Sweater Surgery Book Contributions

Ok, I know I'm lame, but I'm finally getting around to posting my contributions to the Sweater Surgery book. (Disclaimer: I purposefully blurred out the instructional text because of copyright issues. Besides, that way, you can go buy the book. :-) Or, if you're interested, I'd be willing to teach any one of these projects at your shop or party. I also teach knitting and dyeing.)



The instructions are just for the Twiggy Headband (page 63)...it's the rainbow colored one. The other two headbands are featured in the book's Gallery section on page 131 and do not include instructions.


Nine-to-Five was also flashed in a quick 1-second clip on DIY Network's "Uncommon Threads." Originally, my friends and I were also supposed to demo this project, but the producers realized that they didn't have enough time, so we just worked on Shelly.


Everyone loves the Hippie Chicks! I came up with the idea when I was experimenting with dyeing a recycled angora sweater. I love the way the publisher styled Opal and Sunshine. Recently, I sold both of them to a very cute and enthusiastic Taiko drummer named Susie.


Violet Flower was such a labor-intensive project. Well all of the featured projects are, but this one takes the cake with the size ratio. This is made from a recycled, upcycled sweater sleeve that I felted. Then I dip-dyed it (not as easy as it seems because you have to hold it to get saturation and try to control the colors to make sure that it seemed more fluid), hand-stitched the purse and the lining and did the embroidery edges. Each petal is also individually laid out and sewn. The center of the flower also is the closure.


Shelly has an extra cameo on page 14, and has her own Gallery photo on page 127. I had posted about Shelly before and my experiences on Uncommon Threads in September 2006 (Geez, has it been that long?)


These two hats (page 130) are featured in the Gallery section as well and do not have any accompanying instructions. Gwlana was originally intended to be an artsy-ish woven bowl, but then Zona commented that it could be cute as a kid's hat -- and I agree! Cosmopolitan is made from cut pieces of a felted wool sweater. I used the texture of the sweater fabric to create interest in the hat.

Hats and Headbands

Since I forgot to photograph the Hunter's Orange hat that made for Linh's husband, she took some for me. It turns out that Nick's head is huge. I had already made it big, but apparently I erred.


Being a hunter who grew up in a village in Arkansas, I guess I half-expected that I'd get a photo of Nick posing. However, this photo really makes me cringe and uncomfortable, no matter how much I love Linh and Nick. That's one large hunting arrow -- too big for this former 10+ year vegetarian who still has problems eating some meat.

On a lighter note, my sister and her friends were sweet enough to model the reversible headbands they had bought from me. Thanks!!

In Recovery

Just when I thought I was finally nearing the end of my recovery from Aubrey's wedding, I got hit with some crafty deadlines.

First of all, the wedding, veil, and flowers all turned out fabulously. Of course, the bride was glowing, gorgeous and flawless. We were all relieved and elated that the famously klutzy bride did not fall or trip on the uneven grounds of the nature preserve -- not once! Whew! Seriously, this is a lady who trips on air on a flat level surface. However, the bride did not lose a special Aubrey touch: She lost her garter, which slipped off her leg somewhere, and she lost an earring, which she later found with a flower from her bouquet inside her bra.



Above: me and Linh. I don't have any photos of the gorgeous arrangements. I hope Linh blogs them soon!


Above: The knitters! It was really nice seeing some of the knitters dressed up for a change. We rarely see each other looking spiffy and not covered in yarn and fiber fuzz.

Soon after the wedding, I realized that I had an upcoming deadline for a contest that I wanted to participate in. Did I ever mention that I'm trying to do something for an Etsy contest? I had originally planned on entering the 3 maximum allowable entries per person, but it looks like I will only be able to do one before the June 15 deadline.

