One More Classy Closure…

I finally finished the attachment of the closure for the Not-so-Squatty Sister Sidekick yesterday and got it photographed this morning.

You can see the purse as a whole in the left side bar again. But, I once again used a gemstone donut. This one is a touch bluer than the purse, but I was assured by the gals in my spinning class that it looked nice even though it didn’t match and wasn’t hugely contrasting either.

I did a four strand round braid with left over Manos and then tied a decorative knot in it to hold the gemstone. Then I needle felted the braid so I could clip it to length and then stitched it to the body of the purse with the yarn and again did some needle felting to secure it well and to obscure the stitching.

I sure hope my sister likes this purse!

Buttons & Cheese!

If you take a look over at the left side you’l see I’ve finally added my Sophie Bag and my Scrappy Squatty Sidekick to the picture roll over there. That is because they both have their proper closures in place now :-)

I love Sophie, but I didn’t like how it splayed open when I wore it over my shoulder with my things in it. Not that Ft. Collins has a huge problem with pick pockets, but I wasn’t comfortable with it wide open to anyone passing by. So, while on the hunt for the perfect closure fot he Not-so-Squatty Sister Sidekick I wound two gemstone donuts that looked super nice with Sophie so I picked them up. I took some of the remaining yarn and did a 9-strand flat braid and used that to attach the donuts to one side of the purse. The weight of the gemstone donuts is just enough to keep the bag nicely closed so the purse retains the majority of it’s ease to put things in and take things out of it, but it also hangs nicely closed. The photo looks like the bag is a bit lopsided, though it isn’t - it’s just that my “things” are lopsided which are in it. I stitched the braid with the same yarn and then took out some frustrations with a felting needle for a nice seamless look.

I also found a good button for my larger, Scrappy Squatty after spinning class on Thursday at Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins in Boulder. It’s a hammered bronze button and it brings out the metallic novelty that I carried along for much of the purse. I think it finishes off the purse quite nicely.

I’m still working on the attachment for the Sister Squatty and the embellishment design for Lucy, but they are both coming along. I got felting needles and some roving for Lucy on Thursday as well.

I tried to go get the two Fibertrend shawl patterns I was interested in on Friday, but Lambspun had almost nothing when it came to shawl patterns. Their lace stuff was mostly scarves. I guess it makes sense since they sell basically no lace weight except mohair. They do carry Fibertrends patterns. Then, Woolen Treasures is closed today so I *still* can’t satisfy my *need* for a lace shawl project. I’ll probably go down tomorrow and have lunch with DH. Though I’m tiring of the dining choices there. . .

Tonight is SnB! Though I know two people who definitely will not be making it tonight :-( One of whom I haven’t seen since BEFORE my trip to MN! I’ve gone through withdrawl. I have *no* idea what I’m going to work on. I suppose I’ll dust off the second Flatiron sock so I can get that added to the sidebar soon too. Or maybe I’ll cast on for the sport weight Lucy that I’m thinking of also giving my sister so that there is some surprise element to her birthday gift…

I mentioned cheese in my title because this weekend DH cut into his first wheel of homemade cheese. See, each Monday we get 2 gallons of milk delivered from a local dairy and he makes cheese while I’m at SnB. We cut into one wheel of his first batch of Gouda. It was quite nice. Speaking of cheese making, I suppose I should get on the task of sweeping up as much stray dog hair as I can so that I can perhaps be a little rested before SnB this time…

May I Present…

Scrappy Squatty Sidekick, Worstead Lucy, and Not-so-Squatty Sister Sidekick
(please disregard the keys dangling from the flap on Scrappy, as it needed weight to block it into proper position)

Here they are blocking. I never thought I’d have use for every single plastic shopping bag we have stock piled in the house. Yes, we use them in about every trash can in the house, and we try to remember our string bags as often as we can but they still seem to build up. But, with THREE felted bags to block and dry I have used very nearly every plastic bag in the house!

Scrappy ended up quite a bit larger than the original Springy, but I think it will be a nice size. I did two rows of single crochet around the flap in the Brown Sheep Peacock to blend in with the button loop and I really like that look, though it did require a bit of man handling during the felting process.

I’m quite happy with Lucy. I think a soccer ball would have been the perfect blocking item for this one, but there are no soccer balls around casa Schueler. So, plastic bags will have to do. Now, I’ll have to make some snazzy pin or something to put on the short handle… Or perhaps a row of 3 hand made buttons???

The Not-So-Squatty Sister Sidekick is nice. It is indeed roughly 1 inch deeper than the original Springy. If I were to do this again I’d widen it a bit as well (like Snow did on her Bloated Squatty) now that I know how much yarn there still is left after deepening it and lengthening the strap and flap a little. The deepness without additional widening is not nearly as fun of a shape I don’t think. I have in the last couple of days become a little concerned that it may be a bit too green, but the other option I’m almost positive was way too blue and dark. I think this was the best choice.

