FO: Bunny Bag

This is my Bunny Bag. :D

What does every bunny need? A bag to hold heads in of course. :P The bag I first envisioned was going to be a Bunny Head complete with Big Bunny Ears.

Right. No that didn't work out. I was running out of the lovely soft grey yarn and couldn't get any in the same lot. So instead of making a Bunny Head Bag I made a Carrot Bag. Cause that's the way Bunnies roll. Good for me my KSKS person listed these colors as her Fav. Makes sense. Bunnies do like carrots afterall. ;^)

So I present to you the Bunny Bag. An Original Otter Design. ;)

Pattern: My First Original Thought Out To Completion Knit Design :D
Yarn: Cascade 220  In Grey 8401 & White 8010 & Dalegarn Tiur (60% Mohair and 40% New Wool) In Green 7562 & Orange 3436.
Yardage:  Total of the four skeins I'd say I used roughly 310 yards. I have just a bit left of the white and grey Cascade and at least half of each skein of the green and orange Dale. The Dale was thinner than the Cascade so I double stranded it for knitting. Which was cool because it made the carrots be a little raised and it looks super neat.
Yarn Source: Deluxe Yarns - Reno's Friendliest Yarn Source! This is the store I currently consider my Home LYS.
Needles: Clover Takumi -  US 9 / 5.5mm 29" Circular
Gauge: 9 Stitches Per Inch / Aspect Ratio 1.368

Notes: I wanted to use my own design for this. I've never knitted a bag from a pattern before, but it seemed like a good idea to jump in feet first. I've learned a lot and my next bag will be even better. :D I got the idea for how I wanted to do this from a knit bag Cookie sent me months ago so I could see what felting was like. It looked like the bottom was a knit and then the stitches picked up. So I decided on a shape for my bottom piece and went from there. The shaping was a simple enough thing to reason out. I just did some simple decreases where it seemed logical for them to be. This bag has it's flaws and is by no means perfect, but it's fun and made especially for my KSKS person who I'm hoping will love it muchly.

I started knitting this bag with the idea of the Bunny Head on July 4th. That's why the bag has a Triangle bottom. I was going to make the bag have a rounded shape with a side that was the face forward end. Plus it would open up the bottom of the bag with room to keep yarn and all the sock kit stuffies. Later that day it became painfully obvious that I was not going to have enough of the grey yarn to make it as I was picturing it. I wanted the bunny ears to be big and floppy and grey, a grey that was a perfect match. So the next day I went to My LYS and looked around at the Cascade. By this point I had the idea for doing Intarsia carrots in my head. They didn't have any orange though. Then I thought maybe I'd just do some embroider carrots on it with some really cool looking shiny silky cotton stuff I saw, but it wasn't really what I wanted to do and I was on a deadline to get my yarn and get out of there. I was also taking a flight in the next few days and needed to get my project stuff together so I'd have something to work on to stave of the insanity of air travel. *L* The lovely proprietor who is ALWAYS helpful and friendly asked what I was looking for and I told her, then she went to another room of the store and picked out the lovely soft Dale. :D Perfect. The store is 4 rooms of Yarn and knitting/crochet goodies, by far the biggest selection of yarn in one place here in Reno. :D Next to the orange was a perfect matching green so I grabbed those and the white cascade along with some Bobbins to help me with working with the multiple colors and headed home to finish packing and get started on the carrots.

It was then that I decided I better chart out what I wanted these carrots to look like. I looked online to remind myself what a real carrot looks like. It's been years since I've really looked at a full size carrot. Now all I ever have are those Baby Carrots. I think that's kinda sad. I remember having big old fashioned carrots when I was a kid and pretending I was a bunny. What's up Doc? ;)

So after deciding what  general shape and size I was going for I drew a few rough carrots and decided I wanted it to be a slanty carrot and not just an upright carrot. At this point I needed some knitting graph paper. So I went to Google. TO THE GOOGLE_MOBILE!!!

I love Google. I'd have Googles Babies if I could. :P

Okay not really. That's just weird, but as this is how my day/week/life has been going lately, why not. Embrace your inner weirdness! But only if it's cute, cause otherwise go clean your bathroom instead or something. :P

(I think I need a Pepsi. I've been craving one all morning... I think it might calm me down. No, Really. o.0)

Anyway on Google I looked up knitting graph paper and came up with Knitter's Graph Paper at Needle Pointers. I played around with drawing some carrots on the graph paper until I decided on my general shape and size and then I plotted it out with colored markers and that was that. (Click image for a better view. It was all squished at the smaller size.)

