Sugar Bunny Boulevard

I Heart This Book!

Have you checked out the latest book by Kathleen Taylor, I Heart Felt!?  Seems like everybody around blogland and the knitting world is chatting with her and talking about this book.

You might remember that Kathleen Taylor is the author of Knit One, Felt Too, but she is also the designer of the KnitPicks Palette Fair Isle Cardigan, which I (cough) started a (cough) Knitalong for way back in October 2006.   I have the yarn.  Special Addi Natura circular needles dedicated to the project.  And I finished the bottom band of ribbing plus the first stranded motif.  (cough)  But several other dedicated knitters finished their sweaters!  Back to the issue at hand here.

As I was saying, Kathleen is such a versatile designer.  We know she has designed lovely patterns for felting projects.  We know that she is a prolific designer of breathtaking stranded knitting patterns (check out the list of her designs and books on Ravelry!).  In her new book I Heart Felt she takes us by the hand and skillfully walks us through the land of felting our stranded knitting.  It's a delicate art, balancing stranding in the pattern from row to row, resulting in an evenly fulled item.  Kathleen has presented many lovely examples here from pillows to several must-knit tote bags and more.

Not interested in stranding and then intentionally felting your stunning effort?  Kathleen has given us detailed easy-to-follow instructions for the latest popular way to embellish our felted items:  Needle Felting!  A few years ago I Could. Not. Find. needle felting tools and I wanted to explore this technique So Much!  Now we can get the tools anywhere and Kathleen has given us classy timeless patterns to use them.  As I ooh'd and aah'd my way through this pattern book, two things caught my eye.  One was this pair of slippers.  When the moment comes that I need a break from EPS sweaters and writing sock patterns and dyeing dyeing dyeing yarn yarn yarn... This will be what I decide to make for Myself.  Felted slippers seem to be one of the most popular knits to gift and what's better than a gift for yourself?

Finally.  If you're a girl.  If you have a girl in your life.  If you KNOW a girl.  You will want to make these.  You might want to make them for yourself.  Or your daughter sister mother or best friend.  No girls around?  Make a crown for a boy.  Or a man.  He'll love Heart you for it.  :)

As much as I Heart This Book, I really Heart Kathleen Taylor.  She's not only a multi-talented fiber artist but generously shares many many free patterns through her blog.  Thank you Kathleen for giving so much of your talent and yourself.  I really Heart You.  :)

Everybody take good care of every little thing and I'll be back soon to tell about a few exciting Sugar Bunny Boulevard secrets!  XOXOXOXOX

Always Up For A Challenge!

Thank You to everyone for your thoughtful comments and personal emails of support and encouragement and concern regarding the children in Texas.  Every word means so much to us.  At the moment we're just glad that the storm of Friday afternoon is over and we're hoping nothing else happens before we can get there for the hearing.  Please forgive me for not replying to every comment - I sincerely appreciate every single one and soon I'll feel up to replying to comments again but right now even that is a lot for me to think about.

Prior to speaking with the children on Saturday afternoon we did some shopping which included a visit to Michael's to pick up a skein of Patons SWS (Soy Wool Stripes) yarn.  Last week Susan blogged about this yarn and showed a cute felted bag that she made with just one skein and had literally just a few inches of yarn remaining when she was finished.  I left a comment asking what size needles she used and even wrote an additional email asking if she had generally followed a "button bag" concept for the design.  She very thoughtfully replied and said she used size 13 circular needles and yes, it was similar to the button bag concept with a few clever shaping tricks of her own.

Hmm.  You know I had to try it myself to see if I could be as clever as Susan Lawrence, who I regard as one of my favorite knitting designers.  I could elaborate on that but at the moment I have too much else to talk about.  Another time.  She deserves an entire post of her own, seriously.

So I knit the bag.  How much yarn did I have left?  Ummmm......

There was approximately one inch remaining.  I had an 18" tail on the caston edge which I used to sew the bottom closed and then wove back along the same lines as reinforcement - all of the 18".  And I wove in this 1" tail at the top.  And that was it.  Not one snip left over from this 80g skein of yarn.  Here's a before and after (using a box of Zatarain's rice inside a plastic bag to help with shaping as it dries):

Pattern:  My own take on Susan's bag complete with tricky shaping  :)
Yarn:  1 skein Patons SWS (70% wool, 30% soy) in the Natural Plum colorway
Needles:  Two old aluminum circular needles size 10 1/2 (knit in the round on 2 circs)
Dimensions before felting:  11.5" wide x 10" high including handles
Dimensions after felting:  8.5" wide; 4" from base to top edge of bag; 6" from base to top of handles; approximately 3" across flat shaping on bottom of bag

The color did bleed in the hot water while felting the bag but overall it seems that felting brightened the colors a bit.  These pictures aren't really a good representation of the color because of the lighting but I think you can probably get the idea.

This will be perfect to carry with me into court.  A few tissues - keys and coin purse with credit cards and drivers license.  Pen maybe?  Lip balm?  It would even carry a small sock project if needed (tho not to court).  I don't really carry a purse any more so that's about all there could be.  Thanks for the inspiration Susan - I loved making this little bag - maybe I'll buy two skeins next time and make a bigger one!

That was my Sunday project (felted this morning).  Saturday I spun and plied 50g of unknown wool that was sent to me by Jan for spinning practice.  It was already dyed these beautiful jewel tones so all I had to do was start spinning.  It's slightly coarse wool (nothing is as soft as Ivy's wool!) and it really wanted to be spun thickly.  Spinning is such a major learning experience - an ongoing experiment really since I'm trying different weights and fibers.  Each one has different properties and it takes a different technique to get the same results with various fiber types.  I had NO IDEA the plied yarn would be so thick when I was finished but here are the results.  50g of wool netted approximately 41 yards of yarn so it's definitely in the aran/bulky category.  It was fun to make and now I'm trying to decide what it will become.  I can't keep making scarfs for toddlers - eventually I'll have to make a grown-up quantity of yarn so I can make a grown-up size scarf!  hehe  Oh by the way - to my surprise all 50g was crammed onto my bigger size spindle!!  And of course after seeing Margene's balanced skein this morning I had to check to see if mine was balanced too (challenge #2!).  heh

During the shopping trip on Saturday we also picked up a few beads and charms so I made some new stitch markers and row markers for the SugarBunnyBlvd etsy shop.  I haven't listed these yet so if there's something you really like, give me a holler and it's yours!  Prices range from $3 for single row markers to $5-$6 for the sets with matching stitch and row markers.  I can also do custom requests.

Everybody have a great evening! 

Oh - by the way - my back is feeling MUCH better.  I haven't taken any medication since I was so loopy on Friday - thank goodness.  It's still a little sore and achey (especially if I've been sitting too long in the computer chair!) but overall it's SO MUCH BETTER thank goodness!!