I apologize!

Here is a very bad, ugly, nasty picture of the pre-felted Autumn Colors bag. My pride ordinarily wouldn't let me post such a horrid picture but I have been feeling so guilty about the lack of photographic evidence of due diligence on the fiber arts front that circumstances compelled me to just suck it up and put something on the blog. Since the sun is not up and I have to post before the kids are up and we start school, I'm stuck with horrid unnatural lighting. Poor planning on my part and I apologize to all those artists out there whom I admire that take such stunning photos and, if they stumble across this blog, are running to their toilets to hurl right now. I assure everyone, in real life, the colors are really very lovely and the bag is worthy of so much more than this crappy photo.

I completed knitting the bag yesterday and it's going in the washer in a few minutes. I just need to string some plastic through the casings on the top edge to keep the channels open for the dowels. The leaves on the front are not sewn on, as this is not the final arrangement planned. I have quite a few leaves knitted and some embroidery planned and the final arrangement is yet to be decided. I just threw those up to break up the large brown field. The odd ears sticking out on the sides are actually pockets. I can never get at my cell phone fast enough and sometimes don't even hear it, so outside pockets are now mandatory on all the bags that I design. My DS has indicated that this bag needs (do you hear that - NEEDS) bamboo handles, so I'll be looking for something like that to finish it off.

Because of my guilty conscience over my flirtation with Fetching, I've really focused on Autumn Colors and Samus this week. I'm within an inch or two of dividing Samus for the sleeves (finally). It really is a good project for t.v. viewing late at night or at hockey/dance while visiting with friends, because it is so mindless. But I would have loved having a finished Fetching yesterday. We had our homeschool group kickoff picnic yesterday. It was 53 degrees, raining and totally nasty out. But that's Minnesota for you. We go from the frying pan to the deep freeze in no time flat. So perhaps I should have just listened to my heart and just finished Fetching. I would have had something divine to keep me toasty yesterday instead of a guilty conscience and an ugly, horrid, nasty picture on my blog this morning. Doh!