The (ed note: BAD) Colors for Tote

 


These are the Patons and Malabrigo yarns for the felted tote. I think this will take a little more "snap" to pull off, so I'm thinking of adding a very hot pink, along with the purple malabrigo, for "snapiness". Also, that dark neutral is too dark, I'm thinking, and should be replaced with an light natural wool. The tote I'm going to be making is the largest one in the Pursenalities book. The blue is turquoise and the brown is a rich chocolate. Oh these cameras!

Red Bag finals, and I switched to Beta and there's been nothing but trouble since

Here she is all stuffed out with yarns and ready to go. This is not so bad and I might just make another one out of some of the Paton's felting wool that is peeking over the top of the lip.

Blogger is now a real PITA and I'm seriously thinking of moving to Wordpress after the holidays.

I've finished a pathetic little heart shaped blob on one of the bed socks and that's all I can hope for atm. As a cheermeup, I ordered a skein of yarn to match an odd ball I got in a KR Christmas exchange a couple of years ago. It's Lorna's Laces Ice House, and I hope to make a nice pair of socks with it.

Some other yarns I've recently bought were from Little Knits and they are trekker colors. I'll post some pictures of all the yarns as soon as I'm over being totally and utterly fried over this new blogger not working anymore with Picasa, whom Google owns as well. So sad.

DH still wants to learn to knit but he's been struggling for a couple of weeks with our health insurance. I really feel sorry for him as it's been a royal mess. He has to do it because he understands the whole thing. He's made dozens of phone calls and gets stressed out over it all. Two companies were bought out in a confluence of events that I just can't describe the complexity of. And all of which just complicated things even more. Our consolation is that we will, indeed, have health care at some point, hopefully before something serious befalls us.

Evil Son of a French Market Bag

 
 












The Red Bag, on it's way to becoming a shocking Pink!

After washing it in my own front loader twice and drying it in the home dryer, we put the French Market Bag through two commercial washers and dryer. Then after toting up the mileage, the quarters and the angst, we decided that the old fashion way, Boiling it to within an inch of it's life and using a potato masher on it, might save my project and stop our carbon footprint from sinking through the asphalt on the way to the only laundromat in the county, apparently, which still had top loading machines.

So, I froze the bag, dry, in the freezer, ripped it out and plunged it into boiling water in the biggest pan in the house. For 15 minutes it bubbled away, popping red water all over the stove and down the side while I pounded it with the huge wooden spoon and the masher. I then picked it up and plunged it into the coldest water I could get in the kitchen sink. If I could have had snow, I'd have flung it out the back door into a snow bank and run the car over it for five minutes.

I viciously rung the darn thing out, slammed it into the dryer and narrowly missed sticking a trio of fist sized rocks we have laying around the place in with it. DH had suggested it earlier, but had not meant in OUR machines. Too delicate.
This will all be repeated tomorrow. 

Two the Charm? Manly knitting update....

 
















Picassa had a hiccough and spit out the first post about this into cyberspace. Sooooo, here is a simpler one, a post with just a few words about kitchnering the bag, the toe, then felting the bag. IF the red blob comes out nicely, I will not subject it to the treatment I've heard felted things are sometimes subjected to. I will not drive over it several times, in the street, with the Bounder and then boil it in a couldron full of water on a wood fire in the back yard at midnight. Even though I reaaaally feel like punishing something, ANYTHING, at the moment.

UPDATE: His computer is on the fritz, so that's where the knitting time has gone. As we all know, IT'S ALWAYS SOMETHING!!