As I was planning out the contest entries, the author of an upcoming book on recycled sweaters contacted me about some of my project/idea submissions. She and her editor liked the things I submitted and they requested that I send them finished projects and descriptions ASAP. So I spent the week after the wedding getting the projects finished and mailed off. In all, I think I sent in about 6-7 projects. From what I can tell, it appears that the book will be some sort of anthology of projects from various crafters/artists. Hopefully, they will select at least one of my projects.

Wish me luck on both (I think the Etsy contest is a longshot though.)!

Things finally appear to be slowing down a little from the recent flurry of miscellaneous crafty activities. Maybe now I'll have more time to devote to knitting and spinning. I haven't done much of either. I had been making great progress on a double knitted hat and was near-ready to decrease. Then, I realized that my image was not right. I failed to check as I knitted and knitted. What's more is that I lacked foresight in planning the design image, so I ended up with a backwards design on one side. *sigh* That's the Zen of Knitting.

Not having time to knit also means no time to spin -- I still don't think I have more than 6 yards of the alpaca lace I started nearly 4 weeks ago. I DO have some new spinning-related news though! I will keep you all in suspense until I can photograph the great news. ;)

Well, before I get to do more spinning and knitting, I do have to do more sewing. I need to make more headbands for the shop. In the next couple of weeks, I will also be making more of my Fortune Cookie purses (like this one I made for Aubrey) for the shop and for two custom orders I received at the wedding.

Frenzy

My apologies to my swap pals for being a little slow to post the goodies I've been receiving. I received this earthy-color themed package from my Secret Pal 10 swap pal a couple of weeks ago. I absolutely love the fancy fabric, and the colors of the cashmere yarn! The chocolate is also to die for -- I actually bought and ate a couple bars of this chocolate when hubby and I went to Belgium for the Soccer World Cup last summer.
From my Dye-No-Mite swap pal, I received an adorable and thoughtful card with cute and furry sheep on it.

Since Aubrey's wedding is fast approaching (this Saturday!!), I've been helping her with wedding sweatshop (photos here) and other wedding things. I just finished making her chapel length veil, made of silk chiffon trimmed with a rat tail lace at the bottom and a pearl and rat tail trim to match her fancy lace dress. Aubrey hired my friend Linh, who's staying with me, as the florist, so we've been running flower-related errands as well. The wedding is days away, and I still have yet to alter my bridesmaids dress. I have to shorten the straps and take it in near my armpits. Luckily, the empire waist means that I don't have to take in the rib/waist as well. I had to buy a size larger to accommodate my abnormally endowed bosom, which my friend Tedd claims that I stole from all the other Asian girls we knew in college.

As far as my other crafty activities, I'm trying to be an overachiever and spinning lace weight alpaca as my 3rd spinning project. Needless to say, the yarn keeps breaking on me -- I keep underspinning or overspinning and somehow failing to spin somewhere in between. This spinning project is testing my patience and tolerance! I don't think I have more than 15 yards on the spool at this point, and I started about a week ago.

I've also been dyeing the past two weekends. Last weekend, I painted some yarn and rovings for by of my swap pals in the Dye-No-Mite swap and Secret Pal 10 swaps. I also handpainted and listed this in my shop:

Then, this past Sunday, I hosted my 5th Wine, Dye and Knit party. No one got drunk, but my klutzy talents did not fail me -- I spilled half a bottle of red dye on my blonde bamboo floors and all over Robert's (from my knitting group) shoe. Oops! Luckily, I didn't spill on anyone else -- I guess it was a good lesson on what not to do for the 3 dye virgins that came. I'm fortunate that only one tiny spot on the floor turned a little pink, but it's barely noticeable. I'm actually pretty proud of myself because this is only my first major dye accident.

And last but not least, I finally remembered to photograph the purse I made for Aubrey's bridal shower gift.


The inside has 2 pockets, 2 magnetic snaps and a key ring hook.

