First – Etsy.  I’ve determined that my new Twitter habit is very, VERY dangerous.  People like to tweet about awesome stuff they find on Etsy.  Since I’m not usually an Etsy browser (I go when I’m looking for something specific), this shows me things I wouldn’t otherwise find.

Exhibit A: Stellar Babble Creations‘ DPN cases.

Beautiful little sleeves that hold multiple sets of DPNs, with a coordinating clear vinyl zippered case to hold them all.  Each of the sleeves is labeled with US and metric sizes, and holds DPNs up to 7″ long.  The green and purple sets are sock sets – US0-3, including 1.5 and 2.5.  The green one holds my Harmony DPNs and the purple holds my nickel KnitPicks DPNs.  The multicolored print set is one of the hat and mitten sets.  The 5 sleeves are for US5-8, with the buyer’s choice as to whether the 5th sleeve is labeled for a US4 or a US9 (I went with the 4).  Those are my nickel KP needles, which are 8″ long and don’t quite fit in the sleeves.  They do, however, fit in the zippered case, so I’m ok with them sticking out of the sleeves.  They are beautifully made, and I absolutely love them.

Exhibit B: Flower Pie Circular Needle Cases.

OK, so, technically, I found these on my own.  But I blame having cute DPN cases for creating the itch for cute circular needle cases for my KP fixed circs.  These cases come with 12 pockets, but one of the nice thing she offers is that she’ll add another page to the center of the case, for an additional 4 pockets.  There was a small mixup on mine (she missed the message that I wanted the extra page in each of them), but once the pages get here and I sew them in, I’m thinking of using printable iron-ons to label the pockets with the needle size and length.  Haven’t fully decided yet, though.

So, with my new DPN and circular cases in my hands, I decided that I needed a new case for my KP Options.  I figured, hey, I have a sewing machine, I have plenty of fat quarters, I can come up with something!  So, I came up with this:

It’s not quite right.  It’s a little too big and unwieldy.  I was hoping for something I could put in my knitting bag.  This doesn’t roll up quite right.  I do like the snaps I put in to hold the cables, though – those will stick around for the next iteration of the case, which will happen when I have a little more time.

Speaking of time, yeah, it’s a little short right now.  Not only am I still working on the LazyMan (update to that to follow), I’ve also been recruited to help with PGLT’s upcoming production of “Alice in Wonderland”.  The director is a friend I met during “Laughter on the 23rd Floor,” and she is a bit stuck.  She’s short a soldier for the second weekend of the show, so I agreed to step in.  I’ve been at rehearsal this week, and it’s been fun.  It’s not a big role, mostly moving scenery around, but the cast is great, and it’s fun to be on stage even a little bit.  It has certainly whetted the appetite for next season’s auditions!

Oh, and yes, the laptop survived the surgery just fine.  I haven’t noticed any more skipped v’s, so I think the problem is solved for now. 

In the meantime, a FO, some planned projects, and a kickass gift.

First, the FO:

What I believe may be the single-handedly most obnoxious Hawaiian shirt ever.  This is the same print that Amanda gave me that I used for my first Frenchy bag.  I was in JoAnn fabrics the other day and stumbled on a bolt of it.  I bought all they had, because I knew that it HAD to become this shirt, and that I could find something fun to do with the rest of it.  So, on Thursday, when I would have been at Barnes and Noble for knitting but was instead at home waiting for my yoga clothes to dry because I forgot to put them in the dryer (D’oh!), I made this for him as a surprise.  He even wore it to work on Friday, brave soul. 

ETA:  Per Courtney’s request, it’s Butterick #2149.  If you use it, definitely look at the finished size vs. intended wearer.  I used an XL, which should have fit, but I think it’s a bit too big, and I’m going to pick up a copy in the L size for the next ones.

Today, Carrie and Maryanne took me on my first trip to G Street Fabrics.  Holy CRAP that place is huge.  I found lots of fun prints, but narrowed it down to four, to make more shirts for my very appreciative hubby:

The camera print was a no-brainer, really.  And the poker one was just fun, but I about died when I found the buttons to go with it.  The chili peppers and fortune cookies are mostly just for the silliness factor.  Kris seems to like all of them, though.
I got a PM on Ravelry last week from Valkryie.  She was going through some things to prep for a garage sale and came across something that made her think of me, so she wanted to send it to me.  On Thursday, this arrived in my mailbox:

Is that not awesome of her?  I have to decide what I am going to do with it, but it’s definitely going to be something REALLY special.  I think there’s 3-1/2 or 4 yards there, so any suggestions are welcome.  Thanks, sweetie!!!

