My package has arrived! I bought Blossom and Shine from knitpicks along with some Crayola in Blue and Light Blue. I also have a slightly tattered Needle Felting Kit. Apparently there was a small shipping problem. 

Little Bit of Progress and a Little Bit of Shopping 

I'm halfway through the Silk Garden, so I'm either half way done or there will be trouble. 

Another view of the Silk Garden. 

Another Vintage Bubble Bag in the works. Can I finish it by Mother's Day? The race is on. 

Some Progress

I finished the knitting of the bag for my daughter's birthday and an outer pocket that will be monogrammed with needle felting. I promise I will pay attention and not skewer any fingers. I'm still waiting for the kit. I thought my friend ordered on Friday but she waited til Sunday. The fastest I've gotten anything from knitpicks is three days and it shipped on the 27th. My daughter's birthday is the 30th. Doesn't look good, does it? I still have to do the inside pockets.
As for Melanie's socks. They've given up and decided to be good in public. I've knit them at the speech therapist appt and the pediatrician's office and there has been no frogging. There's still hope for these socks.

The Comments Are Fixed

A kind soul on "Bagaholics" pointed out that I had pressed a wrong button so that only people who used blogger could leave a comment. Ahhh... So, I poked around and figured out how to fix the problem. If you can't leave a comment let me know. I think I have it fixed.

We interrupt our regularly scheduled blog post to announce...

Knitpicks has new yarn. Have you been there? If not, go now. Run, don't walk. Keep Kelley in business. This is our mantra here. Order now and order often. If it weren't for Knitpicks my budget would be further in the red than it already is. I've already ordered from two lines. Stay tuned for the arrival of the package. Pictures will ensue.
Returning you to our regularly scheduled blog...
Q: Did you enjoy the Vintage Bubble Bag from Pursenalities?
A: Yes, I did. It was a fast and easy project and who can resist Silk Garden? Not me.

Q: Did you follow the pattern?
A: Yes, I believe I did. I could answer more certainly if I could find the book. It's MIA. I guess that would be the book my mom accidently borrowed. (We'll let you ponder this and come to your own conclusions.

Q: Would you knit this again?
A: Most definately. Reports from the purse user are that it is an excellent shopping purse. It folds over perfectly in the cart so no one can see in it and nothing fall out. I don't think a woman can ask for more from a bag.

Q: Why haven't you knit another?
A: Have you seen the price of silk garden? It takes two balls. Although, my LYS just received new stock of Silk Garden (That's Noro if you need to google and get some).

Q: When will knitpicks come up with an affordable version of yarn that stripes like this?
A: I don't know. Maybe if we unify and flood Knitpicks' inbox so they have the equivalent of an email log jam, they'll buckle to the pressure. It's something to think about.

Note: A big thanks to Kelley for answering the monogramming question. This Kelley is either the Kelley from knitpicks or someone is using her name. It is fitting she should answer the question as a Needlefelting kit is winding it's way to Naomi's house from Knitpicks. It was Naomi's turn to order. Stay tuned to see if the kit arrives before Sat and if I can learn to needlefelt before then or bribe Naomi who already knows how to do the "a".

This is the Vintage Bubble Bag from the front. Time for a little Q & A. 

This is a close-up of the magic that happens when you change to the garter stitch (in round, work one row purl, one row knit) with a self-striping yarn. Let's here those oooh's and ahhh's. 

This is a side view of the Vintage Bubble Bag. I used grey Naturgarn (yes, Elann is still out) and silk garden. 

Knitting News

My daughter will be 12 in 5 days. I have 5 days to get my act together. I am knitting her a black bag from the still nameless bag pattern I made in purple. She would like an "a" monogrammed on it. No one has answered yesterdays post question about monogramming on felted works. That leads me to draw one of two conclusions:
1. no one but my mother reads my blog and she only reads it when I tell her to
2. no one has been stupid enough to try and felt a monogram since yarns felt at different rates and the height felts more than the width
I was reading the Yarn Harlot's blog archives while nursing the baby. It is nice to know that there are other mothers out there or decide to do insane projects for their children's birthday with not nearly enough time prior to the birthday. I thought my friend, Naomi, and I were the only ones. Okay, the projects would not be insane if we did not start them so late in the game. The amazing thing is, birthdays come the same time each year. Why am I so surprised when it's a few days before the child's birthday? Something to ponder as the deadline looms. I'm sure that since I should get this project done in time, I will think of one more thing to make so I don't get any sleep. Perhaps a very Harlot Poncho. How long does one of those take anyway?

