Project Bags and Some Custom Spinning

I've been doing a bit more sewing to get some of the new quilted project bags up into the shop. I also wanted to send a quilted project bag to my swap partner, and packages needed to be sent out this week. So, yesterday I finished up 3 bags I had been working on, and put 2 of them in the shop and sent one to my swap partner.

The Princess and the Pea is my absolute favorite of the three bags I made:

Made with Heather Ross' original Far, Far Away fabric line on double gauze 

back of bag 

lining of the bag is quilting cotton

I put this bag up in the shop last night, and it was snatched up by someone fairly quickly. And then I got a message from someone else asking if I could make another one....I pieced together the outside today and had just enough fabric. 

Next up is a bag made from Heather Ross' Far, Far Away 2 line:

Why, yes...I am obsessed with Heather Ross fabrics.

This is the bag that's on it's way to my swap partner!

Then, for those who aren't up for all the whimsy:

This one is up for sale in the etsy shop. 

Close up of the lining

I've also been really busy working on custom spinning orders since we got back into town.

775 yards of gorgeously soft merino in sport-weight. 

Spun from roving dyed by FLUFF Fibers in colorway Greyscale.

I wish you could reach through the screen and squish those skeins. I've spun quite a bit of merino from various dyers, but this was by far the softest most lofty merino I've come across. The resulting yarn is soooo airy and light. 

250 yards of Merino/Angora (80/20) spun at a dk weight. 

Dyed by JulieSpins in colorway "Lipstick in the Snow"

The angora gave this skein a lovely, fuzzy halo and I think it's going to look awesome knit up! 

On the knitting front, I've been plugging away at a pair of Cookie A. socks, or sock rather. I'm still on the leg of the first sock. But they are going to be AWESOME when they're done. I swear. I'll try and remember to take a picture of the sock-in-progress tomorrow. 

In other news, we're expecting a SNOW STORM. A whole 2-4 inches. I've been hearing about the impending snowstorm all week on the news. Granted, many other parts of Oregon are expecting a couple of feet....but 2-4 inches on the valley floor is a huge deal. Not to mention the "Record Low Temperatures" which will be in the 20s. I'm not sure I'll ever get used to the NW making such a huge deal about temps below 30 degrees and snowfall beyond an inch! 

I'll be sure to update you about the record temperatures and crazy, debilitating snowfall! 

Love,

liz :)

A New Project Bag...and some more handspun, of course.

I had an idea for a new project bag a couple of weeks ago, and finally got around to making one! I wanted a flat bottomed zip bag with a patchwork design on the outside. I made a prototype and decided it was too small:

It just fits a yarn cake and sock in progress. 

I had enough squares cut for another one like the small one, and I cut a bunch more matching fabric to make it bigger. Then I decided I needed to use some really cute owl fabric I had picked up and found some coordinating prints to go with it. I finished the owl bag earlier today and will finish up the second one tonight or tomorrow.

This one is much roomier and comfortably fits 2 skeins of yarn. And it has a handy dandy handle. 

 Pretty, pretty yarn sitting in the bag.

I've finished 2 more skeins of yarn for the shop, but the lighting has been terrible so the pictures aren't totally accurate:

Organic Merino dyed by Two if by Hand in colorway Exhausted

I'm going to rename it "Caribbean Cruise" for the shop. 

Merino/Cashmere/Nylon dyed by Two if by Hand

This skein is much more forest green in real life...hopefully the light will be better tomorrow so I can take better pictures!

In knitting news, I'm still working on the sweater for Seth's dad. I started a sleeve today and I'm hoping to make some good progress on it tonight. I also finished the first sock that I posted a picture of in my last post. And I'm almost to the heel flap on the second. I'm confident they'll be done by the end of the month. 

Your sweater is looking great (again)....I can't wait to see the finished product! 

Love,

Liz :)

Sample Knitting and Baby Hats...

Since last week was mostly spent making Seth's Halloween costume, I don't have anything too impressive to share. But I do have a few small things...

The shop my Mom helps out at, Knit Wit Kreations, just got a new yarn line in and I offered to whip up a sample that they could hang with the yarn. The yarn is KFI Sweetness, a cotton, merino, nylon blend (50/40/10) that is great for kids knits since it is both machine washable and strong (due to the nylon content). The yarn doesn't have a lot of "give" to it, but it was nice to work with and created a soft but durable fabric.