So, now I’m off to settle in with clue #4 of the Mystery Stole (unless I feel like tackling beads, at which point I can work on clue #2 on the second end, since that still hasn’t exactly progressed) and Indiana Jones.  Apparently, Kris is in a “Raiders of the Lost Ark” mood.  _

This morning was my first guide class for the Bernina – I had a lot of fun, and I definitely learned some nice tricks with my machine.  So, of course I came home and had to sew.  Immediately.  I cut out the brown and white polka dot fabrics to make the larger size Amy Butler Frenchy Bag.  A few hours later, we have this:

Isn’t it cute?  The brown is a nice deep chocolate color.  I’ve got the sushi handbag one up there for scale – it’s a nice sized bag.  I think it will be a great combo purse/knitting bag if I want to take a small project with me.

The lining is a teeny tiny polka dot print:

The flash washed out the color on that one, but you can see the inner pockets, which are in the smaller size, too.  I’ve got fabric to make one more shoulder bag, and then I’ve got some ideas bouncing around. 

But, there is something special about this one!  This is the very first thing I have sewn on my birthday/Christmas present from my darling hubby:

My brand-new, picked-it-up-today Bernina Aurora 430.  It is a thing of beauty, and I am completely in love.  I’m in negotiations with hubby to modify the Ikea desk on which it sits so that the machine will sit down and the desk surface will be even with the sewing surface.  We’re still trying to figure out how to do that.  I’d like to modify the desk I already have rather than buying a new one.

And since I was informed that I don’t post enough pictures of my beasties, here’s another shot of Rowena, in her “Jabba the Hutt” pose. 

I’ll have to get more pictures of the rest of the crew.  They just aren’t as photogenic as some other people‘s animals.    Have a good one!

The pattern is Amy Butler’s free Nigella Yoga Bag pattern – very easy to follow, and turned out really cute.  It’s lined in a bright green polka-dot print.

Last night, I cut out these pieces:

And today, I turned them into this (The black and white kanji print is the lining and pockets – Kris picked that out, too):

An Amy Butler Frenchy Bag (the handbag size – the pattern also has a shoulder bag size).  The pattern was a gift from my blogless friend Mindy, and the sushi print fabric was a gift from Amanda, so this bag makes me smile on many levels.  Thanks girls!

What’s next?  Aside from continuing to work on the Mystery Stole and the lace gloves, I’ll be tackling these piles:

And turning them into two Frenchy shoulder bags. 

Oh, and Maryanne and I will be making a trip up to Fabric Chest in Glen Burnie on Wednesday.  If all goes well, I might have my birthday present when we get back.

See, I’ve been a Billy Joel fan since I was a kid.  Specifically, since the “An Innocent Man” era.  I listened to that and “Greatest Hits Vol I and II” about a billion times.  Eventually, I amassed all of his albums on cassette.  (This was back in the pre-cd days, obviously.)  Well, when I was doing the meme, I realized that Kris and I have a surprising lack of Billy Joel in our music collection, despite both being fans.  So, I started looking on Amazon to see about getting the full collection back again, including the “My Lives” box set that I’ve been looking at for about 3 years now. (And if any of you is as obsessive a fan as I am, the missing ones  are the ones we did in fact already have.)

And now, I have it.  So, I’ll be importing it into iTunes for the rest of the evening.

Thank you all for your kind words on my sewing projects.  They are lots of fun, and I might just keep making them.  Who knows, maybe there will be an Etsy shop in my future.  Either that, or everyone I know is going to end up with one whether they want it or not.

The green one is for Mom (HA!  You thought I’d say me!), the other one is for me.  These are a little bigger than the earlier one (8″ x 9″ instead of 6″ x 8″), which is now my official camera case.

And on the back:

I don’t have cute little labels like Jody (yet…), so I put those on the back as a signature.

Yeah… I need to move on to one of the other projects I have planned, or I’m going to have a million of these.

The first thing I did, well… I can’t show you.  It’s a present for someone, and I’m 99% sure that someone reads this blog.  So, I’ll get pictures, but I won’t post them until the item reaches its new home.

The second thing I did (after running out to JoAnn Fabrics for the third time in a week…) was this:

I made a wristlet!  I’ve wanted to make one of these ever since Jody posted her tutorial, and I finally got around to doing one.  And OMG, there will be more of these.  It took me almost no time to do (Her tutorial is REALLY easy to follow), and I LOVE it.  When you open it up…

More dragonflies!  (The color is a little closer on this one, too – it’s BRIGHT green and blue on black)  I picked up this fabric at a quilt shop in Ketchikan, AK while on SeaSocks.  Isn’t it fun?  I may play with making the next one a little bigger, I’m not sure.  I have a couple of 9″ zippers (this was a 7″ one), so I may use that as an opportunity to up the size a smidgen.

Oh, and CBear, my dear?  You’ll be happy to see what has a very significant presence next to my machine, and gets used quite a bit now.

(She made that for me!)

OK, I think I’m off to rummage through the fabric (I am addicted to buying those little flat-folded fat quarters, so I have a pile of them), and maybe make another wristlet.  Or, you know, three. 

So, if you look at my progress bars, you’ll notice some changes (because I know you all sit with bated breath waiting to see what I have been working on, right?). I finished up take 3 of the Happy Valley socks and wore them all day on Wednesday (they cam off the needled and went straight onto my feet). I don’t have any new pictures, but they pretty much look like they did here, only with about 10 rounds of ribbing at the top.

