20 hours in

I think that is how long I have been working on Bethany's baby sweater so far.  Frogged 5 times, completely.  I finally have a gauge right and I have about 2 inches knit and it is looking good.  I decided to do a hem instead of leaving the cast on edge as the bottom edge.  I learned how to do this from this pattern.  I made it for a friend's daughter last year.  To date it is my proudest knit.  It makes the knit piece look more professionally done and finished.

So, I continue on this little journey of creating my own pattern and design.  I plan on taking some pictures of my progress this afternoon.  I hope she loves it!

I also began up-cycling some sweaters last week that I bought from Goodwill.  The purses I intend to sew from the felted sweaters had to wait though.  Our drain on the washer plugged and flooded the garage.  I was mortified, thinking the sweater "turds" (as I call them) had plugged the drain.  Luckily for me, the plumber said that the drain had been clogged for a long time, probably long before we moved in.  PHEW! 

Of the three sweaters I bought, only 2 felted and the beautiful cream 100% mohair sweater only shrunk.  What disappointment!  It was that sweater I had planned on being the bulk of a cream, square purse with a red flower accent.  Unbeknown to me, the sweater was either superwash (meaning treated to prevent felting) or the chemicals to make it cream-colored prevented it from felting.  But it did shrink down to a nice size, just right for me!  I plan on wearing it rather then carrying it.

 Turds I pulled out of the washer

Those yet to be fished out . . .