Felted Necessities Bag

One of these days one of these damn migraines is going to finally kill me and then I won't have to worry about them any more. In case you've been wondering where I've been.
Onwards!
Are you a boy? Then I should warn you it is all girl all the time today, and you might just want to move along.
So, as a girl I tent to carry certain products around in with me since I never know when I or a friend will be caught unawares.
I keep them in the front zippered pocket of my purse, which is also the pocket I keep my keys in.
So they get beaten to hell, the little pink wrappers come off, and everything come flying out at inopportune times when I pull my cell phone ear piece out.
I've been thinking for a while that I should make myself a little pouch to keep them contained (heaven forbid I just buy something and get it over with. After all I can make something so buying something wouldn't be sensible!).
On Monday I finally snapped and sat down to work on it. I finished up on Tuesday night.
If I'd been following a pattern, I probably could have finished the crocheting in one sitting, because I wouldn't have been fussing with stitch count and such.
If Hubby noticed, or was concerned about, the little stack of feminine products I had on the coffee table to check the size, he didn't say anything.

Crochet, you say?
I used Cascade 220 which was left over from the bouquet of Pick Up Sticks Felted Flowers I made my mom, um, two years ago.
The orange was the center of the daffodils and the purple was from the iris.
Why, yes, that is the orange yarn I used to make the Harf prototype. I am beyond needed the prototype at this point.
You can't really see it, but in addition to the purple button, I used the purple to whip stitch the sides closed. Apparently I should have been a little more flamboyant.
Although I've heard that crochet stitches are harder to felt, I went with it anyway because I crochet faster than I knit.
I felted it because I want to embroider a little design on the back and I thought the felted fabric would be more stable.
The design would be probably be done by now if I hadn't spent last night laying in bed wishing for death.
Oh well, at least I'll get another blog post out of it.
Fortunately, this project was small and quick enough that it didn't bother my writs too much.
Although the felting made my hands hurt a bit.

Felting by Hand
Since the bag is so small (about 5 x 6 inches pre-felting) and it was alone, I wasn't going to waste all the water and energy involved in felting it in the washing machine.
(I also won't be making that mistake again! I'll stick with either big felting projects, or multiple felting projects in the future so the machine can do all the work.)
I used just boiling water from the tea kettle, but didn't use any soap.
Basically I forgot the soap. But I don't felt much, so I'm not clear on what the soap contributes to the process. Still, I manged without it.
I started the process using our old fashioned potato masher and just bashed the heck out of the thing.

Spoon!
I didn't seem to be making much progress, so I got out two wooden spoons and started squishing it up, rubbing it, and raking it along the potato masher. I also added more hot water.
I was starting to see some progress. But I couldn't tell you if that is because the spoons were more effective or because I had just reached the tipping point where felting was occurring.
I can tell you gripping the spoon handles made my hands cramp.
At some point, Hubby passed through, saw all the implements of destruction out, and the water splashing everywhere and casually asked, "What are you doing out here?"
"Felting my little bag," I responded, as though it was the most normal thing in the world.
And he said, "Oh." Because it was all explained.
He also pointed out, which I hadn't noticed since I was so focused on destruction, that the dogs were swarming around behind me as though I had food.
So I looked down, and there they were—expectant.
So, as you would expect, I held the wet, stinky little bag down to them. They gleefully snuffled it all over and I think one of them might have licked it.
They do love yarn almost as much as I do.

Getting the Gloves On
Since my hands were cramping, and it didn't seem felted enough, I pulled out these blue vinyl dish washing gloves we own. They are pretty thick and protect my hands from hot water pretty well.
I dumped the water I had, added fresh, and started rubbing and twisting the thing by hand.
This was good because I was able to really focus on certain areas.
I was concerned that it wasn't going to felt evenly when I was using the masher and the spoons. Doing it by hand allowed me to target spots that seemed to be behind.
In the end, it seemed to work out fine.
I did notice the final product seems a little trapezoid shaped. I think this is because I started focusing on where the flap folds in an attempt to make sure the fabric is firm and stable.
Also, the bottom is really double thick so that might have kept it from felting as much as the top.
Oh well, it still does the trick.
Now I just have to sew on the button and do the embroidery.

Swatches!

