Stuff I did this weekend...

I've finally ordered the yarn for both my Dad's golf club covers, and my little cousin's sweater. All from Knitpicks- 14 balls of yarn, one book*, and another size 3 fixed circular needle- and I only spent like $50. I also ordered some gahhhhhgeous yarn from a small cooperative out of Nepal, made from banana plants. I plan to use most of it in the various yarn-swaps I've joined in the past couple months, one of which is mentioned below. I really hope this yarn lives up to my (high) expectations.

As I wait for my yarn to arrive, I still need something to work on. I had to work at my night job on Fri, Sun, and Mon nights, and not having any knitting to distract me would make me go batty. So Friday I whipped out my "One Skein Wonder" book, and started a coffee cup coozy, to keep my hands from freezing when I get my caramel iced coffees. Work was busy Friday, so I didn't get much done. On Saturday, Jeff and I took the ferry out to Block Island, and I finished a good chunk of it on the way out there:

And then finished the rest at work on Sunday. I also forgot to bring any of my needles besides the set I was using for that project, so I spent the rest of my Sunday night shift reading Danielle Steele. *shudder*

Here's the finished product, doing it's intended job, and doing it well, I might add:

By the way- in case you were wondering what Knitting Knerds and their boyfriends look like when they aren't Knitting:

We are the Knerd Poster Children.

That's the two of us on a rented moped on Block Island. Fun! We look like we can't wait for the short bus to come and pick us up.

So tonight at work I needed to start another project while I continue to wait on my yarn shipment. Again, I reached for One Skein Wonders, and settled on the small felted bag. I have some Lion Landscapes yarn, that I had picked up at Job Lot for supercheap, and I wanted to see if it truly "FELTS BEAUTIFULLY!!!" as the label proclaimed. Landscapes is only 50% wool, and 50% acrylic, but from the description on the Joanns website, the 1/2 wool is all that is needed for the felting, and the 1/2 acrylic will make what are referred to as "color blips" across the fabric.

The project knit up ridiculously fast, and work was crazy slow, so I finished it by the end of my shift. Here's the pre-felted bag:

I really like this yarn, pre-felting, alot. It knits up real purty.
Came home from work, tossed the bag in the washer once- no dice. Twice- uh uh. Three times through the long cycle and a trip through the dryer? Yeesh, finally. Sadly, I don't love the yarn post-felting as much as I did pre-felting:

Maybe I'll like it better in the daylight. I do like the pattern though, and it was so quick! I plan to dig through my 100% wools tomorrow and see what else I have that would sub well in that pattern.

***Update: I don't like it better in daylight, but my roomie loves it, so I think I'll pass it along to her, once lined.

I can't wait to start a decent project. Let's hope Knitpicks comes through for me soon...

*A note to my crochetey friends- the book is "The Happy Hooker" which claims it can teach anyone to crochet, even a knitter. We'll see. It was on clearance.