One Down, Lots To Go

I finished the Saturday Market Bag! This is perfect timing as I was hoping to use it at the beach for my family vacation at the end of July, but then Paul and I decided to go to Puerto Rico next week, so I wanted it for that, too. I also leave Friday for Portland for Paul’s brother’s wedding, and I think this bag will be nice to stuff my smaller bags into to make my one “personal item.” That way I can cheat and take more stuff

Anyway, this project went well. It was pretty simple, except the seaming threw me for a loop at first. I’ve never seamed anything before, so having lace be my first seaming project was a bit of a challenge. I ended up using a whipstitch-type deal to do it. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than I was expecting!

Here’s a picture of the bag all finished:

And here it is with four rather large books in it, to show it’s stretching capabilities. I’m very pleased with it’s stretchiness!

Pattern: Saturday Market Bag with this variation

Yarn: Lily’s Sugar ‘n Cream, color Rose, 100% cotton, worsted weight, less than one skein, and something like $4

Needles: Boye aluminum, size 15 (10mm) straights and KnitPicks Options, size 10 (6mm)

Time to knit: Started June 13, 2007 and finished June 27, 2007

Places knitted: It was all done from the comfort of my apartment!I’ve also been working on my second pair of socks. I’m using Knitty’s Hedera pattern and the Cherry Tree Hill turquoise yarn I just got. I really like them so far. They’re for Mom for Christmas. This is the first sock, and I’ve done the whole cuff and a little bit of the heel flap. It’s going well so far and will be a great project to take to Portland and Puerto Rico, especially since I’ve heard there have been problems with taking metal needles through airport security, and the only non-metal ones I have are DPNs!

Finally, I cast on yesterday for the Peppermint Twist sweater from the first Stitch ‘n Bitch book. I’m using KnitPicks Shine Sport and I’ve got about an inch of ribbing done, so there’s a lot more to go!! This will be my first sweater so I’m excited. It’ll probably take forever though!

Hopefully I’ll finish those socks over my vacation and make some progress on the sweater when I’m home!

Knitting Again

I’ve been keeping myself busy with knitting since Paul has been in Dallas, school is between quarters, and the people I was nannying for moved.

First, I finished my first sock ever on Monday:

Then, I cast on for the next sock on Tuesday (it’s not blurry in real life):

I’m using this yarn for the socks. It’s Trekking XXL in color 134. I loved it when I bought it (nearly a year ago!), but that love grew when I saw a completed sock in it.

Aside from socks, I finished the One Row Handspun Scarf from the Yarn Harlot, except mine is totally not from handspun yarn. And I might have done the knit in the back stitch wrong. But that’s okay because I still like it!

Pattern: One Row Handspun Scarf
Yarn: Red Heart’s TLC Essentials in Island, 100% acrylic (soft, washable, and cheap!), worsted weight, 1.25 skeins or so, cost was probably less than $5 but I don’t remember exactly
Needles: Knitpicks Options (I used circular but obviously didn’t knit in the round), US 8
Size: Scarf length is about 62″, give or take, and the width is about 4″
Time to knit: Started this in October 2006, finished June 12, 2007. Yeah it took forever but in my defense, during that time, I was a full time student, had either a part time or full time job, planned a wedding, got married, and moved across the country.
Places knitted: In the car before work in Utah, during class (like Family Economics) at the U, in my apartment in Salt Lake, in my apartment in Atlanta, at Chastain Park with the kids at work in Atlanta… and probably a few other places

And finally, I cast on for the Saturday Market Bag last night, with a variation I found on the web that I like better. I couldn’t figure out how to get the lace to work right at first as I’ve never knit lace before, but I finally got it on the third try. I’ve done two of the lace repeats (so hardly nothing) but it’s looking good so far! I don’t really like the huge needles as they get in my way, but I do like how the big lacy pattern looks.

That’s it for now! I hope to finish the second sock soon, and make more progress on the market bag. If I don’t get them done soon, school will start again and I’ll have significantly less time.