I’m turning into a veritable bag lady. :purse: I’ve got four felted bag projects in the line-up, and, if I had the time and the funds, I’d like to add a couple more that I saw in my LYS recently. The first bag I’ll be working on is for my mother. She chose a very simple pattern from “Two Old Bags” and picked out a nice sage-green color of Cascade 220 for it. I spent yesterday afternoon winding the yarn into balls. The whole operation would have been much simpler if I had an umbrella swift; unfortunately, I don’t, so I had to do some crazy acrobatics to prevent the yarn from tangling while I wound it up. Robert and Sam thought it looked like a fun task and wanted to get involved. Sam did an incredible job of tangling one hank up. It took me over an hour to undo his handiwork! Robert, on the other hand, was a little more helpful. He put the loop of yarn around his outstretched arms, which worked well, but then he thought he could improve our efficiency by moving his arms in a circular motion. He kept jerking the yarn which wreaked havoc with the tension I was trying to maintain. I couldn’t complain because it is his birthday, and he deserved to have some fun. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROBERT! :birthday:

The second bag I want to make is Sophie from Magknits. I know one of the attractions of the pattern is that it calls for only one skein of Cascade 220, but I fell in love with some multi-colored Manos del Uruguay and want to use it for the bag. I’m kind of nervous about felting such a lovely yarn. It seems wrong to mistreat it by tossing it in the washing machine.

The third bag I hope to make has the most adorable shaping I’ve seen in a felted bag. I’m not real sure how to describe it, but you may be able to get an idea of what it will look like from the photograph. In addition to the charm of its shape, it is embellished with needle-felted flowers. I’ve wanted to try that technique for awhile now and this seems like a great way to do it. For this, I bought a handy needle-felting kit from Fiber Trends. It comes with several different sized needles, a piece of foam and instructions.

The fourth bag is the most ambitious one. It is a large striped bag, which I hope will be the perfect tote for carrying around knitting projects. I’ve wanted a larger bag for some time now because I can never seem to squeeze all my supplies in the small bags I have. This one will be approximately two feet wide! I’m feeling a little bit insecure about the colors I chose. I started out with a really pretty burgundy color, but the store didn’t have enough hanks of that for my project, so I ended up switching to a black and purple flecked yarn for my main color (shown on the far left of the photograph). I know it’s difficult to tell from a photograph, but do you think the other colors go well with it?

Have you ever had the experience of really looking forward to taking a class on some subject of interest to you, but then the class failed to live up to your expectations? Even though you felt you still had a lot to learn about whatever topic was covered, the lesson failed to go far enough for you to actually profit from it? This has happened to me often when I’ve attended Continuing Legal Education courses as part of my job. As odd as it sounds, I have actually looked forward to taking such courses as managing discovery in complex litigation and the role of technology in discovery. Unfortunately, I have walked away from those classes feeling disappointed. The instructors geared the information for absolute novices in the field and I didn’t learn much of anything new. The classes were a waste of time.

:knit: Because of my experience with those classes, I was a little bit skeptical about signing up for a knitting class. I love to knit and KNOW that I have a great deal to learn about everything from casting on to finishing a project, but I didn’t want to spend hours listening to someone drone on and on about things I had already learned from my mother who taught me to knit and from the books and weblogs I read. Despite my skepticism, I finally signed up for a course called “Finishing for the Finicky,” taught by the fabulous Susanna Hanson. The class was everything I had hoped it would be. I walked out of there feeling more confident about taking on the finishing process for my next project.

Susanna laid down three cardinal rules for finishing a garment. Rule no. 2 requires a knitter to respect selvedges and rule no. 3 commands one to count rows. The first rule intrigued me and it’s the one I’m finding the hardest to implement. She instructed us to “weed.” By that, she meant that we should look through our projects and determine which ones just weren’t working out for us for one reason or another. If something weren’t turning out as nicely as we had envisioned it, and salvaging it would mean more trouble than we wanted to invest in it, then get rid of it. Even more simply, if we weren’t enjoying something, get rid of it. She suggested that we shouldn’t let the fact that we bought some yarn compel us to continue working on a project we hated. Knitters give themselves terrible guilt complexes over not finishing something, and they shouldn’t. Other artists and craftsmen give themselves permission to expend energy on practice pieces before they get to the work of creating their masterpieces. The pieces they do end up feeling proud of represent only a small part of their total output. This should be true of what knitters create as well.

I like this idea. Unfortunately, I’m finding it hard to implement. Smooch has been making me very unhappy. First of all the edges around the eyelets aren’t looking as perfectly even as I wanted them to. Secondly, I am having trouble working the double chain selvedge around the arm openings without creating enormous holes. But it’s even more than the way the piece looks. It’s how the yarn feels as it is running across my tensioning finger. I feel like I’m developing a “rug burn.” I have to keep readjusting the way the yarn lays across my finger so it doesn’t hurt too much. Should knitting be painful? No, of course not. So, Smooch is definitely a candidate for the scrap yard.

I do plan on destashing some things including 19 balls of bulky Pingouin acrylic yarn in a dusty blue color. It’s a nice acrylic (yes, such things do exist!), but rather old and some of the balls have been used and recycled. It still appears in good condition, so if you would like it, please let me know. I would ask for shipping costs at the very least. I’ll photograph whatever yarn I decide to get rid of, so you can determine whether it’s something you might like.

I’m so tired that I can barely sit upright. :zzz: In fact, the term “upright” doesn’t exactly describe the slouchy way I’m hovering over my keyboard right now, but it doesn’t hurt to put a positive spin on things now, does it?

Today was my first day back on the job after several months of maternity leave. I had to hit the ground running because there was so much work to do and not enough people to handle it all. There were some major staff changes while I was gone and not enough people around today for me to ferret out the gossip :ferretcurious:, but I’m sure I’ll hear all about it soon enough. Anyway, it was a pretty good day, all things considered. It feels good to be needed and to know that you were missed. It was also nice to spend time with adults. I was afraid my language skills were going to permanently degenerate to the level of my son’s. No like it.

I don’t always like my job. In fact, I sometimes have been heard to say that I hate it. Today, however, I relished piecing together disparate bits of information to figure out a chain of events, kind of like Sherlock Holmes does, but without the cool hat and magnifying glass. :detective:

I missed Sam and Claire a great deal, but handled the separation much better than I did when I left Sam for the first time. It wasn’t so clear to me then, but having gone through this once before helped me keep things in perspective. My kids will be okay–in fact, they’ll have a great time at their daycares. Our bond won’t be weakened by their interaction with other adults. I’m still their mommy and will always hold a special place in their hearts.

Sam was more upset at leaving Claire at her daycare than I had anticipated he would be. I didn’t think he’d realize what was going on, but the minute I returned to the car without her, he started crying and wanted to know where baby sister was. I had to explain to him that she was going to be having fun at her school in the same way that he’d be having fun at his. He didn’t quite swallow this explanation, but I’m sure he’ll grow more accustomed to the routine as time goes by.

Knitting? Ha! I haven’t done a thing. Yesterday was devoted to getting chores done (I mowed the lawn, cleaned the house, did the laundry, went grocery shopping and proofread my husband’s essay twice). Today, I just tried to keep my head above the water. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to squeeze in more knitting once I get back into the swing of things.