There must have been something in my butter beer. 
Yes, as you can probably guess we saw Harry Potter & the Half-blood Prince. It was pretty good, in as much as something that makes the title revelation a non-event and features the death of a beloved character can be “good”. I enjoyed the movie, and it was definitely laugh out loud funny at times, so that’s a plus. We saw it after a very good Chinese dinner with friends Jodi and Eric. I wasn’t as blown away with the hand-knits this time around, but I did laugh when Dumbledore came out of the loo with a Brit knit mag and gave his infamous line.
So, back to the butter beer… I don’t know what got into me, but holy smokes have I been productive this weekend! Let’s start with the sewing.
Local folks know that the only local Wal-Mart that still carries fabric and has a “real” craft department is downsizing to be just like all the new stores. Yay. I was able to get some great deals on 50% off fabric though, so at least that was exciting. One of my finds was a milk chocolate duck cloth and a coordinating cream floral. And interfacing. And trim. Oh look, a project!
Sorry, kinda squished there.
Neat - pleat!
What you see here is a completely organic, self-designed large tote bag that just kind of came together. And I mean that literally. I used no pattern references and didn’t draft a paper pattern for cutting guides. I just kinda… eyeballed it. I figured things out as I sewed, which means that I really had no idea of what it was going to end up looking like in the end, other than the fact that the outside and straps would be brown, the lining would be floral, and that I’d have some sort of border on top of the floral, hopefully with the sage green rope trim I liked so much.
Oh so sloppy stitching.
Mission accomplished. The sewing sucks, and no, I’m not being super critical here. Seriously, it’s sloppy, uneven, and pretty much looks like a kid did it. But the design… the aesthetic… I like that very much. The bag was bigger than I though, meaning the top would be too wide, so I added pleats. I think they rather make the bag! Really, the sewing is pretty poor, and I was rushing because I wanted to be done with it. As with so much of what I create though, I like it despite its flaws. This will be come my festival shopping bag, and will be very useful when I’m packing spinning and knitting paraphernalia for travel.
There's a single person blanket in there, along with three knitting projects and STILL room to spare! Spinning wheel for scale.
Also this weekend I managed to get some more spinning done for the Tour de Fleece, but not much. My knee, it bitches at me quite loudly. I have spun though, and that’s what counts!
Chug chug chugging along.
Delicious sherberty goodness. Nom nom nom.
Lastly, I have made quite a bit of progress on my Garden of Allah KAL shawl. I am almost done repeating the B chart for the second time. One more time and then I can move on to set up the border and be done. I will NOT be doing the odd original border, but instead will be doing the knitter-submitted, simpler alternate. Big improvement there. I’m very glad that I decided to sub out with the solid color yarn. While I lose the fun of watching colors pop up, I don’t have to watch colors pop up, if you get my drift. Some things are better left for less busy patterns.
Finally, true to color.
Seriously, the shawl is lovely, but I’m not quite sure the designer got what she was aiming for. I thank her for offering it to us, but would respectfully suggest that this plain version (with alternate edging) blows away the multi version any day. I’ll find something for that pumpkin spice yarn, sooner or later.
