I've had a few suggestions of what to do with all the mohair. Some peple suggested mixing it with another fibre to make soft mittens and stuff, so I might try that. I also might try to make a nice lacey shawl or scarf for my mother-in-law for christmas. She really liked the eyelash and snowflake scarf I made her last year, so I just have to ask my husband if she'd wear a shawl........

The felted camera bag was less than a success. It felted up but in the wrong porportions, turning into a funky purse more than anything. And the strap didn't shrink at ALL! I may give it another run through, see if that helps, otherwise it may become a christmas gift in purse form. I am still happy with the colours, so it wasn't a total loss, and I had fun making it.

I want to think up some projects to use up some of my overwhelming stash now. It's such a mess and there is so much there, I can't rationalize buying anything more until I use some of it up! Here's a photo to give you an idea:



There is still more hidden behind that too! A large portion of what I have in the bags in front is mohair or mohair blends, so I need to think of some ideas for that. It's not really appropriate for baby projects unfortunately.........any ideas??

I forgot to mention another nifty birthday present I got - a knitting book! I received Knit It Your Way from my mother in law, along with a nifty yoga/pilates book. Knit it your way shows you each of the patterns in the book in 2 or more types of yarn, and discusses substituting different yarns in patterns. This will be great for me, since I rarely, if ever, use the yarn listed in a pattern. She knows I get much of my yarn from thrift shops so she figured it would be useful for me.

Getting farther on the camera bag, I hope to finish it tonight and maybe even felt it tomorrow!

I started playing with my digital camera last night and took some photos of the camera bag I'm working on. Having a digital camera is GREAT, I can take realistic photos of my knitting, and not have to wait to finish a roll, develop it, scan them in and then mess with the colours so they don't end up too dark.

I dyed the yarn by submerging part of the skeins (did 2 at once to make them sort of match) into the dye bath on the stove, and propping the rest up on a plastic utensil. This is the lovely green colour I got from a couple of packets of "changing cherry" flavour:



Here is a photo of the skeins drying on my balcony railing outside. It shows the colours fairly well:



And here is the bag so far. See how great the colours are coming out in the knitting? Exactly the effect I was after:



I think the bag might end up a little large, but if it does I will just make it into a purse or something for a christmas gift. I have one more skein of undyed wool, and will only need part of the second dyed one for the flap and handle, so I should have plenty for a second try.

Well the socks have been set aside for now. I just don't enjoy making socks on thick stiff wool! I hope that stuff softens in the wash, if I even get back to making them.

I haven't been able to keep my mind on one project lately. I did a bit on that Bob sweater (only 1 and a half sleeves left), dabbled with the thick wool socks, made half a baby sock, and then the other day started a new project! I koolaid dyed some wool in pretty blues and greens, and am knitting up a camera case to felt. It looks neat so far though I think it might be too big. If it is, I'll make it into a purse. I have another ball of dyed wool so I can take a second try if this doesn't work out. Once I learn how to get the photos out of my digital camera I will share :)

I have been trying to make some socks for my aunt out of that pretty green wool she sent over with grandma's stuff. It's worsted weight though, so they are coming out way thicker and stiffer than I'd like. I'm going to have to try bigger needles again. The stiffness should improve a little at least with washing.

I've got a new project in mind too. I want to felt myself a case for my digital camera! My birthday was yesterday and my husband bought me this cute little digital camera. I love it! Now I can snap photos of knitting projects, instead of trying to fit them in the scanner :) I want to koolaid dye the wool before I knit and felt it, so the dying will be the project for tonight. I have a ball of fine wool from my aunt. and some thicker stuff, so I will have to decide which I'm going to use......

I got a box in the mail from my aunt yesterday. She found an old box of knitting stuff from my grandmother, who died over 4 years ago. It has about 10 pairs of straight needles in a needle case, some miscellaneous yarns, a whole bunch of pretty green wool, and 2 nearly completed pairs of mittens. The mittens are child size and adult size. I may finish them for my cousins, who are 8 and 13, for christmas. It would be pretty cool to give them mittens started by their grandmother, and finished off by me, I think. I'm also going to make my aunt some socks out of some of the green. She was commenting how wonderful a colour the green yarn was when she told me what she was sending, so I really wanted to make her something. She lives up north and the winters get fairly cold, so wool socks should come in handy.

Still nothing new to write about. I have hardly picked up my needles in a week! I haven't worked much on Bob because I'm just not happy with how it's turning out and it looks like I might run a tad shy of yarn for the second sleeve. I don't want to spend MORE on this until I know if it fits, so I'm kind of stuck. I'm almost done the first sleeve so I may pin it together and sort of try on that much to see how it is. I can always redo the sleeve and make it shorter if I need more yarn, but if the whole thing is just wrong, I don't want to go to the trouble.

I've got to get started on christmas gifts, I have some great ideas for things to make but I don't know if I will have time to finish them all!

Long time no post - AGAIN! I just haven't been knitting much, so I don't really have a lot to say. Hopefullly this post full of photos will help make up for the sparse postings.

I finished the 5 hour baby sweater the other day. I think it took longer than 5 hours, but not terribly long. I can see making another of these down the road. The pattern is nice, patterned enough to be pretty, but still masculine enough for a boy. The colour I chose was pretty good for that too.

Hopefully the photo shows up okay. At home it's bright and the colour is fairly true, but here at work it looks pretty dark. I used Red Heart Cotton Twist which is a new yarn that just appeared at Walmart. I really like it, no splitting, nice even stitches, and the colour was just perfect.

And finally, afghan photos! I finally got the photos from my brother and put together a little page with 4 photos of the completed wedding afghan I finished in May. It was quite an undertaking, but I was really happy with the end result. I got a thank-you card yesterday and it seems the happy couple liked it too! Click Here for the wedding afghan page. I've also included a link to the pattern I used in case anyone is interested, on that page.