After all that babbling about the swatches for my Inspiration sweater the other day, I thought maybe I should actually show you some.
Now I just have to decide which order to put them in.
Ok, first up are the stockinette stitch swatches which started it all.
For you non-knitters out there, a "swatch" is just a little square of knitting, usually around 4 x 4 inches that you make just so you can get the feel of how the yarn will work up.
If you are following a pattern, it will tell you what your gauge should be to make your project come out like their project. Gauge being the number of stitches and rows per inch.
If you are designing a project, like I am, swatching is even more important because all your project numbers are based off your gauge, i.e., how many stitches to cast on so the sweater will fit around your body, how many rows to work before you start the armhole shaping, etc.
So in the first picture, from top to bottom, I worked the same number of stitches and rows using Us5, 6, and 7 needles.
This was an interesting experiment, which I've read about but never sat down and done. Usually when I swatch I knit a bit, measure it, judge it, then yank it out and start over. I've never saved the little buggers before. So although we hear and see all the time about how gauge will change the size of your project, it was eye opening to see it on my own yarn.
Of course, there was the time when Charlene Schurch was at the store. She had a long strip of knitting were she went from either US 0 or 1 needles all the way up to like size 15. That really allowed us to see gauge in action.
I ended up deciding the US5 was fine but a little dense, and the US7 was too floppy, but the US6 was just right.

Cables
The odd thing is that I then seem to have turned around and worked the swatch for my center cable on the US7.
The center cable is the one on the right. I took these pictures outside this morning on the snow, it seemed sunny a the time, but the flash still went off.
Anyway.
I wasn't very happy with the cable. It was kind of floppy, complicated to work, and didn't have a lot of impact.
Of course, on of the things Beth BR told us was to work at least two pattern repeats so you can get a real feel for the cable and see if anything funky goes on in the middle. Well, I did this swatch before class, so I only did one repeat. It is out of Lavold's Viking Patterns for Knitting.
The cable on the left is from a sweater in Rebecca Magazine 32, which is the same issue my little cropped poncho is in.
I don't know if you can tell, but I started the cable on US7, realized it was icky, then dropped all the way down to US5. Which is why the cable looks softer and slightly more flared at the bottom. I think it has much more pop and body and the US5 and will probably stick with that needle size for my sweater.

Other Options
In the mean time, I found this blog and the neat cables she has designed. Using the principles in Lavold's book, she is translating images from a book of celtic knots into knitting patterns. She has one called "Intertwined hearts and happiness signs" which is quite intriguing.
I think it also echoes/compliments my side cables (the ones out of Rebecca) much better than the cable I selected originally. So I printed out her chart, but haven't swatched it yet.

Mystery Project
As for the other project I was babbling about the other day, I haven't decided if it should be a hat or a scarf, but I've swatched a bit.
I'm using some Cascade 220 that I have in stash just to get the basic idea down.
Here you see a standard XO cable on the right. And a "small hearts connected by rib" cable on the left from Ivanovaknit's Celtic Knit Project.
I am quite pleased with the way the hearts came out and think I will go with that one.
Of course, she has the pattern copyright, but she invites people to contact her if they want to use any of the cables in a pattern which will be sold. I think I will show the idea to Cynthia before I take that step (if Cynthia doesn't like it, I might still make one for myself and that is cool under the Creative Commons copyright she selected, so it won't be a wasted effort).

Ok, time to go fold some laundry. I leave you with an off-center picture of Baru playing in the snow.

More Cute Small Stuff

Aren't they just too cute for words?
And so quick to make! I churned these out yesterday. Ok, I was working on the white one until around 10 pm, which was pushing bedtime, but that was still pretty fast.
There are closer individual pictures of each in my Flickr photostream, which you should be able to reach by clicking the picture.
The pattern is from the Holiday 08 issue of Knit Simple Magazine.
The pattern calls for Cascade 220 yarn, of which I have plenty laying around from the felted flowers I made my mom, the felted wine cozies the gift shop never responded to, and my Felted Ravelry ID Bag. I'm also thinking about using the leftover Lamb's Pride from Coronet.
The pattern calls for US8 dpns, but I used US7 dpns as I didn't like the fabric on the 8s. The hats are about 4" tall when done.

Walk Me Through Them
The red one is the basic pattern in the magazine. I ended it with an I-Cord, but didn't make it long enough to knot. sigh.
Then I did the striped one. That was a bit of a disaster at the color changes when I was working it, huge holes, but I was able to pull the strands tight inside and make it nice. Since no one will be wearing it, I think I'll be safe. I'm considering making a pompom for it.
I'm particularly pleased with the white one. I ditched the ribbed brim, jumping straight into a 2x2 rib and executing a front twist every 3rd row.
I was going to take a break from the little hats today and weave ends instead, but I ended up driving today, so I brought the hat yarn with me.
Now I'm making one in the green yarn leftover from my bag and attempting to do a different cable. But I'm winging the cable pattern, so I don't know how good it will look.

