Knitted Chalk Bag Redux

My simple knitted chalk bag has been serving me well at the bouldering gym so far, and has even gotten some compliments from other climbers. I’ve gotten another friend to start climbing with us, and instead of carrying around her chalk in the plastic baggie it came in, I made her a bag of her own:

The black and blue color scheme might be more appropriate for my bag, as every climbing session I bang my knees or legs into something: a hold, the wall, the floor, etc. My knees are so often bruised it has become a running joke with the friends I climb with.

Instead of making an I-cord drawstring like I did before, I used a round shoelace and a drawstring cord lock, which is so much easier to use. The I-cord is too thick to really feed through a cord lock, so I just tie it closed. It doesn’t close as tightly, though, so everything in my bag gets a decent dusting of chalk.

This pattern is available for free at pdxstitch.net // check out the Ravelry pattern page

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Finished Project: York Mittens

Finished the York mittens I posted on Wednesday, just in time for the end of the year. I’m seeing their recipient tomorrow, but I snapped a few photos before I wrap them up to give.

 

I wanted to get nice pictures since I’m not keeping these. A few quick snaps with my phone was not good enough! So the mittens had a little photoshoot (on the living room floor). I tried to convince my photographer that knitted things look really nice when they’re stacked — I don’t know if I convinced him, but I’m convinced.

Technical specs:

• Pattern: York Mittens by Mariana Wegener on Ravelry
• Yarn: Lion Wool-Ease Sportweight in Boysenberry, approximately 52 grams
• Needles: US 6 DPNs to cast on, US 5 DPNs to work body, US 2 DPNs to work I-cord button loops
• Ravelry project page

These will probably be my last finish of the year, though I am hoping to complete the Colorwash quilt top by the end of the year, which I guess means in the next 24 hours. Anyone else working feverishly on end-of-the-year projects?

WIP Wednesday: Helix Nebula #2

With just a week left in #30for30crafting, it looks like I am going to meet my goal of finishing the first page of my Helix Nebula cross stitch.

Incidentally, it is nigh impossible to photograph this thing because of how much black is in it. Unless the light is just right, it looks like a big dark blob.

But I’ve only got a few big sections and all those scattered stitches left to go to finish up the first page! At the current rate, I could probably finish the entire thing in less than a year. Even though it’s as large as the X-Files project, because there’s so many different colors and shapes, so it keeps it interesting.

WIP Wednesday: Helix Nebula #1

Happy Wednesday everyone! I know it’s been a long time since I last did a work-in-progress Wednesday post, but I’ve started a big new project and I’m gearing up for May’s #30for30crafting challenge, so I thought today would be a good day to start posting my WIPs again!

Introducing my latest cross stitch project, the Helix Nebula:

This is just (part) of page one (out of 12).

The finished piece is going to be as big as my X-Files cross stitch, 270 stitches tall and 234 stitches wide on 18 count Aida (that’s 63,180 total stitches). It uses a lot of colors. Not sure exactly how many but this is my box with threads just for the project (and there’s about 6 more that I have out on my worktable and not in the box):

The pattern is self-made, based on this image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX).

As you can see, I’m still working on the outer edges and haven’t made it to the nebula yet. Here’s a close up.

Lots of confetti stitches!

Finished Project: Water is Life

Happy Friday everyone, I’m back with another politically-minded embroidery project.

This one is done with three strands of floss in different shades of blue on what I think is cotton (it’s a random fabric from my stash). I intended the concentric circles to represent ripples on the surface of water. I also learned that I can’t freehand draw very even circles.

The finished hoop is available for purchase in my Etsy store. If you like this project, consider donating to Earthworks or Charity:Water, which both work to provide clean and safe drinking water to people throughout the world.

Finished Project: Sleepy Fox

After a long hiatus of not posting because I had no finished projects to share, I finally finished something! I’ve been working on this cross stitched fox for a long time (it was supposed to be for a friend’s birthday, which was in August).

I guess it will just be an early present for his birthday this year!

The pattern is from Daily Cross Stitch.

WIP Wednesday: Last update of 2015

Happy last Wednesday of 2015, gentle readers! I thought we could ring out 2015 with a round-up of my as-yet-unfinished cross stitches:

First, more progress this week on the Simpsons on the couch.

And an update on the flower of the month project. Just January and February to finish in the new year!

And some older projects I’ve been working on a while, like this sleeping fox.

And the Steotchalong, which I obviously abandoned two weeks in. The half and quarter and blended stitches just got to me too much!

My new year’s resolution is to finish all of these in 2016, and of course to start new projects, too! Do you have any resolutions for 2016, crafting or otherwise?