dark
gauge 6sts/ 8 rows per inch

Things I have learnt:

Provisional Cast On.  A simple figure 8 cast on. You can just see the wonky stitches where the marker is denoting the Cast on row. It took me an hour to get this right, I nearly gave up.Looks ok though, I will try to snug the stitches up later.

 M1P = Make one purl, yep I have never done this before either. Some are a little wonky until I got it right. I bit the bullet and looked it up rather than trying to work it out myself. I couldn't decide whether to pick up the bar from front to back or back to front.

There are a few mistakes right up near the beginning of the sleeve increases. A purl that should have been a knit etc.  This is where I second guessed the designer's plan and changed a knit to a purl because I thought the pattern ribbing would not be correct. So I have learnt to trust the designer in future and just go with the pattern. I will not try to fix it by dropping it down and picking back up because I know what will happen if I drop down 7 rows and can't get back up sounds easy but it's near another lifted increase and I just know i could stuff it up really well so I will live with it. Yes, I can do that, I can live with imperfection, just watch me.
It is actually bugging me a lot but it's such a tiny thing that no-one will see because my hair will be covering it up. So shhh, no-one will know it's there but me.

Outside of the house we have been developing our veggie garden this long weekend.
So far we have planted corn, tomatoes, coloured silverbeet, lettuce, leeks, capsicum, zucchini, carrots and basil.
We also have most of our dwarf fruit trees in. We have 2 apples, 2 nectarines, peach and an orange, we are still looking for a dwarf mandarin. Most trees are full of blossoms.

Here's the resident gardener planting out the ornamentals. The veggie patch is the part covered in pea straw at the back. This is where our big double shed used to be.

We also have the formal ornamental part complete with pot:

I reckon the pot will get blown over in a strong wind gust but we will see. It looks crooked but I keep telling myself that is part of the optical illusion of the pot's design.  Either its that or already on its way over.

Must include a pic of our water feature now that we have pots next to it:

Finally the obligatory kitteh pictures.
They are sneaky, I opened the craft room door to hang up some laundry indoors (didn't want pea straw on the freshly laundered clothes) Kitty snuck in, ignored my stern NO, jumped up on the sofa and immediately snuggled in as if she had been asleep for ages.  Andy soon followed her.

They had swapped places from where they first were, my guess is that Andy went to bite snuggle Kitty so she got up and moved away from him and he took her spot - this happens a lot.

The best part is no more uni until January next year, well one more assignment to submit but it is DONE, just hanging on to it because I always think of other things to add after submitting, yay. I'm taking Summer Semester off this year before I burn out. That leaves just 4 units to go then I will be finished. Two each year as two units are full on practicums, one music which should be easy and an Entreprenurial Professional something or other.

So the next few months will be focusing on making resources for my current class- still working as a School Services Officer in Special Ed, unpacking the many boxes still in the shed, putting my craft room in order (no pictures because it is too messy at the moment) and knitting -can't wait to try out my new garnrollenhalter that came today:

It spins so quietly and effortlessly releases your yarn as you knit. A combined bulk order with a Ravelry group. I had been using this:

from here: http://www.instructables.com/id/Rotating-Yarn-Holder/
This one is noisy as the lazy susan is very rattly. However it did work quite well and the noise was ok after a while. I simply Blu-Tacked a small lazy susan spinner onto the bottom of a CD spindle, nowhere near as complicated as the linked project. It needed the whole spindle to spin and not have the yarn rotating around the stick part causing friction.

So...I have Raiun to complete then on to a Featherweight Cardi in Wollmeise lace (Im Jahr Der Ratte), Ardelise in Bendy (Red Tweed) oh and I must make a Vanadium Bendy Classic 5 ply (Cranberry) and I must make Elfe too though not necessarily in that order. What's on your To Do list?

Bag Adventures...

I have my knitting mojo back in felted bags at the moment. There have been lots of discoveries during this Research and Development phase. I am trying to find a 'goto' bag pattern. So far my experiments have ended up too big, too thin, and almost perfect.

