Friday's progress

It feels like a lot of progress when I'm working on it but when I count up how few pieces are done in a single day... well, there is a long way to go yet.

1st purse bound off!

So today i bound off the first of the purses! It measures only 11 1/2" before blocking in length and barely 4" wide but has plenty of stretch to block easily to the 5 1/2" needed in width. it looks like a lovely scarf but who could afford to make themselves a scarf at $55 a skein? Not me. Thought the second skein arrived today but it was the Carol Armstrong quilting books I won on eBay. Wild Birds and Quilting with Carol Armstrong. Tomorrow I will work on the quilt again at work as A) I NEED to and B) I don't want to cast on another one of the purses until I see that this one blocks up right. Oh and the last pic is a fake one fo the piece folded in half with the handles next to it. a little larger than I would have prefered but more practical perhaps?

have a grand day and here are the pics!
denise

The unveiling of the special handles for the purses

Here is a pic of the progress as of 030706 with the silver handles with it.

and here is a picture of my progress after being at work today the 8th. I took a couple of days off of working on the applique block/triangle. I'm going to be sorry I know but sometimes you just need to move to something new feeling?

Cast on again!

The picture with the red row counter on the needles is the first cast on in pattern for the purses on size 1 needles.

So today I cast on again for the lovely Best Friends Purses for the wedding .
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http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter05/PATTbestfriend.html/ISSUEwinter05/PATTbestfriend.html
I decided that I could easily block to 5" from the 4" I was getting on the gently spread out on the needle and done in the actual pattern on the size 1 but not that extra 1/2" so today I cast on on size 2 needles and did 1 1/2 repeats of the pattern rows. This will look more like the actual purses in the pattern link above after being blocked I think. Here is the picture of the two next to each other. size ones on the right size twos on the left. the left is slightly larger than on the ones so I"m going to knit a complete one, or until I have to work off the skein that the ones were from and still attached to and make sure I am happy with it in that size.

Now I only have to hope that I can still get two purses out of one skein. As it is so hard to find in the first place I do NOT wish it to get less than stated in the pattern.
The one on the right (ones) was cast on at work, and worked on at my mammo yesterday. The one on the left (twos) what I got done at work today. I took an Outlook Email class and an Outlook Calendar class at work today which took me to lunch and then I had to sit and surf the internet in the Lab itself because they were doing tech support phone coverage from my desk today from noon-2 pm. Sigh, such is the life of a paper in the printers babysitter.

I did get to be a student's hero today when I explained what the instructions were saying for him to do to submit his test anwers/homework asssignment online using our network.

have a grand and glorious night and a better tomorrow
denise

March 06, 2006 applique progress report

Real quick because I do not wish to be late to the posh job that allows me to work on all of this stuff for the wedding at work and get paid the funds that will allow me to go to the wedding etc......
This is what I got to yesterday on the first triangle of flowers for the quilt .... it is really shaping up and looking like something, eh?

The purses for attendants

Sometimes brilliant ideas should be banned from my brain cells. I saw this cute little knitted clutch pattern at www.knitty.com called Best Friends, and got the idea that if the bride-to-be was so inclined I could make these for her attendants and she could present her "attendant's" gift to them in it. Assuming she was planning to give them a piece of jewelry like I thought was still the going thing to do.

Well Jen jumped on them! She loved them! See how brilliant i can be? Well, little did I know that waiting until you could afford the $48 a skein of Joseph Galler Pashmina would be my downfall. See the problem comes from the fact that www.knitty.com is a very popular online site for a great free knitting magazine. So everywhere I went trying to get the Pashmina in Blush (the color that will make the apple green attendant's dresses "POP" and also the color used in the pattern online) I ran into the same answer. We have every color of Pashmina except the Blush. Sigh, a day late and a couple hundred dollars short has new meaning to me now.

Finally, I found a place with just one skein in stock... SEND IT! Dyelot matters not to me! (I can see another post coming after I find out that indeed I will not get the two promised clutches from one skein of yarn, can't you?) So I receive one skein in the mail last Wednesday and cast on for the gauge swatch on thursday at work.... three swatches until I got gauge. Now why do you have to do gauge swatch in stockinette and the pattern is a cable clutch? WELL, I got gauge alright in size 1 circs versus the size 3 circs recommended in the pattern.

Cast on, I do for the actual clutch body and go to town..... and soon I am just all excited. These will go very quickly, tis an easy repeat to recall, and then.... I get this......




Well it is a bit hard to see but my only idea of my mistake is unintentional short-rows and those are hard enough to achieve when trying to form the heels of socks...... So as these for for gifts from another person to yet third persons I rip back and cast on again...... and get this.............








Blurry yes, but it is indeed a different swatch, see the short row looking mistake is now to the right instead of to the left?
So .... yes I cast on again! And am knitting merrily along some while at the hospital awaiting the pleasure of my mammogram (long other story maybe some day because we all want to share the pain) and realise this is NOT looking big enough to fill the area suggested by the lovely silver metal clasp handles that came in on Friday of last week during all the mistakes...... Sure enough measure it up and it is only 4" wide. This piece should be blocked to 5 1/2" well I might get 5 out of it but will Pashmina hold a stretched block of over 25% of it's beginning size? mayhaps not?

So what am I doing about it? I decided to continue to knit this piece and see if when I get to about 5 or six repeats it actually fills in a bit better. After all, I got gauge so it must be right, right?

Hope all of you have a lovely day and hug your loved ones today .....

denise / de-Brat recovering from extremely sad news yesterday regarding people I did a commission huppah/quilt for in 2003 for their wedding.

030106 progress on the first triangle block

Here it is with the vinyl overlay so you can get a small feel for what it will be like once i add all the flowers.
As of March 1, 2006