Now comes the fun part of finding the perfect finishing touch for these bags once they have dried. Buttons for the Squatties and perhaps buttons or a pin for Lucy… Or perhaps Lucy wants needle felting embellishment?? Of couse that requires further acquisition - felting needles, foam, appropriate colors of felting fleece etc… We’ll see…

A lot of fulling going on…

Well, Saturday I squeezed in finishing the straps for the worstead Lucy. I decided on making the standard worstead version instead of the tall. Then I’ll have one for reference and if I want a taller one I can make a taller one! I didn’t *quite* use two full skeins (not there was enough left worth weighing or measuring).

So, yesterday around noon I cast on for a Not So Squatty Sister Sidekick. When Amber requested one she said she wanted it a little bigger. I asked her to show me what a little bigger was and it was really only about 1 inch taller or so and no wider. I thought since I had made a yarn substitution on my own Spring Squatty that using the Manos del Uraguay would roughly give me that inch. I mean, it seemed my Squatty was much smaller than Amanda’s. However, we put them side by side and they really were more or less the same size! So, I made some modifications - I added one extra row in between all the increase/decrease rows and a couple in the straight section for ten additional rows. She also wanted a wider flap, so I pretty much followed the directions, but started with more stitches. It ended up the flap was only another ten rows long, so I think it should hit at the right spot on the purse.

I’m sooo proud of myself! Her birthday is more than two months away and I’m nearly done! Granted I’ll have to locate the perfect button after it is fulled. But, I’m well ahead of the game. She’s been really into wearing turquoise and a chocolate brown so I’m kind of contemplating making the sport weight Lucy for her in a chocolate brown as the surprise element in her birthday gift. She likes smaller purses/bags so I think that will definitely be the right size. She never even saw the pattern while I was home (and she doesn’t have decent enough Internet to ever read my blog) so it would definitely be a surprise. I wish I had access to her cell phone, I’d make a cell phone cozy with the left over Manos I have…

I picked up some additional zippered pillow covers and the color catcher sheets at Target yesterday so I’m hoping to finish the very first ever Squatty I cast on (with the garish stripes) and then I’ll full all three bags at the same time. If I’m lucky I’ll be able to wrap that one up today while taking breaks from cutting massive amounts of paper.

Tonight is SnB, baby! Wooo hooo! :-) (Of course that also means it is cheesemaking day…)

KAL Day… | A Squatty Gets a Friend…

After a week or so slump, the Spearfish blog is alive and thriving this week, with Ann finishing her pair of socks, before Anita in their own private race. Paula and Clementine each have one sock completed and are on their way on the second sock. Clementine has set a goal for Sunday evening, as she is going to gift them to her BF’s mum! Good luck, Clementine!

In the Gathering of Lace Along we have some new members - some new to lace, some veterans. We’re at ten people total, including myself and my co-host, Snow. Some are still swatching and choosing yarns or patterns. Others are incredibly frustrated :-) It isn’t too late to join the fun! I’ve been so focused on Skyway Scoop that I haven’t gotten any farther on my Shaped Triangle.

Speaking of Skyway Scoop - she looks the same as yesterday (just scroll down), except perhaps the stitches along the neck line are a little stretched out. I knit on the neckline (all ~45-46 inches around) only to rip it last evening. I was devastated, but I was having an incredibly crappy day. Thanks to helpful suggestions and kind words from friends I’m doing better today. Though I may leave Skyway Scoop in the time out corner for today and focus on getting the pattern written up, properly sketched electronically and extrapolated into the other sizes. Just let myself calm down further. I’m still a little wound up from yesteday’s goings on…

I did take a little field trip to Target yesterday to pick up Gilmore Girls Season 3 and did a little impulse shopping/retail therapy. Spring Squatty found a friend…

It looks so good! It is smaller than my previous tri-fold wallet that was black and stuck out like a sore thumb as it sort of peaked out. This one tucks in completely and coordinates with the bag. Plus, it has a large section that has all kinds of accordioned sections so I can sort out all those frequent shopper cards etc. I also love the detail in the zipper pulls. They had a lot of really cute and compact wallets/coin purses in fun spring colors.

Also, while there, I saw that Debbie Macomber’s book, The Shop on Blossom Street was out in paperback and 25% off MSRP, so I picked that up as well. By bedtime, the day had sucked so bad that I couldn’t make myself read the book club book, so I decided I deserved reading something I enjoyed and before I knew it was 100 pages in! There will be more over in Culture Catalog in the next few days probably.

Lastly, much thanks to Margene for bestowing the honor of “Zen Blog of the Week” - my stats have gone through the roof! I some of you peeking in here will come back!