Buttonhole Bag Bliss

The buttonhole bag is done and felted and it is absolutely the cutest thing going! The stripes of yellow and lime green are really bright and the purple on the bottom will keep it from getting grungy and it looks just like an Easter egg! If Spring ever arrives in cold Massachusetts this bag will be just the thing! I can see how this little object could be addicting, I’m already contemplating color combos for the next one.
So, not that anyone needs to hear another cat story, but, Mason and his obsession with my knitting is getting wilder all the time. Yesterday, I put the buttonhole bag on the kitchen table to take this “before” picture.
The thing wasn’t on the table for more than 2 seconds and along comes Mason, plopping himself right down in the middle of the darn thing. It’s like he knows I have this blog and he insists on being a part of it! So I obligingly took a picture to satisfy him, but no one needs to see another picture of Mason lying on my knitting. (if you really can’t resist seeing him, click here) He didn’t sit there for long, just long enough to make his point that he is far more beautiful than anything I might possibly be knitting. The truly ironic thing is that I would happily knit him his very own [substitute something cat-appropriate here] but he would probably ignore the heck out of it! You know cats – if it’s not mine, I want it, if it’s mine, I will ignore it. But I digress . . . so, I snapped the photo and threw the bag in the washing machine with 3 pairs of old jeans. Two cycles later it was nicely felted and very fuzzy and I just love it!
Dale came home yesterday morning just as I was finishing said bag and he was shocked that it was already done. It is cool to start a project on a Tuesday and finish it on a Wednesday, doncha think? Nothing like instant gratification to make a knitter’s day! Anyway, I love that my husband is so easily impressed and I’m sure not going to tell him that double strands of Lamb’s Pride knit up wicked fast! He thinks I’m a genuis and why spoil a good thing like that? I also love that he is so totally clueless about the prices of knitting needles and thinks that Addi Turbos are a great deal. Hey, don’t ask, don’t tell, right?
I have good news and bad news on the Charlotte Bronte Shawl. The bad news is, I knitted a gauge swatch last night and it came out too small. The good news is, I need size 3 needles and, shucks, I don’t have that size so I’m going to have to buy some. Hunh. Might as well buy Addis as it will make my first lace-y shawl type thing so satisfying. And, at least according to Dale, they are so fairly and reasonably priced. Sigh. The sacrifices I make for my craft.
Since I have nothing else on the needles right now (except for the long-suffering, boring as hell to knit Einstein coat) other than the koigu socks, I picked them up and worked pretty far down the toe. The first sock should be done soon and I’m not loving the koigu as much as I thought I would. It’s okay, the colors are pretty and all, but I don’t understand why people are so crazy about it. It feels more like cotton than wool and it’s not all that soft. I’ll save my final judgment for when I actually wear the socks but I can’t picture making another pair out of this yarn.
The Plymouth Country Cranberry Quilters meet at the library and today they were doing a Civil War reproduction fabric swap. They thought it would be interesting to hear me speak about reenacting so they invited me to talk to them this morning. I brought a couple of dresses that Wendy made, my Quilted Winter bonnet that Sarah made, my slat bonnet, my corset, the knitted sontag and socks that I made, Dale’s CDV, some books, things like that. It was really fun! The ladies seemed to enjoy themselves and they laughed a lot so I guess I was funny. At least I hope that’s why they were laughing. Talking about reenacting made me realize how much I miss it in the Winter. I am sooo ready for the season to start! There’s lots of time for knitting at reenactments and so I’ll just say,
Knit on – Civil War Style!