She Speaks!

I have been inundated with family obligations, hence the bloggy silence for the past while. First there was Fathers Day/Car Free Day when 21 blocks of Main Street (3 blocks from our house) looked like this:

 

So fun to walk where the traffic usually flows! The littlest Grandbeastie in particular had a blast with the clown and the cotton candy and the face painting and the popcorn and all. And I quote: "Best day ever!"

 

Then we had a lovely multi-day visit from my sister. I so enjoy going clothes shopping with someone who actually fits into and looks great in the clothes! I'm just full of encouragement. ;)

 

Next we're heading to Manning Park for the Annual Fambly Campout. Since my son is moving this week Thom & I will be taking over the bigger Grandbeasties while he heads back early. It will be an adventure! If they get too annoying we can always feed them to the bears, right? No?

 

Whew! I'm exhausted already.

 

I did promise to tell you about the cool case/stand I made for my iPad Mini, didn't I? I used some Japanese fabrics from the stash for the front of the case along with some coordinating quilt fabric for the lining. The shape is formed by chipboard, aka book board, in between the layers. It's a pretty simple design but I was determined to be able to take photos without removing the iPad from the case. That took a bit of head-scratching to figure out but the results are quite successful. There are several configurations possible. First closed:

 

(Photos by Thom with his iPhone.) I can also fold the cover back:

 

 

Which is the way I use it most, propped on my Pyramid Pillow. It can also stand up which is good for when I don't have the pillow but want to easily view the screen:

 

 

The red Velcro dots I used to hold the cover closed don't work as well as I'd like but they're adequate. The peephole in the back for the camera definitely does work very well though:

 

 

The Eye sees all! So flushed with that success I started on another project. Not the Hiking Bag that I actually could have used next week while camping! No. I made a Knitting Caddy instead. It was a metric tonne of work but I really like the results. This time I used some African strip cloth that a friend had given me years ago with the promise that I would use it. Someday. There were four different designs and I found some coordinating brushed twill for the body and canvas for the lining, plus some me-dyed cotton for the pocket linings. Thom cut me a spare piece of Lexan for the bottom liner/stiffener and I bought some rectangular rings from the Outdoor Fabrics store to go with the strapping. It's a fairly hefty tote!

 

Here's the caddy empty:

 

 

 

Big pocket for pattern sheets or notebook. The extra Velcro strap keeps it from flopping open and you'll notice how the handle folds down on the rings out of the way of the bag's interior. 

 

This bellows pocket is for my Addi Lace Clicks case. And on the other end these pockets are for DPNs and crochet hooks:

 

 

The fourth side has many pockets:

 

Loaded with my miscellaneous knitting paraphernalia in the two long top pockets and circular needles in the bottom ones. You will note that the bag kind of starts to lose its nice straight rectangular shape when fully loaded:

 

 

However it stays open to easily receive my rather large sweater in progress. Except for the rings, everything I used for this caddy came from the stash. The stiffening for the ends is Timtex and you can see that it's much more firm than the generic stiffener that I used on the main body. It was rather a wrestling match to sew this beast! I broke 4 needles but managed to sew the sides together with a size 100. My old workhorse Pffaf barely managed to make it through the gazillion thick layers so I gave up at the end and hand stitched the final edge of the binding in place.

 

This caddy will be sitting beside me in the Westie as we travel and I'll have everything neatly to hand. It's already claimed a place in the living room beside my chair and I only finished it yesterday. Only one more bag to go! Unfortunately there is no time to finish before we leave tomorrow so it will have to wait until we get back. Oh well. I still have a bag to carry my water bottle and sunglasses on a hike. It just doesn't fit my iPad, which is currently my only camera. Or I guess I could carry my backpack if they're going fishing so I can bring my knitting and snacks as well.

 

Off to pack and shop for some last-minute supplies. Back to blog silence. Will return as soon as I may.