Pattern: Baby Bolero from KFI Sweetness booklet (no ravelry link)

Yarn: KFI Sweetness (dk weight, 136 yards/ball) - 2 skeins

Modifications: None. However, if I were to knit another bolero, I'd probably pick a seamless pattern. There was quite a lot of seaming, which could be easily avoided by doing raglan sleeves instead of set-in sleeves. The pattern was fairly straight-forward, though and it was an easy knit. 

Apparently, it's been a week of baby knits. A friend from college is due for her baby this week, and she adores knit and crocheted baby hats. I whipped up a newborn size hat (which looks ridiculously small) and two 3-6 month sized hats. 

Pattern(s): Pink hat- Simple Baby Hat by Debbie Bliss (from "Baby Knits for Beginners"), Purple hats- Quick and Easy Baby Hat by Emma Waller (in 2 different sizes)

Yarn: Pink hat- Three Irish Girls Springvale Super Merino is Elsbeth, Purple hats- MadelineTosh DK in Nostalgia 

Modifications: None. I still need to add ribbon in the eyelet holes on the purple hats, but that requires a trip to Jo-Ann's. I'll hopefully add those today and be able to send them out this afternoon or tomorrow.

I also finished a Liesel scarf for Judy, the woman who watched Sailor while we were gone. But the weather was so dark and dreary that I wasn't able to get a good picture of it before Seth brought it to her. 

OH! I also have a brand new sewing machine, a Christmas gift from my Mom (that arrived in a box with SINGER written all over it!)! I'll have to do a post about it once I try it out and figure out all the cool things it can do! 

Love,

liz :)

Open for Business

Grey Poodle Designs is officially open for business. With a whopping 5 items listed.

I just spent a horrendous amount of time trying to figure out how to make my photo files small enough for etsy's liking. Once I figured that out, listing the items was a piece of cake.

I'll be adding some handspun yarn and more bags soon, but I really wanted to get something on the site since my Mom will hopefully sell some of my bags this weekend at the Southern Adirondack Fiber Festival. Especially since all the bags have business cards attached to them.

Well, that's it for now. I just wanted to make the announcement that I officially have an etsy shop!

Love,
liz

A Recipe and A Hat

I've been meaning to post about a recipe I made last week, and I finally downloaded pictures today. I was looking for something else to do with cherry tomatoes from my garden and also wanted a dinner with chicken. I looked at a bunch of recipes online and came up with Parmesan Crusted Chicken with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes (with some oven roasted potatoes):

I coated the chicken in egg and parmesan cheese mixed with some italian spices. It went in an 8x8 glass baking dish with the cherry tomatoes (which I coated in EVOO and tossed with salt and pepper) and baked for 25 minutes or so on 350. The potatoes were just tossed with EVOO, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper and a little garlic. I did put the chicken under the broiler for about 5 minutes on each side to crisp up the parmesan, but I don't think it was absolutely necessary. The tomatoes kept the chicken cooking in their juices, so the chicken was super moist. Yum. Tasty, tasty, tasty.

After ripping out my Salem Hooded Jacket yesterday, I decided I needed something to knit that was quick and easy:

Pattern: Pasha by Jane Richmond

Yarn: MadelineTosh Merino DK (an experimental base-single ply superwash merino) in Posy

Modifications: I did a beanie version instead of a slouchy version. I cut out one pattern repeat and used a smaller gauge. 

Ah, there's nothing like an instant gratification project. Made me feel better about ripping out an entire sweater! 

I've also been sewing quite a bit since my last post. My mom sold about half of the initial batch of bags I sent her with, so I wanted to make some more so there were plenty for the Southern Adirondack Fiber Festival this weekend. 

I tweaked the drawstring bags and am much happier with this version:

I also made some small zip bags for things like stitch markers, tape measures, etc:

After I talked to you the other day, I stopped at the quilt store to stock up on fabric for more bags and bought a TON more fabric. Ha. 

I love what you did with F's front yard! It looks great! wanna come take care of my yard?

Love,

liz :)

Happy Birthday Charlotte!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to Charlotte, Happy Birthday to you!

Hope you had a wonderful birthday and that moving/road trip with F is going well!

I feel like my posts have been a little devoid of fibery things lately, so I'm going to rectify that today!

