Sasha Knits!

A special package from Webs arrived earlier today which means that I can finally cast on for that Geodesic Cardigan I’ve been pining after since seeing the previews for the latest Knitscene.

Is it just me or is Malabrigo Lace hard to find in large quantities, especially if you’re after one of the darker colorways?  Originally, I wanted to go for a nice dark blue, but the only place I could find online that had the colorway I was after only had a single hank on hand.  I then decided I could settle for black, but each vendor I tried had no more than one or two hanks in stock. Argh!  I went to one local shop that supposedly carried this particular yarn, but was disappointed to learn that they’d cleared it all out a while ago.  Finally, I settled on Vaa, which is a deep dark green mixed with a slightly lighter shade and a bit of dark turquoise.  Although it wasn’t my first or second choice, I do like the colorway and believe that it will look nice against my skin tone.  The pattern calls for only four skeins, but I picked up an extra to have nearby in case of emergency.

Before I can begin the cardigan, though, I have two projects that I would like to get off the needles asap.

The first is a beanie for the husband.  I decided that instead of giving him candy or a card, I’d give him something a little more personalized.  I’m using the One Skein Noro On A Budget Spiral Rib Hat pattern, but rather than use Noro (which I’ve come to detest) I decided to go with Lorna’s Laces Green Line Worsted in Chocolate.  The combination is knitting up beautifully and I should have it done either tonight or tomorrow sometime.

The second project is a sock pattern of my own design.  I’m currently about half way through the first sock and should be done within the next few days.  After I’ve finished it, I can write out the pattern and get it sent out to test knitters.   From that point, I hope to have any necessary corrections made and have the pattern up for sale by the end of the month.

I’m using ShibuiKnits Sock in Wasabi for these.  I was expecting more of a variegated, mottled effect with the coloration instead of the striping, but I still quite like the yarn.  I have some other colorways in my stash that I will probably get to sooner rather than later.

Other than the hat and the socks, I still have my Springtime Bandit shawl to finish and I’ve started a blanket using left over sock yarn.  I was thinking that I might like to have the shawl done in time to wear for Stitches West, but now I think I would prefer to have the cardigan by then.  It’s not that I don’t like the shawl anymore or have stopped enjoying working on it… I’m just not sure if I’m a shawl wearer yet.  Eventually, I will have a chance to find out.

I should probably get back to working on the husband’s beanie now.  Goodnight, everyone!

January is certainly flying by, isn’t it?  I could have sworn that it was just yesterday that we were waiting for the clock to strike midnight so that we could welcome in a brand new year.

I have decided that this year will be the year of the stash.  I intend to slow down on my accumulation of new fiber and try to work with primarily what is already in my possession.   I know that I said roughly the same thing at multiple points last year, yet continued to acquire new fiber at astounding rate.  It took me setting aside some time to organize and take stock of my stash to realize just how much I have. In the year since I’ve learned to knit, I have managed to squirrel away over four hundred skeins of yarn.  Tucked away in my closet and one corner of my bedroom, there’s a pile of yarn that roughly amounts to over 92,000 yards (52 miles!) of good, usable fiber.  This isn’t counting what has already been used (which isn’t all that much, honestly), nor does it take into account fiber for spinning.   Yikes!

My goal is to use up somewhere around one hundred skeins of yarn from my stash over the course of the year.   To help myself keep track, I’ve added a counter to the sidebar of the blog which I will be updating each time I finish a project.  I’ve also joined the Stash Knit Down group on Ravelry so that I might be inspired by the quests of others in a similar conundrum.

The most important step for stopping a stash avalanche will be to asses and improve my spending habits as well as throttle my yarn budget  This doesn’t mean I won’t be buying more, as I still wish to support my local yarn stores, but I won’t be able to purchase as much at one time as I have been previously.  This should also help cut down on impulse buys as well.

Now, I’ve already bought my tickets for the Stitches West market place (I’m unable to take any classes this year, unfortunately) and I still do intend to shop my heart out.  I am, however, going in with a limited amount of money in cash only and I will be leaving my debit card at home.  This, paired with my husband’s voice of reason, should feasibly keep me from going completely overboard with my acquisitions.

Wish me luck!

What an incredibly busy past three months it has been!  Now that all of the holiday craziness is over and dealt with, I find I suddenly have the time to sit back and relax… at least for a little while.  I know my shoulder certainly appreciates the down time!