This is the last box of thin mints. I'm very sad. It will be 11 mos until I see another box. These are my all time favorite cookie. I'm probably a Girl Scout Leader just so I can get these cookies. I ordered a case just for me this year. I could swear there should be 2 boxes left. I have my suspicions about where the missing box went. One thief is age 3 has blond hair and brown eyes, his accomplice is age 6 with brown hair and brown eyes. Neither has anything to say on the subject.

Dear Melanie from Way Up North

About the sock swap... It has been brought to my attention that the lovely bright and cheerful socks I am knitting you are not, NOT for public knitting. Every time I take these socks to knit in public I have a knitting deficit. How sad is that? Sad to say, these socks remain at the same point they were in their last photo op despite numerous hour of knitting. At this rate, they'll be finished in 2006. I have started some felted bags to keep me busy while I am knitting in public.
On the homefront, my daughter still has thousands of spots. She is "Spot" to the tenth power. My husband assures me they are getting better. She refused to have her picture on the blog. My little guy has eaten practically every hour today. So, I didn't get much knitting or spring cleaning done and I'm running out of library books to read.
Question of the day: Have you monogrammed on a felted bag and if so did you adjust the height of the letter to allow for shrinkage?

And the winner is...

contact dermatitus, probably the sunscreen. We see the dermatologist again in a month. Did you know that after an exposure you can continue to get spots for 4 weeks? The saga of the evil rash continues... (see post below with graphic enhancements) I don't know how people with six kids do it. We always have some drama going.
In the knitting news, went to knit night and worked on socks, then frogged all that I had done. Don't you hate it when, at the end of the night you have a knitting deficit?
A vote was taken on the purple hand-dyed bag and the handles were deemed perfect. My mom is going to proof read and then it's off to the test knitter. I think I'll have my husband help me with the layout for the pattern tonight.

Day 8...

It's day 8 of the evil rash that's overtaken my daughter's body. I get to take all 4 children to the dermatologist at 8:15 tomorrow morning for a fifth opinion. So far the tally is: 2 votes enterovirus (rash seen at day 4), one vote allergic reaction to sunscreen (rash seen at day 5), polymorphous light eruption or parapsoriasis (rash seen at day 6). I figure if we sleep in the car we might make it out the door at that hour. The only sunny side to this is that Panerra is across the street from the dermatology branch of the clinic. Pecan roll for me and cinnamon rolls for the kids.
I have an admission to make about those two bag patterns I just wrote. Those are mistakes. Pretty mistakes, but mistakes nonetheless. How many more bag patterns can I churn out in search for the perfect knit while I'm chasing the kids sock bag? I don't know which we should take a pool on, number of bags or which rash diagnosis is correct. Anyhoo, I'm getting just a little bit of yarn from knitpicks. A friend is ordering and I have to check the quality and see how the colors compare to the colors on my computer monitor. I think I'm going to have to sell my bag patterns to help pay for my habit. I'm going to make one more of each bag and then send them off to the Phyllis from bagaholics who has so graciously volunteered to test knit. Merry from Bagaholics has volunteered to help convert documents to pdf. If you haven't checked out bagaholics, you should. Even if you don't want to make the bag of the month, the information flow there is incredible. I have learned tons and even shared a little. There's a link to bagaholics on the sidebar. Well, I must go now. The boys are running back and forth dragging the Fisher Price houseboat behind them. Who remembers that toy? It was my favorite when I was little and I found it at a garage sale. Must return to keeping the peace.

A view from below. 

Complete with a ball of yarn to show size. The yarn is 100g of Lana Grossa sock yarn. 

Picture of the handy dandy pocket 

Another view 

The latest felted project bag. 

My poor baby...

