I've got my bag and I'm ready for the wedding

I'm not much of a girly girl with accessories and such, which normally doesn't present a problem, except for fancy occasions. I don't attend many fancy occasions, mostly just the occasional wedding, for which I have my basic cute black dress and a few other basic options. What I never seem to have, which I don't notice until the last moment, is a cute little bag to go with the fancy dress to the fancy occasion.



We are going to a wedding tomorrow and finally I am ready with my newly felted Noni bag. Now if only I could find my fancy earrings and pearl necklace....

specs:
pattern: Noni raspberry liqueur bag (#125 Three Confections by Laura J. Bellows ) ravelry link
yarn: 2 skeins of Cascade 220 color 9420
needles: 10 1/2
felted: by hand in bucket

you know it's a good handmade gift if you want to keep it.

Or at least I think so anyway.



The belated wedding gift is finally done. The bad news is I want to keep it. The good news is I want to keep it and I have a lot of left over yarn and can make another one for me. Anyone want to crochet one for me?



specs:
pattern: Soft Waves stitch in "200 Ripple Stitch Patterns" by Jan Eaton
yarn: lots of colors of Cascade 220 with some leftovers of Valley Yarns Northampton and a few other odds and ends
hook: H- 5.0mm
size: roughly 54" by 48" - I was aiming for a good lap sized blanket



The hardest thing about this blanket was getting a decent photo. Elliott and I did a fun (well fun for me) photo shoot earlier in the week with me running around holding the blanket behind me and me wrapped up like a big burrito in the blanket but the nice sunny day was wreaking havoc with the light meter on the camera. Either everything was blown out and the colors were glowing or it looked like we were shooting with an eerie black backdrop. So when I was up early the other morning, the light was much better, it was bright out but overcast with some mist in the air. Much better for photographing crazy color.

back from touring the midwest with an FO in hand

That lotus tank - she's all done she is!

Pattern: Lotus Blossom Tank by Sharon Shoji from Interweave Knits, Summer 2006 (Ravelry linky)
Yarn: 8 skeins of Ella Rae Bamboo Silk in color BS-08 Marine
Needles: 6's, 5's, 4's and 3's
Size: 38" bust (tinkered with gauge to get this size - I used the directions for the 39" bust)
Notes: I'm using the brilliant modifications from LicketyKnits to make this a tank that would fit well and that I would really like to wear. Namely, I added one lace repeat, the improved waist shaping, knitting 4" before the armhole, and used a smaller needle size on the neckband to prevent gaping. I did only 2 paired increases after the waist increasing to get the 38" bust instead of the 39". I'm pretty pleased and surprised with how well this fits.





I'm finally back from many adventures in the great Midwest which included a business trip to Nebraska and a side excursion to the state fair, a family visit to rural Wisconsin, rocking good times in Chicago culminating in my brother's wedding. Click on any of the links to see photos in Flickr. I was going to make carefully crafted mosaics for the blog post but that feels overwhelming as I catch up on things, so go take a looksee if you're interested.