Fish Bagging

I've been working on making a bag shaped like a fish to sent along with the fish bibs, Freddy Fish, and the fish tub toys I made. I found a pattern for a crocheted drawstring bag (scroll down; it's the last pattern on the page) that looks like Nemo. I got some bright blue and green acrylic yarn and got started last weekend. I love the color and the black stripe outlines, but I'm having to trust that it's going to be fish-shaped. I mean, look at it! Does that look like any part of a fish to you? Me neither, but I'm to the end of the increases so it should begin to straighten out and begin looking a bit more fishy any row now. Trust. I have to have trust.

I Forgot...

...to show you my race t-shirt. Isn't it cool? I'm wearing it right now and I look very race-y. Or maybe jingle-y.









Yesterday was our 34th wedding anniversary. Even after all these years we both still think we made a good choice. It's been a fun ride through life together with lots of adventures along the way. We exchanged cards and went to supper at Cat & Jim's Art & Soul Cafe. It was totally delicious. We each had the "two meats, two sides, and a corn muffin" dinner and our bill was just twenty bucks. Not bad, eh?

More Fish!

These little bath fishies are fun to make, even with the putzy little fins that you have to make and sew on afterward. This one looks a bit lop-sided but, hey, it'll be wet and bedraggled in a baby's bathtub soon. Besides I don't think anything is naturally symetrical anyway.



I finished another narrow scarf. This one's for my hair stylist for Christmas. I can't keep every one, I guess, although I reallyrealltyreally want to.









Don't worry, I'm not out of scarf to knit. Remember I cast on the "I Can't Quit Scarf" last week.









And it turns out cotton dishcloth yarn isn't good for the fish bag. I bought some acrylic in blues and greens and it's working much better.









Last Friday night I met a few knitting friends and we went to the Botanical Gardens to see the lights sponsored by Public Service. They were gorgeous and we rode in a horse-drawn wagon. Snow would have made it better but it was pretty and fun. I, of course, forgot my camera. Maybe I'll do better next time.

New Visitor

We were having our lunch (gah, it sounds like I live in a "home") today when Durwood spotted a new bird. I looked it up and it's a female Red-bellied Woodpecker. She was way bigger than the little Downy Woodpeckers who usually visit the suet feeder.





It takes so little to amuse us.

Gah!

It's snowing. I'm not ready for it. I'll admit I did probably bring it on by swapping the lawnmower for the snowblower yesterday afternoon. I even bought new gas for it, so I'm probably to blame for the white stuff flying around out there. And I suppose a bit of snow will help people get into the Christmas mood.

I guess since this is supposed to be a yarn craft blog I should show you what I've been working on lately.

On Sunday I started the Fish Bag for the baby gift, but I'm not sure I like the yarn for a boy. Maybe I'll frog it and get some blue and green yarn and try again.

I'm making progress on the scarf I'm making for my hair stylist. Pretty colors, don't you think? I'm liking both brown and lime green quite a lot this year.

I made the second bath fishie the other day. One more to go for the baby-to-be and one special order one that I was happy to find I have the right colors for.

I've been knitting a bit on the Wrap but didn't take its picture. Last night for some reason I dug out another skein of cotton and started another scarf. It's like crack.

The other day a Downy Woodpecker came to visit the feeder and Durwood took her picture. You can tell she's a girl because she doesn't have red on her head like the boys do. I like the tidy black and white look of them.

Look What I Made Today

It's a bath fishie! Inside this innocuous dishcloth cotton shell is a ping pong ball that makes this a tub toy. Finishing the fish with the ping pong ball inside was, as Grandpa Gerst used to say, a trick with a hole in it. It took some creative maneuvering and I had to hold my mouth just right to manage it but I was successful. I plan to make a couple more to complete the baby gift "school." Next up is a goldfish drawstring bag with a granny square tail (kinda looks like a fantail goldfish) to put all the goodies in. It'll be the most fish-tastic baby gift ever!

You Know, I Forgot Another One

I don't know what made me think of it, maybe grubbing around in the backpack I take to work, but I have another project OTN that's been there forever. For. Ever. It's the Sudoku Throw. The wife of one of the instructors up at The Clearing is a quilter and her quilt group was doing a Quilt A-Long making a lap quilt using colors instead of numbers in a sudoku grid. I thought that was a swell idea, so when I got home I clipped a solution out of the paper, assigned each number a color, and made a plan. I'm making it from Cotton Ease using the simplest bias dishcloth pattern for the blocks. I'll knit strips of charcoal (which looks like black to me) to separate the nine-patch blocks, and then edge it in the charcoal too. My original plan was for that to be my work project because the blocks are easy to put down mid-row if the phone rings or a customer comes in and then pick back up. That lasted about half a throw's worth and now the bag o'yarn & needles just rides back and forth and seldom gets to see the light unless I finish what I really want to work on or forget something I need for it. A-a-anyway, here's the plan and some of the blocks for you to see.










Anyone out there shopping this morning or are you all back home already? There's absolutely nothing I want badly enough to get up that early. Nothing.