If Only for a Moment

I woke to this morning to find one of my items featured on the front page of Etsy. Unfortunately, being on the front page can last from a few hours to 1-2 days, and I think mine was a few hours. It's no longer on the front page, and I failed to capture the image. Darn! Here's the image of the collection that was featured though:

Lately I have been sewing away, not just in Aubrey's sweatshop, but also in my own. I've spent the last 2 weeks designing and tweaking a couple of purse patterns. I made one for Aubrey, but I forgot to take photos of if before giving it to her.

These two bags below are for my godmother and my stepmother. I decided to let them decide between the two of them which one they want:







I'm call the first design "Gigi" and the second one "Fortune Cookie." I currently have another "Gigi" in the same striped outer fabric but with a fun martini print lining in my etsy shop.

I also made these 2 headbands for the shop, but of course, I also made 2 additional ones for myself to wear. :)

Dalai Llama

Unfortunately, that's not his name. His name is Cinnamon, and he's a bonafide camera hog. Cinnamon (right) is one of several llamas that Aubrey's future mother-in-law has on her property. The news on the grapevine is that Cinnamon and all his friends are due for a haircut soon. You know what that means, right? Llama fleece and fiber to play with and spin!! Lots of fiber! The other llamas are pretty friendly as well, or so they seem. I was a little wary of making any sudden movements, because getting spat on by a llama is certainly not on my to-do list.

This past Thursday, hubby and I went to a Galaxy game with JayJay and her spouse, and my friend Linh and her spouse. It was in the middle of a sudden cold windstorm, only we were all too stupid to bring a jacket. If it weren't for all the freebie t-shirts, we would've frozen. It was a nasty windstorm that knocked out the power in many areas. We really could've used a llama fleece for warmth! While the boys enjoyed the game, the girls without the sexy David Beckham to oogle, turned our attention to knitting -- well, as best as we could with our frozen fingers. JayJay and I both worked on baby hats, and Linh (right) worked to finish her very first knitting project, also a baby hat.

Halfway through her visit Linh decided that she wanted to learn, so of course, I was more than happy to oblige. She wants to be able to knit clothing and accessories for her future children. She's a pro already-- here stitches are all pretty even and she really only dropped a 3-4 times. Not bad for a first time, especially working on dpns!! And as you can see to the left, Linh resorted to wearing her unfinished baby hat due the sharp winds. Good thing wool is stretchy!

As far as my own recent crafty endeavors, this past week, I made 3 baby hats for my inventory stockpile for future craft fairs. I'm otherwise stuck in between knitting WIPs. I ran out of one of the yarns for my entrelac stole, so I can only admire it in its unfinished state for now. I'm also working on a lace stole for a friend, and am attempting to write my first lace panel design. We'll see how that goes -- it doesn't seem very promising at this time. If I am itching to knit, I guess I could always try to tackle the many old UFOs....nah!



In shop activity, I also recently listed these:

Left: Reversible fabric headband featuring different Asian prints on either side. Right: Fabric -covered buttons

Left: Fabric covered keychain with a genuine Indonesian batik fabric. Right: A fully lined and stabilized wristlet clutch with 2 interior pockets.

Left: Another Liana kit in Hot, Hot, Hot! colorway. Right: A Dye-No-Mite Surprise Yarn pack. I'm offering people a handpainted yarn package deal If you buy, what you get will definitely be at least 25% less than buying it separately. Details here.

Needle Organization

As I get more involved in this "little" hobby of mine, I have discovered that my needle supplies need better and more efficient organization. When I first started knitting, I made this needle roll below, which was more than suffice and fit all my stuff rather well. It was made of various remants I had from my curtains.


Then when I joined my knitting group, I needed something portable, so I made this green one out of some sari fabric (bought on ebay) and some batik (bought in Indonesia). The white thing in the picture is velcro, so that I can keep little things like cable needles safe, but also be able to take the pouch out.