And I'm Making Them Because?
Everyone on the Knitting Central staff is making a few hats which will be attached to a garland and presented to Cynthia as a birthday present. (She already knows, they told her while I was in Florida).
I think I'll stop after six.
Well, actually, I'll stop knitting them for the store after six and start knitting them for me. These would be absolutely adorable as ornaments on our tree. I might even have to make a couple for my mother-in-law and the sister-in-law I'll see at Christmas. I'll consider making one for my mom, I haven't decided. Wow, I've just over committed myself on little hats.
Or I can return to my original plan of keeping these for myself and "liberating" the ones the other staff members make. (insert sinister laugh here.)

Pretty Mini Obsessed
Between teddy's sweater and these little hats, I'm getting inspired to finish the mini sweater ornament I started last year. It goes along with the mini Christmas stocking ornament I took about six months to finish (and which doesn't seem to be in my Flickr set.)

From The Adventures of Traveling Ann

Ahha! It's in the Picasa Album Blogger built for me.
Anyway, the little Christmas sweater is cute, just needs sleeves, and was as big as teddy so I couldn't use it as an easy out.
So you could see this mini business continue for a while.

A Lot of Moving Parts

The Deadline Setter commented once when I used that phrase in an article, so it must be one of the phrases I like/use frequently. Have you ever noticed that? There are things you say frequently and you don't realize it until someone points it out?
Anyway (and, yes, I do realize I say that frequently.)
I'm through the heel increases on one Girlfriends Cable Socks sock. :-D I think the Cuban Heel is working out very nicely with this pattern. It is centered under the back center twist and the purl columns split nicely down the either side. Now I'll double back and catch the other sock up before I turn the heels. That way how many rows I've worked, etc., is still fresh in my mind.
I started working on both of them so I could keep track of my yarn usage. I shouldn't have to worry about running out.
In other knitting news, I felted Wine Cozy V this morning. It ended up skinnier and taller than I expected. It is interesting to see how the direction of the stitches seem to effect how they react when felted. I haven't measured it to see whether it adhered to my predicted shrinkage. Still it fits the bottle nicely. I think I like it a bit better then the first one, size wise. I would definitely scale the horizontal version down if I made another one.
And, I think that's about it for now. I shall leave you with a puppy action shot.

Yippee!

Oh my gosh! It's sooo cool. I went and checked my just now and there was some mysterious looking message about a pending purchase. But something must have clicked in the back of my mind because I opened it and it was a message from PayPal that someone had bought my Eyelet and Feather Scarf pattern on Ravelry!
phew! deep breath.
So I had to go into PayPal and figure out how to accept the payment and upgrade to a premier account so the fees would be less. I considered staying a personal account, but I am hoping to put more patterns in my Ravelry store so you never know I might have more than 5 transactions and it looks like it's free to be a premier account so what the heck, right?
Oh, it's bad to get this wired up right before bed time.
So now I have $3.48 in my PayPal account, after they took the fees. It's not really the first pattern I've ever sold. There were all the Rainbow Swirl Socks for the sock club, but they were good faith purchases. And my scarf sold really well while it was the special of the month in the store. And I know several of the people who bought it. That was cool, because people kept asking about it while the sample was out on the counter while it was being test knit and going through the design process.
But this is like the first random purchase by someone who just saw it and liked it.
Of course I totally had to go scope out her profile and projects. She's got a lot of nice stuff queued. I'm in good company. giggle.
Ok, phew, I have to go get ready for bed now.
But first. I've worked 40 rows on each Girlfriends Cable Sock. I think 8 to 10 more rows will bring it to 6 inches and I can start the heel.
I still have to felt the other wine cozy.
Goodnight!

Go Yankees!

Ok, even though Hubby has admitted he doesn't read my blog unless I happen to leave it open on the desktop...I thought I'd be a good Yankee Fan Wife and add the All Star voting widget in an attempt to get Jason Giambi on the roster. (I don't care about the NL player, so I went local and chose the guy from the Mets.)
Um, I didn't expect the widget to be so very huge. And I think it could be a little more obvious that I support Giambi. Well, voting closes tomorrow at 5, so I won't have to put up with it for very long. sniff.


