Tap-tap-tappin my fingers.

My yarn is ready, my swatch accurate, my needles sharpened. I jump every time my e-mail alert goes off....any moment now I'll have my pattern in hand and I can begin my weapon. Waiting is the hardest part! And it only gets worse, since once my weapon is complete and sent, I have to wait for it to reach my target, while waiting to see if my own death by hat has arrived....it's a long process but loads of fun! Hat Attack has a store this time around, and you can get shirts made with your date of death on the back, I'm considering getting one, once my death arrives.

I left you with a bit of a teaser yesterday, but before I get to that we had a houseguest last night


Seems late for ladybugs, but there it was, hanging out on the lampshade. Grace was quite concerned, kept asking the ladybug "Where is your family? I bet your mom and dad miss you, you should go home!" We took our guest outside and left him/her in the grass, and Grace said "Oh, his mom and dad must be so happy to have him back!"

This morning I dashed out to Micheal's to pick up the last piece to the green and pink mystery, and when I returned my Sanrio and Friends kit had arrived from Woolgirl!


So much cuteness!!!! There is this adorable little Hello Kitty stitch marker, this gorgeous sock bag, lots of fun stickers (most went on my sock stash bin, the rest I gave to Grace) and the yarn and pattern!


The yarn is a special colourway (called Sanrio and Friends) dyed up by White Oak Studio, from their tv yarn line. It's smushy and wonderful and the colours are INTENSE!!! Browsing through the stores sold pages you can see colourways for Buffy, Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives....and a Nightmare Before Christmas one too! Oh, I hope they repeat old colours...love it!

Thank you Jen of Woolgirl! I can't wait for my Wicked Witch of the West kit!!!

Alright, you've been very patient with me.

For those of you who guess a bag for Grace, you were right! And if you guessed ballet, you were right too!

Initially I was just going to use graph paper to draw out a design, which is what I've done in the past when I've done colour knitting for felted bags (seen here and here) but instead decided to make use of the genius over at the Knitpro site. What ya do there is find an image you want to make into a chart, chose your size and voila! Picture chart all done. Easy peasy.

Now, from my past experience with picture knitting in the round I knew I was going to end up with a bazillion ends to weave in. No thanks! The I thought about how I had made Beth's argyle socks, and realized that knitting it flat would mean way less weaving in. But I didn't want a bunch of pieces to sew together either.

Then it came to me...

I knit the bottom of the bag (60 sts, knit 50 rows garter stitch) then I picked up stitches all the way around, placing markers at the 4 corners (25 sts on the sides, 60 on front back). I knit a couple rounds, then found the middle of what would be the back. Then I started knitting back and forth, and knit in the picture. Once the colour was all done, I started back with in the round knitting



Once I had the size I wanted (it's also important to know that every 10 rounds I did a decrease at each corner...like so: "knit to 2 sts before marker, ssk, slip marker, ktog") I cast off, seamed the back, and added straps. I made them adjustable, figuring that would be easier than trying to guess how big I needed to make them so that they would fit Grace when they felted. Then I did my end weaving and tossed it in the wash.

For the final touch, ribbon:


There is also a ribbon drawstring.

And Grace is ready for Dance class


I'm pretty pleased with myself, I won't lie.

Also, this is my 300th post. Happy Milestone to me!

ETA: I realized I did not mention the yarn. The green is Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in Pampas Heather, the pinks are Patons Merino, and I can't tell you the colour since I lost both ball bands. Felted beautifully together.