I didn’t realize just how much I had taken on this year until I was racing the clock, trying to finish everything on time.  Originally I had only planned to knit five gifts and had allocated my time in accordance.  Things were going swimmingly until the beginning of December when I found myself needing to add an additional two projects onto my workload.  I increased my pace to something close to frantic and my husband helped out immensely by taking over my portion of the household chores.  In the end, I managed to get my last project off of the needles and onto the blocking board on the morning of Christmas eve.  That was cutting it quite close, but I was simply happy to be able to have a gift under the tree for everyone.

My right shoulder and elbow are still sore and I think I’ve begun to go through the motions of knitting in my sleep, but it was worth it.  I must admit that until the first box was opened I was afraid that no one would appreciate their gifts.  That turned out not to be the case, however, and each person seemed quite excited to open their box to see what I had made especially for them.  While I don’t think I’m up to repeating the whole process again next year, I will certainly consider doing it again soon.
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Things have been a bit quiet around here this last month and for good reason!  I’ve been spending most of my free time knitting away in an attempt to get all of my Christmas gifts done on time.  I am now mostly done, thankfully.  Six scarves are finished with one left to go (it has to be wrapped before the afternoon of Christmas day).

Today and tomorrow have been marked as blocking day here. To make the drying process go a little faster, I’ve set up a small portable heater next to the blocking mats.  This batch should be dry by this evening and I will be able to start another round either tonight or tomorrow morning.

It has been a very busy season and I’m very much looking forward to its completion.

Enjoy your holidays, everyone, and I will see you after the new year!

Thanksgiving has come and gone for yet another year, leaving behind a huge mess, a fridge full of leftovers, and the remnants of a really great time.

My husband and I try to rotate which family we spend each end of the year holiday with in the name of fairness.  This year was my family’s turn and we ventured over to my mother’s house.  There were lots of familiar faces, plus a few new ones.  I spent time discussing pokemon with my eleven year old nephew and chasing around my darling eighteen month year old neice.  There were two turkeys, one brined and one barbequed, and a plethora of delicious side dishes.  After the main meal there was mint tea, pies, and homemade whipped cream.

As I’m pretty useless in the kitchen, I was put in charge of making the centerpiece.  My original plan involved fall leaves, but there were none to be found in any local craft store this late into the year.  I made do with what was available, however, and ended up with a result that I was pretty happy with.

The husband and I ended the evening cuddled up together in bed while watching a pretty hilarious Japanese horror film.

The day after Thanksgiving is traditionally Black Friday here in the US.  Most shops have huge sales starting in the wee hours of the morning and there are huge crowds.  Having worked in the retail sector for more years than we both care to admit, the husband and I tend to avoid them like the plague.  We prefer to stay holed up at home where it’s warm, safe, and not hectic.  This year, however, I woke up early and discovered that both my favorite local yarn stores were having sales.  It’s hard to resist discounted yarn,  so I woke up my husband and had him drive me down to Purlescence Yarns in Sunnyvale, California.

We arrived ten minutes before the door opened and hopped into line.  Once I was handed my discount card, I made a beeline for the Dream in Color cubbies and selected what I wanted before other shoppers managed to make it over.  I then also grabbed two skeins of Colinette Jitterbug that caught my eye and then headed off to browse through the lace weight selection.  Within twenty minutes I was ready to make my purchase and head home.

I ended up with six skeins total.  Clockwise, from the top:

• Dream in Color Baby, Absolutely Magenta.  700 yards of beautiful, color saturated lace weight.
• Dream in Color Smooshy, Black Pearl. The color variegation ranges from charcoal gray to an almost silver.
• Dream in Color Smooshy, Chinatown Apple.  I’d been eyeing this one for a while, but each time the store had ones that were not as variegated as I was hoping for. I got lucky this time and ended up with a beautiful skein.
• Dream in Color Smooshy, Black Parade.  There’s a bit of dark blueish-green in this skein that refuses to photograph.
• Colinette Jitterbug, Copper Beach (67).
• Colinette Jitterbug, Velvet Olive (114).  The color is closer to malachite than the photo makes it look.

For the last month and a half, I’ve been working my butt off trying to get everyone’s Christmas gifts knitted up in time.  I’ve got three scarves going on the needles right now in addition to two pairs of plain stockinette socks for those times when I can’t concentrate on a chart.  There are two completed scarves that need to be blocked that I will get to eventually.  I don’t have any pictures for the time being, but I hope to have some soon (preferably of finished objects).