In Knitting News
I did finish the body of Felted Wine Cozy V on the ride home yesterday. At home I seamed it by purling the last row to the cast on edge and binding off as I went along. And I knit the bottom before I went to bed. It did end up much smaller than Felted Wine Cozy H, which is probably why it worked up so quickly. Even Hubby was surprised. I should be able to felt it tonight.
And I took a hard look at my socks. My row count is correct. I think the first sock just looks fluffier, which is why the twists look different.

Ok, off to mess with the MLB widget size and eat some lunch.

To The Point

As I was charting the ribbing decreases last night, it occurred to me that since I wanted to go from 6 stitches (K2P2K2) to 3 stitches (K1P1K1) the fastest and easiest thing to do would be decreasing a stitch in each column.
So I did.
It is, perhaps, a more abrupt decrease than I would normally use, but I didn't see the point in fading the ribbing.
As for the ribbing on the back of the leg, there wasn't a graceful way to convert it to a 4 stitch cable to match the other cables. It would not have been balanced with P2 on either side and then K2 beyond that. I would have ended up with K1 columns or some other, unbalanced pattern. I briefly toyed with the idea of eliminating 2 stitches from the back as well, but dismissed it.
What I did do is change the center back K2 column into a 2 stitch cable with the twist on the same rows as the bigger cables.
Since I didn't want to start from scratch, I just dropped the two stitches in question and reknit them the way I wanted them. It was a little fiddly but I have to imagine faster than going back to Row 1.

Double the Pleasure
Now the pattern is written for what looks like ankle socks using 2 skeins. So I bought a third skein so I could make them taller.
Before I made my changes I was scoped out other Girlfriend's Cable Socks on Ravelry to see whether anyone else had modified them (especially to make them smaller). One person used the 2 skeins and said she had just barely enough to finish. She also mentioned that she altered the heel, but didn't go into detail about how.
This made me glad that I had bought a third skein and was going to make the smaller anyway, because I shouldn't run out of yarn. Still, it made me nervous. After I finished messing with the first sock I turned around and cast on for the second sock. Having multiple pairs of dpns in the same size comes in handy. I was able to work through Row 8. I didn't wind all three skeins when I bought it and then I forgot the yarn at home on Saturday so I actually had to wind it by hand, which was a bit of a delay.
Although I stopped knitting because it was bed time, I probably would have stopped at that point anyway. The 2 st cable on Sock 2 doesn't look the same as on Sock 1. I'm thinking it is because the former is being worked from scratch and the latter is a little distorted from being dropped in after the fact. Still, I'm taking a hard look at my row counter and wondering if I was advancing it properly. Hopefully I'll be able to figure it out this evening in some better lighting.

Possible Tactical Error
Felted Wine Cozy V is working up much quicker than Felted Wine Cozy H did. I have about 15 more rows to go to finish the body. I did scale V down a little based on the shrinkage of H and more rigorous bottle measurements. But it wasn't by that much, so I'm still surprised. I don't know if the difference is because I'm working this one flat and the other in the round; or whether it is a perception thing because I'm working V during the commute in chunks, while H was a marathon over the weekend.
Regardless, I was working on it while doing to online reading/research and realized if I kept going I might not have anything to knit on the ride home. I didn't bring my socks or a back up project because H took so long. The real flaw in the plan however was that I didn't bring my US 10 dpns so I could work on the base. If I had those I'd be all set. But then I wasn't expecting to need those today.
In the mean time, I've stopped working on it for now to preserve it for the ride home. Since the wine cozy is so close to being done, I might skip the socks tonight so I can finish the cozy instead.

Willy Nilly

sos08 Alchemy Girlfriend Cable Socks
Originally uploaded by TravelingAnn
Most of the holiday weekend was spent working on the felted wine cozy prototype. I cast on for it Thursday night. Spent Friday on the couch knitting on it and watching the Twilight Zone marathon on the SciFi channel. Then finished it off Sunday afternoon. I did take a picture of it, but the picture is at home and I'm at work (lunch break!) and I haven't been able to figure out how to get flickr to allow me to blog two photos in the same post.
Oh, well, duh that's what the url box in blogger is for and the link to this pic html that Flickr provides. Still, it always seems to end up a weird size the few times I've tried it. This is the thumbnail size because when I used one of the other sizes for my first sock the other day it came out huge. I can't seem to win.
Anyway, the wine cozy was making me pretty cranky by the time I finished, namely because it took longer than I expected, I know I won't truly receive a price that will cover my time, and yet I was putting pressure on myself to finish it so I didn't work on any other projects. In the end I think it took a little more than 8 hours.
But then I felted the bugger. Felting is so fun and it ended up so cute (although bigger than I was expecting/planning) that I was all energized and cast on for the version with vertical stripes. It also felted much quicker than I was expecting. Not even one cycle. But I was basing the time and shrinkage on my Felted Ravelry Bag, which was much larger and a different color.

