Photo-Free post

Life is getting in the way of life yet again, so my progress on crafty projects has been minimal lately.

I have done a lot with Valerie's bag, but have removed all photos of it so that I might have a chance to get it published in Knitty. I have no idea if they'll select it since its a pretty simple pattern and they get TONS of submissions, but I figure what they hey, why not? I'll find out sometime around June if its accepted, and if not I'll be posting the pattern on my "official site." The main bag portion is done, now just have to finish the mat bag, pockets, straps, and put it all together. Should be done in a week or so.

Last year I had planned to make a knit bikini & sarong for our beach vacation. The bikini pattern proved to be obnoxious since the yarn used has been discontinued and using different yarn resulted in a top that was either way too big or way too small. I never got to finish the sarong either. So I found new bikini patterns and have decided to re-start the sarong. Unfortunately, its lace and half of it fell off the needles in the year it was sitting, so I had to frog it all and start over. Luckily I wasn't that far along so its not a huge waste. Once Valerie's bag is finished I'm going to focus on the bikini & sarong so they can be done by May 23 (the day we leave for the beach). or at least have the sarong done since it will need to be blocked and I'm not bringing all that stuff with me.

In other crafty news I came up with a great plan for the origami flowers for my wedding centerpieces. I had originally wanted red metallic flowers, but the fiancee vetoed that idea, thinking it looked cheesy. It also had the problem of the outside being white and looking bad. So I got some spray glue and red tissue paper and glued the tissue paper to both sides of the metallic paper. This not only makes it a matte color, and 2-sided, but gives the inside a subtle sparkle. It also means I can use any of the light-colored origami paper for the flowers, not just the red. Yay! Its one more step in the process, but well worth it. If I ever find a good vase I'll be sure to make a sample & post it here...