The Big Booga Bag is all done. Side one:

Side two:

In answer to Lisa’s question in yesterday’s comments, this bag is knitted from self striping yarn, so there are no color changes. But if I were making a bag with several colors, whether I knitted in the tails or weaved (wove?) them after knitting would probably not matter. As a rule, I tend to weave rather than knit in, but there’s really no reason why you couldn’t do either.

Amphora News

She has a neckband! Here it is, in its unfinished state. There’s a facing that will be sewn down on the inside.

Lucy checked the instructions while I was knitting.

Yarn Diet!

The diet continues. Lolly, you are a very bad girl to try to tempt me with new yarn. Hang your head in shame!

And thanks to Kimberley for her offer of moral support! One always needs a buddy on a diet. Especially when more than one of your friends says “You? On a yarn diet? Ha ha ha!”

A question in my comments yesterday about my yarn buying habits pre-diet. Nothing consistent — if I saw something I’d like, I’d buy it. I bought as though I feared the iminent extinction of sheep. But I could go long periods of time without yarn purchases. If there was nothing that tempted me.

I am a fickle girl!

Knitting Basket

Check out our total! I think we’re well on the way to a seventh basket, thanks to you generous people!

Some notes about the Big Booga Bag.

I followed Julie’s Booga Bag pattern with the following changes:

I cast on 60 stitches and did 40 rows. I picked up 19 stitches on each of the short sides, and 60 stitches on the cast on side, for a total of 158 stitches around. I knitted 70 rounds on the body of the bag — made it just a bit taller than the “normal” bag.

I did a two-stitch i-cord edging around the top of the back, and in the middle of one of the long sides, made an i-cord loop to be used to close the bag with a button.

I made about 6 feet of i-cord for the handles, and knitted a 40 stitch-wide rectangle to use as an outside pocket — didn’t keep track of the number of rows. All this took just about 6 skeins of Kureyon.

In case you wondered, I did start another regular-sized Booga Bag — this one in color 89, like the last regular one I did. I took that one to work and my boss told me the color combo was her favorite. Because I still had plenty of color 89, I thought I’d make another one for her. Whether she wants it or not.

Yarn Diet

There are those of you who express doubts about my ability to stay on a yarn diet. Some of you have even suggested betting against it. Can you imagine?

I’m planning on staying on the yarn diet at least until after New Year’s. Anyone wanna bet me I can’t do it? If I lose or you lose, you hafta buy me yarn.

Heh heh heh.

Amphora

Here’s a close-up of the pattern motif:

Cool, huh? I’m just about done with the body, and I think I’ll do the neckband next.

Lucy is very impressed.

And here is a mysterious photo of Lucy. She’s such an exotic princess!

Well y’all have a happy Wednesday. I’ll be away from my computer for large periods of time over the next few days, so if you email me and I don’t answer, don’t take it personally!

Pardon the indelicacy of my phrasing, but that says it best.

I have to close comments on my blog entries after a few days, thanks to hackers going in and leaving links to porn sites. And yesterday I removed my blogroll (list of links to other blogs) thanks to hackers.

And when the blogroll service was restored, my blogroll was empty, even though they were supposedly restored from a back-up. I hadn’t gone in and deleted anything after the hack attack, so I don’t know why my list disappeared.

I initially decided to not use the blogroll service from now on, but it’s considerably more convenient then hardcoding links, so it’ll be back. Slowly. Because the ability to add links was down for most of yesterday, and still is unavailable.

Sigh.

Yarn Diet

Some people seem to have misunderstood and thought I was commanding everyone to stop buying yarn. Those of you who left rather vehement comments on my blog understood that I wasn’t recommending a yarn diet for one and all. The comments were all in good fun. But believe it or not, I got a couple of downright nasty emails about it. Along the lines of “How dare you tell me what I can and cannot buy?”

Sigh.

Okay, I’ll stop whining about stuff.

I am proud to announce that I have bought no yarn since November 6.

Lookie here!

It’s the Big Booga Bag, ready for felting! Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!

And the pieces after felting.

Lucy was surprisingly “paws off” during this process.

Knitting Baskets!

We have gone over six baskets! Wow!

Yes, it’s another Monday, and we have a winner in the November contest. Sarah, whose last name and location I don’t know — Sarah, I emailed you Friday night — I’ll send out your prize as soon as I hear from you.

The new FAQ page created by the contest is here. I’ll put a link to it from my sidebar soon. Thanks everyone who submitted an entry to help populate this page!

Amphora

I steeked the front neck and am busily knitting away. Not long before I finish the body.

Mousies . . .

A good but much too short weekend. We dropped off the last of the mousies to Barbara at Capital Animal Care. Barbara told me that selling mousies is the most successful fundraiser they’ve ever had. So y’all can pat yourself on the back once again!

And speaking of patting yourselves on the back . . .

Have you seen the total for the Knitting Basket? Wow! You guys are awesome! Teresa, Deb, and I are so excited and thrilled at the response to our charity appeal. Thank you so much! We’ve got five knitting baskets so far and are working on a sixth!

Lookie here!

It’s Spongebob gelt!

And here is Lucy, helping with the laundry by keeping things in the closet nicely pressed.

She’s such a good girl!

Y’all have a great Monday. I’ll close with a photo of a huge bargain in a local supermarket. Man! Do they slash prices or do they slash prices?

In an attempt to follow the good examples set by Steph, Kate, and others, I’m attempting to put myself on a yarn diet.

Uh huh. We’ll see how long this lasts. I an renown for my lack of willpower.

I’ve put this button in my sidebar.

Do you think that’ll work? I’ll let you know.

Kindly note that yarn sent to me by others doesn’t count! Mom, if you’re reading this, I still am yearning for that yarn I put on my Christmas list!

What also doesn’t count is yarn that’s on its way to me. I’ve got some . . . ahem . . . Kureyon coming to me via a trade.

I also have not mentioned some recently obtained yarn. Ahem.

Ahem, ahem.

Amphora

Precious little knitting was done due to the lingering presence of my migraine of the week. But here it is. There’s a shadow over the top of it — the colors don’t change.

Lucy likes snuggling under it.

Ooh! Ooh!

Check out the Knitting Basket total!

Don’t forget — November contest entries are due today, by 5:00pm EST. Winner (drawn at random from the entries submitted) will be announced Monday.

Y’all have a good weekend, hear?