Erica’s Blog

Last night, Jenna got a chance to do a performance of “I’m a big, mean guard dog, and if you try to come through that door, I’m going to eat you for lunch”. 

It was 8:30, and hubby was at church.  The Things were in bed, and I was in my Raiders jammies (great visual, eh?), sitting in the rocking chair, knitting.  Suddenly, someone knocks on the front door, and Jenna starts barking like crazy. 

I can barely see out the peep hole on my tippy toes, but I looked.  There was a guy out there I didn’t recognize so, with the door closed, I asked who it was.  I didn’t recognize his voice, and I couldn’t tell what he was saying (I could see well enough, though, to know he wasn’t a cop or a fireman or anything), so I just didn’t open the door.  Jenna kept barking for a while . She even jumped up on the door.  Eventually, the guy went away.  Jenna’s barking woke up Thing One, but other than that, everything was fine.

Hopefully, the guy wasn’t bleeding to death and looking for help from a compassionate person!  It was great having Jenna get all protective like that.  When hubby came home later, he was pleased to hear how Jenna had performed.

Meet Helga.  Helga is three parts Alafoss Lopi yarn from the stash my mom gave me a while back, one part lumpy acrylic of an unknown brand (stranded w/the Lopi), and one part Squiggle (likewise stranded with the Lopi).  This picture doesn’t really do her justice, but hubby needed to take the new camera with him to work today to document some work they paid for that a vendor didn’t do, so all I had was the old, mini, flashless free digicam. 

Helga is twice as big around as Inge, and I plan for her also to be taller.  The straps are supposed to me made separately, then sewn on later.  That’s probably not the sturdiest way to make a bag, but you can’t have everything.  Helga is going to be my knitting bag after she’s been felted. 

I decided not to use the Suki pattern from www.knitty.com after all.  Instead, I’m using a very simple one called the “No Rules Bag” from Angel Hair Yarn Co.  So far, so good.

So, this woman walks into her LYS with her four-year-old in tow.  She’s looking for just a little bit of 100% wool in an interesting color to act as an accent in a felted tote bag she’s making.  Noticing that the same woman who was sitting at the back left corner of the table knitting the last time she came in is there again (still?) wearing something different and knitting a different object, she asks advice of the three knitting ladies.  Twenty minutes and $39.95 later, she walks out with a ball of Crystal Palace Yarns Squiggle (color 9292, browntones), one skein Galway worsted wool (color 91, sort of a pumpkin orange), one skein Galway Highland Heather (color 746, sort of an egglplant color), a skein of Lamb’s Pride worsted (color M-29, Jack’s Plum) and another of Lamb’s Pride worsted (M-155, Lemon Drop). 

As she leaves, she wonders how to keep from getting in trouble with her husband for spending the money on yarn when she recently spent $200 on yarn from JoAnn.  How to explain it to him?  OK, well none of that yarn was the right fiber content for felting.  Hmmm, but then he’ll remind her that the whole reason she got started on this felting kick was that she was trying to use up some of her stash — the Lopi yarn her mom had given her, not buy more yarn.  Hmmm.  Guess there’s no way to make excuses.  Guess she’ll just have to ‘fess up tonight. 

Uh, oh.  That means she’ll have to admit to eating some of “his” ultimate turtle cookie dough, too.  Oy.  Well, that’s what she gets.

Meanwhile, she decides not to use the Lemon Drop and the orange in the current bag.  They would, however, look great combined to make a small felted purse for someone as a gift.  She can see the stripes now…