Purly came up with Eye Candy Friday to help us all get through the last day of the work week.

The point is to take pictures of things you like or think are pretty and talk about them a little bit. Not knitting, just anything.

But, before I can show you the pretty pictures I took this week (as Purly says, we can’t all be Cara, but we can try), I have to show you a really disturbing picture.

Yes dear friends that is exactly what it looks like. I broke the tip on my Holz & Stein needle when I was trying to execute one of those nasty knit 7 into 5 thingies for Trellis. I cried. And I cursed. And then I tried to find a replacement. I actually did end up getting one from the wonderful lady in Germany I’ve ordered from before. I hope it gets here soon because I tried to work those k7tog things on my Addi Naturas last night and I swear to you I almost cried again. Just because it was so much worse.

Now that I have you all feeling sorry for me (and that was really what I was going for), here’s my eye candy for the day.

The Boys. I guess I really take them for granted. They’re always there. Hanging out in the pasture eating, or complaining when you lock them in the corral for the day (because they’re starving, clearly). When I stop and think about it, I can’t imagine my life without horses. I grew up on a ranch and there’s really never been any time in my life when I didn’t have unlimited access to horses. And for that, I’m very thankful.

The Kids. Isabelle and Riley - both spoiled rotten, but aren’t you supposed to spoil your kids?

And finally, some pictures of the sunset the other night.

I’m feeling random, so I’m sorry, but you’re getting randomness from me today. First up, the Zephyr is awesome. Trellis is coming along nicely.

I’ve completed the edge repeat and the first pattern repeat, 22 more repeats to go! I think I like the fabric made with the 2.5mm needles - it is dense, but I like it. Right now the scarf measures about 7 inches wide, and I think that’s fine for a scarf. What do you think?

Second, I got the new Interweave Knits over the weekend. The patterns are ok, but nothing that jumped to the top of my to-knit list. The absolute very best part of the magazine is the fabulous article Eunny wrote on shaping a lace garmet. That girl is brilliant. If you haven’t read it, go now.

Let’s see, what else… Oh, has anyone used the Colonial Rosewood dpns? How are the tips? It looks like they make a 5.5 inch dpn that I think would be fabulous for socks, but I hate to order them without some personal feedback from you all.

Next up, I need a good stitch dictionary. I am knitting a square for a friend’s wedding chuppah, and I think some fabulous lace is the order of the day, but nothing too fragile - it needs to have some structure. Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

Today is only a half day of work (yipee), and I’m excited to go home this afternoon and do some crafting. I have an apron for an apron swap that I am really close to finishing. I need to get that done and maybe spend some time with my neglected flowers, but really the only thing I want to do is knit on Trellis. I’ll let you know what won out. Have a great hump day.

The Amazing Lace has not been going well. The yarn I bought didn’t really work out. It is gorgeous yarn - very soft and a yummy color, but the problem is that it wasn’t plied. It’s just a single, and as a single - it pulls apart. I was really afraid that I’d get the whole scarf knit and try to block it and the whole thing would pull apart. So, what’s a girl to do but buy different yarn. After consultation with a couple of friends, I ordered some zephyr

Can someone please explain to me why I’ve never used this yarn before? It is great. It’s so soft, the color is perfect, and the best part is that it’s plied. I cast on yesterday afternoon and got just a little bit done.

I went way down in needle size. The pattern calls for a US #6 and I swatched on a #3 and a #2 (the 3.0mm version), but finally decided I like the look of the pattern knit on a 2.5mm. But, of course I’m doubting myself and wondering if it’s too dense.

I had high expectations for my productivity this weekend, but I ended up being a lazy bum. I worked on Butterfly on Friday night while I watched Best in Show, but I didn’t sew a single stitch or knit anything else until I restarted Trellis. Mostly I laid on the couch and read a book. The only other productive thing I did this weekend was make a cherry pie (don’t look any further if you don’t want to see it). I picked up some pie cherries at the farmer’s market on Friday night and I’m quite happy with the way it turned out.

Thank you all for your assistance on the felted bag. As soon as the handles arrive I’ll be ready to play with the lining and see what works best. I think I’ll take some of the knowledge I gained from the Weekender Bag and apply it to finishing this bag. I’m really excited to see how it develops. As promised, here’s the fabric I picked out for the lining.

And a close-up

The fabric has a variety of reds and matches the flowers nicely. I also like that it has a soft floral design, but isn’t terribly busy. Hopefully it will look good once it’s in.

The other fabric I picked up over the weekend is some cotton for the retro dress. The challenge was to find something cute and fun that didn’t make people think of their grandmother’s house dress (not that there’s anything wrong with your grandmother’s house dress, but it isn’t exactly the look I’m going for). After much debate, “trying” many fabrics, and enlisting the help of pretty much everyone in the store (including my mom), this is what I came up with.

My mom is not a blue fan - it would be the very last color she’s ever choose to wear (ok, fushia might actually be the very last color) - and she was very surprised that she liked the blue, which makes me feel pretty good about the choice. If she actually liked it, that is indeed a good sign. I still need to get bias tape and buttons - I’m thinking navy. I hope I can pick them up tomorrow. Travis is going to be gone all day Saturday, so I might actually get some sewing done. Or, I might not. You just never know around here.

Or whine and cry until you get your way. Whatever works for you (the whining and crying is my preferred method on most occassions). Back by popular demand, the Noni carpet bag. Just to refresh your memory and for comparison purposes - here is the pre-felted version.

And the post-felted version.

With toes for scale

As you can see it shrunk considerably. It’s about 11 inches high by 20 inches long. The pattern specifies a bag 13 inches high and 19 inches long, but I figure this is close enough.

The flowers ended up felting very nicely.

My only concern is that the felted bag is still very floppy.

Is this just because it’s so freaking huge or is it because I haven’t felted it enough? If any of you expert felters out there have an opinion - I’d love to hear it. I forgot to take a picture of the fabric I got for the lining (I’m sorry), but I’ll include it in the photo of the fabric I got for the retro dress - tomorrow.