The only thing as good as cleaning and rearranging my apartment in a more efficient layout (I did that on Tuesday) is similarly updating and rearranging my computer files. Today I went to the local electronics stores, got my new external hard drive and new digital camera, installed everything and moved files around so that my computer is moving faster, and finally got to take some decent pictures for the blog!

Project Specs:
Pattern: Yoga Mat Bag from Stitch n Bitch Nation
Yarn: Noro Kureyon, color 165, about 2 skeins
Needles: 100 yen shop finds, approximately 8.2 on the American numbering scale
Time: Less than a week!

I finished my yoga bag more than a week ago but couldn't bear to post about it without a picture that actually does justice to the beautiful colors. This was the first picture I took with my new camera! Yay! This bag is really functional and I've already used it a few times. The only "problem" is that the strap did not need to be nearly as long as the pattern called for. I ended up knotting the strap to avoid major sagging. If you're wondering about how I got the strap to magically display itself like that, its because my bedroom walls are like velcro. This is possibly the only time that I have actually been happy about that.

Here's a closeup of the pattern. It was really easy to memorize although I did add about 4 stiches somewhere in the middle when I was watching 24 (when will I learn!?). I managed to even it out, though, and you'd never know those stitches slipped in there. The only change that I made was to knit the bag bottom up rather than side-to-side as the pattern is written, because I wanted my stripes to be horizontal.

I'm really excited about project spectrum this month because I LOVE green!! I only came to this realization a few weeks ago when I was moving my necessities from one bag to another and noticed something curious. It's ALL green: business card case, ipod, cell phone, wallet, important notebook, bag organizer... even my Kitty Chan souvenir pen is green. So I'm going to embrace it this month! If I could have gotten a green camera today I probably would have.* And although I am 99% happy as a clam these lazy days of Golden week, I am just a little envious (green with envy, if you will) of all the crazy knitbloggers who are going to MDSW this weekend. I won't get into the big trip home I was going to take this month for family, friends and fiber because, well, I just won't. I've spent less than 5 minutes this week wishing I was at home, so I think that is pretty good.

Oh, and Christmas in May came about because a friend of mine owed me a dinner party after I bid on her at a charity service auction. I wanted her to teach me how to make Christmas pudding, so we ended up making that together on the weekend and then she came over and made some delicious lasagna and bunch of my friends feasted. Apparently the weather was quite like that of Christmas in Australia, and I happened to be with all Australian friends, so it seemed quite fitting. We even got to listen to Christmas tunes! It was a fun time, even though it was really only Constitution Day.

Now I'm going to take the advice of a wise knitter and cast on for a mindless sock that I can keep on hand the next time I get a tape of 24 from my mom. I won't let any more of my knits fall prey to that program. Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

*I ended up getting a Canon IXY Digital 70. I think it's the same as the Elph line of cameras at home. It's small, easy to handle and has some kind of shaky-hand-protection so I was sold. So far, so good! Now I just need to read the manual.