Some tips for felting:

• Don't use towels, the lint will mute the colour of your bag, when I used jeans, the colours were much brighter and obviously no lint was on the bag when it came out of the machine.
  

• For a first attempt, stick to the pattern, I wanted a big bag - not a huge bag that is not good for anything. (see previous post)

• Maybe putting the item in a zippered pillow case is not a good idea, I never ran into any problems when I just threw it in the machine. (see below)
  

• Check the handles, when I used the pillow case the handles must have rolled in on themselves and felted that way therefore they ended up waaaay narrow.

• Check the bag, when I used the pillow case the bag felted in on itself where it was folded in half and put into said pillow case. Was difficult to pull apart and still has creases where it melded to itself.

To summarise: pictures later as blogger is not playing nice today, oh here we are...

First Bag: French Market Bag 256 sts around is waay too biig.
See last post for pics.

Second Bag: French Market Bag with 164 sts is still a little on the big side but not too bad, handles are a bit too short.






Third bag: Ann's Petite Felted Bag, this is the one where I mucked it up by putting it in the pillow case for felting, apart from that it is a good size and I am making a second one that will be perfect :)





See the difference in handle with? I assure you they are both 9 sts wide.


Fourth Bag: Petite Felted Carrier, decreasing the handles at a rate of 9 rows to make up for the mod to change to two handles. No pics - but a WIP none the less.

All of these are knitted with Vintage Hues and 5.5mm needles.

Cat Content:



They line up for food in our house. Always in this order though.

Christmas was almost cancelled!

I hope everyone had a good Christmas.

We nearly cancelled Xmas this year as 6 days beforehand one of our cats went missing for 4 nights!

Miss A and I were very upset as it was really unusual for her to just disappear like that.
To add to our worry was that it was very stormy - the most rainfall since April this year. Our cats are never going outside again let me tell ya. Those heartbreaking
4 days were it. I am not going to lose another cat again.

I have enlisted the aid of secureakat and we have decided to enclose the whole side of the house where the 2 rainwater tanks are. We don't use this side at all and it is currently gravelled, all i want to do is move the gravel so that a strip down the middle will be grassed. Unfortunately it won't be done until end of Jan early Feb.

Have you seen the price of cat play equipment?! I intend to make a lot of it myself (any excuse to purchase a power tool) A nice man at Bunnings has cut a sheet of wood into bits so that I can glue and screw and make boxes for the cats to sleep in. Miss A will be in charge of the colour/painting part.

After a trip out today, I think the cat problem is sorted temporarily. It is actually a large puppy enclosure but with a few cat toys it's a cat enclosure. I intend to put them in here for a bit at a time so that they are not stuck inside. Maybe feed them the good tinned stuff as a treat so that they look forward to it.....cos they hate it at the moment.


Infernal human un-imprison me!


Puddy (who was on the missing cat list) realised she was locked in straight away and wouldn't stop meowing. Andy and Kitty went in together (they do not get along with Puddy very well) and they were like "ooh there's food, ooh there's water, look over here, a scratching thing, look a kitty tray, hang on ... what's this wall here? How do we get out? I want out!" Took 'em 20 minutes to work it out.

What did Father Christmas bring you? ... I was lucky to get some yarny goodness that was unwrapped many days before Xmas - Dream In Color Smooshy sock yarn in Gothic Rose and Dusky Aurora, some blocking wires in preparation for my forays into lace knitting.
Couldn't resist the Tapestry Craft sale ( ummed and ahhed for many days before committing to buy) I've ordered some Auracania yarn in Ocean and for Miss A Jewels for shawls.
What is it that I have a hankering to knit shawls?? The triangle shawl from the Knitting Olympics of 2006- I think it was - kicked my ass and that was/is a very simple M1 one st in from each end and once in the middle. Reminds me, that needs to be frogged.

Now I am not only on a yarn diet, but a money diet too. Can't wait to get back to work and earn some money or I'm gonna send myself broke!