The evil rash continues to get worse. Did you see the picture of my poor daughter's neck? She's even got the rash on her lips. She's really miserable. I will never, ever put anything on the kids' skin without testing it first. We put the sunscreen on her Fri and she had a few bumps that looked like bug bites. Saturday there were a lot more bumps. Sunday afternoon it was growing and had white centers. The patch on her neck is the worst and the pediatrician we saw last night said she could look like that everywhere she put the sunscreen. On the bright side, I've gotten a lot of knitting done sitting in Dr. offices. Now I just need to figure out how to copyright my patterns so I can share them. I'm very pleased with my latest effort. It's not felted yet, I have my fingers crossed that it will meet or beat expectations. I'll take a pre-felting picture when I do the handles.

Allergic reaction to sunscreen on my daughter's neck 

Another tough day....

My daughter has the most impressive rash. At first, it was thought to be a horrible viral infection that manifested like chicken pox. I have three other kids and was more than a little bit frightened. Four kids in this shape, I'll be a stark raving lunatic. It is day five of the rash and I can still watch it getting worse. We went to another pediatrician tonight. It's a severe skin allergic reaction. It's still in the getting worse stage. The pediatrician and the resident couldn't say when it would get better. We're pouring on the antihistamines and hoping for the best. Her new nickname is "Spot". She's taking it quite well for an almost teenager. A spring hint, test any product you are going to use on a small patch of the inside of your child's arm. I had no idea we could get into this much trouble with a hypoallogenic sunscreen. Maybe tomorrow I'll post a picture of "Spot" so you can see why it is important. On the bright side, I got a lot of knitting done while we waited for the pediatrician and can post pictures tomorrow. Have a good night and may all your children be rash free.

Look, there's even an inside pocket. The bag has been made extra special with a button from Great-grandma's button collections. It's mother of pearl. Isn't that nifty? Tomorrow, I'll start working on the tweaking of the pattern. 

Here she is felted. Isn't she a beauty. Okay, she's not dry yet. She probably needs blocked. It's the first bag I've designed. It needs a little work, but I'm proud of my first effort. 

The felting has commenced! Tomorrow this will be a bag to carry my smaller projects. It is worsted weight yarn from knitpicks dyed with purple paas Easter egg dye. 

Another WIP - Sockotta Sock Swap Socks 

Almost ready to felt. I ran out of yarn for the inside pockets. That's part of the reason that I'm dyeing yarn tonight. 

Tonight's colors - "Spring Garden" 

New Stuff

My new felted flower pattern arrived in the mail from ThreadBear Fiber Arts and I finally got my Amazon box with Yarn to Dye For. From now on, if Knitpicks has it, I'm ordering books from them. The prices are good and they actually ship to me faster than Amazon. I'm dyeing yarn right now to make felted flowers. The Sockotta Socks continue and I'm attempting to design a bag for sock knitters. After all, a knitter can never have to many felted bags.
On the homefront, my youngest has finally caught the dreaded respiratory infection the other kids have had. No ear infection so far. I got the distinct impression from the pediatrician that she expected to see me again this illness. After two days of crying the little fella has settled down a bit.
Did you see knitpicks has started getting their spring/summer cotton yarns in? I'm waiting until there is more selection to make my move. I'm dreaming of summer cotton yarns. Does anyone else have this problem? Well I'm off to dye more yarn. Have a happy weekend!

The Naturgarn bulky version of the French Market Bag is in the red (I used larger needles and did 1/2 the number of increases.) The original pattern is from knitty.com. The Shades of purple FMB is a 1/2 size worsted weight.  

Works in progress....

I'm working on another pair of Peaks 'n' Valley Socks from the Knit Socks book. I have another pair of socks on the needles that are plain old ribbed that I'm trying to forget about and a pink pair of Cascade Fixation socks in the Petticoat Sock Pattern from Weekend Knitting. I've dyed some yarn to start some bags and I barely started the Paisley Shawl from the latest Interweave Knits. I frogged my Airy Scarf because I had done the yarn overs wrong and haven't restarted it again.
On the homefront, three out of four of my kids have ear infections. Talk about a good time. I bet my husband won't be able to get to work fast enough on Monday morning. This has put a road block in the spring cleaning. The kids are really grumpy. Hopefully, by tomorrow night the antibiotics will have kicked in and they'll be feeling better. I guess I'll sit around and referee their disagreements and KNIT!
On the reading front, I'm reading Linda Fairstein's Entombed.

Isn't this a cheerful sock? My sock swap partner said she liked bright colors. This was the brightest sock yarn my LYS had in stock. I think it fits the bill.  

The knit picks geranium socks are finished, finally