Well, it took me 4, 6 iterations, but I finally got my bag a manageable size! I “completed” my most recent market bag twice – handle and everything, and then realize it was WAY too big! Well, this week, I finally finished two different ones, at acceptable sizes. Okay, my oldest was giving me a complex about how big the red one was, but I’m DONE!

From this:

to this:

and finally completed:

Well, I need to weave in ends, but the rest is done. I don’t know if they’ll be for Christmas or Mother’s Day gifts, but I’m leaning towards a birthday gift for my aunt in a couple of weeks.

Speaking of resolution, look what happened last night:

One was still wide awake, I’ll take 2 out of 3!

Well, I’ve definitely been busy in the last 2 weeks. I’ve noticed that NaNeBloMo… something has started – blog once a day for 30 days, I think. Well, I used to do that. In the beginning, back in 2004, I used to write something every day. But then since then I noticed that the bloggers that people read don’t just write – they have photos. Every day! So that was the end of that.

Thank God for Twitter, which I put on the sidebar here, and Facebook, so I can use my one-liners and keep up with blogging when I have photos to share.

Well, I sort of do. I’ve actually completed 6, I think, market bags, and put aside one sweater project, deciding there is very little chance I’ll get from 10 sweaters to 12 for NaKniSweMoDo this year. Oh well. I started the previous “sweater a month” KAL and got nowhere near 10 then, so I’m happy in this case. And I do also have a distinct lack of WIPs. Just a few more hanging around, that I hope to deal with after I finish my market bag project. I hope to finish 22 for Christmas, or by Mother’s Day at least.

I already showed you my second market bag that I made for my friend Laura. Well, I finally found a picture of the first one:

and my most recent *failure* – I knitted up a giant squid! It ended up being 3 feet long, I think! So I’ve ripped it back and am re-knitting it smaller. But here it is in it’s natural habitat:

I hope to have more bags to show you soon!

Besides BR here aging another year and celebrating our 10th anniversary at the House of Prime Rib, I was busy this weekend!

First, I was motivated by Ree’s chocolate truffle recipe and made my own Peet’s Coffee Truffles:

And my friend Laura and her “partner” are celebrating their 20th anniversary this weekend, so I decided to make them some market bags. I’ve completed 2 so far, and am finishing up a third. Unfortunately I only have one photo:

I wasn’t too fond of this pattern (the bottom really leaves a lot to be desired) and I ran out of yarn, so I had to make the handle in a different yarn, but I’m down 2.5 skeins of my over 750 balls of yarn! (Poor Kimberly told me she has 1500 balls! I can’t believe it – I’m drowning in 750!)

And finally on Sunday morning I took the kids to the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival. I think this is the current largest pumpkin of the year:

After a rash of starting and frogging new projects, I’ve started to Panic that I won’t be able to complete my 12 sweaters for NaKniSweMoDo this year! I’ve only completed 10 and do have 2 on the needles, but still … I’ve had to frog a few lately that I hoped would count in this KAL, but no such luck.

Meanwhile, I did complete something:

Yes, it’s my friend ARM’s socks! You may remember that he has begrudgingly driven me to many yarn stores in the L.A. area and in Portland, and one day asked me to make him some socks. I completed those socks, but then gave them to my dad! ARM asked again about his socks, a couple of times, and seemed really upset when I told him about my dad, so I started another pair right before I saw him last time. But then I ran out of yarn on the second toe! You know I have over 750 balls of yarn, so I pulled out one ball of black yarn, one ball of gray variegated and did a little slip-stitch magic to complete a pretty darned good toe, if I do say so myself:

Well, apparently I’m in a pink phase. First I started my pink gift bag, Beth was nice enough to felt it, then I FINALLY sewed in the handles and added a half-assed lining. (Actually, I was very excited by the fabric I found at Jo-Ann but then I cut the lining a bit too short, and sewed it on the wrong side. And then the lining is showing too much of the handle. But I am done. I consider it “done” and eagerly await the next birthday party for any girl in our class!