Turning UFOs into FOs

I don't know what it is but lately I have felt the need to complete some UFOs.
Fetching number 3 for me is finished.
Doll blanket number 1 is finished...can't remember where or what Doll Blanket number 2 is?
Here's the pictures:



Completed blanket



Blanket in use


Here is the reason Barbie and Ken were not happy last night:



Kitty (top observation deck) and Andy (penthouse) decided they needed a room for the night.


In other news, remember that I bought a smaller, newer, modern, sleek, fantastic car in December??

Yeah, well fantastic car has had an oil leak, so after taking it back to the car yard where I bought it for repairs and being fobbed off, told it was fixed, nope nothing wrong, etc - it was still leaking so I decided to take it to the local dealer for independent tests and repairs.

After the dealer having it for 2 and a half weeks I just got my little car back on Friday. So Miss A and I took it for a drive to the beach and got a celebratory icecream, ducked into Foodland for some tea and when I came back there was a stupid A**hole parked 2 inches - I kid you not 2 inches!!- from the back of my car!!! I just got in and forgot to take his number and forgot to check for dings thinking that no, nothing would be amiss (trusting soul aren't I)....

Next day I remembered to check....yep bumper was scratched and lower down has some scratches and a chip of paint taken out of the lower bumper.

Not to mention how pleased I was on Saturday morning to find out that the car was still leaking in the exact same spot and worse than when I took it in to be repaired!! AARGGHH!!!
2.5 weeks and $1800 later I am back to square one.

They had the engine, transmission, Air Conditioner, everything, all out - rear main seal they declared - big expensive job, so everything they did to it was unnecessary because it still leaks, I paid for work that didn't need to be done because it still leaks.

They will be getting a call from me come Monday morning!
Is there no one that can find and fix an oil leak?
Is it because I am a woman they think they don't really need to fix it?
Did they just overlook it? honest mistake?

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

I know it's just a car and worse thing are happening out there.
Mr Ex thinks this is funny and taunts me about it.
This is typical of my life anything can and does f*ck up like this. Constantly. I am tired of it. I want to cry. I can feel the depression monster stalking me so don't be surprised if I don't blog for a while.

Edited to add:
Okay I've had a bit of a cry and a lay down (and some chocolate ;) )and I am feeling a little better about the whole situation. Fingers crossed we can get it sorted out soon.

Update

The socks are coming along nicely, I am now up to the gusset increases and almost ready to start the slip stitch pattern under the heel. I think I'll try the Eye of Partridge this time. Almost ready to cast on the other pair! - I am still on holidays this week and have plenty of time to complete the heels, so shh, we'll keep that a secret.

I can't remember how I divided this ball up, but you can see that I picked the right starting point for them. The pattern lines up well. I know they have a long pattern repeat but half a sock?! Don't know if I can do this again. With all my hand dyed yarns they are just going to be cast on, there is no way I can line them up as I just chucked the dye on willy nilly and fudged it to get the same effect overall. Busting to see how they turn out though.

Pattern: Queen Kahuna's Crazy Toes and Heels Book - standard pattern I always use.

Needles: 2 x 60cm circulars.

Yarn: Opal Magic Yellow.

The little guy is settling in, the others only growl at him in passing. This morning he was playing with Scrappy and Kitty in the yard. He has really made himself at home, last night he bounded onto my bed and plonked himself down with his head on my pillow and his butt in the bed!

He is fascinated with my knitting and will attack the needles which makes knitting difficult until he falls asleep. You just have to get his attention and he'll jump on your lap for a cuddle and a snooze.

Can we keep him?

You know that we lost one of our cats 2 weeks ago...weeellll...

A couple of days ago the neighbour's boy came knocking at our door to ask if the bundle he was holding was one of our cats. He'd been feeding it but his Mum said they couldn't keep it. Do you want it he asks?
"Nooo!" says I, we already have three! "No thanks", and off he went.

What was sitting out on our outdoor chair in the backyard the next day??

