A Crafty Tale - Part One

This tale has two parts. The first begins this past Sunday when the Knitting Circle gathered at Julie's house (you can see pictures on her blog and this reinforces why Opus the penguin is the picture of me instead of anything typical). In the past I have referred to double pointed needles as the DDPs - Dreaded Double Pointeds. I really am *not* a fan of them. Yes, I know they're very useful for small projects and everyone can be converted eventually. Me? Let's just say I have learned to tolerate them for finishing off projects but certainly NOT for doing an entire project on which will tell you why I have no interest in knitting socks. :)

So it is Sunday, the KC is having a CHAMPS gathering (Julie explains this, too, but if you can't get to her blog - I know I should add links to the other KC members but I'm waiting until after SP8 is done - CHAMPS stands for Chicks (or Crafters if you prefer) Having A Movie and Potluck Session). We watched a great chick flick ("The Family Stone"), cried, ate, laughed, talked, shared recent events and helped each other with our projects. To that end, my dear friend Linda who is the only other person in our group who casts on by knitting on her stitches very kinds cast on the stitches for a small felted bowl for me. The pattern comes from the "One Skein" book and the yarn was from my secret pal. Wonderful, fabulously supportive Brooke told me I would be making the bowl or else because I have talked about doing it since I got the yarn from my secret pal and just couldn't seem to get started. Roni, our felting goddess, hasn't made a bowl yet so being the first one in the group to try one, I have to say, this is not only new and unexplored territory, it was something I was finally making for ME for a change and I was, for the first time, really, really excited.

I went home and picked it up again after only doing about 3 rows at Julie's because I was too engrossed in the movie. I was about 8 rows in when it suddently dawned on me that the darn thing was TWISTED! But because Linda had cast them on very, very loosely so they would fit on my circular, I was able to literally rip everything out down to that row and pick up every single stitch without a problem!

This morning I measured and I was at the point where you begin to decrease. First row, no problem. Down to 35 stitches. It's really stretched but it's ok. Row two is just knit. Still ok. Row three, however, we're going down to 25 stitches. Yup, time to face the DDPs.

OK my KC friends, you will NOT believe this but not only did I NOT dread using them, I was anxious to because it meant I would very soon be done with my bowl. So with 4 DDPs in hand, I did it! I had to sew the bottom just a tiny bit because it wasn't as tight as I would have liked and I want the bottom to already be together the way I want before I felt it.

Tomorrow I have the day off. I am going to get my hair done, go to lunch or shopping if I'm so inclined and whenever I get home (might be the man of steel coming into my life - gotta be fictional because those are the only kind that can deal with me these days!) I am going to felt the bowl. I will then post before and after pictures. I have purchased a couple smaller plastic bowls and so I have plenty to choose from for stretching size.

The yarn is so gorgeous! I used two skeins together, one navy-ish and the other red-ish but they both start out with this green so the bowl is going to have almost a border at the top. The two colors together are really, really beautiful. I can hardly wait to see what it's like when it's done! Right now it looks like a hat so when I take the before picture I'm gonna stretch it over a bowl so the picture will have it looking the right shape.

Secret pal, you did a wonderful thing sending me this beautiful yarn! I was inspired to try a new pattern, tackle the DDPs and finally make something for ME. YOU ARE WONDERFUL!

And this concludes part one of the Crafty Tale.