Then in order to “destash”, I started the Diva sweater from Knitovation using my hot pink oddballs. However, even after using all of those, including my 1/2 skein of Fun Fur, and my “good” pink yarn: Noro Cash Iroha and Elsebeth Lavold Angora, I ran out of pink yarn! Well, sort of. I went a bit crazy then, spending $40 on more “oddballs” from Elann and Little Knits! Of course a good portion of the yarn I chose didn’t match the yarn well enough, so now I’ve got more oddballs, but I also have a sweater!

So I have now finished my 9th sweater for NaKniSweMoDo, and begun a 10th!

I’ve found J.P.’s list and so I had to post mine too, to remind myself, mostly, of the shows I’m at least going to try this year! Here goes, thanks to epguides.com’s Fall 09 list:

Sunday:
Uh, nothing? Dexter, if I can watch it online.

Monday:
Uh …. maybe Trauma.

Tuesday:
Sons of Anarchy
maybe The Forgotten

Wednesday:
Glee!!!!!
Mercy
Eastwick
Cougar Town (only because I LOVED Dirt and Courteney Cox is in this one instead now)

Thursday:
The Vampire Diaries (oh, yes, what Twilight wishes it could be.)
The Office
Community
SNL Weekend Update Thursdays

Friday:
Medium

Oh yeah, on the bottom it shows the current shows that are on hiatus and when they come back. I can’t wait for:

The Closer
Friday Night Lights
In Plain Sight

Wow, this is BAD. Believe you, me, I watch A LOT of TV and yet it is never represented in the main Fall list and the Top 20 shows list! I even got a Masters in Television! I guess they don’t count my other favorites;

Jockeys
The Secret Life of the American Teenager
Comedy Central Presents
Wicked Attraction (I.D.)
Secret Lives of Women
Deadly Women (I.D.)
Dateline
48 Hours Mystery
Gene Simmons Family Jewels
Last Comic Standing
Law and Order:Criminal Intent
Little People, Big World
The Little Couple
My Boys
Saving Grace

And you know I’m knitting while I watch TV! When I think of all the TV time I wasted growing up when I wasn’t knitting … it’s scandalous.

Thank God school starts on Tuesday! It’s been a long one, I think, but I suppose it could have been worse.

This summer I got a lot of reading done (which has unfortunately slowed down recently), and a LOT of knitting done. I may have a number of WIPs, but I’m working on all of them. My most recent addition is my soon to be felted bag that I completed on Monday:

My extremely nice friend Beth actually made that IK cover felted bag, so I asked her to felt mine and she agreed!!! (I hate felting.)

Basically I followed the No Seam Bag pattern, but then decided I wanted to add plastic handles and it was a real pain figuring out how other pattern writers added handles to felted bags. Most of the patterns said “attach the handles”. Thanks for nothing. So I just created a short section to sew over the handles (and make it more Fiona/Shrek-like) and we’ll see.

I have also been working on my “Fake Fair Isle” sweater. The story behind this is that years ago (I have no idea when) I started a sweater with a slip stitch pattern that I created. Then I put it aside and forgot about it. Since I’ve been trying to get rid of my WIPs I brought it out again recently. I created a raglan top for it, grafted that on (it is too long, but oh well), and then started the ribbed sleeves. I FINALLY finished one sleeve this week, so I’m really hoping to finish the second this weekend.

I have also gone past the sleeve area on my latest Juliet which will be probably a cross between Juliet and the Baby Sweater on Two Needles, in that I started with the Juliet pattern, but I’m going to add real sleeves, a la FBS, and I’m going to use the Feather and Fan pattern lace on the bottom. So far, so good. (ETA: Oops – I forgot when I made my last Juliet that I knitted the medium size and this will probably be huge. Damn!)

It is actually double stranded red oddball yarn, and hot pink oddball yarn. The photo came out weird for some reason. I tend to wear all black, so I don’t know if I’ll actually wear it.

And I was super-productive last weekend, but then I ran out of yarn and stumbled. A year or so ago, my friend ARM (that is a nickname he could use AND his initials. Go figure.) who lives in Portland asked me to knit him socks. I did, but by the time I finished them, I needed a quick gift to send to my dad, and I gave them to my dad. They really fit well on my dad, so I was happy, but ARM was not so happy. He mentioned the socks once or twice after that, but when I invited myself to visit them in Portland last weekend, I decided to bring out the yarn and knit him his own socks.

