I'm making crazy progress!

Discovering that it is in fact possible to knit and talk at the same time (assuming I'm doing an easy pattern), I made it up to 9 inches on my second Stitch n Bitch charm bag tonight. Wow is knitting in the round boring! But I will finish the bag soon, and yet another project will be knocked off my list.

Speaking of knocked off my list, I have scrapped the Stcay Charles Gypsy tank. I was making it in Trendsetter Quadro yarn, and there was just no hope. So I pulled it all out and I'll wait until I find a pattern that calls for Quadro that I actually like.

The poncho blocked well - my stitches look much more even. I just have to find beads for the stringy-things on the front, and ask Julie if she wants fringe. Julie, are you reading?????

I'll start on my poncho tomorrow probably, and I will start on the Anouk. I'm so excited for the Anouk! I believe I will join the Anouk-along, because I like to -along. Speaking of alongs, perhaps we will start a baby-along? A better name is needed, as well as graphics for those of you who are so inclined...c'mon, you know you want to!

Anyway, I should go to bed. Goodnight!

Charm Bag is finished!

More photo links to the right. I'm so happy with this bag, I'm making another as a gift!

It's been a while...

…since I’ve posted. Work has been crazy, but the good news is I got two knitting nights this week! We had a good regular Stitch n Bitch on Tuesday, and a great meetup on Wednesday night.

I’ve made good progress on the blue poncho – I’m probably about 25% done. It knits up quickly! I got my new yarn from Elann in the variegated reds, so I’ll make a poncho out of that as well.

Bargain shopping alert – I needed bamboo handles for my Charm Bag, and when I was in the dollar store, they had gift bags that had rattan-looking handles. So instead of spending $7 on bamboo handles, I got $1 handles from a gift bag! Not too bad, if you ask me…now I just need lining fabric for the bag, and I’ll get that this weekend.

Switching ponchos

So, I’ve changed my mind.  Again.  After poking around online, I found a poncho pattern on Ebay, and went ahead and bought it.  It was an immediate download, and I’m all about instant gratification.  It’s a cool pattern…

So I took out the Tahki Yarn poncho I was working on, and I’ll do this one instead.  Then, to really ruin my yarn diet, I went ahead and ordered the Endless Summer Lara Print yarn from Elann.  It’s the same yarn I’m using for the poncho now (which is a gift).  Here’s the yarn:

So I'm back to 0% on the poncho :-(  But happy about the new pattern - I like it a lot more.

Lots of weekend knitting!

We went up to New Jersey this weekend for a wedding, so I had lots of knitting time in the car and at the hotel.  I finished the knitting for the Stich n Bitch Charm Bag - now I need to get the handles and lining and sew them on. 
 
I made some progress on the Stacy Charles Gypsy tank, and some on the Tahki Poncho as well. 
 
Bad news though, on the Charlotte's Web shawl - Threadbear was out of the Yvonne colorway by the time I sent in my order!  That's actually good though, because I really don't have the funds for it right now.  So I'll keep an eye on their website, and order another colorway that catches my eye.
 
I think I say this every time, but hopefully pics soon!

Scrap that yarn diet!

I’ve been watching the Threadbear Fiber Arts website for the new colorways for the Charlotte’s Web shawl. They have a great one – Yvonne – that I just had to get before it’s gone! So I broke down and ordered it – hopefully they still have some! But it’s gorgeous yarn, and I can’t wait to get it.

But, I will work through my stash before I begin on it! Promise!

Check out the colors:

Here, froggy froggy...

I’ve decided to undo the whole Stitch n Bitch Charm Bag and start anew. I started knitting the “right” way on it, and you can tell the difference. It also looks like it will only take 1 skein, and since I bought 2, I think I’ll knit it with 2 strands to make it a little thicker. It knits up so fast, I don’t feel bad about being more than halfway done and taking it all out! So I’ll probably do that tonight and start over. Lots of knitting time in the car this weekend, so maybe I’ll even finish it this weekend.

I may be an idiot...

It would seem that I’ve been knitting the wrong way for a while now…instead of knitting into the front of the stitch, I’ve been knitting into the back, causing the stitch to be twisted. Who knew?!?! I never really noticed, and no one else said anything, until tonight when I was helping Rebecca, and I noticed we were doing it differently. I looked in the Stitch n Bitch book, and lo and behold, I was doing it wrong! I wonder for how long I’ve been doing that? Oh well, I’ve corrected it and no one would be the wiser (if I hadn’t posted it here).

Anyway, made progress on the tank and charm back tonight. If I could fix my stupid internet connection, all would be well.

Charm Bag

Wow does this knit up fast! My gauge is a little off, due to using a different kind of yarn (Noro yarn is a little expensive for me!)...I added about 20 stitches to the round, and am already 3" into the bag. I decided not to try the grafted bottom - I don't have the right size double point needles. So I'll just sew the bottom, no biggie.

The Plymouth Encore Colorspun yarn is so soft! It's fun to work with - I hope it's durable.

Pics soon!

So much for only 2 projects at a time...

I've decided to start the Charm Bag from the Stitch n Bitch book. My name's on the Purse-along page, so I'd better do some work on it!

I'm doing it in Plymouth Encore Colorspun yarn, in a blue and green print. I'm so excited about this bag! I may try to do a grafted bottom instead of stitching it together...I'll have to do some research on that though.

Large pic of baby blanket

Big Bad Baby Blanket is done!

I'm very happy with this blanket - it's done with a double strand of Wool-ease, so it's nice and thick. The color is kind of bland, but is a good neutral and will go with everything. This took about 2 weeks to do. I think I'll be making more of this blanket for all the newborn kiddos...

Now that it's done, I can move on to some other things. I started the Stacy Charles Gypsy tank. I'm using Trendsetter Quadro yarn in a light blue. The gauge is way off, so I'm doing some on-the-fly adjusting, so we'll see how that goes. It knits up quickly, and the yarn is pretty funky so it's fun to work with.

I continue to work on the Tahki yarn poncho, which is coming along nicely. I'd like to get that done by the end of the month.

Time for bed!

Progress!

I've made good progress on the Big Bad Baby Blanket - I like making progress because then I can move my percentage bars on here :-) I'm trying very hard to keep only two projects going at one time, so we’ll see how that goes. I’ve also put myself on a yarn diet – no more purchases until I work through all the yarn I have now! So hopefully my “In the Queue” project list will get shorter, and the “Completed” list will get longer. However, I keep seeing all these great projects on other people’s blogs, and they’re getting added to my “Need Yarn” list. But I stand firm! For now.

I plan to finish the baby blanket within the week, and then begin the Charm Bag from the S&B book, so pictures will be coming!

New Stitch n' Bitch logo!

HUGE thanks to Monica for hooking us up with a nifty Richmond Stitch n Bitch logo (see right)! So cool!