A Little Distraction

Last night my knitting group took a field trip down to the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts in Cedarburg. I did accomplish a bit of actual knitting, since someone else was kind enough to drive the car pool. But the main event of the night was oohing and aahing over the beautiful items on display, and diving into their clearance bin. Yes, even museums have a clearance bin, and when it's a museum of fiber arts which is supported largely by donations, they have a generous sale bin of donated remainders and left-overs from other people's projects. I walked away with 6 skeins of well-aged wool in a burnt orange color for only $5.00, and 2 and a half skeins of a beautiful aurora-colored yarn which has been forgiven for its acrylic origins. Toss in the price of admission, and I still got out of there for less than ten bucks.

This morning, I woke to hazy thoughts about knitting up that orange wool with a length of garden twine (of all things), then felting it down for a nice sturdy bag. I could get the leather lady to add handles for almost nothing, and it would be just the thing to take to Arizona. So somehow, before I was even fully awake, I was digging through my stash and organizing my thoughts around a plan for shaping the bottom of the bag.

I was NOT fully awake, though - at least that's the only explanation I came come up with for the fact that I spent several hours to make this:

It's not orange, or sized for a market bag of any proportions. It's the blue wool from last Fall's Common Ground Fair, combined with an assortment of scraps from my stash in a ballband pattern. I'd dreaming of a lining from the remains of that blue painted silk, and I have the idea that a blue leather strap would be nice. I'd probably still be sitting on the couch, mesmerized by the unfolding colors of it, if I hadn't run out of the sock yarn being used for reinforcement. I think it will be a nice, roomy purse after felting, and I'm debating between a zipper closing and a short-row round flap with magnetic clasp. But I have no business working on it, because it is not on my priority list and is not due in 10 days (while other things are). I claim temporary insanity.

And last night I stayed up past midnight watching Transporter 3 - it probably says something about my own age when I have issues with the age of the female lead compared to Jason Statham - and working on the Extreme Brown shrug.

I'm past the neck opening and the second shoulder, and will shortly be moving down the second arm. I probably would be finished with said arm and working on the front edges if it weren't for a certain whim involving blue wool.

Addiction is not a pretty thing.