Time to curl up with Netflix streaming to my PS3 and knit my hands off.  Enjoy your holidays, everyone!

October ended a while ago marking the completion of NaCraMaMo and I just haven’t had the time to summarize the month’s happenings before now.  I’m happy to say that I was indeed able to meet my goal this year.  Although my plan to craft a little each day wasn’t a very lofty goal, I did have a few life-interrupting events pop up that severely limited the time I had to do recreational things.  Despite it all, I did find time to knit each day, even if I was only able to get a few rows done.

My first pair of socks are finished and they are quite delightful.  People who have never had a pair of handknit socks made to fit their feet specifically are really missing out.  It’s astounding how much difference a well-tailored heel and toe can make.

I’ve already cast-on for two other pairs of socks.  Another pair for myself using a cotton/nylon sock yarn and a pair for my husband.  My only other finished project of October, a few sets of stitch markers, can be seen here.

Christmas is getting closer and closer, so I’ve decided to step my gift knitting into high gear.  I’ve got a cabled scarf more than half-way finished and I’ve started on a couple of other projects as well.  Last week I stopped by Purlescence Yarns in Sunnyvale to pick up a few skeins needed for gift projects as well as a few things to reward myself for finally getting my stash organized.

From left to right:

• Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock Lightweight in Kawkaw.  This skein is all for me.
• Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock Lightweight in Lauma.  This will end up as a gift.
• ShibuiKnits Socks in Mulberry x2. Also for myself.
• Dream in Color Smooshy in Midnight Derby.  One skein is for a gift and the other was an anniversary present from the husband.

As November zooms on by, I’m really starting to hope that I haven’t waited too long to get everything done on time.  The patterns I’ve selected are simple enough but are also quite large.  I am thinking that if I concentrate on the things I need to get done instead of doing the things I want to knit right this second I will be able to make it.  We’ll see.

I also recently came into possession of a mannequin, courtesy of my sister.

Although I didn’t take a photo of it, there is also a bottom half.  Only the arms are missing and I may be able to find a replacement pair later on.  For right now, I’m just going to focus on removing the several layers of paint that have left the thing looking like a bit of a leprosy victim.  Once that’s done, I will have a rather decent model for my projects from now on (not that my husband isn’t a good model… I just don’t think he appreciates me asking him to model obviously intended-for-female things).

Time to get back to my knitting!

Last week we were subjected to a bit of a nasty surprise.  We were hit by the residuals of typhoon Melor and had quite a bit of flooding in our house.  At one point, our backyard was under about six inches of water and instead of draining out into the street, it came inside through the walls.  All four bedrooms, the kitchen, and the garage quickly became soggy and then downright puddly.

We have spent the last week and a half replacing carpets, preforming mold prevention, and just generally putting things back to normal.

Amid all the recovery, I snatched a few moments here and there to work on a sock.  I used the basic gusset heel sock pattern from Wendy D. Johnson’s book, Socks From the Toe Up, as it was both small and something that I could pick up and put down quite easily.  Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get online to check for errata and got to the short rows where things went terribly wrong.  I ended up frogging the hot mess completely and started over.  By the time I got back to the gusset again, I was able to get online and see that it was a pattern error and not a knitter error.  A bit annoying, but these things happen.

The yarn is Patons Kroy Socks Stripe in Cyan Stripes.  Kroy Socks is a bit stingy with the yardage, unfortunately, but even with my 10.5″ long feet, I was able to get a decent leg length.  I cast-on using Judy’s Magic Cast-On method and cast-off with Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-off in conjunction with Cat Bordhi’s technique for a seamless edge.  I am such a tight knitter that the bind-off really wasn’t all that stretchy and I have a little bit of difficulty getting it over my heel.  This is entirely my own issue and not something that can be blamed on the method.

Hopefully now that we are mostly back to to normal around here, it will take me far less time to complete the second sock.

After winding up that skein of Dream in Color Smooshy last night I was eager to cast on with it, so I spent some time browsing patterns on Ravely.  Socks were out, since I don’t want to half hide the beautiful colors in my shoes, and so were scarves as I have enough of those on my menu for right now.  One skein isn’t enough to do a sweater or a shrug, so what to do with it? I found myself drawn to the shawl section of the pattern database.  I found a few that I liked, but nothing that really seemed to match what I had in mind.  While looking at what other people have knit using the DiC I chanced upon a spectacular shawl design called Springtime Bandit.  It was love at first sight!

