Finally, *finally*, my husband and I sat down and finished sewing up things for Lilbit’s inaugural purse. He volunteered to man the sewing machine, ’cause he’s ninja fast compared to me. And so he got the lining squared up, sewn, and then realized that we’d have to hand-sew it into the purse ’cause of how close to the edge things were/how small it is/etc. I knocked that out this morning — it might not be the prettiest, but it’s job done.

I think the front sewing came out nice, but the back side has a crooked-ass line of ‘I should have done the long part on the inside’. Thankfully, it’s black on black, so it’s not dire. And it’s not like this is for sale — it’s for a three and a half year old to bash around. I could make it out of a cut-up duffel bag and she’d still probably destroy it in short order. But hey, at least it finished up pretty, and hopefully she’ll appreciate it more than carrying handfuls of things back and forth — she’s taken to always having two pairs of glasses, a set of keys, and a small stuffed cow on her at most times, ha ha.

The finished product:

Cardigan the second (third) is coming along beautifully. It also helps that I know how to purl correctly now, ha ha. The twisted stitches of the first attempt looked nice, but it wasn’t exactly the easiest thing to work with. At least having the fronts done takes some of the strain off. I was fretting about them quite a bit, ’cause the first one came out longer than it was supposed to. I hit a polite f-this moment, and decided that if the length of both the front pieces matched, then that was good enough. My BFFFFF chuckled at this, and declared me to be a real knitter for it:

I’ll be happy when I finish it and move on to the next pattern, but I’m glad I chose to re-do it for Lilbit. For one, it means that I’ve gotten good practice in on purling correctly. For two, there was an increase method I needed practice on (knitting into the back of a stitch), and after finding a passable left-handed video, the method fell into place. I’ll say one thing for knitting — whether you’re doing it right or wrong makes itself very apparent quickly (for the most part).

So then, what else is on my plate? Well, I’ve been doing 750words.com for the last couple of months, and decided to go for the NaNoWriMo badge this month. I’ve been writing 1,500 words a day without too much problem, only to realize today I should have done in excess of 1,620 a day. Whups. So I’ve got about 5,000-6,000 words to make up to get myself safely caught up. I’m making a stab at that today by ruminating over my growing up years. It’s bemusing how many blank spots there are — I guess my brain is just trying to preserve me, heh. But it’s good, it’s therapeutic to try and draw things out and look at them, and that’s the main point of doing the 750 daily to me. It’s my dump space, and it serves a good purpose in my life.

I also need to sit down and think about knitting or crocheting a purse for my best friend Alicia. She requested one a few months ago, and I’ve not gotten around to thinking it out. I’m also torn as to whether knit or crochet is going to make for a better product. I also need to invest in more black wool, ’cause I think I’m fresh out (and in my head, black is going to be the best colour for it). We’ll see what happens after I continue to wring words out into my 750, ’cause that’s my big project for the day.

I hope everyone is well.

<3