The Hemp Bag

Here it is!  My hands were so glad to be done crocheting this bag.  The hemp had no give to it at all, that it felt like I was crocheting with twine.  Anywho, I am very excited about the finished product and so was Hazel.  Like I said in another post, I decided to hold the hemp double and go from there.  I think I made a great choice and the bag is very sturdy as a result.  The yarn was called, Lanaknits (hemp for knitting).  All of the kiddies' beach toys are packed in it and ready to go!

For Charity!

I've been really busy yarn crafting away this summer and it became more apparent to me when I gathered the pile of finished objects for Michael to photograph.  Because there were so many photos, I'll break it down so it's not a rush of FOs.  I decided to start with the charity mittens that I made over in France (pink/purple and green ones) and the pair I did when I got home.  Funny enough, I ripped a project that I made a long time ago specifically for these mitts.  They were once in a skirt but I never wore it so into the froggy pond it went!  I had a rainbow sort of striping going with it so that made it fun to rip out and wind into balls.  The yarns used were a variety of acrylic from Joann Fabrics and Michael's.  Some from Lion Brand and some from a Joann Fabric's chain label.  I love these mittens because I crochet like the wind and it takes me two hours tops to bang out a pair.  

Take 2!

In true Nicole crafting fashion, I was going along with the crocheted reusable grocery bag pattern and decided that I should double up on the hemp to make it super thick and sturdy.  I ripped it out, while Michael's voice is in the background (why are you doing that?!) and started again.  Above is a little progress shot of the handles.  I like it much more.  I've already finished and it is waiting in a pile of FOs that Michael will be photographing tonight!

Au naturel

Love the color combo even though they are two separate projects

A little dark but you get the idea

I'm mad at you fiber!

I cast on another two projects between this past Sunday and Monday.  The first CO - I'm using some cotton-ease yarn in taupe from Lion Brand to make Duo which will be worn by both Haze and Ang.  I also started one of my go-to patterns, using some hemp yarn I received in a swap a few years ago.  I am doing a few modifications because it's going to be a bag to hold swim and beach stuff for the kiddies.  We are heading to Florida this weekend so I'm not sure if I can finish it all before we leave but I'll see what happens.  Lastly, I finished spinning up the yellow fiber that came with my purple fiber.  I haven't got any details because as I was winding it on the kniddy knoddy I got a huge tangle and currently we are fighting.

What happened in France...

Took a little bit of everything with me!

Crocheting on the plane!

My kids rocking their berets!

Tour de Fleece attempts...

Finished the purple fiber in Paris!

Bam!  Charity mitts finished in Detroit!

Puffin' in Paris!

Salut, Monaco :-)

Mediterranean, je t'aime!

Stockinette on my dinner tray

En route back to the States

Bam!  2nd pair of charity mitts done on the TGV!

Thank you gift from my students :-)

CAST-ON-APALOOZA

Finishing up some fiber

 Almost done with some yellow and purple fiber.  It just needs to be plied and possibly one of these skeins will be entered into the New York State Fair.

Cutest yarn bowl ever!

 Angelo is helping me with my knitting.  He's such a good boy!

My two COs for this past week

It must be the heat over here on the East coast but my friend Angela and I decided to start something crazy on Ravelry.  We decided to start a Cast-on-apalooza thread to take the edge off on wanting to make all the things.  Much to my surprise it has taken off quite nicely and crossed over to my local yarn store's Ravelry group as well!  All's you gotta do is cast-on two projects by the end of the week for the next three weeks.  It is not necessary to finish your projects by a particular time but this could be good motivation for holiday crafting or just plain ol' "I've always wanted to cast-on blah blah blah."  Although, I have about five projects I'm working on, what's another six more?  The last picture is of the first two projects I decided to cast-on for the week.