I got to work and cast on (using a different method than what the pattern called for) and knit the set up rows.

The pattern only includes one side of the repeats and you’re supposed to knit the other side by sort of mirror-imaging the charts.  That was a bit strange to get the hang of at first, but it became easier as I went along.  The beautiful purples and reds of the yarn combined with the leaf motif in the pattern reminded me of a Red Barberry shrub, so that’s what I decided to name it.

I was in need of some stitch markers and I wanted some fancier ones then what you can get at your average craft store, so I decided to make my own.  It took me a while to dig my craft desk out from under temporarily abandoned projects and to locate all the supplies I needed, but I was able to complete three different sets.  The first set is made of faceted crystal quartz, the second is snowflake quartz, and the last set is plastic letter beads.  I bought them over a year ago and ended up never using them, so I decided to make myself one of those cheesy knitting term stitch maker sets.

Back in August, I received a Knitpicks ball winder as one of my birthday presents.  I’ve used it countless times since then to make myself some delightfully neat yarn cakes and for the most part, it has worked perfectly fine.  On larger yardage skeins, however, I occasionally run into a problem where the yarn catches on the bottom lip of the winder’s plate and makes a mess of things.

I have to stop what I’m doing and unwind the tangled yarn before I can continue.  It seems that it no matter how fast or slow I go, this problem is mostly unavoidable.  One fix I’ve found is stopping about mid-way during the winding process to gently move the cake up the central post so that the new yarn can slip under.  I don’t like this method because it is annoying to stop and start, plus I end up with not such a pretty cake.

After whining to my husband about the issue once or twice, he offered to figure out a more permanent solution.  I agreed to let him play with it on the one condition that if he broke it, he would have to replace it.  He discovered that if you raise the guide pole just a slight amount, the problem pretty much goes away completely. Great! Unfortunately, however, the metal is too tough to manipulate without risking breaking the plastic casing of the winder.  Somewhat disappointed, I took my ball winder back and continued along using the push method.

Tonight I pulled out my ball winder once again so that I could ready a skein of Dream in Color Smooshy for knitting with.  I was merrily doing my thing when the husband waltzed over and shoved the cap from his beer bottle under the guide post.

The yarn did not get caught under the plate for the remaining duration of winding.  Yay!  It is not the permanent solution I was hoping for and it’s certainly not a pretty one, but if it works that’s good enough for me.

If you have the same issues I have with your own plastic ball winder, try sliding a spoon or fork handle under your guiding post next time and see if it works for you.  Be careful not to use something that is too thick or you might stress the casing too much and break it.

October seems to be chugging along at a rapid pace and I feel like I’m having a hard time keeping up.  The cold I am apparently developing is not helping, since it is wearing me out before I manage to get anything done.  Thankfully, I have managed to accomplish a little bit of something each day in order to keep up with my NaCraMaMo goals.

Day 1: I knit on a toe-up sock for my husband and I spun a little.
Day 2: I knit a little more on the sock, but then ended up frogging it completely after having some issues with the heel increases.  For some reason my brain keeps forgetting how to do M1 increases even though, deep down, I know how they should be done.
Day 3: I did a bit more spinning, but didn’t have time for any knitting.  I didn’t take a picture because my work still looks much like it did in the last photo, only with a little more on the spindle and a slightly smaller pile of fiber.
Day 4: I started one of my many Christmas gifts; a scarf for my husband’s uncle.  It’s a lovely cabled number with an eight row repeat that I’ve managed to memorize. I work on it for one pattern repeat at a time and then put it down to give myself a break.  Fortunately each repeat is a little more than an inch’s worth of progress, so I am actually getting something done.

Today, day number five, marks the start of week number two.  I plan to work on the scarf a bit more and may also cast on something more simplistic to work on while I watch House tonight.  I am hoping that I can cast off this bug and have a much more productive week.

It’s time for National Craft Making Month again!  I will, of course, be participating once again this year.  Last year my focus was mainly on beading with a little kumihimo thrown in.  This time around I’ve shifted interests into knitting and spinning, so my participation this time around will reflect that.  I am planning on throwing a little jewelry making in, but my efforts will mainly center around the fiber arts.

