Sunday, April 16, 2006

Booga, booga, booga - finished!

Well, we had a lovely day visiting a castle. We walked there (about an hour), walked around the estate, had a picnic, and then walked home again. My legs are so tired!

But, when I got home, the Booga Bag was dry! I attached the straps, which by the way, was more difficult than I thought, and it was done.

Booga -window view

I like how it's turned out, am trying to decide whether I should make my mum one in autumn colours for her birthday. It would have to be quick though - I would buy the yarn (Noro Kureyon again, I loved working with it) on Get Knitted's open day.

Okay just looked at dates, I wouldn't be able to, because she arrives on the 3rd of May, and Get Knitted are open on the 5th. She's only here for a week, visiting from Australia, before she goes onto Italy, lucky thing. I guess I could actually order the yarn - I've never done that before though.

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Booga, booga, booga

The Booga bag is now blocking! The strap did take ages, but all in all, the Booga Bag was a pretty quick knit. I went to the Stitch n' bitch again, and worked on the strap for a good two hours, and then finished it off at home one day last week.
Booga unfelted
Today I felted it in our front loader, on the 95 degrees cycle, with a pair of jeans and a sqiurt of dish washing liquid. It had felted perfectly by the end. Although, the strap had tangled up on itself a bit and there is a section that has been stretched and is quite thin.
booga felted
I've stretched it over a shoe box, and it it is now blocking.
booga blocking
The colours are closest to the blocking photo. I really didn't like the pinky orange colour, it seemed to really stand out pre-felting, but afterwards, it seemd to tone in better with the other colours, so I'm glad about that. Here's some close-ups ofthe stitches before and after felting.
booga unfelted close upbooga felted close up

In other knitting news, I've been working on my bolero. The problem was, the pattern for the front piece was quite demanding (you know the kind of thing: increase 1 on neck side every other row, at the same time, decrease by 1 on every 6th row) and it is hard to see stitches in the yarn I am using. So every time I put it down, I wouldn't be able to work out where I was and I'd have to start again! So this time, I've kept a tally of every row, which has helped so much.

Saturday, April 01, 2006

Flash Your Stash!

Okay, the main reason I decided to sign up for Flash Your Stash was so I could go through my stash and sort it out a bit. And then I didn't. So here is my stash, dumped on the living room floor from the plastic tub it lives in.

Flash stash 2006

The plastic bags in the back contain WIPs with their extra yarn. As you can see, my stash isn't huge, but I would like to stash bust a little, and add some new yarns as well!

On Wednesday, I went to my first Stitch and Bitch. I was a little nervous, but everyone there was really nice, and I had lots of fun. I worked on my Booga bag, and nearly completed it in the three hours I was there. Just the I-cord to go. It was great to meet people who I could talk about knitting to. When I said I was knitting the Booga bag, they automatically said "So, you are going to felt it?"! They actually knew what I was talking about. I plan on going every fortnight, which is how often the meetings are held.

I've been really busy at work, so a little tired to knit when I get home, but from next week it should calm down a bit.