Friday Night Sew-In

The strap on the purse I made in 2013 wore out. I still loved the purse -  it was the right size and I'm really happy with the way the three interior pockets help me keep track of things, but the strap and outside were too threadbare to take out in public any more.

So I bought some canvas fabric, and a few weeks ago I disassembled the old purse, made a new canvas exterior, and spent a Friday night putting it back together.

I'm really happy with how it turned out!  Re-using the old interior saved a lot of materials and time. The only hitch was that the new exterior turned out slightly bigger than the old one, so if you look closely you can see that I had to ease the together fairly aggressively at the top  edge.  I also made the strap a bit too long.  But overall, I feel like my favorite purse has a new lease on life.  Hopefully it will last another two and  a half years!

CMS/Colloquium knitting

I started a new project in CMS on Thursday: a Trellis Cardigan in Lindy Chain yarn.  It is not the same Trellis cardigan that I recently knit for my nephew!

I want a new dressy-ish lightweight cardigan.  For years, I wore plain cotton cardigans from Land's End.  I had a navy blue one and a magenta one and loved them both, but eventually they wore out.  I currently have a yellow cable cardigan from Eddie Bauer, but I don't love it.  It doesn't seem to have enough body, so it just droops in front, and I can never seem to get the shoulders to sit right.  Since I can knit more sweaters than I need, I decided to try to knit the sweater I really want to wear.

I'm not sure that this yarn is the best choice for this sweater, but I'm going to give it a try.  I didn't knit a swatch, but I'm thinking of doing that before I get too much farther, just to make sure I'm knitting the right size (although the projects I found on Ravelry noted that gauge didn't change much after washing).

Interview socks

I'm graduating this year and on the job market, so I'm traveling a lot for interviews this spring. First there was a trip for conference interviews, now multiple trips for campus interviews. Before my conference trip, I decided I needed a new project, and here it is: Skew socks from Knitty.  They have an unusual geometry, which is interesting for a mathematician knitter. Also, there is a right and left foot, which is cool.

The yarn is a sock yarn I got from my mom and have had in my stash for a while. The color changes in the yarn are perfect for highlighting the unusual shaking in the pattern!