Gotta Make …

I kept forgetting to take a photo of this. It’s a string bag, or market bag I finished up a while back. I wanted to knit one but coudn’t find a pattern to suit me so I made it up as I went along. It isn’t very big empty, but it stretches to hold tons of stuff. Here it is holding my flip flops and a beach towel and it could easily hold twice as much. I very happy with the way it turned out. No seams to sew except one on the handle. I made notes, and should type them up if I can find it because I know I won’t remember what I did later.

We spent Friday night at a little cottage at the Oak Alley Plantation in Vacherie, LA. The plantation home was huge and gorgeous and our little cottage was charming. The oak trees were huge. Some had trunks wider than our SUV. Sugarcane fields were everywhere. I had to entertain hubby (there was no TV) so I only had time for one quick sketch. This is looking through the doorway of the little green and white bathroom in the cottage. The beautiful old tub was so high off the floor, and so deep, that we had trouble getting in and out of it, but it sure felt wonderful to shower off after wandering the grounds in the 100+ degree heat. It is very quiet there. There’s nothing for miles but sugarcane fields and the river. I’d love to go back in cooler weather with more time to sketch. I need the practice! I did this in the beautiful Asian journal that I got recently from my talented swap partner Kathy L.

Remember that altered notebook swap with the Asian theme? Well, this is the beautiful notebook I received from my swap partner, Kathy L. It is actually a little scrapbook and has nice heavy paper so I will use it as a sketchbook/journal. The scanner can’t capture the beautiful gold of the leaves and cording, but trust me, it’s perfect!

I finished a small knitting project last night, so I’ll try to get a photo of that later today.

Yes, believe it or not, I’ve actually been knitting a bit. I started and finished this shrug last week. It’s the A Good Bias shrug from Interweave Knits spring 2005. Why did I knit a shrug that everyone else knit 2 years ago. I was suddenly itching to knit and couldn’t buy yarn or pattern at the moment and unlike most knitters I don’t really have a stash. I did have a little of this Cotton Fleece yarn so I looked through the few knitting mags I have to find something that would work and I thought I’d wear. This shrug seemed to fit the bill. Even though it’s about 100 degrees here, the restaurants all overcompensate by keeping the air conditioning at around 30. I always keep a long sleeved shirt or light jacket in the car for when we eat out and this should work nicely over summer’s t-shirts. It was an easy knit. I was a little panicky about grafting the two lace pieces together for the center back, but it went easily enough and looks very nice.
Here’s the FRONT and here’s the BACK.
Sorry about the flat hair, general frumpiness, and big butt. I blame the flat hair and frumpiness on it being first thing in the morning. The big butt I have no excuse for.