What was I talking about?
Ok, well, since I've buried the lead already, I might as well go with my original story. (I had been composing this blog post in my head and then thought, don't start with this story, get to the point. But after that wine cozy digression, what have I got to loose besides your attention?)
I was so young when I learned to crochet that I don't remember learning. I remember my grandmother teaching me and my younger cousin the double crochet stitch. We were sitting next to her making chains and blocks composed of chains. She was like ok that will be nice and warm but you will never finish anything. And she showed us the double crochet stitch. How I originally learned to hold the hook and chain, couldn't tell you. Double crochet was the only stitch I knew and used for years and I happily started blankets, made clothes for my stuffed animals and scarves for myself.
Then one day, I think I was in college already, my cousin found a pattern for an adorable stuffed cow. I wanted to make it badly enough that I got books from the library and figured out how to crochet in the round and other stitches. After that I was unstoppable and designed several adorable (if I do say so myself) stuffed toys. Finally, in 2001 or 2002 I took the plunge into crocheting sweaters.
My first one was the "Big Easy" from Lion Brand. In some lovely multi-colored blue based Homespun. I finished it in a weekend (and now I can't wear it because it feels squeaky).
Of course making clothes turned me into a yarn snob overnight.
But around the time all this was happening, I cornered my mother-in-law and got her to teach me how to knit.

The opening image
Coming back to the original point of this post, I don't know how much the age at which I learned these crafts has to do with it, but I've found that I follow crochet patterns to the letter and don't deviate at all. But I change knitting patterns willy nilly and sometimes on the fly.
The first sweater I knit was another free Lion Brand one out of Wool-Ease. It was supposed to be a striped crew neck in reverse stockinette stitch with ribbing on the hems. Well, there was a nice cream skein with little flecks of color on sale, so I ditched the stripes. As a new knitter (and without anyone to consult) I misunderstood the ribbing directions and discovered seed stitch. And I worked the sweater in normal stockinette stitch since I hadn't waited all those years to learn to knit to do a sweater in this weird lumpy stitch.
So I guess I was changing knitting patterns to some degree from the word go.
I'm about to unleash this tendency on my poor Alchemy Girlfriend's Cable Socks. My second pair for Summer of Socks 08 and the purple knitting pictured at the top of this post.
The pattern is written for one size at 6.5 sts per inch and I've suspected all along they might be too big, and in deed it looks like that is going to be the case. Which is why I hesitate to buy sock patterns unless they are written for multiple sizes (and actual alternate sizes, not just change your needle size adjustment. I tried that once, the socks are baggy. At least that pattern was free. [Didn't know enough about sock knitting at the time to adjust them down.])
I mean, sure the socks will fit as written, but they are going to be baggy and that will be annoying. Even if I do reserve them for house/bed socks.
Anyway, I worked through the first pattern repeat last night--20 rows--and tried the little bit on. It fits up where the cuff should go ok, but I'm really really certain it will be baggy at the ankle and on my foot. So I busted out the calculator.
My first calculation indicated I needed to ditch around 13 stitches! So from 58 to 45 based on the target gauge and how I like my socks to fit. That was not only ridiculous but would probably make it impossible to maintain the pattern. So I decided to meet it half way and just ditch 6 stitches bringing me down to 52 sts. Which should be a better fit, although not as snug as I usually like.
The easy thing to do would be to drop them out of the back ribbing, but that might pull the design oddly, so I'm thinking I'll ditch 3 from each side over the ankle and go from 2/2 ribbing to 1/1. Since I'm changing the sock anyway, I'm thinking I might change the back ribbing to another cable to disguise the fact that the ribbings don't match. I'll be on a roll at that point, so I'm thinking I might change the called for short row heel to my newly beloved Cuban Heel. Like the short row heel the Cuban Heel shouldn't interrupt the pattern.
Now I just have to chart out the ribbing decreases. Since the sock does fit well at the top, I've decided not to start over from scratch. Of course that will mean laddering the back of the sock down to alter the ribbing to cable. Depending on how fussy that is, I might end up starting over from the cast on.
In the mean time, I brought the felted wine cozy V (for vertical stripe) as my commuter knitting. It's mindless and fast and has to be done. And my lovely sock will be at home knitting. Hey I used to finish a pair of socks in 2 weeks just working on them at home before, why should things be different now?