First up....large pile of wool:

One of the nurses at the Peds clinic Seth works at has a daughter who is in 4-H. She raised a sheep this summer for the fair, and apparently when they shear them before the fair they THROW AWAY THE WOOL! Can you believe that?!?!?! I told them that if they kept the wool I would process it, spin it, and knit up a hat or mittens for her so she'd have a little souvenir from her sheep.

Seth brought it home this weekend and we worked on picking out all the hay on a small portion of it. It was really, really dirty. And Sailor loved it.

We only cleaned out about 1/3 of it, because I'm not sure how great it will be for spinning. The fibers are really short, and despite washing it 3 times, it still seems kind of dirty.

I did some more dyeing today! I really want to make these for a friend's baby and couldn't find any solid yellow sock yarn anywhere....soooo, I dyed my own!

I also had some grey shetland/angora handspun yarn that I wanted to dye a different color. There was a little bit of yellow left in the pot after I dyed the sock yarn and I added a purple mixture to it and got this:

I had a mini skein of the same yarn, but decided to leave it undyed:

I also have an almost finished knitting project to show you! I bought the fabulous "New England Knits" book from Purl Diva when I was in Maine a few weeks ago. She was kind enough to hang on to it and have the authors (Cecily Glowick McDonald and Melissa LaBarre) sign it while they were doing a book signing at her shop. When it arrived in my mailbox, I immediately wound up some yarn and cast on for the Brattleboro Hat. It only took me 2 nights to do and I LOVE it! However, I ordered some buttons online and it looks a little silly without them, so a detail shot is all you get for now:

I've already decided what my next project will be from the "New England Knits" book, the Salem Hooded Jacket. And of course, I've already picked out yarn (while at Purl Diva) and ribbon (also from Purl Diva):

I've also started a quilt. Yikes. Seth and I stopped at Fabric Depot and I bought some fabric rolls to make this quilt. There are 80 squares total in the quilt. I think I have 14 done....it's going to be a long term project :)

I also started a new sweater for Seth's dad and had to rip out an entire sleeve on my Mom's Tea Leaves. Ugh.

Well, it's homemade pizza night....so that's it for now!

Safe travels :)

Love,
liz

Just call me the bag lady!

I've spent the last 3 days at the sewing machine making bags for my Mom to bring back to NY with her. The shop she helps out at is going to be at a fiber festival in September (and the owner said she would sell my bags and handspun yarn!) and a few people at the shop have expressed interest in buying the box bags I've been making. A few even placed "special orders"!

So here they are, in all their glory:

The lone bag to the right is actually fairly large. I had a couple of really long zippers and decided to see what would happen if I used the entire fat quarter (well, 1 for the outside and 1 for the lining). It would make a great shoe bag for traveling and would hold 4 or 5 (possibly more, I haven't actually tried it yet) skeins of yarn.

I learned quite a bit during all of this sewing, and have a pretty good system down for making multiples of the same thing. For example, I learned that I despise using the zipper foot for sewing on zippers. I am physically unable to sew in a straight line while using the zipper foot. I also realized after making 10 bags, that I could just use the regular presser foot and it made top stitching the zipper about a million times easier. I'm sure there is some cardinal rule of sewing forbidding the use of a regular presser foot while sewing on zippers, but I'm going to ignore that rule for now.

I have a huge amount of respect for people who have time to sew things for their home and kids or for an etsy shop and do all of this while raising kids, cooking, and cleaning. I didn't do a shred of housework for 3 days, though I did manage to cook dinner each night and scrounge up lunch each day. It's tiring being this crafty!

Here's a few more pictures of the finished bags:

The drawstring bags need some tweaking, I think. I lined them because I like the sturdiness it gives them, but all the fabric at the top it makes it harder to cinch it closed. I'm thinking a new design of some sort is in order.

I haven't done a single stitch of knitting since we got home Sunday night. But, now that the bags are done I can refocus on knitting. I really want to finish up my Mom's Tea Leaves cardigan and get started on the sweater for Seth's Dad. And, holiday knitting really needs to be started. Yikes.

My parents arrive tomorrow, but I'll try and update while they are here!

Love,
liz

Glad You're Alive!

Before I tell you about our weekend at Da Vinci Days....

1. Wow! You're moving back to New England! Now you can knit lots of warm things to wear during winter! I'm actually going to be home in October....we'll have to plan something!

2. Creepy about your wallet. ugh. Sorry you had to deal with that.

3. The birthday dress for baby Charlotte is ADORABLE!!!! Even as she grows too tall to wear it as a dress, she could wear it as a super cute shirt.

