This is the bottom of the clog...its the first part you start with...Apparently I need to make another bottom and sew it to this bottom to reinforce it...I'll come to that when the pattern tells me to...I was doing all kinds of 'wrap and turn' and 'make 1' that I'd never done before...and I was only off count by 2 stitches...not bad for me...

Here's the cuff..it was weird for me to pick up stitches and use a 3 needle bind off to roll it down, but all the stitches lined up and it went together wonderfully...the designer of this pattern (Bev Galeskas) knows what she's doing...

This thing is huge of course, as all felted items are when first done...it cracks me up, tho...I like the little green cuff, I coulda made the sole the same color,but I thought I'd take it easy w/ my first clog...I can go multi on my next set...

I thought the side was interesting..you can see where the top meets the 'side' and then how the sole fits in...

This is the sole of the piece..there are actually TWO soles there, for reinforcement...once it felts, it'll be nice and firm..I'll prob order the leather soles and add those just cause..

And here they are! All felted and broken in - the clogs are made in one generic size, and once they are felted and worn, they take on a 'left' and 'right' shape...

I ran these thru the washer once and they were great, but not felted enough..I was afraid I'd wear out the soles, so I ran them thru a second time...the right clog is slightly smaller than the left, but I can wear them comfortably and they'll stretch as they age...the material looks better when felted to a smooth fabric...

I like how the cuff and soles turned out...My next pair will have matching soles/cuffs (in fuchsia no less, with orange tops)...I can also needle felt any designs onto these, and I'm thinking about what I might do...I need to find those felting needles first...

A knitting needle caddy that holds the needles you're using for a project...the little curls on the outside hold crochet hooks too....this thing was fun and fast to weave...I like the deep gold color, I coulda used red, blue, green or smoke, but the gold jumped at me...is it any surprise...

A closer look at the piece..its about 12" high or so...there's a hardwood bottom that the spines are wedged into...making the hour glass shape was a bit tricky, once you start pulling tight, its hard to relax the tension, but the instructor helped me out...mine is a little wompy, but then so am I...

I tried to make these smooth, but as you can see one turned out nicer than the other...still, I'm gonna give them a whirl and see how well they knit...I bet they don't cause me any more problems than I'd normally cause myself with smooth pointed needles...

My first attempt to make my own boro needles...I pulled some random lime/orange and blue boro rods, but the blue went all metallic on me...that's ok, I kinda like it...and they match the scarf below! go figure...I think I'm gonna flatten the dots, I'm not wild about the raised look...whats cool is I can just pick them up and work on them, no worries about annealing or cracking...boro is very groovy...and I'm clueless, but I'm learning...

So, after making two of these mystery ball scarves, I decided to try one using my own stash...I don't have a very big stash, as I'm a pretty new knitter and most of what I buy is wool for felting totes...but I managed to come up with this grouping and have been really happy with the results...You can see the scarf in the middle there, its simple garter stitch, but I felt that the green cashmerino would be rather boring in garter, so I did my first ever seed stitching...and it was fast and easy...too bad I won't be able to use this much, since its so hot in here...I have to find some other projects I can knit and actually USE during the rest of the year...i envision some small purses perhaps...

Another mystery scarf, this one started with the fuzzy orange yarn shown in the lower right...I started it on the plane to Tucson (a flight attendant thought it was very cool) and it worked up SO FAST that I was done with it the next day...I love these colors and textures...its light weight and easy to wear with anything...but really really long...! I like the slanted look, I'd never done that before where you increase on one end and decrease on the other...there's so much to learn, it keeps me entertained, that's for sure...

So, I made this clutch AGES ago and it hung around doing nothing...then I noticed I had this strand of beads (I think I sold some strands like these at some point) and they were just laying around on my work table...after digging thru my stash box, I was able to add enough extras to create a nice strand for the front and back...

 

this clutch pattern can be found in the OneSkein book by Leigh Radford

And I finally bought some matching DMC floss to stitch them on, and now the clutch is ready to go out on the town...I hope it finds a nice date and has a nice time...