Hooray Sock Stash!

I've been trying to be good by concentrating on using the yarn I already own rather than buying new yarn. Especially in light of the central air situation.

But a girl can only be strong for so long. I snapped when I was working the other weekend. I was able to rationalize because I had finally invoiced Cynthia for the sock club pattern and had "found money." (I ignored the fact the money could go to other things, such as gas, or the new condenser.)

First I bought this lovely skein of Colinette Jitterbug in the Mardi Gras colorway. This skein came into the store shortly after I bought that purple skein (Florentina colorway as it turns out) with the intent of making socks and using the leftovers in combination with the leftover blue I already had. (So buying the purple didn't really count since I needed it to use what I had.)

At the time I said "where was this when I needed it?" The colors are just so happy! But I was strong and didn't get it. However it's been hanging around the store, taunting me, for like a month. After my trip to Las Vegas, which meant I was out of the store for like two weeks, I told myself that if the Mardi Gras was still there then I was meant to have it.

Then I bought this skein of Sockina Cotton by Schoeller and Stahl. It sounds like this yarn came in when I was out of town so a lot of the colors had already been bought. When I first saw it I was excited about it being 55 percent cotton, but none of the colors really grabbed me. There was actually one that was a mix of orange and greens which totally reminded me of my Sol Joy yarn so I definitely couldn't get that one. I think I'm going to have to let go of my desire not to have duplicate colors in my sock yarns. After all, there are only so many color combinations available and if I really intend to fill my life with handknit socks, there is going to be some over lap. (wow, that's a long sentence, our copy editor would have a field day with it.) So the next day I bought this blue and white skein. I figure I should buy cotton sock yarn to encourage the manufacturers to keep making it and this colorway should be good with jeans.

I also bought three skeins of Cascade 220 in what I hope are sophisticated Christmas colors. I've already started what will be a felted wine cozy gift bag thing. It is part of building my knitting empire so right now the financial outlay doesn't count since I might potentially get it back. Since I'm hoping to sell the finished item, despite the fact that there are probably plenty of wine bag patterns available (in fact I'm fairly certain I remember seeing one on Knitty.com) I'm making up the pattern as I go along to avoid any infringement issues. Knitting this is, of course, cutting into my sock knitting time. So it's a good thing I'm not gunning for the next bi-weekly raffle. Really, I probably should have been making the wine cozy last week instead of my socks, but I don't technically have a deadline, so I was slacking.

Ok, speaking of slacking, time to go see if Hubby is making my big weekend breakfast yet.

S-O-B

And I wasn't crying.
When I went to put my Ravelry bag into my work bag at the end of the day I saw a bunch of loose stitches waving at me. I have a Denise set and the needle tip had popped off the cable. It wasn't broken, fortunately, just untwisted. Since I carry my tool kit with me, and it include several scraps of yarn, I was able to catch the loose stitches (39. But 15 were still on the needle tip) and move on with my life. Luckily, since Cascade 220 has some grip to it, nothing ran.
I was starting to think it was time to switch to a longer cable anyway. I'm also starting to think the bag is getting a bit big to be a traveling project. But it's all stockinette stitch and that is so convenient to have at the office when I'm just proofreading or doing something else that requires focus and a fidget distraction.
I've worked 11 rows of white so far. The bag is measuring 20 deep now. I think I'll do 5 more white, then 15 green and then do the flap already. I'm also considering stopping after the 15 white and going straight into the green flap. But I'll have to see how tall it is. Of course I didn't do a full swatch with felting it an all, so I don't know how much it will shrink height wise.
One fun thing, since it's a bag, I can put the active yarn ball and the other colors inside it. That cracks me up. Well, it is going to be a knitting bag, so it's practice.
I finished knitting and blocking the monarch scarf on Tuesday. It was a very warm day yesterday, so the scarf was dry by Wednesday night. The only place I can block things is pinned to towels in the attic. The pups have access to everywhere else in the house. Since I don't usually bother to block things, this is not usually a problem.
Oh, forgot to mention, we didn't have a good piggy pink in stock over the weekend. So I didn't buy yarn for a felted piggy. Probably just as well really, I have so many other projects going on.
Ok, it's bedtime, so I must go. But I'm also thinking I really should start using labels/tags so the blog is sort of searchable. I wonder if I can double back and do that?

