Confessions of a Frantic Knitter

I have been really busy. Lucille Reilly, a knitting teacher from Colorado, is coming to teach a class in the Moebius Scarf, based on Cat Bordhi's designs. She will be staying at the home of one of my knitting buddies. Friday we have the class. I had to get people to sign up, then I had to order the books and the needles for everyone and make sure they got here on time. They did. I got the books in time to take advantage of KP's 40% off sale. Here's Lucille's photo of the scarf:

BigMamaMoebius-small

Three of us will continue on on Sunday afternoon with the Mobius bowl. Here's what it looks like:

TrifoldMoebiusBowl-side--small

It's felted, and the instructions for both are in Cat's book, The Second Treasury of Magical Knitting.

I've been busy with my own knitting as well. I finally finished my Sipalu bag! Sitting in the truck while DH did the driving during our recent trip, I got a lot of knitting done! Here's what my bag looks like:



I'm looking for a different button, but this one works for now. I like to catch the stranded yarn every other st, which isn't too hard to do, because I hold one yarn in each hand. Here's what it looked like on the inside before lining:



I decided to put a different strap on it, because I find I-cord somewhat boring. I used the pattern for the upper border for the strap, adding an extra row of Merlot Heather on the top and bottom, then a purl row and a couple more more of stockinette st.




I knit it in the round and then prepared for a steek, using the crochet method. The lower photo shows what it looked like after cutting.







It looked very nice, but I soon saw that it was going to come apart. The Palette isn't clingy enough for that method, so I sewed it. Then I picked up sts at each end and made a band to cover the cut sts. I lined the strap with iron-on interfacing, with the lining fabric on top. I sewed each end onto my bag. The interfacing also went into the upper border. I made a pillow-case-type bag out of the lining, sewed over each corner to make it more box-shaped, and put a little pocket onto it for my cell phone. I used applique st to sew the lining to the bag. Now I'm enjoying using it as a purse. It will probably become a knitting bag, but for now, I can't bear not to take it with me everywhere. (The socks I"m knitting are inside, as well as my wallet, cell phone and keys!)
My Oregon socks are moving along. I have about 3 1/2" of the cuff done on the second sock. (See my last blog entry for a photo.) I have also been swatching for both the scarf and the bowl. Not as much time to knit this week, with the preparations for the class and other things. I've been trying to clean up my workroom. Sunny and I visited the nursing home yesterday and saw 27 people! Some kind of record for us, I think. Today our elderly kitty had to go to the vet for a checkup.

Spinning: I've been doing a little spinning, although after I have my second thumb surgery, I will be able to spin but not knit, so it can wait. Here's my lastest hank of the hand-dyed Coopworth I've been working on:



Not as tidy as I'd like, but all of this was done post surgery. If I want to get this effect again, I may have to have another thumb operated on!

I'll try to take photos during the classes, so I can report on them during my blog next week. Happy knitting! --P

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