Sewing here

OK...I AM knitting these days, but right now I am in the middle of my third ball of patton's wool for a felted bag. The bag should be great, but right now it is just a huge heap of knitting, nothing interesting.

So today I'll post some sewing updates:

This is the coat I just finished this weekend for little sis. The lining is a sage fleece. It matched the pink better than the pics show. The outer fabric is actually some upholstery fabric I found. I had visions of some wide wale corduroy, but they had none when I went looking last week. I wandered into the home decor section and there it was.

I had some difficulty getting pics, she was not having a photographic moment. I'll try to get a better lit shot soon.

It still needs buttons, and I haven't decided how to do those yet. It's just starting to get chilly, so those can wait till this weekend.

Oh, and unlike the photo the pattern does line up. That was the hardest part...cutting it out. I love knitting, but sewing is done so quickly, there is a lot of satisfaction in that. The funny thing is I am so much more likely to goof it up, since I get impatient and don't think things out. Knitting gives me time to catch up with my thinking.

I am the queen!

So the other day at dinner, our resident three year old announced that she is "the queen of cheese".

We are not sure why, but she's "creative" and we try not to stifle. I think the husband congratulated her, and we all moved on.

But really I don't think I did. Deep down I want to be the queen of something. Something substantial.

At work I am often called the queen of the nerds, which is nice, but not quite lofty enough.

So today, I am declaring myself "queen of the world's most neglected knitting blog".

I have actually been knitting, but blogging has been nigh on impossible here recently. All "personal" pages are blocked at work. I have managed a work around that lets me read a lot of my usual blogs, but I cannot comment, or see pictures. This is all a bit of a killjoy.

So, actual knitting news:

I came very close to getting a visit from the Fiber Protective Services(FPS) folks this week. I have this grand alpaca I got to make a holiday present for someone TBA (translation: they might read this) I tried about 7 different patterns with this poor stuff...and frogged, and frogged, and frogged...

Then it dawned on me that I was abusing the yarn. It didn't want to be a scarf. It wanted to be a hat. So in about 6 hours it turned into the Shedir hat by Jenna Wilson from the Knitty special issue on breast cancer. I loved this hat until I blocked it, and then the entire family avoided the kitchen for a day and a half while it was blocked.

Note: Wet Alpaca Stinks!

But totally worth it. It is a great pattern that I will probably do again. I did 7 repeats instead of 8, which worked out fine. I have visions of adapting it into all kinds of snappy snowflake-like patterns.

More news...I will have a pattern published soon. Details to follow.

I am in progress on a felted tote for fall, that will probably be ready right in time for spring, the way things are going. I just finished a pair of baby pants in pink Wildfoote sock yarn. I love this stuff.

I have a pile of gift ideas for Christmas, but none can be serviced by my immediate stash, so they are on hold. The sump pump died this week, so no new yarn for a while.

I my defense I did protest spending my hard earned yarn-money on a new pump, but when the husband suggested sopping up some of the eight inches of rain we've had this week with woolen items I came to my senses. My poor stash has been in enough danger what with the FPS folks looking into the alpaca situation.

The queen has responsibilities after all. It's not all merino and bon-bons.