I also finished the second quilt! Which is good, since it is going to PA with me, um, tonight. (Mom and I are consolidating and shipping our gifts to California together) I used the same pattern as on Renee’s quilt, only arranging the squares a little differently. I’m really happy with how it came out. I hope Beth and Mike (the parents-to-be) like it as well.

Baby will also be getting the now-ubiquitous One Skein Baby Bolero made from KnitPicks Shine Worsted, this one in “Reef”. I am seriously loving this yarn, and trying to decide on a project for ME made from it. I have until sometime in June before I can order yarn, though, so I definitely have time to decide.

And since I finished a couple of deadline projects, I of course had to start another one! I cast on last night for what I am calling Kris’s Pirate Socks. These are being made from Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in “Black Purl”, which I bought because I thought he would appreciate the Pirates of the Caribbean “Black Pearl” reference. I decided that I didn’t want to make them just out of that single yarn, though, so I came up with an idea. The toes and heels will be done in KnitPicks Essential in “Black”, as will the ribbing at the top. The rest of the sock will be in the Black Purl, with the exception of an inch or two below the ribbing, where I am going to attempt to do a band of Fair Isle skulls like the ones on this hat. The skulls will be done in Patons Kroy Sock in Muslin, and the background will be the LL. These are going to be either super-cool socks, or a total diaster. So far, I’ve done the toes (short-row on 2 circs, natch), and about 10 rounds of the foot in the LL. I’ll take them with me this weekend, although I’m going to be driving tonight, so I won’t be doing much knitting.

Well, I need to go pack and do some cleaning around here (which also means I am not entirely sure I will get to Annapolis for the knitting meetup today, although I hope to – I love that bunch!). Have a great weekend! I should have Kennywood pictures when I get back!

I have been working on the 2nd baby quilt and the last Baby Bolero, both of which need to be done before we leave for Pittsburgh this coming Thursday (Yay!! Kennywood!!!).
I got the strips for the blocks cut out Thursday night, after accidentally cutting the binding/border/backing fabric (the ladybug print) in 2-1/2″ strips instead of 3″. So, I made a frantic trip to JoAnn Fabrics yesterday, where they thankfully had some more of it. So, I should be okay on that. The body of the Baby Bolero is done, and the sleeves are started. So, I just need to finish them, sew them on, and pick up and knit the border. Not too bad, I hope.

In other knitting news, remember my Jaywalkers? Or perhaps you remember the second incarnation, after the first ones were too tight? They acrually made it to having the heels turned before it finally hit me – as much as I like the way that the Jaywalker pattern looks, I just don’t enjoy knitting it. So… I frogged ‘em. A week ago Friday, I started over again with a provisional cast-on and a short-row toe, and got both toes done while watching King Kong (the Peter Jackson version – I liked it a lot!). Then, in the car on the way to and from PA for Mother’s Day weekend, I decided to play with a stitch pattern for the tops of the feet. It’s a diamons pattern, and then I threw in some eyelets. The other night, I attacked the heels, which I decided to play with a little. I generally do a short-row toe, but this time around I also decided to do it in garter stitch, just for fun. So, as of today, here they are (Please ignore the blinding whiteness of my legs) :

I am trying to decide if they are long enough to start the ribbing (which, knowing my patience for ribbing, will be less than an inch long). I think I am about there. Once the bolero and quilt are done, I’ll finish these up. Then I can start on Kris’s Pirates of the Carribbean socks, which is totally what I am going to call the ones I am making out of the Lorna’s Laces Black Purl.

Maybe once those are done, I can finally start playing with my Socks That Rock, escpecially since package # 2 came in the mail today, and I haven’t even started on the yarn from the first package.

So, wanna see the new color? I’ll put it as a link in case any other Club folks want to avoid it until their package arrives, but it is called Fairgrounds. Pics here and here.

Let’s see… any other news? Oh, yes. Kris decided (brace yourselves, folks) that he wants to learn to spin! So, Tuesday evening, we went down to Springwater Fiber Workshop and he picked up his very own drop spindle and some bright blue Corridale roving. We haven’t actually started the learning just yet, but he’s kind of excited about it. Like, I’m thinking he may have his own wheel someday. Of course, he’s hoping to build it himself. He’s in the garage at the moment, doing some woodworking, and he did find plans for a number of spinning wheels and suchlike, so it might happen at some point. I’d love to see him be able to get to a point where he can make and sell them someday. I think that would make him very happy.

Anyway, while we were in Alexandria, we decided to find someplace for dinner. We checked our GPS gadget to see what restaurants were closest, and we saw a name we couldn’t resist – Bilbo Baggins Restaurant. We are such geeks, we just couldn’t pass that up. Happily, we loved the place! It’s not very big, but the service was incredibly friendly, and the food was AMAZING. We are already talking about going there for dinner on our anniversary.