Learning To Fly

My purchases empowered me! I set aside my Pomapotomus socks and my shawl for Mom and tried a few little projects, in order to accomplish something new.



A tiny hat for Walter. Okay, not really.



Felting! I did it! This is a little felted bowl (sort of) for a co-worker - her birthday is coming up. She's Colombian, and I wanted to make something that would incorporate the Colombian flag. I worked off of a basic pattern from the One Skein book. I either love or hate that the red came out entirely on the bottom. The Knitpicks Peruvian Highland (blue and red) felted great. The Cascade 220 (the yellow) did not. I had to beat the crap out of the yellow part, and it's still not as well done as I would like. Now I just have to decide whether to put a tiny potted plant in it (perfect size) or chocolate. Hmmm....



My ridiculously large hat?



Nah! Another larger felted bowl for another co-worker with the same birthday...his new home is done all in blues and browns, so I gotta go pick out the perfect potpourri or something for the bowl. This one is done from Rio de la Plata wool, and it felted like a champ - I LOVE the way this one turned out. I knitted it on much larger needles than called for, but it still felted beautifully, thick and sturdy and lovely.

And then there's the thing I've been really antsy to try.



Cables! This is just a simple little Noro Silk Garden Lite belt - the pattern, terribly basic, is from Stitch n' Bitch Nation. I worked about five repeats of the pattern before I was OVER the cable needle, then I hit up Wendy's site and cruised the cabling-without-a-cable-needle tutorial. Muuuuuch better. Now, for a better color representation (I had to fidget to get the definition I wanted from the photo above.)



There's a gorgeous orange in this skein, but I'll finish the belt long before I get to it. I wish I'd worked this one in the round to make it stiffer and double-faced, and to give me more of the colors from the skein...I may knit it twice as long as I need, double it over, and seam it up.

So that's basically three new skills this weekend - felting, cabling, and cabling without a cable needle. Hurray!!