Sunday night I wanted to start something new. I wanted to do something besides the weird swatches and wash cloth type things I had been playing at making. I hadn't even used wool yet for fear I'd waste it. Don't worry I'm getting over that. Kinda.
I grabbed some funky Lion Brand Landscapes Rose Garden yarn from my stash. It's 50/50 wool and acrylic so if I messed up it wouldn't be the end of the world. (Because you know the world will END if I mess up using good wool. o.0)
I hadn't yet attempted to use a pattern at this point. I'm very fearful of patterns. One killed my donkey when I was a kid... wait that's not true. I'm just a big pattern chicken. *hangs head in shame* Plus I don't know all of the "stuff". Yesterday I was looking at a pattern that told me to slip. I get what the abbreviations are, I just haven't learned all the things I need to do. Thankfully Google can lead me to wonderful places with answers, but that takes time to go through and I really wanted to do something right then and there. (Yesterday I started something using a pattern, but that's for a different post. I'm getting there bit by slowly moving bit.)
I decided to do a simple fold over bag. I wanted a bag I could use for small projects. Something I could use to hold two needles and a small skein of yarn along with my little notebook I use to write down which row/stitch I'm on.
When I was playing around with stitches last week I noticed that a garter stripe will make a clean fold in the knitting. That was kind of cool so I decided to do a stockinette stitch for 33 rows then two garter stripes to make the fold then 33 rows to finish the other side. I made it 40 stitches wide using #10 needles. After that was done it was a simple matter of seaming up the sides and adding handles. I was having difficulty with the thickness of yarn and lack of DPS's in a larger size so I had to set aside the idea of using an icord to make the handles. I did this twisty thing with the yarn that I saw in a book. Literally just having four strands of the yarn twisted until it folded over. Then I seamed those on. I felt it looked pretty nifty for a newbie project at that point but my purpose was to attempt to felt the thing so that's what I did next.
I finished the body of the bag Tuesday night and did the handles Wednesday night. Yesterday morning (Thursday) I washed it three times to felt it. It's not as felted as a pure wool bag would be, but it still looks pretty neat. :D
Here are some pictures of the bag.
Before Felting:
After Felting:
In Use:
On Cat As Cape 1 - pre-felting:
On Cat As Cap 2 - pre-felting:
Don't worry about cat abuse. She likes all the attention she can get. ;)
That's the biggest project I've done so far. It took two balls pf yarn.
I can't wait to see what I can do once I really learn what I'm doing and how to follow a pattern. *L*
I love that cat!
You did a great job with that bag. I love how brave you are. A lot of people aren't so willing to try stuff on their own.
Posted by: Cookie | April 07, 2006 at 04:59 PM
I'll be back ... I am one of those who aren't successful when they DO get brave enough to try something on their own.
Great job!
Happy knitting, and blogging!
Posted by: Janey | April 07, 2006 at 07:35 PM
Excellant job on the felted bag! It's fun, isn't it, to venture out and try new stuff. JUST WAIT!!! It's a whole new fiber world out there for you.
Posted by: Dave Daniels | April 10, 2006 at 08:41 AM
Ok, it's been over two years since this post, and it STILL cracks me up!
Posted by: Dave Daniels | July 10, 2008 at 04:33 AM