Thursday, April 10, 2008

Dreary days, go away!

Anyone else totally sick of the rain and dreary days and now FOG?! Seriously, it's 10am, how is there still so much fog I cannot see my neighbor's house? I'm sure I'll have no sympathy from those of you who can still see snow, but I want some SUNSHINE!

I cast on for Picovoli last night. It's currently on two circs, which I really hope doesn't mess up my gauge (because. .. gasp. . .. I did a swatch). For the size I'm making, the cast on stitches didn't really make it all the way around the 24" circ. I tried to make it work, and knit about 70 stitches, but figured I was doing more harm than good, so two circs it is for a few inches. Once I knit all the raglan increases it should quite easily fit onto the single circ I swatched with. (try saying that 5 times fast!)

The more exciting part of last night was putting my needles in some semblance of order. I have had a plan for ages to sew a DPN holder, but since me and the sewing machine are still not the best of friends, well, I haven't followed through. I was doing some web searching and saw on several forums the genius idea of using some fishing gear to organize needles. So, I trekked on over to Bass Pro and got this beauty. I mean, really, could this thing be more ugly? Well, I take that back, it could be more ugly, but it's pretty bad as it is. But, it does an awesome job, I must say. These pockets in the front are big enough for crochet hooks.
These smaller pockets in the back fit the cable ends and tightening keys and will be good for stitch markers, too. The front pocket will probably hold measuring tapes and scissors. It's seriously an awesome all around notion bag and it's not overwhelmingly large or expensive (cost me ~20 bucks for the bag + extra inside zipper bags). I haven't decided the best way to organize the needles yet. Right now, they are all in zippers by needle size . . .. but all circ lengths and DPNs are in the pocket. We'll see if that sticks or if I rearrange 100 times before settling on something.

5 comments:

JessicaRose said...

nice organization. function sometimes needs to come before beauty. but yeah your right its not that attractive.

Stephermay said...

Ooh, I need one of those...

Anonymous said...

A Swatch!!!! If I do one, I expect my knitting to wrok out Perfectly!!
The fishing bag is a great idea. I think, somewhere, I saw where someone had put an applique or some nice fabric over a logo they didn't like. You could do it without sewing, you could use glue!!!

IrishGirlieKnits said...

I'll send some CA sunshine your way, okay :) Good news for next year, so far in April this year the weather here in Northern CA has been gorgeous!

Samsara said...

That fishing bag is a great idea! Maybe I'll pop into my Dads favourite fishing shop next time I'm near (or at least raid his tackle box *lol*)