Progress, and the lay of the land

Although I just posted about Jewel and Mandarine in the last two days, I actually started them both about a week ago.  I've been working on one or the other every day, and I'm now almost done with the back on Jewel, and have just started the armhole on Mandarine.  Here's a picture of them both on my knitting chair, in my little knitting nook in my bedroom:

The happiest place on earth.

See that little bookshelf?  It is full of all my Rowan, Rowan Classic and Rowan Studio magazines and Kim Hargreaves books, along with some other, smaller knitting books.  On top of the bookshelf (not visible in this picture) is my knitting basket, full of all my odds and ends: containers with stitch markers and cable needles, pincushions, scissors, assorted buttons and buckles, a few smaller circular needles and several pairs of reading glasses!

Next to my chair, on the right-hand side, is my current knitting bag of choice.  This is the bag shown in the first photo I did for Jewel:

Jewel and knitting bag

This is a rug-hooked bag I made several years ago when my BFF and I took a rug hooking class.  I love the bag, but hooking was kind of tedious for me.  It took us about 14 months to complete this project!

Here's the inside of the bag: 

inside the bag

At the time I took this picture, it contained 3 partial skeins of TOFUtsies with which I plan to make a pair of striped socks, the beginnings of a large lace stole I started as a travel project about 6 months ago, my Adore scarf and another case containing two more pairs of reading glasses!  Jewel is now living there too.