Gradient Notion Bag

Hey everyone! Today I'll be sharing a project I finished yesterday, a crocheted notion bag.

I wanted it to be small, just big enough to fit little scissors and measuring tapes and any other essentials to have on handy. It measures around 5" x 5", but I think that I could have made it a little wider.

The bag is started off with a chain, which you crochet on both sides of and then just work your way round and round. I joined in the round, although I wish that I hadn't because it leaves a little raised bump. I didn't get a picture of that specifically, but it blends in with the stitches because I crocheted in the back loop. 

The button I used is from my local yarn store. It's made out of wood, shaped like a leaf and has little slits. I believe that it's handmade also. 

I've been thinking about reopening my Etsy store (here it is, even though there's nothing there right now), so I may list it on there sometime. I'll let you guys know if I do!

Thanks for reading! :)

WIP Wednesday

(a sidenote that the pictures look a little better enlarged, if you click on them it does so)

Hey everyone! I hope that you all have had a great week so far. I know that it's a little late to do a WIP Wednesday, as it's already almost Thursday, but I guess it's better late than not at all.

Since it's finally autumn and starting to grow chillier, I thought that I might start working on some cozy, warm stuff to wear :) At the beginning of this week, I started up a shawl/scarf using the pattern The Lace Mess Shawl by Sylvia Bo Bilvia. The pattern gives you the ability to almost design the shawl yourself; it's super versatile.

Instead of doing lace, I'm just doing a simple stockinette pattern with random ridges (as in, instead of purling on a WS row like you normally would, I'm knitting that row).

Instead of doing lace, I'm doing a stockinette pattern with garter ridges at random. I think that it gives the fabric more texture and just makes it more interesting. 

The pattern doesn't say what needle size to use, but I'm using 10.5mm, 16" circulars. I think that they're a pretty good size to get the fabric loose, but not so loose that there's gaps between the stitches.

The yarn I'm working with is Berroco's Vintage Chunky in plain white. I've had this yarn hanging around for two years now, so it feels nice to finally be putting it to use! I love working with it. 

Thanks for reading! I'll hopefully have another blog post near the end of this week. 

Beekeeper 2.0

To anyone who happens to be reading this, hello! I know that I haven't blogged since the springtime (up until this week, I haven't knitted since then either), but I'd like to start doing so again. 

On Friday I was going through some patterns whilst cleaning my room and came across the pattern for The Beekeeper's Quilt and just kind of decided to start it up again. I did have a few hexagon puffs from back when I originally started it, around February, but I don't think that I'll be able to use them because I used a different needle size (3.75mm) for them than I am now (3.25mm). 

I only have six as of now, but here's a picture of one of my favorites. 

The yarn used for this one was Malabrigo's Merino Worsted, one of my favorite yarns. It comes in rich colors, the plies don't split and it's so soft and nice to use. Definitely recommend it!

For the rest of my hexipuffs, I'm just using misc. worsted weight yarn scraps from leftover projects.

I would definitely recommend this pattern (here's the Ravelry page for it if you want to check it out!). It's so versatile and great if you just want to work on a little project to take a break from a larger one (these usually take me about forty five minutes for one).

Thanks for reading!

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Also, this is a little random and not knitting related, but would you guys like it if I blogged about other subjects? Photography and just my daily life for example. I think that doing so might work out pretty good for me because I'm not always knitting and I would still be able to blog. Let me know what you think!

Gradient Yarn

March 5th, 2013:
Hey guys! I found this post that never got posted! Odd, right? It was written on January 8th. So I'm going to go ahead and post it... two months later. 
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I recently dyed some more gradient yarn. I used this tutorial from the crafty The Work is Getting to Me.

   I picked up two skeins of undyed Cascade 220 over New Years to dye for this. I did one red with cherry Koolaid and one blue with raspberry Koolaid.

And here's how it turned out!

It was fun to dye and I love how they both turned out :)

Spun, Plied, Washed

I'm back! :) I finished spinning my latest handspun (I blogged about my progress the post before this one) on Sunday. I'll be honest, it really wasn't that fun to spin! It just didn't go as smooth as I thought it would. I guess that's why it took me so long...

