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I love otedama, don’t ask me to do it, I’m just an admirer. I am about as coordinated as a drunken moose. But I can make the ojami just fine which does take a little coordination, but at least when it comes to avoiding needle pricks and sewing my own thumbs into the bag I can manage.

This is such a good craft for using up strips of scrap fabric. Each one is made of 4 pieces. For a western sized juggling bag, about 1.5 by 3 inches stitched with a scant 3/8 seam, and for otedama sized bags just slightly larger (the proportions should be length= width*2) about 2.75 inches wide to 5.5 inches long with a scant 3/8th inch seam.

Arrange the strips into a pin wheel, then sew the face of 4 strips so that they meet. Then sew the each strip down and around the corners (this is easier done than described) leaving one side of the opposite face open to fill with azuki beans, but not stuffing the beans, and then blind stitching the final seam closed. Otedama is played like jacks (at first) so too many beans makes it harder to manipulate the ojami.

Mine are made with batik dyed linen scraps (I didn’t sew the texture, the fabric came like that) left over from a fish shaped pillow that I made for a friend many years ago. The texture equaled fish scales to me, unfortunately it was one of those projects that worked much better in concept than execution but at least I had the gorgeous scraps to play with on a slow rainy Oregon day.

Matt surprised me by recanting his battery-less faith and acquiring batteries for the camera.

Which means I can show you this little bag that I was rambling on about last night.

I added the crochet top and yarn handles this morning (the fabric inside had to be stuffed in there otherwise it would have looked like yarn and a weird reflection in the pic.)

Lexi immediately said “Oh my new bag.” and made off with it. (She does this quite a bit with things that I make, that means she approves of the item and I have no hope of ever having it returned to me. Fortunately, Josey brought it back just long enough for me to take a photo.)

After searching high and low for the card of blue-gray buttons meant for Lexi’s frock, I gave up. As a parent though it’s possible to give up without giving in. For me this meant digging out the scraps and making two coordinating fabric covered buttons.

Thinking I was really clever I measured, sewed and cut the button holes. Assembled said buttons from coordinating scraps and fixed them to the front of the frock.

Lexi seemed to have forgotten all about the coveted frog buttons and wore the frock around the house, happily twirling and twisting the long hemmed skirt of it, testing it for tricycle safety and showing it off to her brother and father.

Then my husband informed me that she’d taken off the dress and left it in my sewing area. Now there’s only one reason anyone leaves anything in the sewing area and thats for mending.

I picked up the dress wondering if one of the seams had given way, or if indeed the hemline was not exactly tricycle proofed.

No.

It’s missing a button.

“Lexi, what happened to the button?”

“I cut it off.”

“Why?”

“It was wet.”

“How did it get wet?”

“There was spit on it.”

“How did it get spit on it?”

“I spit on it.”

“You spit on it and cut it off your dress?”

“Yes.”

“I’m going to fix it.”

“Oh, you need a button!” Lexi produces the card of frog buttons.

Now at this point I have to give her credit for being persistent if nothing else and for planning ahead to create some kind of (demented as it may be) cover story. I could have asked her why she spit on the button in the first place, but I figure that’s probably self evident as she seems to hate all buttons excluding the frog buttons.

Adorable and not at all creepy.

Just because it sits there and stares at me.

Wearing the sweater I knit for it.

Staring.

Watching.

Waiting.

Seriously, I finished the shawl. I even blocked it.

It’s after 8 o’clock so the intended recipient is unavailable to model it. It’s past her bed time. Although it’s pretty heartening to hear, “That’s my beautiful shawl?” as I pin it to shape on the quilt. I think Lexi likes it.

The yarn is handspun Shetland laceweight, doubled as recommended in the pattern and knit 4 stitches to the inch on size 7 US needles.

It’s quite pretty, I know people don’t think of putting little girls in such dark colors– but Lexi has such a clear complexion she can pull it off.

As for knitting lace, the jury is still out. I think I’m giving it a fair trial, but truthfully there are parts of it that really just don’t make for a relaxing time of knitting. I’m definitely not in love with carrying around patterns or firing up the laptop everytime I want to knit. At least with socks and sweaters, cables– oh my beloved cables– I know where I’m going.

I’m working on the Flower Basket Shawl it’s a fun little knit, originally I planned doing it on size 5 needles using a single ply of yarn, but I ended up frogging it and using the doubled yarn on size 7s. As is it’s still a very small shawl but I plan on giving it to Lexi when I’m done and she’s a very small person.

Since I have to tink back a few rows I’m not exactly in the mood to photograph my progress at the moment.

I’ve also been doing some linen dyeing and a little spontenious sewing. This is a ruck sack that I made with some of the fabric. The patterning on the fabric is a bit overwhelming so I kept the design of the bag as simple as possible, I tend to like it much more now that it’s been sewn up.

At 12 inches high and 22 inches around, the bag is a nice size for the fabric, I don’t think it would have worked so well visually if I’d gone much larger. The draw-string and the straps are one in the same, it can’t be seen in the picture but at the bottom of the sack there are buttons and the ends of the drawstring have button holes so it can be unbuttoned and carried, or buttoned and worn like a backpack.

Since I’m a little obsessive about finishing it’s fully lined with undyed linen.

I did that. I also made donuts, fry bread and crullers because I’m so talented.

The socks are really nothing special, I’m pretty boring as socks go. Pink merino handspun, size 1 dpns, and a few evenings. They are a little baggy, but soft and comfy.

Updating the blog and fixing the archives was a bit more nerve wracking, and totally required deep fried yummies. I used the Salvation Army recipe for the donuts, the fry bread and cruller recipes are more or less I throw in stuff until the dough looks “about right” and I used milk with a tsp of vinegar instead of buttermilk. Someday I might get around to actually weighing ingredients as I make them so I’d be able to share the recipes. I’m impressed with the donut recipe and it worked well even though I replaced the real milk with rice milk.

On the bright side, being offline gave me plenty of time to start (and finish) a sweater for the girl-child.

It’s a gray 4-ply spindle spun merino yarn, 5 stitches per inch. Mostly from the size 30″ child’s raglan pattern from “the knitter’s handy book of sweater patterns” by Ann Budd. I was sort of on the fence when I originally bought the book, the deciding factor for purchase was that the cover was slightly damaged and it was deeply discounted at the craft store, now I think I appreciate it much more after actually using it a couple of times.

It might not be a big deal to most knitters, but I use my handspun most of the time, so it’s really nice to have a pattern that is based on gauge and not on brand x.

Lexi is really thrilled with the sweater, so much so that I couldn’t get it back from her in order to wash and block it, or for that matter take a nice macro shot of the cable detail on the raglan shaping. Thankfully I was smart enough to weave in the ends before having her try it on.

I must spin more yarn. Must knit more cute sweaters for darling children.

I finished the Icarus shawl today.

Here is a close up of it. I’ll bask in the glory of completion for a little while, before a good bout of Post Project Depression settles in. This is my first big lace project from a chart, it’s the first shawl I’ve ever knit from my own yarn, it’s the largest shawl I’ve ever knit, and it’s the only top down expanding from the middle triangle shawl I’ve ever knit. I deserve to bask in at least a little glory.I am so wearing this next time I go to the grocery store. I’m wearing it to the library. It’s big and it’s soft and it’s mine and I made it.

(This picture is the shawl length wise on my bed.)

Matt was kind enough to watch me cast off the last stitch and weave in the ends. He even gave me a patronizing kind of quiet golf clap. I honestly don’t think I’m getting enough attention from him to actually bask properly.

Maybe it’s the Post Project Depression setting in already.