A Very Busy Girl, & Working @ a Yarn Shop

I have runaway & joined the cast of SouthPark. You can do it too!!! Just go here to create your self portrait, SouthPark style!!

I FINALLY felted the two Â?newÂ? bags, & also RE-felted an older one. Because I have a front loader, & it takes multiple cycles to achieve full on felti-ness, I have decided to wait & felt multiple items at once, I have guilt about wasting water. I may just bite the bullet & go to the laundromat!! UGH... bad memories! The Â?sweater matching bagÂ? is done, & it's very cool!
The skully birthday tote is mostly done. ItÂ?s felted, but still needs straps. I went ahead & presented it to the birthday girl, to get her input on desired straps, & because I just couldn't wait any longer! I will post a picture after the straps are on. As for felting the intarsia, the skull came out fine, not much distortion at all, though there are these weird semi bulky Â?ridgesÂ? that run down along the sides, which I do not understand because the whole thing was knit in the round, there are no seams, & I didnÂ?t carry the red yarn around. I just dunno, any ideas?
I sent the "older" BHB through a couple of cycles. There were still some visible stitches & I wanted to firm it up a bit more. It worked like a charm, less stitchy & much sturdier. I should really just try felting my next project at the laundromat in a top loader... I'll bet I will save a lot more water that way!!!

Last week was really busy for me, so I didn't get too far on my pending projects:

• lace-up fingerless gloves- had some minor troubles with the pattern. I emailed Leigh Radford & she got back to me in less than an hour! I was really impressed! She was very sweet about helping me out. So I have the gauntlet done & am starting the hand
• laptop bag-I need to knit 44 inches of 75 stitches in stockinette. This is the easiest thing I am doing right now, but also the most boring. I am at about 17 inches right now.
• my-so-called-scarf- eh.... it's going. I am still totally excited about how cool it looks, & the idea of wearing it, it's getting colder everyday. My problem is that I just get bored about half way through some projects.
• leaf stitch scarf-ditto the terms of m-s-c-s
• rowan polar cape-still haven't sat down & worked out the pattern yet. Going to try & do that today or tomorrow, then walk through it with Janis when she has the time.
• Which brings me to... working in a yarn shop & the NEW PROJECT!!!!

I am loving my new job. And not just because I am surrounded by gorgeous yarn all day. The people that I work with are so amazing!! Yesterday we had a staff meeting, gearing up for the holiday season, swapping ideas, & general biz stuff! These women are so creative & fun!! One of the two Sarah's had the great idea of doing a staff project/knit along. We kicked around various ideas, such as, same pattern/different yarns, same yarn/different patterns, & a few other gems. I don't remember whose idea it was, but we settled on a tweed hat! We would each choose a different hat pattern & a different tweed yarn. Once we are all finished (3 week deadline) we will display them in the store. HOW FUN!!! It is a store project, so the materials are provided for us. I picked out mine, Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Aran in the dreamiest blue!!! I will keep the pattern a secret til later.