all of the exciting projects i'm in the middle of have become too big to lug around! i'm working on a yoga mat tote. the green is the random yarn that lion brand sent me instead of what i was supposed to be making mittens out of for the "just gifts" book. the teal yarn was given to me by gerd at harry's birthday party last weekend (in one of three huge bags of yarny goodness she was shedding herself of. now that it is almost finished i wish that i had made it out of wool, it would have been really neat felted. but it was a good way to get rid of some 80% acryllic yarn that i wouldn't make a sweater out of. what's left is to sew the strap onto the bag and attach the leather buttons. this needs to be done by wednesday when i'll need to bring it to class.
yesterday i started knitting this chunky cable vest. i thought it would be a good portable project but i underestimated the extreme bulkyness of the yarn. this sweater is going to end up making me look fat and pregnant due to the heft of the yarn and the unfortunate position of the cable, but i'm enjoying the simplicity of the pattern regardless. it will be cute layered over a grey long sleeved tee shirt with jeans whether or not it's flattering. and it will definitely be warm!
my adult sized baby sweater is coming along. it, too, has gotten way too big to stuff into my bag. the downside to buying a bag of wool at the salvation army is that it's very difficult to buy more when you run out. i'm down to a couple tiny ends of yarn balls and will probably have to take apart a couple rows of the body of the sweater to be able to finish the other sleeve. though mom pointed out you have to be more creative when things don't go as you had planned, which usually makes things more interesting in the long run. when she tried it on on saturday it seemed like a perfect fit, so at least i don't have to worry about that!

mom and i went to the boston knit out. we taught crocheting / knitting for awhile and then wandered around through the tents touching yarn and collecting ideas and information about our respective crafts. i ended up coming home with an issue of knit.1 magazine. although i'm not generally interested in knitting, i'm excited about the sweater vest on the cover of this month's issue - maybe even excited enough to actually try knitting one myself.

so yesterday when i went to the thrift store to see if (by chance) they had any of the blue wool that i'm running out of for mom's adult sized baby sweater. and of course there wasn't any of that. but i did stock up on tapestry wool and find the perfect sweater to unravel for the knit.1 vest! so last night i watched some episodes of the sopranos from netflix and unraveled this enourmous wool sweater. it is my first successful unraveling project, and it was really a lot of fun. i think it is really helpful to rip out a chunky sweater first; it helped me realize how i will do it on smaller sweaters (i have a collection of them waiting to be reused). it's hard to tell from the picture, but these balls of yarn are HUGE - the biggest one is about eight inches in diameter.
so far my gauge swatch is coming out too big, so i might have to raid my mom's knitting needle stash before stitch and bitch on thursday in order to be able to make this in the right size.


i just stumbled upon this plaid felted tote. it's so cute! i love the idea of crocheting and felting plaid. . . as something to think about in the future.
in the meantime i should really finish some of the projects that i've already started - they're really starting to stack up!

i picked my tiles up from the steelyard this afternoon and arranged them on the floor in the living room when i got home! i can't wait to see what they look like on the wall of my kitchen, but i'm going to have to be patient since they wont be installed any time soon. in the meantime i can dream about how they will look as a backsplash with some of my beach pottery collection mixed in.

my current project is an adult sized version of the baby sweater i recently completed. i liked the "icelandic" yoke sweater format and figured it couldn't be too hard to make one in a bigger size (it isn't). it's been a great way to use up some of the pretty wool tapestry yarn that i have been finding at the thrift store. the blue wool is also thrifted. i made a minisweater out of it at the beginning of the summer (my first ever finished knitting project!), but since i haven't worn it yet because i'm sick of things that are that short i've been pulling it out for my "grown up baby" sweater. (i'm definitely going to have to come up with a better name than that!)
we sailed to cuttyhunk this weekend and the sweater came along for the ride. crocheting is the perfect boat project. it keeps me occupied enough so that i don't get bored and want to go below and nap. but it isn't so detailed that it might get ruined when we're bouncing around over the waves like you do when you're in a little sailboat. my knees were grateful for the woolly warmth, it was a little chilly in buzzards bay!

it's the perfect weekend for drinking tea and crocheting wool sweaters. it seems like i spent most of this summer sitting indoors watching rain fall into choppy seas. the weather is supposed to improve by tomorrow, which it'd better since we're planning to sail to cuttyhunk.
i finished a sweater last night, but i'm not sure if i should post a picture of it since i'm hoping to publish the pattern somewhere. it's difficult to be patient because i'm truly excited to show it off. i've since started another sweater, this one an adult sized version of the baby sweater that i recently finished.
there is a new interweave crochet magazine out! i would own it already, but when i called a local yarn store to make sure they had it before driving there, the woman who answered the phone said she "didn't know" and was busy and suggested i call back. which i didn't. if i haven't done any of the projects from my other issues of crochet magazines (except for one and i'm not sure that even counts because i had to make up my own pattern for the part which requires knitting) should i really buy another one? I like to draw my inspiration from the colors and textures of the random skeins and bits of yarn that i find at the thrift store. having to use small amounts of yarn makes for interesting combinations of things that i could never dream up while staring at shelves of new yarn in a yarn store. it's fun to create something from vintage wool which is entirely original.
i do enjoy reading the other odds and ends of information and ads that fill the pages of crochet magazines. hopefully i can make it out of the store without buying any more yarn . . .