Here is the chart if anyone who might happen upon this should ever decide they want to knit carrots for any reasons. *L*

It took surprisingly no time at all to finish the knitting portion of the bag. I was done with everything except the iCord by the time my plane landed in AnnLand. I didn't knit the week I was there, but I did go shopping at a yarn store there. *GRIN* I got some lovely sock yarn for my KSKS Person as well as some cool needles and notions and even the pattern.

Side Note: On the flight back I worked a little on the second sock. I was also reading Hugh Laurie's "The Gun Seller". Very Good Book. Go Get it! :P

Y'all know I think he is the sexist bitch ever right? Okay well now you do. :P (But only when he's HOUSE and all grumpy n' shit. *L*)

(See need a Pepsi, this is a public blog for fucks sake. o.0)

While in AnnLand I also went to a store there and FINALLY found some fabric with carrots in it. I had to go to 5 stores between Reno and AnnLand to find that stuff. None online either. o.0 Crazy! I was getting desperate at that point and was thinking I'd have to get some white or cream fabric and rubber stamps with carrots and some real dyes to make the stuff. Not Kidding.

I also went to a bead store there looking for carrot beads. Nada. None here in Reno either. The lovely and talented Cookie found those in her neck of the woods for me. Three States and the Internet explored to find carrot beads. Either nobody wants carrot beads or they are rare and valuable and should be coveted at all costs. o.0 Precioussss?

Okay so after I got back to the land of the sane I finished the iCord and washed it to felt it like 4 or 5 times. It was slow going. I hate my energy efficient washer. I'm going to beg Cookie to felt the next thing I do. That or go to a laundromat. o.0

I blocked it with plastic bags and packing peanuts. When you squeeze the air out of the bag you can pretty much mold it to whatever shape you want kinda like clay. So neat! :D

Then I let it sit for the last month as I was terrified to cut into the hard to find carrot fabric. During this time to do anything but face the cutting of the fabric I started a kitty blankey and finished the socks as well as knit and hand felted a matching pouch to go with the Bunny Bag, sans carrots this time though. Just stripey.

On August 6th it couldn't be held back any longer. I HAD TO START LINING THE BAG. o.0

It wasn't so bad as I feared. I've never sewn anything before, well that one time in the 7th grade when they had us sew a crappy heart shaped pillow, but I never finished that... but I digress... again... so having no idea what I was doing I just did what I thought seemed reasonable. Well that and I went through anything I had that was sewn and looked at how it was done. No real help there as it was all machine sewn. I even got a book on sewing. Can you say lost? Oy.

But I made it through. It's functional if not pretty. *L* I had to drop the idea of the pocket as it would have taken up too much space and made it lumpy.

I have no idea of this was the right way, but it's the way I did it and as there aren't any sewing police I figure it's all good. Right. So I made the lining and sewed it up into a pouchy thing and then sewed it to the bag itself. I worked on the sewing part again last night, so it took two nights for me to do that. Plus I put the last inch of stitches in this morning to finish it up. So the actual complete date is today, August 14. ;)

Things Learned: When picking up stitches for the base of the bag, make sure you get them all otherwise it will bunch up kinda weird after felted. o.0

This bag is a lot of firsts for me. My first Intarsia (well I made a small swatch with a circle once), My first original creation, my first iCord, my first knitting with more than two colors of yarn, my first chart creation.

Basically I just kinda figured it all out as I was going along. I had an image of what I wanted in my head and then I just had to make that happen.

I think I'm going to make myself a bag similar to this in the next month or so. Only instead of carrots I'll make it with Pumpkins and vines, like my Pumpkin Patch. :D It should be a fun  Autumn Knit as well as a cool Autumn Bag. Or I might design a spooky Halloween bag. I haven't decided yet. I think I want Both! *L* 

I'm really proud of myself for this. It may not be much, but I made it from nothing inside my head and that's pretty damn cool. :D

Comments

[Cookie]

You RAWK!

That is all.

[Dave Daniels]

OMG!! That is the most awesomest thing EVER! Really. I LOVE/ADORE/COVET the Bunny Bag. It really is awesome. You must be SO proud. SO PROUD! And, cool, I can say I knew ya back when...

[beverly]

Fabu. Simply, wonderfully FABU!

[Barbp]

What a terrific job you did from start to finish. And the lining is very professionally executed. WOW

[Ann]

Wow..I am totally amazed. That bag is terrific!!!

[Sue]

Congratulations on a job well done! The bag looks great. I love your willingness to forge ahead into new and unchartered territory. It’s inspiring! I haven’t yet knit with more than one color at a time. Is it easier than it looks/sounds? I have a feeling that it is … I’m also trying my hand at felting for the first time. I’m making a purse. The actual knitting of the purse is going along relatively quickly, which is good, as I am anxious to begin the felting process!