Well, the felted bag was kind of a flop. If it was not as wide, OR if it were taller it would be okay, but it's a rather strange shape as it is. Its basically the dimensions of a shoebox, but with a strap. {sigh} It's a little too "funky" for the 13 year old girl it was intended for. I may still show her both failed bags tomorrow, let her know I tried and see if she likes either one anyhow. In the meantime, I will be finishing a beaded heart necklace and maybe a star bracelet for her, so she will still get a gift from me :) I had to dash into walmart on the way to work to grab fixtures for the necklaces, and I prepared myself for the crowds, but it wasn't bad! Certainly busier than it usually is at 8am, but not the crazyness I expected.

I got a knitting bag last night! My friend got me one as a christmas gift and it's perfect. It's a lightweight denim (I live in jeans so it will always match my clothes, hehe) and it's a nice large size so it will hold larger projects. I guess she got tired of me toting my projects over to her place in plastic shopping bags!

I've been knitting like mad, trying to finish up all the christmas gifts. I finished stitching up the seam on Sister's sweater, so that one can finally be wrapped. (though I may still do a scrunchie or head band) I knit an altered version of "My Constant Companion" from the book "Knitter's Stash". It's a large felted bag with a flat bottom. BUT I tried to make it a little smaller, partly due to the amount of wool I had, and it may be TOO small now. It's wide enough, but not very tall, it's almost shoebox size and shape. I'm just letting it dry now to see how it is with the strap in it. I'm going to work on mom's socks at work, they're nearly done, then I just have to finish a beaded necklace for my cousin. (3/4 done already) Whew!

Hubby kindly stepped in to help me today with some baking. We made piles of dogbone shaped gingerbread cookies for my brother-in-law, and a bunch of homemade dogbone shaped dog biscuits for his dog. We're going to package them the same, hee hee! (nothing harmfull in the dog biscuits if he DOES get them mixed up!)

I'm back! We had a fabulous time in Vancouver, Peter Gabriel was AMAZING!!! And I couldn't beleive how close our seats were. (4th row floor)

I got to check out a couple yarn shops when we were over there, but I didn't buy anything. I went to Birkland Brothers Wool Ltd. and A Touch of Wool. A Touch of Wool had a great selection of yarns, and cheap notions. I fell in love with a yarn called "Flamenco". They had a sweater in it on display and it was gorgeous, the dying of the yarn made it create wide stripes of colour, and it was so pretty. Only problem was the balls of yarn (300g) were $39 each and I would have needed 2!! Sadly that's a little rich for my blood, so I'm HOPING I can find it online or locally cheaper than that. I haven't found it online yet though.

Came back to a wonderful package from Shetha in trade for some stamping things I sent her. She sent me soaps she'd made herself in two scents and they smell so good! I hope hubby isn't reading this blog or he will know what one of his gifts will be on wednesday ;) It was a lot of fun putting together a package to trade and getting something in the mail!

Christmas rush time! I'm madly working to finish christmas gifts, and it seems like there just isn't enough time! I'm ALMOST done sister's sweater, have one sock to finish for mom, a second purse to try for cousin, since the first didn't felt right(though I'm not giving up on it) and some beaded jewelry. I'm heading to vancouver on sunday for 5 days, so I have even less time to work on stuff. I haven't decided what I'm taking to work on during the trip yet.

Oh, and did I mention I haven't finished making my christmas cards, nor have I sent out a single one yet?? AHHHHH!

I took the leftover red yarn from making my brother's felted jester hat, and added some koolaid to try and make purple. It came out kind of burgunsy, after using 3 packets of blue koolaid, but I liked it. (the yarn was BRIGHT red before I touched it) I'm also impressed that the koolaid seemed to 'lock in' the red dye too, it was leaking a lot when I felted it before. I'm going to try to make my cousin another purse, though I haven't decided on a design yet. Here is a pic of the yarn:

Felting Failure!!

I set to do my felting sunday night at the in-law's place. After stumbing my way through their washer's unique controls, my clogs happily felted down to size, but the purse did not felt at all. In fact, I think it might have gotten BIGGER!. It still looks nice and I may still give it to my cousin, but I will at least have to shorten the strap. I love how the colours turned out, with the patterning making wavy stripes. The clogs amazed me. They were at least 20inches long before felting, and so floppy. Now though, they are only slightly bigger than my feet which should be perfect for my father-in-law! They stiffened right up and look very cool! I will try to take them to mom's place next weekend to get my brother to snap a digital photo for me, they don't fit in my scanner very well.

More projects!! I just found out I have a new baby cousin, so baby socks are in the works. Thankfully they go really fast, one is finished and the other will be today. I'm also making progress on the purse. I did 2 rows of eyelash yarn near the top and it looks pretty neat. I'm still undecided on how to do the bottom though, flat, round, ???? Does anyone have any suggestions?

As promised, a photo of my latest koolaid dying adventure:


It's hard to show you the true colours, my scanner doesn't work very well and I'm not too good at photoshop editing. It's a mix of lavender, grape, red, burgundy, hot pink, and a few variations in betweel. I think it looks gorgeous! It will hopefully become a felted purse for my cousin, I just have to decide on a shape/style and get knitting.

I managed some KIPing yesterday. (Knitting in Public) My husband is in a concert band and they were doing an outdoor christmas concert so I sat there listening, knitting away on my sock. Not too many odd looks......

Another koolaid project in the works! I have an idea in mind for a gift for my cousin, and had one skein of white wool handy, so I'm dying again today. I am trying something a little different, to create a veregated colour on the wool. I used a bunch of elastics to cover small portions of the skein, tie-dye style, and then dyed it with grape koolaid. Now I've taken the elastics off and poured some bright pink(strawberry lemonade) over most of the white spots. Its turning out more orangy pink though, and I might do the whole thing over in some cherry koolaid or something to "pink" it up a bit. Hopefully a scan to follow in a day or two!