Laptop bag is finished!

Well, almost. I finished knitting it yesterday, weaved in all of the ends (and there were A LOT), and seamed one side of it. All that's left to do is seam the other side and then I can felt it. I think I'm going to have to use the backstitch to do that because of all of the different colors, but I haven't ever successfully done that stitch before - Yikes! Anyway, I'm going to do all of that this morning. I've already warned my mom that I'll need to use her washing machine. Wanna see some pics? This is one I took before I did any seaming to show the full size. You can't see the numbers on the tape measure, but it shows that the length is 40 inches! Toward the end, it was draping over my legs like a blanket.

Here it is after I seamed up one side of it. To make sure the size was right, I laid the Wacom tablet on top of it. It looks like a good pre-felted size, although felting seems like a bit of a crapshoot to me. We'll see!

As promised, I also have pics of the Feline Dim Sum that I made. They didn't come out looking much like and eggroll and a wanton to me, but I think the catnip inside will be what matters to the kitties.

I used various scrap yarns. You may recognize the Cashmerino Aran from my mom's footies (c'mon, doesn't everybody make their cat toys out of cashmere?) and the yarn I used for the catbed. There's also some Blue Sky Alpacas Cotton that I used to make socks a while back. Only the best for my little hairballs.

After Grumperina waxed poetic about the joy of knitting socks yesterday, she got me itching to start another pair. I had a bit of trouble deciding between my lovely pink Lamb's Pride Wildfoote or my fugly Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, but I decided to go fug. I figured it would be more fun. I also used my metal Addi dpn's for the first time and I positively hate them. They are so heavy and are constantly falling out of the stitches, leaving me to have to carefully put them back on and fix all of the dropped stitches with a crochet hook. I'd switch to my other size 1's if I could, but apprently, Addi's size ones have a different diameter than other size 1's, so I'm stuck with them for now. I know J made a pair of socks where she swtiched to smaller needles at some point in the leg. Maybe I could do that. How far down the leg was that, J? Anyway, isn't the yarn wild? To me, it looks like a box of crayons threw up or a clown exploded or something. Why do I love ugly socks so much? I really don't know, but brown, black and navy blue knitted socks just aren't for me. I'll continue to buy those from the store.

So, an update on Christmas knitting:

Dad's scarf - done!

Joe's hat - done!

Laptop bag - done!

Brother's sock - :( not finished yet. I had a moment of panic yesterday when I realized that I couldn't remember how I'd shaped the toe on the first sock and, of course, I didn't write anything down. We'll see if I can somehow manage to recreate it so it will feel the same. But, with the exception of felting the laptop bag, it's the last thing I have to do! Yay! Well, with the exception of finishing the seaming on Vittadini. Can you believe I'm still working on that?! I hate finishing sweaters, and judging from what I read on other people's blogs, this is a common feeling. However, I set in one sleeve yesterday, so all that's left is to set in the other sleeve and do the neck extensions. Boy, I sure know how to bring something down to the wire. The knitting for this sweater was finished weeks ago. My deadline is Christmas Eve. Wish me luck! Good luck to everyone out there who is still working on their Christmas knitting. Allison, if you're reading this, I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!

Note: I almost forgot to mention - I've discovered Bloglines! What a great service. Now I don't have to constantly check and recheck my favorite blogs to see if they've been updated. I'm sure that it's not news to most of you, but I was pretty excited. I added a Subscribe with Bloglines button to our sidebar in case anyone wants to add us to their favorites or try out the service for themselves.