Messenger Bags, free classes, and Orca Tails

My plan to make a messenger bag for my niece for Easter didn't quite come off. Easter is just too early this year -- she'll get the bag for her birthday in July.

I am going to get the backpacks done for my nephews, but they might not get them until Memorial Day. I'm tentatively planning to go visit my family that weekend, so I'd just bring the finished packs along.

Yesterday I went down to Stitch DC for a free cable class. It was fun to work on something that I normally wouldn't bother with, even though I did buy more yarn (of course). I was hoping that I could get a copy of the Rosebud Shawl pattern for gblvr's Con.txt shawl, but they didn't have that pattern in stock. I did find a lovely purple-green-gold colorway of Noro Kureyon, though.

I've almost finished the second Orca Tails scarf -- the one gblvr dubbed 'the Femme Pride scarf'. I really like this pattern, and want to try it with some other yarn -- it needs to be a yarn with long color repeats, but otherwise I think it can be made out of anything that will have a fairly crisp stitch definition