The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

I have been much inspired by Monkeemaven's rooftop pictures of her WIP's and FO's so I hauled some of my WIP's and almost, practically FO's to the pump house for their photo op.
I am still working on two entrelac scarves from Gedifra Highlights 042. As you can see, if this were a race, scarf number two would be winning.
I am two repeats into the Fall 2005 Interweave Knits Cabled Shrug. It took me quite a while to copy the charts and enlarge the charts and cut the charts and tape them to cardstock and color-code the stitches and slip it in a plastic jacket. Phew! I need a nap just thinking about it. Everyone doesn't have to go through this piffle, I'm sure, but this allows me to leave my knitting and return to it without (hardly) ever going awry--'cept for the occasional tinking of half a row here and there necessitated by the occasional short trips to the Zone I experience from time to time.

This Lucy Bag just needs to be kitchnered and felted.

This is the unsheared Satchel made with White Buffalo. It needs its strap sewn on.

I have finished another short row project, the Mezza Luna Bag in Classic Elite Gatsby in color way I Forget. Gatsby has been discontinued but the pattern calls for any worsted, Aran or other weight that will give 4" to 4 1/2" sts/inch in stockinette. Since I am a slovenly swatchless individual my finished bag is larger than the pattern's dimemsions of 14" high overall and 7" at the lowest part of the center opening. Mine is 16" and 9" at the center opening. Let me stick a picture here so you can see what I'm talking about.

I love the bag part but I'm not crazy about the strap. I may cut it in half lengthwise and refelt it and add another thin strap in a contrasting color and twist them together. This is a fun pattern and, as the pattern says, it is deceptively easy to knit. Aside from the shape, I especially like the strap tabs.

They are knit during the bind off and attached using a three-needle cast off. They could also be bound off and sewn after felting and since I am no good at describing anything just skip this part because I'm sure it makes no sense. The tabs need to be stuffed with plastic bags or some such to prevent felting them closed. It's not written in the pattern and I wasn't thinking when I pitched mine in the washer and they did felt together a bit but I inserted a large pair of scissors and opened and closed them a few times and all was well. I'm going to put it in a neighbor's washing machine that has a Serious Agitation setting and see if it won't felt down to a smaller size.
And finally, the really not good looking Inky Dinky Bag made with Cascade 220 in colorway Once Is Enough--I dyed it myself and, believe me, this color ain't ever going to happen again.

It measures 4 1/2" by 8" and is just something I made up as I went along. I am going to sew some small D-rings to attach the orange-brassy looking chain I will use for the strap. I made the buttonhole because I want to use a really cool orange-brassy-looking button that I found. I am waffling over making a bag that will be more worthy of the hardware and just make a thin strap out of the yarn and throw on another button for the Inky Dinky. The bag is only slightly better looking in real life, by the way, but the dear brat things it's cute.
Okay, I think that's enough for this episode. Happy holidays to all--I know it's early for some of them but I never know when I'll get back here.