Bags

I decided to knit both halves of Mystery Stole 4 at the same time, so side #1 got held up a bit while I got side #2 going.

You can see the little bit of glistening in the fabric, my tiny beads (the head of the crochet hook I’m using to add beads is nearly invisible in the photo). I mis-remembered the instructions at the bead store and bought blending-in beads rather than contrasting beads, so all you’ll ever see is some glistening in mine. I switched from Addi lace needles to short straight needles the other night which has sped things up a bit again.

I’m just halfway through the chart on clue #1 and clue #2 gets released Friday. I would be going faster, but I re-injured that top knuckle on my ring finger Sunday when a woman ahead of me on an escalator answered her cell phone a few steps from the bottom, then stopped stock-still at the end of the last stair to have her conversation. I managed to scramble backwards two stairs before the escalator ran me into her, nearly knocking her over, and in a chain-reaction effect, she knocked her kid over. Then she had the nerve to ask me what I thought I was doing. Ah, humans. However, it is noteworthy that it was not me being a klutz that caused the problem this time.

The little black purse is not going to make it into the suitcase Thursday night. Seed stitch is by nature slow, but there is also the problem of using an unknown quantity of yarn. Here’s what I had so far in the new size:

You’ll note I used the word “had”: that bit of Sherlock on the tube is all I have left; there’s no way it’s going to make it to square size. I grumbled a little about this at knitting group on Monday night and my friend suggested I look in Chinatown. She was right. I went there on my lunch break yesterday, and found something that will go on vacation with me:

A little cutesy for my taste, but the right size and style for dressing up a little to go out to dinner. Tonight’s pre-trip tasks include plant care, dealing with library books, ironing (ugh), and making wardrobe and knitting project decisions.

The Apres Surf Hoodie will stay home. I’m about a third of the way up the hood. It’s too big for travel knitting now.

The first clue for Mystery Stole 4 was released yesterday mid-morning to the joy of everyone eagerly awaiting the launch of this project. I was at work when it hit the Internet, and had also forgotten my MS4 supplies at home so I couldn’t get going on my lunch break, so I did not begin until last night’s round of travel planning was complete.

This is what I have so far:

That’s the first three rows, including the very slow row of one bead every other stitch. I have not yet searched the Internet to see who’s already done with clue #1 and who’s stuck bemoaning the first row of beads. My progress is going to be somewhat hampered the first week:

Goodness knows what I did to that top knuckle. I asked Mr. MmmYarn if he noticed me cursing after running into something somewhere and he just laughed and asked “which time?”. He knows I am such a klutz that it’s often hard to pinpoint which klutzy event caused the minor injury. This one, however, is not minor in my opinion — it’s cutting into knitting time (!!) and making typing hard.

The flat purse for travel is coming along slowly, too:

This is the Small Origami Bag in Folk Bags. At first I merrily cast on 64 stitches as instructed and knitted for 10″. Then I noticed it’s supposed to be a 14″ square and as I don’t want a chapstick-only bag, I measured my gauge (grrr… should have done that to begin with), ripped out, cast on 90 stitches, and started again. Then injured myself. Ah, well.

The yarn I’m using is Artfibers Sherlock (they don’t have it anymore); it looks like a small knitted tube. Click for the big version of the photo:

It’s hard to photograph but you can see that bit of white background peeking out between the strands of the chained tube. Sherlock likes to split so I have to knit carefully. Since being forced to slow down it’s working better, actually, as I’m not racing along willy-nilly, splitting the yarn every few stitches.

Bwuahahaha! This week’s bus knitting is not knitting, but crocheting:

That little blip of black and white crochet you see in the bottom left of this photo is a bag I made some 8 years ago. I’m really proud of that one as I put in a sewn lining… nearly a year after I crocheted it in a single day, ahem. Hey, I’m a knitter and not a sewer.

Now, does anyone reading this know how to make a jogless jog in single crochet so I can put some neat stripes into this new creation? Google has failed me this time: all I get is knitting references. Mmm… knitting. I think I’ll go work on socks tonight.

I finally had use of a washing machine last weekend and used the opportunity to felt three items that have been waiting around for a while.

The purple bag I made in July went from this:

to this:

Knitting details are in my original post, here. It shrunk from 9.25″ at its widest point and 8″ tall when lain flat to 8.5″ at its widest point and 6.75″ tall.

The second bag was the Pi Are Round bag I made in August. My sister-in-law saw me photographing it in the yard and decided she really wanted it, so this one’s for her. Knitting details and before-felting photos are here. The top still flops more than I’d like, so I need to hunt up some curved metal bit for the top. I am picturing a flat wire-like contraption with magnets or one of those clasps that closes with the two intersecting knobs (purse frame?). I have not begun looking yet. Whatever it ends up being, it will need to be lightweight. The brown part flattened out beautifully (it had ripples after I knitted it) and I’m very happy with the way this bag turned out:

It shrunk from 11″ across to 9.5″ across.

The last item to go for a swim was a hat I made in 2003 that I never was happy with. I made it in brioche stitch, which made it stretch to fit a large adult head, but it wasn’t wind-proof enough to make it useful:

It certainly is wind-proof now:

It is also now a child’s size small.

I also finished the little vest in which I experimented with steeks.

Pattern: own
Yarn: Silver Creek Yarns 100% Blue Face Leicester, colorway (or perhaps the sheep’s name): Elliot
Needles: size 4 for the body, size 3 for ribbing
Finished size:  26″ chest = 2-4 years old

I had concerns that the head-hole wasn’t big enough, but my knitting co-worker graciously tried it on and it went over her head, so I’m sure it will go over the head of whichever child gets it.

