3.5 sock trip

The recent trip to visit family was very productive for knitting.  I like to take socks to knit when traveling because they fit nicely into my knitting bag and they're small projects.  Doctor Who scarves and blankets take up a lot more space.

So during the trip, I finished this pair of socks -

And finished a sock and half of the next -

It will take awhile to finish that half of a sock now that I'm back to normal but I think my wrists will appreciate knitting getting back to normal.

d20 prototype

And the prototype is done!  And it is surprisingly sturdy.  I expected to have to add triangles in the opening to brace up the sides to prevent it from sagging out of shape but it is holding up nicely.  I put all the dice I own into it and it still wasn't sagging.  Now to put it to the test to see how well it holds up with abuse.

I'm back!

I was gone for nearly two weeks to visit family and that was great!  It is fun to get away from everything for awhile.  I brought along my phone so I could check email and the store but that was it.  But now I'm back and it's time to get back to the bags.  Lots of plans were developed during the trip, some new fabric purchased and testing of the bags.

My new tank of a knitting bag held up incredibly well.  I don't like the snap placement but everything else was fantastic!  I had my knitting in the inner bag the entire time and the cell phone on top most of the time.  Never had any worries about it.  As soon as I finish the four bags I am working on, I will work on a new large bag to work out snap placement and I hope to have a selection of them in the shop by the end of May.  I have to order more supplies but I'm pretty sure I can have a few of them ready in time.

I also brought along a little dice bag to see how it would hold up to the abuse of a plane ride (and maybe the dice were used in some games...) and it came through great!  It was tucked into my carry on and got squished a couple of times but still held it's shape and looks no worse for the wear.

And here's a look at some of the fabrics that I purchased for new bags -

Snowflake Baby Blanket

It's done!!  And with time to spare!  Okay, not really.  It should have been done in January but it's done with time to spare for the second deadline I had set.

This is from blocking it but it's the best overall picture I could get of it.  There just isn't that much open space with good lighting and a good background in my apartment.  I can fake it well enough for small items but blankets, even small blankets, are tough.

The back was the difficult part for me so I'm really happy with the way it turned out.  I had all kinds of problems trying to figure out how to deal with the floats.  The concept was easy to understand but it was difficult to figure out how to actually do it.  I think I knit a bit weird.  Mom taught me to knit but I developed my own system that doesn't seem to match up with anything that I've seen in various online tutorials.  So it took awhile to figure out how to get this to work for me.

And the steek.  Have you ever spent months working on something every single day and then just cut it?  The idea terrified me.  However, I got to that point, grabbed a pair of scissors and cut into it with barely a second thought.  And it worked.  Of course it worked.  I'm not surprised it worked but so very happy that it did.

And now that this huge project is done, I think a need a new huge project.  Probably with another steek.

Built like a tank!

The new bag is finished!  I haven't had much opportunity to test it out but I like it so far.  I'm using a new material to hold its shape and it is really good.  It is really sturdy and only distorts a little when I put heavier objects in it and I think most of that is less than ideal snap placement so the next one will be much better.  While I think the material is great, it isn't without potential problems.  The edges are a bit sharper than I'm used to and I think it might cut through the fabric.  I have a couple of different ways to solve that all ready to go in case it does end up being a problem but it will mean more testing and delay the release of these bags in my shop.


With the new material, there was some testing and learning with it.  This bag is a bit smaller than intended (each piece is about 1/8" smaller than normal).  The smaller pieces and different snap piece makes it a bit of a tight fit for a 400ish yard cake but it does still fit.

I am testing out the new inner bag that I've developed for the small dice bags.  It doesn't close tightly - there's just too much fabric - but I think it will be difficult for things to fall out.  That's part of what I will be testing shortly.  I like the idea of the bag so far because I can put my knitting in the bag and have regular purse stuff on top and easy to get to with the knitting protected from keys and such or switch it around so regular purse stuff is secure in the bag and knitting easy to access.

This bag is made from a slubby grey/black shot silk dupioni with lighter grey rayon numbers in the Dalek font.  The lining is Floral Daleks in Kona cotton from Spoonflower.  The yarn is Twisted Red Label in Fleur from Tanis Fiber Arts - regular store is here.

New knitting bag started!

I finished all the bags I had cut out and got started on some new ones!

The grey is a large bag and will be my new knitting bag that I will be testing for the next couple of weeks.  The interfacing is new and I want to see how it will work.  I'm also testing out the inner bag to see how it works for a knitting bag.  If all works out well, then I can start making new bags for the shop.