Green did not make me happy

Not only did the green yarn not make me happy, it added to my frustration. It is a different dyelot than what I've been using. But I went ahead and bought it anyway, what else is a girl to do?
This does reinforce a few axioms we already knew. First, happiness can neither be bought nor found in an inanimate object. Second, always buy enough yarn at the beginning of the project so you don't have to worry about running out. Of course I was only planning to use one green and one white for this bag, so I didn't realize I would need extra. It just grew out of control.
What did you ask? What is "dyelot"? sigh. When companies dye yarn they have a recipe they follow for each color. But each time they make it, it might come out a little different. Like when you make your chicken soup recipe from memory. So there might be variables from one batch of celery green to the next. Hence the dyelot number so you can ensure you are getting yarn from the same batch.
Now, I didn't take my bag to the store, so I wasn't sure how far off the color was (not that I had a choice, as I've already mentioned) and I don't remember colors true. So I won't really know until I get it in the sunlight, but the new ball seems ok, if a little more yellow. And as you can see from the pictures, it is just fine.
The bag annoyance didn't stop there. In a quite moment, I snagged one of the books of felted purse patterns and it cheerfully informed me that felted items (bags in this case) shrink more in height than they do in width. Now, my bag is already out of proportion, so I wasn't very happy to read this. I was explaining my dilemma to Pam and she suggested I make the bag taller to avoid it being shaped like a bagette. She also mentioned the steam coming out of my ears tipping her off that I was upset.
Making it taller is totally doable. I just have to open up the bind off, then pick up stitches around the cast on, and I'll be ready to work in the round. We decided I should do a white stripe and then a green one to keep the pattern sensible and to conserve yarn for the cursed flap. I think it was when I was talking about the flap that the steam started.
Anyway, the bag has been kicked to the curb for a while. I did a few rows on my Arrgyle Socks. But mainly I've been working on the scarf based on my Cat Pajama's socks that Cynthia wants. I'm probably halfway through the ball of Alchemy Monarch. Of course the bag will probably make a comeback tomorrow, I'll need something mindless to work on when I'm suffering from writer's block.

A bag idea

Since I've become such a Ravelry addict, I thought it might be fun to make myself a little felted bag with the Ravelry logo and my ID.
Note my use of the word "little."
As I contemplated this idea, I thought to check the site and found that someone else had indeed already charted the logo. Phew, one less thing to worry about.
I dug some white and red Cascade 220 out of my stash from when I made mom a bouquet of Pick Up Sticks felted flowers. I bought green and black.
The plan was to make wide stripes green/white/green with the logo in the bottom third and my ID in the white section. Now the logo is 93 stitches wide and 65 stitches tall. Not wanting to resize, I just rolled with it. I also didn't bother to check gauge since I was just making it up rather than following a pattern.
I cast on 100 stitches, to give myself some space on either side, and thought I'd made the bands 60 rows long, so just about the entire logo would be on green. I'm going to work the ball in intarsia and the letters and ball details in duplicate stitch. (When I first hatched the scheme I'd thought of including "hello my name is" in the top band, but realized that would be too much duplicate stitch.)
30 rows of green later I thought, "huh that looks big" and decided to check gauge and reconsider my plans.
I'm getting 4.5 sts and 5 rows per inch on a size US 10. I quickly decided to drop to 30 rows of each color. As it is the prefelted dimensions are going to be around 24x24. A little bag indeed. I think I'm going to need more yarn.
The stealth knitting is progressing, but not quickly enough.
I bought some new sock yarn on Sunday. This lovely looking stuff called Glazed Sock from Madelinetosh. Knitting Central hasn't carried it before. There were oh, six skeins left when we closed Sunday. For all I know they are gone now. With all the sock knitters in that store, new sock yarn tends to evaporate.
There were a number of lovely colors. I tend to buy the bright colored sock yarn, and I'm drawn to blues. But I'm making an effort not to duplicate. Part of the problem is I've got a bit of a sock yarn stash built up and I don't remember those colors as well as I remember the colors of the socks I've finished. Must knit faster. The color I chose is called "Robin's Nest" and is light blue, tan and white. Thought it was a safe choice. Turns out I have a finished pair of socks in Regia Cotton that are similar, but the Regia ones are darker colors and have that whole jacquard thing going on, so I think I'll be fine.