But as my "little" hobby grew, my needles started falling out of my larger needle roll and my travel one started becoming overflow storage. I also had a problem of always needing to search and search for the right sized needles. Whenever I tried to look for needles, everything would get caught in the circulars and selecting needles was like playing your luck in the lottery. Also, I had to sprawl out to do this so my needle roll took up prime real estate on my sewing tables. I needed something better. The first thing I did to solve that problem was to make a holder for my circulars. This one below is a prototype, but the idea is to hang it on a wall or hanger with the grommets. I need to make a better one.


Well adding the circular needle case to my organization still did not help much, as you can see below. All this obviously does not include all the needles on the many many UFOs any dedicated knitter has.


So, I decided to make a better needle roll for all my straights and DPNs that could be portable, if needed, and save surface real estate. The orange dotted one was the prototype, but I had made the pockets a little snug for the more commonly used sizes, where you're likely to have duplicates. This prototype now belongs to Aubrey, who desperately needed something to help her organize her needles.


So after making some adjustments, here's the final one. Yay! It has pockets low enough to fit both 5" and 7" dpns, and pockets wide enough to fit extra pairs of same-sized straights. The roll accoommodates a full set of needles sizes 000-19, up to 13" in length. Now, all I have to do is make a pattern out of the specs I used for this so that I can make some to give friends and to put up on my etsy shop. Ooh gotta go shopping for more fun fabrics too. Yay!

Here it is hanging on my craft room wall. The little zippered pouch is detachable.

Etsy Upcycling Contest

I recently entered the Etsy Upycling contest. I know it's a long shot, especially since I was out of town during the holidays and barely had time to meet the deadline. But hey, I can say I tried. The contest requires people to make stuff out of recycled materials to be posted on their shops with a maximum of 3 entries per person. Here are my entries:

"SHELLY"Shelly is a giant turtle floor pillow that I conceived for Uncommon Threads. This Shelly was made from leftover felted recycled sweater scraps we had for the show. Every inch of Shelly is recycled, except for the thread used to sew her together. Shelly is stuffed with fabric and more sweater scraps. Making Shelly is quite labor intensive and dusty (all the felt fuzz!) with all the cutting and sewing, especially wiht her size! I wasn't sure how to price her, but I settled for $80 due to all the labor involved.

"FLOWER"

Flower is a clutch made of a sleeve of a holey cashmere sweater that I embellished with scrap yarn and strips cut from a potato chip bag. Yep. I felted it, added a magnetic clasp and lined it with my hubby's logo shirt form a former employer (logo cut out of course). The flower on the flap is from bad CD. Again, the labor on this was quite a bit because of all the hand sewn and felted details, even if I didn't knit it up, so I settled at $44 as a price. I know some people may still think it's too much, but oh well, it's still way less than what it would be if I actually charged for hourly labor.

"SWIRLS"

Swirl is made of the same holey cashmere sweater as Flower. It is also embellished it with swirls and dots using scrap yarn and strips cut from a potato chip bag. The shinier dots and swirls are from a defective CD. I also lined it with my hubby's logo shirt form a former employer (logo cut out of course), but I utilized the pocket and button hole on the front of the shirt. The floral band on in the lining was a scrap from a project that was in my crafting trash pile. Again, the labor on this was quite a bit. I priced this one at $54 because the bag is a little bigger and took more time to put together.

I'm not sure when Etsy will be making their contest decision, but I really don't think that I will win. I just wanted to try and sumbit something, even with the limited time that I had. There are many really good and super creative entries out there (and a few crap ones, IMO) so I am sure that the judging committee will be having a challenging and difficult time!

I got a flu shot...

...and I'm sick. Yuck. I guess logically, you can still get sick, just not the flu. I was always sick as a kid, and I guess maybe built up some sort of tolerance, so after 23 I would rarely get sick. I've been in bed for 2 1/2 days now. It started on Saturday morning, but I still woke up at 7am to photogragh and post some reversible headbands and a few of the lacy lace-up gauntlets knitting kits on my etsy shop. (see below, click on photo to enlarge)

After I finished posting the stuff, I went back to bed to get myself feeling better so that I could attend my knitting group's holiday party, where I ate WAAAY too much fondue.

