French Market Bag is finished!

Okay, I know it's been a hideously long time since I last posted, but things have been a little crazy around here. But anyway, I finally got my French Market Bag felted. I've been done knitting it for about a week, but I didn't get around to felting it until tonight. I think it turned out pretty well. Here it is pre-felting:



And here it is post-felting:



I finished my black poncho, too, but I don't have any pictures of it yet. But I promise I will be better about posting, and I'll get some pictures up here soon.

New yarn!

The yarn that I ordered for my Tartan Jacket arrived yesterday. I know the knitalong doesn't start until January, but I'm getting excited about it already, so I thought I'd show off the yarn. I got it from Elann, and it's called Gjestal Naturgarn #1. Here it is being inspected by Franklin upon arrival:



And here's a slightly closer shot of the yarn:



I can't wait for January!

No new pictures

But I have made some progress, I promise. My poncho pieces are blocking as we speak. I finished the front of my sweater and have started on the sleeves. I haven't worked on the French Market Bag much, but I am planning on taking it to my Knitting Meetup this Wednesday. (My first Knitting Meetup - yay!) However, instead of working on any of these last night while my friend Sara was over and we were knitting while our husbands played video games, I cast on for a new project. I am making lace ball ornaments for my family for Christmas, and I figured I should probably get started on those. Here is the pattern for that, in case anyone is interested. They're pretty cool, actually. You knit the ball, then dip it in glue and blow up a balloon inside it. When the glue is dry, you pop the balloon and you have a stiff ball ornament.
Well, to make up for not having any pictures of my knitting, I thought I'd include some pictures of Franklin in my knitting bag. This actually happened months ago, but I was looking at them again today and realized that they were so cute, they should be shared.
Here he is inside the bag on the couch:



And here he is once I picked up the bag with him inside it. Please excuse my bare stomach. I had just come back from a run and was wearing a sports bra.

Progress

Well, one of the few benefits of being unemployed is that I have had lots of knitting time, so I have made a decent amount of progress on my various projects. I have completed both of the rectangles for my poncho, seen here:



Now they need to be blocked and sewn together. I have also made a decent amount of progress on my French Market Bag, as I am about 5 inches into the body of the bag.



And I have finished the back of my cotton sweater.



I just cast on for the front tonight and I already have about six inches done - thank you, size 13 needles!
In other news, I got a call from the temp agency today, and I will be starting a receptionist/administrative assistant position tomorrow. While I will miss all of this knitting time, it will be nice to be bringing in a paycheck again. It would be nicer if it was a job in my field, but I'll take what I can get for now.

Start-itis!

Yesterday, while waiting for my poncho to block, I developed a terrible case of start-itis and cast on for not one, but two new projects! Instead of working on the sweater I started over the weekend, I cast on for another poncho (of the two rectangles variety) and for a French Market Bag. At least I am using stash yarn for both of them. Then, toward the end of the day, I was inspired to knit golf club covers for my husband for Christmas, but I am going to make myself finish one of my current projects before I start those.
Well, I kept forgetting to ask my husband to take pictures of me in my recently finished projects, so I finally broke down and took some pictures myself, with the help of the timer on my camera. Here, finally, is Rosy:



And here are some shots of the Falling Leaves Poncho, which I fringed this morning. First a front view (which includes Franklin peeking around my shoulder, as he had to see what the beeping noise in the kitchen was all about):



And here is a side view, to give you a better view of the leaf pattern:



I know the dark brown color does not make it very easy to see the pattern, but hopefully you can at least get an idea of what it looks like.

Welcome to the future site of the Tartan Jacket Knitalong

As I posted on the Knitty message boards last night, I have officially decided to host a knitalong for the Tartan Jacket (from the fall issue of Interweave Knits. Here is the picture from Interweave's website, in case anyone is wondering what I am talking about:



Since most people who expressed interest are too swamped with projects to start now, the official start date is January 1. I'll post about this again in December, when everything is more finalized, but I am very excited about my first time hosting a knitalong, so I decided I had to share.
But enough about future knitting. As far as my current knitting goes, I finished the Falling Leaves Poncho yesterday. It still needs to be blocked and fringed, but here it is pre-blocking:



I will get a picture of Rosy up here soon, I promise, but I keep forgetting to ask my photographer (aka husband) to take a picture of me in it, which will be much more interesting to look at than a picture of it laying on my shag carpeting.

In the meantime, I have begun a stash-busting project, the Straight Neck Pullover from the Winter 02/03 issue of Interweave Knits. (It is originally from the book Hollywood Knits, by Suss Cousins, but it was featured in the magazine). I had a few different colors of Lion Brand Cotton-Ease laying around, so here is the beginning of my striped concoction:



I have to say, I'm loving size 13 needles lately. They allowed me to finish the poncho in about 5 days, and I have made it up to the armholes on the sweater in just 2 days.

A quick update

I finished sewing my sweater together on Thursday (it's blocking now), and the kilt pins arrived on Friday (not bad, considering that I bought them on Wednesday), so I will have pictures of the completed project to show soon.
In the meantime, I cast on for the Falling Leaves Poncho. I finally decided to admit that I am getting swept up in the current poncho craze. I figured I had better make it soon before ponchos go out of style. I really think it's funny that I have been so intrigued by ponchos, since I am usually pretty oblivious to fashion trends. I think what intrigues me the most is that it is so easy to knit ponchos that I can make something that will end up being totally in fashion. Of course, this is somewhat silly, since the fact that ponchos will be out of style in about five minutes should give me all the more reason to buy a poncho instead of putting all the time and energy into making one, but my brain has wrapped itself around the idea of making a poncho and it refuses to let go. It is coming along rather quickly actually, since this particular pattern uses bulky yarn and size 13 needles. I just started on Thursday, and I am already over one-third of the way done. I will post some pictures of that soon, too, I promise.