So here's pictures of it! Sorry they're so small- it helps a little to click on them.

It's 2 ply and around DK weight. The yardage though, I'm not sure about. I wrapped it differently, without knowing. 

Sorry for the lack of knitting related posts! I haven't finished a knitting project since December, but I would like to get back in the groove of things soon.

On the Spindle...

I'm so sorry that I haven't posted since the beginning of December! I really need to be posting more.

I'm currently spinning up some roving that I got around New Years. Here's what the roving looks like:

Not the best picture, but that's what it looks like. It's a mix of green, blue, purple, pink, and a couple small undyed sections.

I started spinning it one or two weeks ago; here's what that looks like...

And after making some more progress:

I've spun more than that, but that's the latest picture I have of it. So far I've spun about 2 ounces out of four, so half.

I know I say this every time, but I will try to be posting more on here! I seem to have more spinning projects than knitting, but hopefully I'll even that out soon with some new projects.

An "Excuse Post"

I really haven't had any crafting things to blog about- sorry! So instead, I'm going to make an exception and do a little "behind the scenes," post. Here's some pictures of when I made the header for this blog last December.

        (Oh, I'd definitely recommend clicking on the pictures to get a much, much better view of them!)

Here's the... uh... original setup?

After being moved to much better lighting!

After getting everything just right, and adding that bottom handspun strand, here's what I came up with!

After boosting the exposure and cropping it, this is the final result!

One Down, Many to Go...

Can you believe that tomorrow is Thanksgiving? It really snuck up on me this year, it feels like. And then on Friday, it'll practically be Christmas time! So I really need get started on Christmas presents. Lesson learned from last year: Never start knitting presents 2 weeks before Christmas...

Haha :) So here's the first present, a skein of handspun.

Love!! :)

Slowly but Surely

I really need to be working on more inventory for my Etsy store, Fiber Doodles... I finished crocheting some cat toys this morning though, so that was kind of a relief.

Oh, and I added a little widget of my store on the sidebar recently. How cool is that? :)

Progress

I started spinning my merino handspun last night. Here's my progress so far...

Just a short post for today!

Dr. Suess

Here's some handspun that I recently finished- I just got around to taking pictures today.

84 yards - worsted weight

And here's the roving before it was all spun up.

3.6 ounces - Polwarth

I ordered it from an Etsy store, Nooch Fiber. It spun up great. I'll definitely be back for more!

Entrelac!

Entrelac projects made look intimidating for someone who's never done it... raises hand But it's easier than it seems! By picking up stitches, and using SSK and K2tog, you can achieve a basketweave texture that's great for just about any kind of project.

After seeing some super pretty projects that use entrelac knitting, I decided to figure out how it's done! :) So this morning I picked out some yarn to knit a sample with, printed out the Entrelac Scarf pattern, and grabbed my iPod (I like to listen to music while knitting...).

The Entrelac Scarf pattern (linked above) was a great pattern. It was easy to understand for someone who's never done it before, like me! I would definitely recommend it.

I'll definitely be doing this again, but maybe on a larger scale next time, instead of this swatch. I have a pillow from Joanns that does need a pillow case... maybe I'll do a entrelac pillow case?

I also learned how to do Judy's Magic Cast On (which is truly magical! :), so maybe I'll do a post about that, too.

Herbert Makes His Etsy Debut

I know, I know. It's been FOREVER since I've blogged on here. I apologize for my absence!

So to make you less mad at me (hehe), here's Herbert! I made him around Mother's Day, but I finally got around to taking pictures of him tonight. I crocheted him with some yarn I dyed with Kool Aid. I liked the colors and thought it would be cute for a frog :)

This evening, Herbert made his Etsy debut! You can see him here: linky link!

...and a couple weeks ago, I got some super cute project bags in the mail! Mellisa from an awesome Etsy store called The Ploverbird kindly gifted them to me. She sent me two, but I only have pictures of the larger one.

The first one has really cute people from all around the world on it :)

This one's nice and room- perfect for bigger projects. I love my bags :) 

You should check out her store! (There's a link above...) Her bags are cute, well made, and inexpensive too!