The saddest part of being sick is that though I've been good about resting in bed, my head is too stuffy to work on any of my knitting projects. booohooo. I'm currently working on 3 original patterns, holiday gifts, gauntlets for my sis, and a scarf for my friend Linh who will be making a drastic move from Dallas to Chicago in January. I still have to cast on for a scarf for former colleague, lace scarf for another friend/former colleague, a wrap from my stepmother, and slipper socks for hubby. Other planned crafty projects include a project for a contest and other home improvement stuff. whew! I'm tired from writing that list! Must go back to bed and nap before my head explodes.

Not my best, but...

Zona had sent me this posting from someone who's looking for people to make an evening bag out of recycled, sustainable or thrifted materials. Totally up my alley. As busy as work and life has been, I can't really turn down a craft challenge. The problem is, I know I can do it, but I don't have good pics of similar stuff that I've done. I've done nice purses and bags, but that was my pre-blogging days, so I don't really have pics. Anyway, I quickly emailed some ideas and sent pics of stuff that I have done -- at least it's better than nothing. So despite a really busy weekend with visitors and other stuff I needed to get done, I managed to whip up a simple clutch. It's made out of a sari silk top that I found at my local thrift store. (I found more saris in a blue and a purple too!) It's 100% silk on the outside. The rouched part has some padding underneath to give it some more body . The inside is 100% cotton from some fabric I already had, and the trim is some leftover Indonesian batik that my in-laws brought me. I lined it with really thick interfacing to give it structure. Given the time and my own rush to try to get out a sample, I would certainly say this is not my best work by far, but it's decent I guess. And given it's already past midnight, I can't really take great photos with natural light.

I also made a more casual purse on Saturday. My godmother, who was visiting saw my crafty things and asked me to make her casual fun bag, so I whipped one up that evening using a pair of unwanted jeans. We went with one of the fun fabric remnants that I had and chose a retro-ish tech/space print. The flower was the easiest -- leftover scraps from the Shelly Tortoise project cut out and then put on a pin.

Most Awesome Cards

Because we had so much fun, we wanted to thank our producers from our Uncommon Threads shows. The girls and I decided to put our creative juice together again and custom-make Alana and Steve thank-you cards that are reminiscent of the projects we worked on.

Aren't they cute?!

Alana's Card:


Steve's Card:

As a joke, we decided that Aubrey should make this a dead cat, and I don't know if you can see the tag, but this dead cat's name is "StepOut."

Uncommon Threads - 2nd Taping Day

Episode #265: Meowzers!
Day 2 of our taping occurred on Sept. 6. We showed up bare-faced (dark circles and all) in regular (and rather untidy) street clothes. You see, we were instructed to showed up "camera-ready" and fully made-up for both taping days, by Sonya, the associate producer that works with Alana, producer for the Shelly project. We were good little girls and came fully primped that first day, we knew better for Day 2. On Day 1, we had to change out to street clothes so we didn't get our dress clothes dirty with all the rehearsals.

This 2nd day was so much more relaxed and fun. In part, this was because we already knew what to expect, and our producer, Steve, was really cool and funny. Alana was also really cool and super nice, but it was a little challenging to rehearse without her for most of the Day 1 morning. Alana had a taping, so she had Sonya, who is also nice, rehearse us by herself. We didn't know what to expect, and because Alana wasn't readily available for us to consult with, some parts were made more challenging than it should have been. Anyway, back to Day 2...

Day 2 was so laid back that Aubrey, Zona and I even had time to knit while awaiting our turn to tape! (Rachel was only able to do the previous day.) On Day 1, the entire show was dedicated to one project, whereas, on Day 2, we did our project, then Allison Whitlock (host) demonstrated her project and then we did a show & tell of other stuff we had made.

The step-out table with all the stuff and materials we needed for our project:

We struck a few poses on set while waiting for taping to start.

