Bags and Stuff

I found this bag from Berroco, and I'm thinking about trying it out, because of the fair isle. I want to get better at fair isle, so this seems like a better beginner project, instead of a whole sweater. I'll probably get a cheaper yarn though. It calls for 10 balls of Ultra Alpaca, which would be about $100. The designers must have access to lots of yarn, so they don't think about the cost.
I made this small pouch out Noro Kureyon. It is the end part of a ball which has mostly blues and greens. It doesn't seem like the colors work together, like the colors on this bag should have been it's own colorway, and the blues and greens should be separate. I felted it, but it doesn't look like it. I think Kureyon is harder to felt. But I really like it, since it reminds me of fall and barns.
I've also been working on Shedir, which isn't going well. I've had to rip out and reknit the same 3 rows over and over. They are not even the hardest part of the pattern. I think I had one stitch in the wrong place and it threw all the others off, so half of it looks wrong. Part of it is that I'm using a tweed yarn, so it's harder to see the stitches, and there are so many of them, that's it's hard to remember what I just did. Hopefully it's right now, and it will get easier.

Granny Afghan

I finished this granny square afghan after months of not working on it. I used Bernat Chunky acrylic yarn, which is really cheap. I used one ball of all these colors and still have a lot left over. The blue is actually purple, though. I still am going to put some kind of edging on it, maybe just shells or something simple. When I started, I planned on doing a bunch of different types of granny squares, but I ended up doing the most basic one. I did this project as my easy one, where you barely have to pay attention to it. I like having a simple one, if I'm also working on something more complex.

Wall Hanging

This is my second quilt, which is going to be a wall hanging. I need to find a fabric that will work in the edges. The one I picked out already seems like it would be too busy. I got most of the fabric from those Joann's quilt block kits, which made it cheap. The central part was patterned by me, based on the dimensions of the other squares. It is a traditional square, but I couldn't find the exact dimensions that I wanted, so I came up with it. These squares are about 12". I still have problems with the seams not being exact, and the squares turning out to be different sizes. I guess I just need more practice to be exact. I want to try more elaborate quilting designs on this one, maybe with metallic thread.
Another thing I'm going to try is making a Booga Bag. I have some Noro Kureyon that I was making a scarf out of, but it would have been way too scratchy. I am afraid of ruining the yarn by felting, though. I felted a bag made from Brown Sheep bulky pride, and it turned out to be and inch and a half thick and completely ugly. It's way too dense and is basically ruined. I don't want that to happen to the kureyon. I think I'll try felting with some cheaper stuff first, since I must have done something wrong with that other bag. But I really like the Kureyon colorway that I've got, so the Booga Bag seems like a good thing to make with it.

Blossoming Trees

These are two squares from a small quilt I started working on. I found some of those Joann's quilt squares kits on sale, so I used some of the fabric from that came with them. Those kits are good, but then you know exactly how it'll look when it's done. I realized with the last quilt I made, that the colors were too similar, and I didn't leave enough unknown parts of the quilt at the end. I think the whole process is more interesting if there are things that you have to figure out all along. If everything is completely figured out for you, there doesn't seem much point in making it. I guess knitting is kind of like that if you're using a pattern. But some of the time, I just want that particular sweater, so it doesn't seem like an artistic process. I haven't been knitting much lately. I started on a sweater, but it was way too tight, so I had to rip it back. That gets really frustrating. I would like to start a project and have it work and fit with no problems, for once, without having to resort to making only scarves.

Books & Quilts

I've been working on quilts lately. I'm stuck on one of them and can't figure out what to do next. I want to make several quilt squares, but I don't want them to be the same, so I'm trying to find some that will work together. I was thinking about different types of stars. The other one is a lot easier because the squares will be the same, but have different color schemes. I got a bunch of fabric that was on sale, so I'm trying to figure out how to use it. I also want to get some Halloween fabric for either a small quilt or pillows. Most of the stuff I've seen so far is too cutesy, but I think a quilt or something would be cool.
I recently found out that my library has downloadable audio books, which is good. Most of them are ones I've never heard of, but some are good. Hopefully they'll keep getting more, because I like listening to audio books while I knit. I found this web site which has free audio books to download, and they are all classics that are in the public domain. A good book that I've listened to recently is My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. It's about a girl who has leukemia and her parents decide to have another child who will be a donor for the girl. She ends up donating bone marrow and other stuff to keep her sister alive, but now is suing her parents for medical emancipation. It makes you think about how the leukemia affects everyone in the family, and how it makes them do things they never thought they would.