But be quick.  It ends today.  She's celebrating her 300th post and says that we learn weird things about her in her posts, so she wants to learn something weird about us.  Totally fun and a trip reading some of the other comments.  Hilarious.  Go here!  Fast!  Details: contest post

One thing that is so surprising to me about knitting is how a totally solitary activity invokes such a sense of community.   

I love going to my Tuesday night knitting group.  My e-mail is full of messages from people that have become "in person" or "online" friends. And these aren't friendships that I take lightly.  I look forward to getting to know people better.  Like a lot of people, I sometimes have a hard time having girlfriends. Not because I dislike having friends, but a lot of times I have to prioritize my time for other things.  Husband, work, family, house stuff.  But, I miss having friends.  Knitting has really helped me form these instant friendships that are born out of common likes.    And, I'm grateful for that.

Now my quest is to win a contest.  I know that there a sock yarn out there with my name on it somewhere.  I've promised myself that I won't buy sock yarn until I finish my stole and Dave's hat...especially since I've never knit a sock in my life.  But if I win the yarn...well, that's a totally different story.  I have my DPNs and Circulars all ready.  I have my Ann Budd book of socks.  I'm ready.   And, as I keep finding contests to enter, I keep making friends.  How can I lose.  :-)

I'd love to have a picture...but frankly almost all of my knitting looks about exactly the same as it did the last time I posted.  I'm making progress, but I made 1 mondo mistake on Leda...still not exactly sure what I did wrong...that caused me to go back to a lifeline.  So now, I'm reknitting.  Hence the subject.  That's OK, though.

This week/weekend has been really busy so far.  I'm really looking forward to sitting down and knitting a few rows.  Work has been crazy busy.  Then this weekend, I went to the zoo, entered blog contests, went grocery shopping, watched football, and played tri-ominoes.  I forgot how much I like that game.  Maybe I can get Dave to play with me.

A NOTE for Opal, the Akamai Knitter...
I can't believe your Boys stomped on my Vikes the 2nd half of the game.  So sad.  ;-)

Mineral Quartz Purse Lessons

Knitting 
Gloves do work if you have sensitive hands and metallic threads are bothersome.

Felting
1. Forget about it for this kind of project when the novelty yarn is twice as thick as the fingering weight wool.  This didn't really felt at all.  It just ended up losing a bit of the sparkle.
2. Weave ends in before felting.  I had a solid ball of tangles when I first pulled it out of the machine.

Lining
1. I found a yard of a pretty celery-colored polyester lining for $1.  It was a remnant.  So, in total I spent a dime on the lining.
2. Next time I need to buy pins.  I don't have a sewing machine, so I hand sewed this.  I need to pin the whole darn thing when I do this again.  
3. I'm not going to win any prizes for my lining.  But I won't beat myself up for a first attempt.
4. Spend a little time marvelling at the thread colors of a big sewing store.  Amazing!!!!
5. Cut the lining bigger than you think you'll need if you're a hack at hand-sewing like I am.  You'll need the extra fabric for hemming.

Assembly
1. I'm actually OK with the way that it came together despite the too-small lining.
2. I used ribbon to weave the handles together.  This allows me to tighten the handles as needed.  And, if I want to, I can later create button ties with it...if it needs to be more secure.
3. My standard sewing needles got lost in the yarn when I tried to pin the edges.  I'm going to try weaving in a DPN as a guide next time.  
4. Next time I'm going to use a stitch marker to place my handles.  It worked OK to eyeball it this time.  But a larger or more intricate project would have required more precision.

This was a FUN project that really only took a couple days of leisurely work on it.