The camera came home to be recharged. I pounced on it and took some pictures. Still no pictures of the fixed and finished sweaters. Hubby was busy doing work, and with it being night I didn't think they would come out good. I did take pictures of the finished I heart Husband socks and my new sock yarn. Samson totally made a play for the Madelinetosh. Right there in front of me. He isn't usually so bold. Then he went after the Cascade 220. Sassy thing.

The Barter System

mouse1
Originally uploaded by annmcclure2000

(goodness, talk about uneven pictures. The green one was scanned and the purple one was photographed and cropped. Guess I sized them differently. I'll get a hang of this picture business eventually.)

I was going to start with a nice picture of the flowers Hubby got me for Valentine's Day, but the camera seems to be MIA. Oh well, maybe tomorrow. I won't be able to kill them that quickly.
In other news, I think I might owe the guy in the art department a pair of socks. But he did the page layout on a sock pattern I'm going to publish, and even spontaneously designed a logo for me, so it seems like a fair trade.
In the mean time, until the socks are called in, I made him a couple of catnip mice (shown above) for, um, his cats, obviously. Well, they are catnip mice forms, since I don't have catnip with which to stuff them since I don't have cats any more.
I made the green one (on the left) first out of Cascade 220 using the pattern from WendyKnits. It took about an hour. I gave it to him last Thursday and he has since reported back that it was a big hit.
They were out of catnip, as the cats had raided the stock previously, so his girlfriend put a ping-pong ball in it instead. He says his cats enjoy toys inside toys and played with it all night. It also ended up in the water bowl, which is apparently a sign of approval.
Monday night I finished the purple one, which is version 5, and gave it to him Tuesday. I thought it would also be good for ping-pong balls. He says it's a good finger puppet for wrestling matches and has also ended up in the water bowl. It is so nice when your handmade items are appreciated.
What's that?
Oh, you want to know more about the sock pattern?
Well, Knitting Central is running a sock club (but membership is closed at the moment). I'm Miss March. (snicker)
As far as I know, sock clubs are usually run by companies that spin and/or dye yarn. You get unique yarn and a unique pattern. Since Knitting Central is a store, our twist is that you get sock yarn with which you are familiar, but a pattern designed by a staff member that is exclusive to the club for 3 months.
The theory is our structure is a little less risky because the wild card of the yarn is removed. Also, most of the members know us and our abilities so they can be confident they will get something nice. (I say most because we do have members out in California!) We even have a Yahoo Group for questions.
Everybody has been really pleased so far, so I hope they like my sock as much. At least I know the pattern presentation will be rockin'. Obviously I can't show you the sock since it's supposed to be a surprise and at least one person in the club has actually read my blog (which makes four people that I know about).

Well, it's bed time, so I should turn in. It occurred to me yesterday that if I just spend half the time I spend on Ravelry up dating my blog instead, I might be consistent at this blog business.

A hat, just like that

A few months ago my mom asked me to make her at Red Hat Lady hat. She had something in mind and even found a little green one with a purple swirl in a store for a model. (If it had been red with a purple swirl I probably would have been off the hook.) She even came to the store and picked out yarn—Christmas Red Cascade 220, some heathery purple Cascade 220 and purple Antico (which is an eyelash).
But I was working on several other projects and didn’t get around to it. But after finishing the scarf I thought I should be good and work on the hat rather than another project for me, me, me.
Then on Thursday I was thinking about it, shaping and how I would do the increases, and I thought I could use the increases I worked out for the crocheted stuffed animals I used to design. Then it occurred to me, I could crochet the hat. I didn’t always have to knit everything. And crocheting would be faster as well.
That night I dug out my increasing crib sheets and got to work. And a few minutes ago I finished. Ha, I expected it to be faster, but not that fast!
I used a size H hook. I wasn’t sure where I was going to put the Antico. But as I worked I was concerned about running out of red, so I held the Antico with the purple Cascade and worked it as a hatband. I’m so clever. Red Hat Lady’s are supposed to be a mix of the two anyway. If she doesn’t like it, I might have enough red to pull it out and redo it.
The original plan for the purple Cascade, which I think I’ll still do, was to make a felted cabbage rose, which was going to be the purple aspect. I can’t see it taking very long, and it will be detachable, so she’ll have the option.
Originally she had asked for a felted hat, but then changed her mind. Still with the Cascade, we can felt it a wee bit if she wants. We can’t felt it a lot because then it will be too small.
Well, it’s 10 pm now, so it’s a bit dark to take a picture. I’ll try to get one tomorrow.
Hey, I’ve finished two things so far this year (yes, I’m counting the mitts even though they were half done already.)
Now if only I can conquer Nell.