4. Love the vest you are going to make! It's actually similar to the one I made (Kristen Kapur's designs are lovely and really well written). I highly recommend checking out this post on Purl Diva's blog about organizing all the charts. I did something similar and it was really helpful to have until I had the pattern memorized. Also check out this post, also by Purl Diva.

5. I don't like rhubarb. The smell.....ew. We actually had some in our yard and Seth's Mom used it to make strawberry rhubarb pie.

6. Which Ysolda book were you thinking about buying? I have Whimsical Little Knits I and II. They both have great patterns in them. She also has a book coming out in September called Little Red in the City which will be all sweater patterns. You could also just buy individual patterns on ravelry if there are certain ones you want.

7. Weekend Sewing is a good book. It has a lot of cute dresses and kids stuff in it, but I've honestly only made the drawstring bags so far. I'm not brave enough to attempt any garments yet! I think the PJ pants will probably be my first garment, though.

Phew.

Corvallis has a festival every summer called Da Vinci Days, which is a science and art festival. The big event of the weekend is the Grand Kinetic Challenge. Kinetic sculptures are built to ride on roads, climb sand dunes, ride through mud, and float down the river. It's kind of hard to explain....so maybe some pictures will help! :)

Friday the sculptures were judged and the teams had to sing their team song. On Saturday there was a parade of the sculptures along with unicycle riders, electric cars, and solar powered cars. We caught a little bit of the parade while we were biking around town. A few hours after the parade the sculptures take off down the race course, which is mostly on the bike path. Tons of people take off on their bikes to ride along. The sculptures stop at the fairgrounds and have to climb a sand dune before continuing on the race course.

Here's one of the sculptures waiting in line at the sand dune:

Here is the lobster climbing the dune:

Some more sculptures:

This guy has participated in the race for a number of years, and you could tell. He flew right up the sand dune with absolutely no problems.

On Sunday, the sculptures had to ride through a mud bog and then go 2 miles down the Willamette River. I was going to try and catch all of the Sunday festivities, but I ended up skipping the mud portion. It was pretty entertaining to watch the sculptures come down the river, though!

Crazy, huh?!

Well, I have some foodie things to share, but I haven't uploaded the pictures yet. I'll post tomorrow with those :)

Love,
liz :)

You said to keep posting photos....

Glad to hear camp is going well!! I'm so excited for you to get the package I sent out the other day...it should be arriving any day now!

I have lots of things to show you!

First up....more knitting project bags (actually you could use these for a whole host of things!):

When I was up in Maine in April, I bought some Heather Ross fat quarters at Purl Diva. (The new Heather Ross line is amazing. It's called Far, Far Away 2-would be amazing for a little girl quilt...but anyways...) I don't know what this line is called, and I never thought I would buy fabric with mermaids on it, but it's so gosh darn whimsical and cute. And I love the colors. Especially the dark purple.

How about some more pictures?

I usually don't line my drawstring bags, but I decided to do it this time around. And I really like the sturdiness of them. I had thought about reversing the fabrics to contrast with the box bags, but how dirty would those white prints get?

More pictures, you say? Okay...

This one already has my yarn and needles for the class I'm taking on Sunday! 

How dang cute are those fish????

I haven't posted any spinning up here in a while, and I think it's time...

I am in love with this skein. It is mohair, nylon, and little merino. I had never spun mohair before and was a little nervous about it. But, it really turned out lovely (minus the mohair that was all. over. the. house). If it a) wasn't mohair and b) was washable, it would make a really lovely baby gift.

This is some Blue Faced Leicester yarn that I left as a single ply. It's a bit thick and thin...I think it is destined to become a simple hat of some sort.

I've been walking/hiking quite a bit with Valerie and her dog Diamond, especially now that the weather has warmed up a bit (just a bit though....we're about 10 degrees below normal temps for this time of year!). I tried to get some pictures of the dogs last time we were out....but boy, are they fast.

They just adore each other!

Well, I've been terribly unproductive today with regards to housework (although I have done 2 loads of laundry...I guess that counts for something) and we have one of Seth's friends from med school coming tomorrow night for dinner!

I am going to a local sheep and wool festival this weekend, though, so I'll be sure to take lots of pictures of the yummy yarn, fiber and cute animals!

Love,
liz