Friday, March 23, 2012

Goodies and More


I finally rewound my swap ball from Grace's St. Patrick's Day swap.  I was amazed as the goodies fell out!  There were cute little butterfly buttons (they will be perfect for the lace edged cardi), needle point protectors, sunflower tissues, chocolate (the Milk Duds are shown but I ate the chocolate bar--of course), and best of all shamrock socks.  All that and great yarn too.  What great swap swag!!  Another big thank you to my swap buddy Karen.
 
I have been spending tons of time on the Sunshine Bag and have reach 50% of the required 3.5 inches of linen stitch before beginning the cable section.  I love the size of the bag and am still digging the linen stitch.  I am also still amazed and annoyed by the things the pattern does not tell you.  After reading and re-reading the pattern for definitive information on needle length (nowhere  does the pattern suggest that you might want to start the in-the-round section with DPN's).  In the absence of DPN's you will struggle with 12 inch, 16 inch, 20 inch needles and still not have a perfectly smooth transition from the flat bottom to the circular sides of the bag.  None of the needle sizes I tried worked for smooth knitting around the tight ends and long sides of the bag.  In other words, there is no easy way, which is probably why the pattern does not address the problem.

Anyway, it gets easier as the bag gets longer and I know I will love the bag when it is finished and lined with bright turquoise.  I'm tossing around the question of "to zipper or not to zipper."  After the needle problem, the zipper thing should be a snap!!  Oh wow!  I could use a snap....

Life is good.

2 comments:

kathy b said...

I love the buttons......they are perfect.
What fun surprises YOU had unwinding.
I love the thought of a lined bag, I wish I could sew...some day. I vote zipper for functionality..buttons just don't keep all my purse things..in!

SissySees said...

Cute socks!!

I wish I could sew too. Maybe in about 15 months I'll teach myself to sew...