Finishing things off...

I finished knitting the Beaded Star bag (from the intarsia and beading course last weekend at Yarn). Basically, you knit the squares panel with the intarsia and beading (most of which I got done at the course) and cast off. You then pick up stitches along the cast on edge and knit the stripey back of the bag. Then you knit a moss stitch strap for it. I got all that finished and blocked:

The yarn is Rowan Cotton Glace and I used a whole ball of the burgundy colour and some oddments of cream and blue. The strap used up the rest of the ball and is just the right length to hang comfortably off my shoulder. The needles were 2.75 and 3mm and the beads were Rowan ones, but I'm not sure what size.

Getting this far also reminded me that I hadn't completed the little jumper I made on the last course I did at Yarn - Finishing Techniques. I took the course at the end of June, about 4 days before moving house so never got the jumper finished. So here it is:


And it's about the right size for Monkey's friend, Lavender Bear (although the colour looks a bit horrifying next to his fur!):

And as well as finishing things off, I'm getting started on the next Christmas present. For Dylan-the-nephew-sprog who is growing VERY fast. The pattern is Devan, from Knitty and the yarn is Opal sock yarn- one ball of plain blue which I bought from Yarn, and one ball of Rodeo which I bought from Indigo Knits in Penrith whilst on holiday. I'm going to make the 1-2 year size. Dylan is only five months at the moment, but already in 9 month size clothes... He's exclusively breast-fed, so goodness knows how big he'll end up once he starts on food next month...