I am off to a very encouraging start this year.

I began with some spinning.  I’m still working to achieve a consistent result in my yarn and the only way to do that is to practice, practice, and then practice some more.  I am slowly learning to draft more fluently and it is already making a big difference in the quality of my work.  That’s only about an ounce’s worth of merino fiber in the photo (about half on the spindle and the rest still unspun).   I am hoping to get at least a project’s worth spun before the end of the month.

My other project was a bit of knitting on the socks that I started for my husband over a month and a half ago.

It is a simple toe-up sock knit on US1 needles with Patons Kroy self-striping fingering-weight.  This project has taught me that I really don’t care for this style of self-striping yarn and I will be avoiding it in the future (sorry Kroy, sorry Opal).  Fortunately my husband likes the appearance just fine and will be happy to receive a finished pair (if I ever get around to it).  Although the picture really doesn’t look like much, I’m happy to report that it is actually about half a foot’s worth complete.

I hope to also get some more Christmas knitting done this month.  The more I get done, the less shopping I will have to do and that will make me a very happy woman.  I detest holiday shopping.  I do not enjoy being jammed into a mall with hoards of sweating, smelly, angry shoppers looking for a bargain.  By doing things my way, I hope to have a low stress holiday this year.

This past Friday I had the pleasure of visiting with some relatives of mine that I have not been able to see for several years.  They live out of state and I simply haven’t had much of an opportunity to travel down their way.  When I heard that they were going to be in my area of California, I jumped on the chance to spend some time with them.  We all enjoyed a pleasant lunch together and then whiled away the afternoon catching up.  It was, overall, a most agreeable gathering and I hope to do it again sooner than later.

On my way home, I decided to stop off at Purlescence Yarns in Sunnyvale.  I was interested in seeing what brands and models of spinning wheels they had available for sale and I also wanted to inspect their selection of spinning fiber.  They also have a large offering of yarns that I cannot get at my LYS of choice, so I spent forty-five minutes or so browsing the shelves.  In the end, I end I walked out with four skeins of sock yarn and two ounces of roving.  I know I said I wasn’t going to buy any more yarn, but everyone knows that sock yarn doesn’t count.

I selected three different sock yarns that I have been wanting to try for quite a while.  The two skeins on the left are Louet Gems in a lovely burgundy hue (the picture makes them look redder than they really are).  The middle skein is Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock Lightweight in Dreidel.  Dreidel is one of their Christmas colorways and my personal favorite in that line.  The store had a lot of other colorways that I would have loved to have taken home with me, but it just wasn’t in the budget.  This one appealed to me most.  The one on the far right is Dream in Color Smooshy in the Gothic Rose colorway.  This skein really lives up to it’s name – it is incredibly soft and very squishy.  I was also impressed with the generous yardage (a whopping 450 yards).

The spinning fiber was two ounces of Pagewood Farms in “Really Red.”  Most of the batches of the same colorway were a (mostly) solid bright red and then I happened to chance upon one that was quite variegated.  I picked that one because it was quite lovely and appealing.  I plan to spin these two ounces into a laceweight, but that will have to wait until I learn to control my drafting a bit better on the spindle.

My mother-in-law’s Christmas scarf is now off the needles.  No pictures until I get it blocked, though.   I still need to start my father-in-law’s scarf and the hubbo’s sweater.  I think I have enough time to get everything done if I don’t procrastinate too long.

I received a very special package in the mail today!

At the end of July, I decided that it might be fun to try out one of the many swapping groups on Ravelry.  As it was my first time, I wanted to start “small,” so I shopped around for a bit before finally deciding to join the Swap on a Budget group.  I was enticed by their relatively low budget limit of twenty dollars and it seemed like a very active and friendly group of people.  I filled out an application for round five, supplying information such as my favorite color, favorite treats, allergies, etc., and was then placed into a sub-group from there.  The sub-group’s leader assigned a spoilee for everyone and then it was off.  We were given almost two months to get together a package for our spoilee based off their own application and a bit of stalking.

There were a few hitches (like not getting my partner’s address until very late), but for the most part, things went smoothly and I had a great time.  Every week we were given a question to answer to prove that we were active and that provided a chance to get to know the other people in my group a bit better.  It was also amusing to pop into other groups and see what they were up to.