I tried to ignore him but ended up ringing Mr Ex at work and saying that we've been adopted and what should I do. I was ready to pack him into the cat cage and head for the Animal Welfare. But Mr Ex said "Well give him some food" and the words "wait till I get home". With anyone else he would have wandered away but not our house. We are the ones most likely to take him on. What can you do??? Mr Ex said that he can't bury anymore cats and was reluctant to keep him, and it would have to be my decision and my responsibility.

Anyway later that night after checking to see if he was still out the back, we made a bed for him in a box with an old blanket, but he preferred the mat on the back step. It was getting cold and he has a sore leg (he's limping and so skinny too.) so we decided to let him in. You can imagine our other cats were delighted with this! They've only been hissing at him, nothing too fierce. So he stayed the night.

Guess where he slept? Yep, with Mr Ex.

Guess who I caught snuggling and smooching with him in the bathroom this morning? Yep, Mr Ex.

Guess who says he better stay for a few days to see if his leg improves? Yep.

He has made himself right at home here. I tell ya, he kicked a goal coming to our house.

He's not that old either I'm guessing around 10 months. He's very affectionate. Cute little face. Beautiful orange eyes. Miss A likes him.

Debate rages on what to call him though - I suggested "Andy", but Mr Ex says he's not standing out the back calling "Andy". He suggests "Tiger" because he's a tabby cat and our last tabby cat was "Tiger". Miss A suggests "Hoppy" because he's hopping.

So, can we keep him??

The reason I didn't do my dishes last night...

This is Kitty. Her full name is Itty Bitty Sh*tty Kitty, she was really small when we got her and she likes to use the bathtub if ya know what I mean. She's a quiet little cat she hardly meows at all. She sleeps on the end of my bed and will sometimes wake me at 5.30am for a pat and a cuddle. She likes to squeeze herself into little places.

Kitty used to have a little mate called Smoochy, we bought them at the same time and they went everywhere together. But unfortunately he got hit by a car, very sad. It happened just after my husband and I separated and Smoochy was his cat. They would lick each other to sleep and chase each other round the house you were in danger of getting bowled over by them, the house was full of life. I thought they would grow old together. After Smoochy died Kitty was very quiet for weeks, she would just sit there it was heartbreaking.

Ah I just remembered - Smoochy loved playing in water. We would find their water bowl empty quite often and wondered how they could drink so much. Then one day we heard water splashing and peeped in just in time to see him flicking the water out of the bowl and trying to chase it.

Even though we have two other cats we had to get her a new friend. And so Scrappy came to live with us. He is Mr Ex's cat, ( as are the other two he informs me, funny I thought they were ours oh that's right their isn't an "ours" anymore) Kitty's new friend and he loves playing in boxes. They'll chase each other but it's not the same, Smoochy was gentle with Kitty and you could see that he was going easy on her, Scrappy pins her down and makes her hiss.

He'll meow to go in and out and meow a thank you as he comes in it's really nice, makes getting of your butt for the fifth time to let a cat in/out worthwhile.

Two more to go. Our cats are all (except one) adopted from the Animal Welfare.

This is Gypsy, she used to live next door but decided we were the ones she wanted about 8 years ago, a lovely placid cat who would sit right next to you when you sat down and wanted to be patted. When our neighbours moved they let her stay with us. She will sleep in the rain,we have to go out and bring her in if it rains. She is getting older now and has been a joy to know. This is when she was a little younger, her fur is not quite as white and she doesn't clean herself as well as she used to.

This is Puddy ( yeah we're creative on cat names ) She was 3 years old when whe came to live with us. She likes to sleep on tables and up trees. Last night was the first night she ever sat on anyone's lap and she'll rarely jump up on the lounge. Mr Ex ( on one of his rare visits into our half of the house - he lives out the back, my daughter and I have the front part ) sat in the loungeroom to watch a DVD and she hopped up and laid her head on his lap!

So we have four cats in all and wouldn't be without any one of them.