Holy Cross Project Complete

The satchel I knit for my friend, Fr. Joe, is complete and ready to be placed in the mail on Monday. I think he is going to be very pleasantly surprised. I am very happy with the final results!

Hubby wasn't around to model the bag , but my 95 year old mom was willing to show off the satchel.

My son had the Holy Cross logo digitized and embroidered it on the bag for me. I was going to fair isle knit it in, but thought this was a bit classier.

I added a pocket for his cell phone and the strap was donated by my husband. It came off of a brief case he never uses.

I cannot wait to hear Joe's reaction to this unexpected hand knit gift; I am not even sure he knows I knit!

August in June

This little guy is one of the cutest fellows I know! I was commissioned last summer to knit the sweater for August, and it looks great on him. By the looks of it he should get to wear it through the fall.

Felted Satchel

I absolutely love how the satchel is coming to be! I forgot to take a picture of the bag before felting, but here are a few of it drying.

Being black it is hard to see any detail, but once it has pockets, a strap and some surprise embroidery on it, you will appreciate it much more.

I did not allow it to over-felt because I didn't want to lose too much from the original size.

The satchel is stuffed with a thick phonebook wrapped in a plastic bag to help give it shape while drying. 

I really think this is going to be one of my favorite bags once it is totally complete. I see this pattern being made again and again!

If Chairs Could Talk!

If these two chairs could share the secrets told from those who have sat upon them over the years I wonder what tales they'd tell?!

Nearly 30 years ago we bought these wrought iron chairs for, what we had then, a stoop in the front of our house. The chairs were a cream color when we bought them. Later, we secured a bench from a retail store, which closed and the set was moved to the back of the house, repainted a creamy color, and the bench replaced the set. In 1999 my husband added a full porch to the front of our house and along with the bench we added four rockers, all painted blue. About seven years ago I found rocking chairs at a garage sale to add to the patio out back; they were in desperate need of painting, and since our outdoor dining set is blue and white, and our other rockers were already blue,  I decided to paint the new rockers and the wrought iron set colonial blue.

Then, five years ago while repainting the blue rockers, I decided things were too blue, so the wrought iron set went back to its original cream color! However, today the set is getting yet another makeover and the color of the season is BROWN! Who knew brown could be so pretty and classy?!

What started the makeover this year?

A new front door!

It is very difficult to get a good shot without reflection, but trust me the door is beautiful! New brown door meant accessories to match of course, so I have been a painting diva for the past few weeks, and I love the change!

Home Sweet Home

Satchel

On my needles today is a satchel for a dear friend. I am going to attempt a unique insignia on the flap for this project; I will show as I go along. The satchel I am knitting is smaller than the one shown in this picture. The pattern, which I found on Ravelry, shows the smaller version in a stripped pattern.

Magic Loop Toe-Up Socks

I spent hours this evening learning the toe up cast-on method using the magic loop. I have total mastery of the magic loop method, and a pretty good understanding of the toe up cast-on, and easily was able to combine the two. However, what I really want to learn is how to knit two socks at the same time combining both methods!  Here you can see I have the beginning of a toe up sock, but only one sock on the needles, not two. Honestly, two was just a twisted, tangle menagerie of yarn and loops! I am not sure it is worth the hassle of trying to do two socks at the same time.

Home Improvements

I can't believe that it has been four years since I last painted the porch furniture, but I looked back at my posts and sure enough the post  "Knitting? NOT!" dated May 20, 2009 shows how quickly time flies.

Yesterday I took the porch rockers and bench from blue to brown to match the new front door we installed ten days ago.

Today hubby is replacing the old, faded black window shutters with dark brown shutters. You can see the shutters are already in place on the first floor.

As I type this post, my DH is working outside my office window replacing the second floor shutters.

When you own a house there is ALWAYS something to be done.