And this is the new felted tote that I've been designing that hasn't come close to what my original design was intended...I didn't know I'd need so much of the original cocoa (bottom color), and I only had 1 skein..the local stores don't carry much of the Lamb's Pride, so I used another color (heather) and then ran out...so the store had a Deep Charcoal and I bought 3 skeins and used it all...then I got bored with the solid block and started with the stripes that I LOVE...rich Thanksgiving colors..but I found out early that I needed more of the Aubergine, Bronze and Oak colors...I got more of the first two, but not of the third...so the top portion is being knitting in smaller stripes until I either run out of yarn, or decide I've had enough...(which is getting close on both counts)...

Here is a comparison shot...the tote measures 54" in length...considering 60" is the same as 5 FOOT, I'd say this is a rather large tote...when I hold it up to my chin, it drags the ground slightly (i'm 5'8")...I don't think I'll be felting this in my own washing machine, I plan to take it to a laundromat and let a bigger machine handle the thing...

Its not taken me too long to make this, well, that's all relative I guess..I'm a pretty slow knitter and this is the only thing I've been working on for the past month, but still, it seems like I just started the other day...I'm glad its almost done and I can start using it soon...I plan to attach leather handles to it, so as not to put the stress on the fabric itself...I'll take pics once that's all done...

I don't understand how this all happened... after I made this tote in colors I don't usually work in, I found loads of beads in my leftover box that match PERFECTLY!

So, I strung up each strand on beadalon and crimped each end, and tacked them onto either side, under the handles...Now the tote has it's own jewelry...

 

Neither side is 'right or wrong', its just side 'one and two'...I tried to keep the colors together that matched best, one side is dark (above) and this side is pale...

 

I've been having a good time carrying this around, people at Starbucks stopped me asking where I got it and when i said "I just knitted it up", they went' "oh, you just knitted it up" in a mocking voice...gotta love those women...

My Purple Striped Tote...

What's the deal you ask? Well, I found that the clutches just didn't hold everything I wanted them to, and I tried and tried to make a larger tote, but after I'd cast on 150 stitches, it felt (ha) like it took forever to knit, so I compromsed and cast on 80 and just knitted till I felt (ha) I had enough done...i think it measures about 16" in the pic here...

Why these colors? While this is SO not my color palette (not that its bad, I'm just not a pink and purple person), my local shops don't have much of this brand in stock, so i bought what I could and just put this together from my stash...I like the citrus stripe in it, its the same green as in the lime clutch shown below (the teal is the same color as shown below too)...

I finished it last night and wanted to felt it, but thought I should wait to take the 'before' pic this morning, otherwise I'd never get another opportunity..

This purple tote started as a clutch from the OneSkein book by Leigh Radford, but I created the color scheme, striped pattern and made it slightly larger...If you can knit, you can do the same thing, tho...come up with your own colors and pattern!! .

May 20 2006

So here it is after going one quick round in the washer...i should prob felt it some more, or at least beat it with a stick and get the fibers moving around a little, but I'm pretty happy with the final result..I made the gusset larger than I wanted, so most of the brown disappeared, but i'm still learning...I also wasn't sure if the piece would flare out properly, since I was just winging when to increase..(about every 8-10 rounds or so)...

I am happy that its a bigger clutch/tote/purse/whatever cause now I can carry my sunglasses, wallet, phone, keys, etc in it...Its still drying out, it'll be a few days before I can really use it, but whatever...i'm heading to the store to get more yarn and see what trouble i can get into again...I kinda like this 'design as you go' thing, its like walking a tight rope...I really expected this to be much worse than it turned out...

the blocking could be better, but then I have curly hair that I can't control either, so no matter how nicely I blocked it, I'm sure it'd just crumple back to the shape it is now...and as much as I'm gonna toss it around in my car and the cats will make biscuits on it, I don't wanna spend the time to block it when I'll prob be washing it again next week...

Here are two bowls and the clutch in the pre-felting stage...its amazing how big the pieces need to be before they are felted...the bowls actually could double as hats, and in fact I've seen quite a few patterns that are pretty much this same thing...who knew?

 

The clutch and bowl patterns can be found in the OneSkein book by Leigh Radford