A few behind-the-scene moments:

Posing with the lovely Allison Whitlock:

Last, but certainly not least, I must tell you about our awesome producer (and it's not just because he gave us alcohol, well... he did score some extra brownie points!). Not only did Steve make us laugh throughout the day, he surprised us with a gift after taping in our 80's rock-ish decorated dressing room with poufy black leather sofas. He had set up a bucket of beer, a bottle of KJ Chardonnay (one of my faves at the moment - he must be a mindreader too!), and a lovely thank-you note. Earlier, Steve had told us that since we were the last episode and last taping of the season, we'd have the opportunity to celebrate with the crew with some beers. Well, their schedules got switched and they still had to tape some filler and tidbit stuff after taping our episode, so we didn't get to celebrate with them, but of course, its totally understandable. I mean, it would've been the icing on the cake, but we weren't disappointed or anything -- we already had tons of fun on both days. Anyway, Steve wanted to keep his promise, so he surprised us!!

The funny thing is that no one had a corkscrew, and we really wanted to toast and drink the wine.

Handy Tip of the Day: So, what do you do when you need to open a bottle of wine and don't have a corkscrew? Use a drill and a screw! This tip was brought to you by the über-crafty art department of Uncommon Threads!


We were all very huggy. Hope we didn't scare Steve! Thanks to all the Screen Door Entertainment/Uncommon Threads crew! Everyone was super duper nice. :)

Yeah, if only the interns brought us coffee!

Zona, uploaded her photos from the Uncommon Threads taping. You can see it here.

Uncommon Threads - 1st Taping Day

Episode # 241: Shapeshifting Sweaters.
Our little foray into the world of TV began late Wednesday night. I drove my pimp mobile (a rental Chevy Impala since some b*tch hit and ran into my 6 months old hybrid car!) to pick up Zona and Aubrey. We stopped by to do some last minute shopping. You know, we all have full time jobs on top of all this stuff.

Screen Door Entertainment, who is producing the show for DIY, was awesome enough that they realized how far the girls and I would be driving. Technically, we're "local" but the drive to Burbank from North and Central Orange County is not that "local," especially since they wanted us at the studios at 7:00 a.m. BOTH days. So...they got us a hotel room literally nearly steps from the studio. YAY!


Above: We are such dorks and just HAD to pose with Buttons the giant sock monkey made of burlap!

Aubrey and I shared a room, since we're both night owls. I realized that there were more step-outs than I thought I needed to do. (Hey, in my defense, I was very busy doing my friend's veil and wedding, had multiple visitors for like 2 months straight, including in-laws from Jakarta that stayed 1 month.) Anyway, Aubrey was sweet enough to stay up late to help and I think she finally fell asleep at 2am, whereas I slept at 4am, partly due to the excitement. Zona got lucky she didn't end up rooming with us and go the room to herself (Rachel decided drive in on Thursday) or otherwise, Zona may have cursed me for any ugly undereyebags that she got.

We were told to arrive at our 7am call time, dressed and made up, although we were slated to be the 3rd show to be taped on Sept. 5. Sonya, the associate producer, was very nice, but she made us rehearse like 5 times. Alana, with whom I mainly corresponded from the beginning, was taping a show in the morning, so she didn't meet with us until late morning.

Above Left: Morning rehearsals with Alana. Notice that we stripped off our clothes that we were going to wear based on the instructions to "come dressed and made-up at 7am"

Above, Left to Right: Rachel, Me, Aubrey, Zona, & producer Alana. Umm, if their eyes look funny its because white people tend to have eyes that turn red in photos and I suck as correcting the bunny eyes.

Apparently the film crew and producers had been experiencing everything taking longer than they had thought, they had to cut some projects. I think the time factor has to do with the network's request for things to be done more "real-time" like, instead like those older craft or cooking shows, where they don't even hide that they have something pre-finished or pre-started. I guess they want viewers to feel a true "magic of television" that things were all shot in real time, but they editted down to 30 minutes per episode. Oh well.