I did great! I started on Thursday, and by Saturday afternoon I had one sock done! I used “On Your Toes” yarn in a grey/black mix – you know, the fancy sock yarn with aloe?! Well I RAN OUT OF YARN!!!! That really slowed me down. I went from almost done to stalled by Sunday night when I came back home to CA. I did find a couple of other sock yarns I’m going to fudge into looking like “the same” toe, but I’m again unmotivated as I hate knitting socks, so we’ll see. At least he says it’s not cold enough in Portland to wear wool socks yet.

I was doing so well with my WIP finishing goals along with completing NaKniSweMoDo, but then this weekend came up and I went a little crazy.

We were invited to a pool party where “presents aren’t required” and we had 3 weeks notice at least, so I decided I’d knit something for the birthday girl. Fast forward to the day before the party, when I realize I hadn’t actually started anything for her, but I had started two other sweaters for myself! So I went from a small number of official WIPs (and as I was required to go through my stash I found a few more, many of which I did or am frogging) to a much larger number! Here goes:

Sweater 9 of NaKniSweMoDo: still at the sleeves. It is so boring, I can only bring myself to knit on it at my knit night, and I’m skipping it tonight ;(

Sweater 10 of NaKniSweMoDo: need to finish up the hand knitting. It probably is pretty much done, I just have it at my next project, and may not get there.

Sweater 11 NaKniSweMoDo: need to finish up the machine knitting. That involves finding the pattern and where I was, pulling out my machine, etc. And I’m over 1/2 way done already.

Sweater 12 of NaKniSweMoDo: this is a bottom and some of a sleeve that I started using the Knitter’s Handy Book of Sweater Patterns. It’s been a WIP forever, and I will probably finish it based upon how I finished my previous sweater bottom – just create a raglan top and graft them together. But then I’ll be stuck at the sleeves of yet another pattern.

I frogged two previous scarf/wrap (three, actually, but I only have 2 photos) attempts. One I have started my second Rolled Collar Shrug with, and the other will languish in my stash for awhile longer.

And for the party this weekend, I started and then frogged the Ultra Mega Chunky Bag for the birthday girl.

It was too floppy and too small.

Then I started the No Seam Bag which is going okay so far, but I ran out of the one ball of Pastaza yarn I was going to use. I was happy to find out that the Jo-Ann Sensations yarn I bought on sale matches it almost perfectly, so I’ve been knitting away on that. Then comes the felting. I hate felting, so I’m going to beg someone from my knitting group to do it for me, if they will.

And along with these, there are the two other sweaters I’ve recently begun. One is a new asymmetrically opened cardigan with Cascade 220:

and the other is a second Juliet, since I’ve worn my first one, and it’s really helping me use up my pink and red oddball stash!

I read a lot this week, and also watched a lot of TV. Not sure how that happened. So for “What are you reading Mondays“, here’s my summary.

last week I finished:

Friday Night Knitting Club (NOT going to read the sequels)
Bled Dry by Erin McCarthy (I am so sad that I am done with this series!)
Any Way You Want It by Kathy Love (not as well written as her others, but still good)

and in doing so, I finished all of my 50 library books for the Library Reading Challenge!!! The last book I have at home to read is I Want You to Want Me by Kathy Love. I went to her website, and her other books just don’t really interest me, but I’ll keep looking.

I suppose I did do some knitting – I finished my Baccarat Player on Thursday. It fits, but makes me feel really fat, so I don’t know if I’ll wear it. And I have 3 skeins of whatever the yarn is I used: Artyarns, Artfibers, some Art… thing.

Since I’ve been reading so much I thought I’d join J. Kaye’s “What are you Reading on Monday” meme thing. Especially since just this morning I finished Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs. I hear there is a sequel, but I don’t think I’ll be reading it. The book itself was pretty good, I got into it near the middle, but it was really long, and I wasn’t that fond of the ending. But at least I’m nearing the end of my library book usage goal of 50 books!

I just started Pet Sematary by Stephen King. I’ve read a few of his books, but not enough, so I’m starting with the classics. It should be good.