Look! Pictures.
I have been knitting, I swear! It has been ages since I've posted pictures. As usual we have been a very busy family. Here is the past weekend.

Saturday: Aptos, CA Seacliff State Beach, The Kids TKD beach party.














Sunday: Felton, CA Roaring Camp Railroad, A Day out with Thomas












That is a genuine full scale Thomas, like a dope I cut off Thomas' face in the picture, I hope my sister took a better picture. It was a beautiful day and the only spoiler was my nervous Nephew throwing up as soon as he was on the train! Fun!

Monday & Tuesday Swimming Fun with Friends at a Friend's House

All the while I was making The Everlasting Bagstopper from LionBrand Yarn Incredible. It took 4 balls of yarn. The first picture is the bottom of the bag while still on the needles. The second obviously is finished, ends woven in. The finished size is 15" tall (not counting the handles) 4" wide on the bottom. Instead of using sewn on handles as Amy Singer prescribed, I knitted on a pair of handles using a band 10 sts wide, picked up from the edge, directly above the bottom corner, then made them 15" long then grafted the end above the other corner. I used the size 7 needles so it was pretty tight gauge, hoping it would stretch out less and maintain its wide shape. I have loaded it up with about 10 lbs of stuff to see how much it stretches. It stretches some, but not an unreasonable amount. Loaded up it is probably about 25" long.
Last but not least the Felici Firefighter sock for DS! I made them a little big because he outgrows them so fast and more importantly he won't be wearing them until Fall, as it will be Flip Flops until school starts. Last but not least, I have arrived!! I am finally on Ravelry. I won't be such an idiot next time and I will jump on the bandwagon the 1st time it passes by and not the 100th... At least I am not number 21,500th in the queue... talk about waiting to get on the bandwagon.... Oh yeah only 2 days to MS3 clue 5! Sweet!

I am not a notorious project starter. I am a finisher. I start something, finish it off, then move on to the next project. Lately though I just keep on starting, project after project. Because 3 inches of toe on a sock, a 1/3 finished "Tenderheart Shawl" and Mystery Stole are not enough, I started an Everlasting Bagstopper today. I keep intending to make a bag, but I've never found the right pattern and, though I knew it was very easy to design one, put a bottom on it, make an even number of stitches and then do faggot stitch around until you hands fall off, I was never inspired. However the prospect of wiling away my day at the beach for DS and DD's Tae Kwon Do school's beach party, and the 2 wool projects and 1 alpaca project I had on the needles seemed a little hot and destined to absorb sand faster than the crotch pocket on a swimming suit, I thought I needed to bring along something else to work on. I thought, Everlasting Bagstopper, knit up with something entirely different might be cool. A week and a half ago I happened to pick up quite a bit of Lion Yarn Incredible (which is very pretty but was always over priced and knit up has a texture that eerily reminds me of a crabs lungs/gills when you are cleaning out a crab for consumption) at the local Dolllar Tree for the amazing price of $1 per ball (well duh, it is the Dollar Tree right?)! I switched up the needle size a bit using 7 and 11 instead of 5 and 10.5, using dpns for the beginning instead of circulars then switched to circular once the stitches were picked up. It is coming out, super cool! I LOVE it. It is pretty and sparkly and I am currently using Autumn Leaves, a wonderful brown/copper color that looks great! The online photo of the yarn doesn't do it justice, it just doesn't shine the way it does in person. This bag is going to be the eye catcher of all Everlasting's made and I have a feeling I will be working on it tomorrow (well, later today that is) as I ride on Thomas the Tank Engine under the shade of the Roaring Camp Redwoods!