So, they decided to make my Shelly Tortoise project the whole show and they cut out Aubrey's cool slipper project, the sweater lampshade project that Zona and Rachel were going to demo, and my magazine file cozy. The cut projects ended up being a show and tell.

Above: The set. The woman in the right photo is the stunningly beautiful (and tall!) host, Allison.

Aside from the slight frustration that most of the step-outs weren't used and we had to sew a brand new tortoise, which we dubbed Shelby, on the spot, it was really fun. It was such a loooong day. Because we had to create a new one (and not use 2 whole step-outs I had made), we didn't finish taping until 7:30pm. Oh, step-outs are what they called all they separate steps that we had to pre-make during pertinent parts of the construction of the project.

Oh yeah - the sweater fuzz flying around wasn't too fun either. The entire crew, including the host Allison Whitlock, was super friendly and amiable. Dave, the art director/master prop dude was really funny and personable as well. I owe several apologies to the sound guy (AJ?) because I coughed several times, which apparently sounds really really sharp and loud with the mike on. It was those damned sweater fibers! I swear, if anyone had to do an autopsy on me they would have to wonder why I have so many weird multi-colored felted wool fibers nestled in my lungs. I don't need any more respiratory problems -- I've already got terrible allergies and asthma!

See Aubrey's account of the experience here (and ignore my cross-post).

I took one of the unfinished step-outs home and look at Whitey Coyote -- instant love! I don't think this floor pillow will ever get used by my house guests.

Crafting Stars III

Wooohooo! I have already written several posts and made several references to me being a guest on DIY Network's new show Uncommon Threads. (blogged here and here.) My friends and I will be shooting an episode on Sept. 5 being called "Shapeshifting Sweaters." I had submitted other ideas, but either the big-wigs gave the idea a thumbs down, or other people beat me to the punch with similar ideas. Well, just about 1 week ago, one of the producers of the show called me and asked if I could do another 1-2 episodes. So, I will also be going to their studio on Sept 6 to shoot an cat-themed episodes. I submitted some sewing projects such as toys, cat beds and some out-of-the-box stuff.

As exciting as all this is, it is also very time consuming, as I have to make the projects and all the steps in between for both shows. My friends also have a couple of projects, but the ones I will be demonstrating/orchestrating take the most time and work. Eek! I hope everything turns out well.

Oh, remember the film crew from TriCoastDVD that I contacted to film my knitting group? (blogged here) I forgot to mention that Marcy the producer and her assistance Courtney sent me a copy of each of the DVDs that they filmed. I did not end up on the cutting room floor! I the little 2 second bit, I am working on my clapotis using the cashmere/merino yarn I dyed. What the crew shot was a very small segment, featured as an extra on the DVD menu. TriCoast DVD did it for Leisure Arts. The DVDs are: "I Can't Believe I'm Knitting -- in motion" and "I Can't Believe I'm Crocheting -- in motion"

"Kimono" Bag

Here it is! I still have close-up photos that I have not uploaded and formated, but I figure these will do. I hope Rhi likes her bag! I haven't seen her since I have missed 2 knitting group meetings since her graduation.

I made this huge bag so that both of the main sides would be beautiful and look like a totally different bag, and so that it would fit all sorts of yarn, books or anything else!
1
2

1. I made this to resemble a Japanese kimono. The flowery fabric and the deep red "obi" are leftovers from fabric I purchased 2 years ago to make my curtains. The trim and the orange fabrics are just scraps.
2. This side is made from a recycled and felted sweater. I made and added the flower and blue petals to coordinate with the fabric on the other side. THe orange flower and the blue petals are also from felted sweaters.
3. See all the pockets in the front?
4. & 5. Showing the sides of the bag. I also worked in a pen/pencil pocket.
6. & 7. Just comparing the size of the bag to a magazine.
3
4 5
6 7