If any of you are quilters, and have been on a bus trip that takes you to new stores where they sell cool stuff, you can probably relate to moments of weakness, insanity, or just optimism that brings you to purchase items, figuring you’ll make them into something for someone at some time.  I bought Amy Butler’s In Town Bags pattern
at Bear Patch Quilting in White Bear Lake, MN.  Then, at a later stop at Fat Quarter Quilting in Coon Rapids, MN, my friend E and I purchased some cool fabrics so I could make a bag for her (wicked smart) daughter J as a Christmas gift.  Then E and I got lost in All About Yarn, which was a couple doors down.  Yes, we optimistically purchased items there, too!

Here is one Smart Handbag from Amy Butler’s pattern.  Click on the image for a larger view.

The Snakes Bag for J

The lining and pockets of the Snakes Bag

As I started to cut out the pieces of J’s bag, I decided to make a second Smart Handbag for another smart chickadee in my life, my niece K.  My sister tells me that K and I not only share the family jock gene, we both share a love of a certain baseball team, and admire people who play catcher.  I figured this would be an appropriate use for the fabric I have been saving for years.

Perfect Accessory For a Member of Red Sox Nation

Lining for Sox Purse

Again, click on any of the photos for a larger view.  I’m hoping that these gifts are well received.  I sure had fun making them.  I might need a Smart Handbag of my own.

See? And they even fit my feet!

After the Quilt Guild’s bus trip three or so weeks ago, I found myself with several new projects to work on.  The first I tackled was knitting a pair of socks, using the technique from Melissa Morgan-Oakes’s book, 2-At-A-Time SOCKS, where you knit both socks on a long circular needle, so that you finish both socks at the same time.

The Book That I Am Using- It's Very Good

I knew that this was the only way I would ever manage to knit a pair of socks.  Why, you ask?  First, because I like knitting on circular needles, (Easier), and Second (and more importantly), I am impatient, and would likely lose interest if both socks weren’t finished very near the same time.

I learned a few things on this pair, and I’m hoping my second pair will be a little neater where I picked up stitches for the heel gussets, and now that I’ve learned better to deal with such tiny yard on tiny needles.

This pair was on a size 4 40″ circular needle, and was done with 2 balls of wool sock yarn. The color scheme was devised by Kaffe Fassett- could it have  been Rowan yarn???  The pattern is what randomly happened with each ball of yarn, as it is just straight knitting, after the garter stitch for the ribbing.

My next pair will be on a size 1 needle, with a less freaky colored yarn.  We’ll see if there is as freaky a result.