My spoilee was a lovely woman from Tennessee.  I had a lot of fun learning about her and was able to gather an assortment of things that I thought she would like and shipped it off to her last week.  Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of the final package, but you can see some of the yarn I picked out for her in pasts posts here and here.

It was my turn to be spoiled today!

The first thing I discovered upon opening the box was a cute little card with a note from my spoiler (yarn007 on Ravelry).  Underneath, there was a treasure trove of useful and beautiful items.

I received:

• a handmade towel in my favorite shade of pink
• two very useful task list notepads
• a mousepad with place for a photograph
• a small case made from recycled plastic
• a large Ikea shopping bag
• a pattern for a lace scarf (Cape Cod Shell Scarf by Cathie Hammatt)
• a sock blocker sock keychain kit (pattern and blocker keychain bit)
• a pair of sock needle holders
• a package of Nips hard caramels

There were also two little charms:

The longer one ended up on my favorite pair of scissors.  The smaller one is a stitch marker and I look forward to using it soon.

There was also a generous helping of yarn included.  My partner really went out of her way to pick things she thought I would like and she hit right on the mark.

There were two skeins each of Regia 4-ply in a rich dark chocolate brown, Knit Picks Stroll in Burgundy, and Knit Picks Stroll in Sapphire Heather.  I was really surprised at how soft and squishy the Stroll yarn was and will have to add that to my list of things that are good to get from KP in the future.  The Regia is also especially lovely and I can’t wait to turn them all into lovely pairs of toasty socks.

I really look forward to participating in another swap soon.  Every single package that has gone out in this one has been exceedingly wonderful.  You can really tell that everyone put a lot of thought and effort into making sure they were sending off something that their partner would enjoy.  It is also awe-inspiring to see what people can do with just twenty dollars.

Things have been busy around here at Chez CDS.  Aside from getting some work done on the main website, I packed up and shipped off a swap package, worked on a new pattern design, and restarted some of my Christmas knitting.

Amidst all the hustle and bustle, my latest package from Knit Picks arrived. They were having a sale on their lace weight yarns, so I decided to grab two skeins of “last chance” Shimmer that I’d been eyeing for a while as well as two skeins of a lovely colorway of Gloss.  I also picked up two more balls of the Delta blue Palette yarn (which was conveniently the same dye lot as my last order), plus color cards of the entire Palette lineup so that I could get a better idea of the true hues.  I splurged a bit and also bought a set of the nickel-plated interchangeable Knit Picks Options needles.  I haven’t had a chance to use them yet, but I’m impressed with them so far.

My husband has also been very busy lately, and churned out a number of project bags for me.  I think my favorites are the lemon, the kitty, and the dog prints.  He’s also made a number of extras that I will be putting up for sale very shortly.

I decided to hold off on my mother-in-law’s Clapotis this year.  I’m not familiar with working with lace weight and I’m not sure I want to commit to working on something for a month that I might not be happy with and that she might not like.  Instead, I went back to the original yarn that we had picked out for her (a beautiful colorway of Lana Grossa Cento) and I found a chevron pattern that displays the colors perfectly.

I have a ton of other projects I need to finish off or at least work on, but this scarf is my priority for the time being.  I need to get it done and off the needles so I can start the next Christmas gift!

The blog officially turned one year old yesterday.

To celebrate…

1. I finally got off my bum and got the main website up and running.
2. I gave the blog gallery a revamp.
3. I added some back end goodies that should allow me to cater better to your browsing needs.

I am also currently test driving a project bag design that I hope to be able to offer for sale soon.

This is the small size, approximately 9″ x 9″, and is made from a sturdy quilting cotton.  It is fully lined inside and has a drawstring closure.

The best part? My husband will be making them.  He’s very good with a sewing machine and pays attention to every small detail.  The above bag is a pretty basic design, but he took and modified it to his own specifications pretty much on whim.  He also has plans for more complicated bags with flat bottoms and/or inner pockets.  I am incredibly impressed with him right now.

We plan to offer a few different sizes of the basic bag, as well as lined and unlined versions.  The above size, unlined, would be about $8.00 + shipping. Lined would boost the cost up to about $14.00 + shipping, but the extra thickness makes it more durable and better looking.

The blue thing in the photos is one of my many current WIPs.  It is the cuff of the first of a pair of extra thick socks that I’m making myself to keep my toes (and feet warm) when it gets a bit chillier around here.  The yarn is Cascade 220 and it is a nice heathery dusk blue.