In the bag

As promised, here's a photo of the lovely bag Kristin's friend Chandra made. It's St. Patrick-y while not being so holiday specific that it can only be toted around one day of the year. Of course, I'm due the credit or blame in this department since I picked the fabric.

A peek inside finds pockets everywhere. I think Chandra did a terrific job, which is no surprise since I love the messenger/knitting bag she made me. I'm impressed with how the pattern lines up when the outside pocket is closed. And she got it done so quickly too! My mom is going to love it.

As for the birthday gifts I made that went inside, here are the slippers, coffee cup cozy, and flower pin. I forgot that I made the dishcloth as well, but I remembered in time to put it in the package I mailed today.

After last night's pissy post about struggling to sew the pin back onto the flower pin, I managed to get it attached so that it shouldn't come off. (I should probably be more concerned about my parents' dog eating it.) You would have laughed if you had seen the mess I was making trying to sew it on with the thread pulling from the spool.

I determined that perhaps I needed to cut the thread. I cut probably twice as much, if not more, than was necessary, so I still had my share of challenges. Complicating matters was the fact that to center the pin back I needed to sew through where the flower was while not going through the flower. It isn't centered, but it's on. Mission accomplished.

Jenn has suggested a couple projects for my film festival knitting breaks. I think she may be overestimating what I'm capable of, but I appreciate her faith in what I can do. I may give one of them a go.

That said, I make some silly mistakes. I was telling Kristin that the slippers I made myself were too big probably because of the yarn I used. She asked if I measured my feet. Um, no. I just followed the directions for men's sizes. I used the same flawed logic in making my mom's. If they don't fit, I have plenty of the yarn left to knit them again. But I'd rather not, if I can help it.

I will be knitting slippers for myself again, so at worst I'll have that or dishcloths to knit during down time at the festival. I'm looking forward to the time away from home and my "yelling friends", i.e. my obnoxious student neighbors back to their worst ways with spring break here. ("Yelling friends" comes from a cute story Donna told me about an observation her daughter made. Donna, if you're ever in need of a fallback blog entry, that would be a good one.) And with that, it's time for me to figure out what I'm going to see this weekend while enjoying the melodious voices of my yelling friends.