Sophia Carry All - Done!

Here she is in all her Easter Candy colored glory!

Little purse feet to protect her bottom.


A bright and cheery lining to keep her happy on the inside.

Large enough to carry quite a bit of yarn and anything else I care to haul around.

Now I can sleep and dream about the next one...

Sophia Carry All - Day 4

After I got all that pesty obligation out of the way (work) I was finally able to come home tonight and rip out nearly everything I'd done last night. The zipper stayed.

The outside of the bag is done. So much so that I'm only going to give you sneak peeks, because that part of it isn't going to change much.

I added a pocket to the pattern - one can never have too many pockets! I'll need it since I decided to stick with the super long one way zipper for this bag. The next time I make one (yes, I'm a glutton for punishment), I'll order one from this site, which Darrin at my favorite LYS recommended (yes, that's a shameless plug).

I even remembered to use one of the name labels that my friend Mary gave me,

and finally have the perfect bag to use the purse feet that my friend Betsy gave me!


It's too late to finish tonight without risking a stupid mistake, so it will have to wait another day. Almost there!


Now I beez happy!

Sophia Carry All - Day 3

Tonight I pinned...

and pinned...

and pinned. Looks like a birthday cake for an acupuncturist doesn't it?

After all that pinning, I finally got to sewing, only to arrive at what can only be described as the "Oh shit" moment:

See the mark on the right? See how it doesn't match up with the mark on the left? That is not a good thing. It means that if I ignore it, my bag will be lopsided. Poo!

I checked the other side of the bag. Sure enough. I screwed up. So I pulled out the ripper. As violent as that sounds, what's even worse is that I use a scalpel-like tool (my, this is a gory endeavor).

You know those word association games that test your association skills? If a cat is to a dog and a dog is to a rabbit, then a rabbit is to: a) power tools, b) yarn, or c) fish. Well if "knit" is to "tink", then what is "stitch" to? "Hctits"? If so, would you pronounce it like hick-tits? I'd better stop there or I'll start making bad hillbilly boobie jokes and this is a Miss Grumpy Pants post.

I am not having fun!

This kind of thing never happens when I knit!

OMG!!! I'm watching Medium as I write this and there was this scene:

[Two girls are held captive and chained to a wall. One girl reveals to the other that her mother is a private investigator and is really good at it. The other girl responds with sarcasm]

Girl 1: Must be nice. My mom's at home right now knitting me a sweater

Girl 2: What do you mean?

Girl 1: She knits all the time. She even opened a yarn store in (blabblab). She'll probably barge in any minute and stab our host with a knitting needle.

Bizarre.

Bunny Day

Finally. It has arrived.

The new Amy Butler Midwest Modern Collection is available!!! If you want to buy it online, jcaroline creative has the most accurate photographs of the colors. I'm more of a touchy/feely/instant gratification sort of girl, so I bought mine at Portsmouth Fabric Company. They have a large selection, and despite the urge to buy yard cuts of every print, I limited myself to 2 yards of the Brown Garden Maze and Gold Martini prints for the Sophia Carry-All. Doesn't it just scream EASTER CANDY!!

Mr. B seems to feel the same way about this fabric as I do.

From the moment it hit the cutting table, he was all over it.

However, some things are off limits. Fortunately, he showed no interest in the yards of cording I pinned together. Let me just say that this is a very time consuming pattern. So far, there's nothing terribly difficult about it, but it took me about 3 hours last night just to cut out all the parts.

Today, I spent about 3 hours fusing interfacing. Yes, there's that much. I kept tugging on my iron, wondering why the cord wasn't reaching until I looked down and realized that Missymoo was lolling around on it. Nothing is sacred in this house, but I don't get lonely!

After many hours, I finally managed to finish both of the exterior main panels, only to discover (after reading the directions 3 or 4 times and scratching my head) that the pattern calls for a "purse" zipper, which means one with two zipper pulls. CRAP! At the exact same time, Mr. S called from the airport for me to pick him up. So be it.


Later in the evening, I looked for the zipper online and found only crummy colors, so I'll just make do with the super long zipper. If you know of a source, please let me know. I Googled around, but could only find the Coats zippers. Unless the rest of the bag does me in, I'd like to make another one using Joel Dewberry's new Ginseng or Anna Maria Horner's Drawing Room.

Having ditched the bag for the evening, I decided to make myself a reversible headband with some of the scraps. My Easter Bonnet:


I found a great tutorial at kc quilts, but wouldn't you know it, I couldn't get to the site when I was ready to sew. I won't show you what mine looks like under the hair. It isn't pretty.

At least I learned that I prefer one that is narrower than 2.5 inches. Hey! See that peek of green sleeve? That's my second Wicked in the mystery cheapo yarn (which I totally love). Guess I have a lot of catching up to do in the photo department when it comes to finished things. I finished Agouti and am on the left front of the Flutter Sleeve Cardigan from the new IK. See, I still knit.

Here's my new sheepy scissor buddy. He says: "Happy Easter!"