Lily of the Valley is finishe… no, not yet. I still need to tuck in some dangling ends and block it, but it is so very close!

Remember those two round shapes I showed off at the end of my last post? They turned into a small bag.

Here is one side:

And the other side:

Pattern: own
Yarn: 1 skein Noro Kureyon, 100% wool, color 180; about 1/4 skein Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Worsted, 85% wool, 15% mohair, color M-08
Needles: size 7
Size: medallions are 9″ across, bag is 11″ across with the brown border/strap

*With gratitude to Elizabeth Zimmermann for using this phrase on page 109 of “Knitting Around.”  

That little bit in EZ’s book always gets me to giggle. She mentions an old Pogo joke (aside: Pogo, it turns out, is an old comic strip (Wikipedia is a wonderful thing)). Howland’s talking about the math formula for a circle, pi = r squared, and his friend Churchy corrects him with “Pie are round, cornbread are square.” Hihihi. The math geek in me appreciates any geometry-related joke.  

My pi here is definitely round. Coincidentally, each medallion measures 9″, the right size for a pie. Anyway, I cast on each medallion from either end of a single ball of Kureyon and worked each round and round, pi-fashion, until I ran out of yarn. [See “Knitter’s Almanac” if you need an explanation of pi for knitting.] Then I invisibly cast on for the strap and worked back and forth in stockinette, eating up one medallion stitch every row, until I decided it was time to stop and form the handle. There are no seams anywhere, just the one graft where the handle ends met up. It’s a little puckery but it will definitely hit a washing machine someday so it can shrink down and based on past experience with Lamb’s Pride I believe it will flatten out. I’m not so sure I like the full-circle at the top as it seems to want to gap unattractively. While it’s blocking I might fold the tops over each other, then add a button and buttonhole. But all that stuff has to wait until it’s been felted and I see how it comes together. I have a picture in my head of a future design similar to this, except I’ll make the body of the bag the shape of a wedge of watermelon rather than a full circle.

I wish I had a washing machine so I could felt it now.

In my last post I mentioned knitted Princess Leia buns; this week I learned someone out there has crocheted a Darth Vader helmet. Now that’s a resourceful use of beer cans!

I made two hats this week.

Hat #1:

Pattern: own
Yarn: 100% recycled silk (label says “Recycle Silk Ball,” “hand made in Nepal”)
Needles: size 5
Size: adult medium to large

This started out as a small bag, but I had it squashed up on a 16″ circular needle and never bothered to measure either gauge or the bag itself. I put in yarn over holes about an inch from the top (now the bottom) to leave space for a drawstring and left plenty of yarn to create a twisted cord tie, but when I cast off the bag it seemed rather on the big side. Not at all the little bag I pictured. So I put it on my head and found it was the perfect size for a hat. Frog, frog, frog, back to the yarn over row to remove the holes, then I knitted the end bit again. And this is what I got. I really like the colors in this one. If watch caps didn’t make my head look so weird I’d keep it. This silk is hard on the hands; probably would have been easier if I hadn’t used size 5 needles, but I wanted a tight gauge for the bag… which then turned out very well for the hat. 

Hat #2:

The decreases at the top look interesting:

Pattern: own: K3P3 rib, with knitted stitches in gold and purled stitches in teal
Yarn: Cascade 220, 100% wool, some color 8892 (teal) and some color 7826 (gold)
Needles: size 5
Size: child large

I got such a kick out of the two-color tan and cream hat I made last week that I pictured how one made in stripes might look. I was happily surprised with the result. The little bloops where the teal and gold meet make it interesting. Even though I used the same yarn and needles as I used for the brown and cream hat, this one ended up smaller. I suppose carrying the yarn on every row instead of on half the rows made the hat tighter. On the whole it’s still really flexible, stretchy enough to fit over the balloon I used for a head model, but not as stretchy as the other one.

This week’s bus knitting, when I stand back and look at it, looks like some sort of bra, or model breasts, or perhaps funky Princess Leia buns if I were to connect the pieces with a headband:

Trust me, I’m not making any of those things. Although the idea of knitted Princess Leia buns is kind of tempting. (Remember the Hallowig that knitty.com had a while back?)

I had a productive week. I spun up half of some Spinderella fiber, worked on my purple cotton sweater, and whipped out a bag and hat.

The bag is one I intended to felt, but Mr. Mmmyarn voiced the opinion that it is a great size the way it is. Since I planned for felting I knitted it more loosely than I would have had I wanted to leave it as is. Here’s what it looks like:

Pattern: own. I knitted it on the fly and did not take notes.
Yarn: Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Bulky; 85% wool, 15% mohair; color M-28, Chianti & Trendsetter Yarns Aquarius; 78% nylon, 22% cotton; color 827
Needles: size 10 1/2
Size: 9.25″ at widest point, 8″ tall when lain flat 

The handles are long for leaving it as is as I figured in extra length for shrinkage. I won’t be near a washing machine for a while so I have time to make up my mind. In the meantime, I’ll make a swatch with just the Lamb’s Pride and one with the mix and test-felt them in the sink. It’s a good idea to test it, anyway, considering I have no idea how much the Aquarius will hinder the felting process. Luckily, I grafted the handles, so they’ll be easy to clip and shorten to a proper length if I decide against felting.

The other project this week was a quick hat. I started with my usual 3×3 spiral rib but decided to toss in a second color, creating oblong diamond shapes throughout. I am ridiculously pleased with this as I worked the colors by holding one color in each hand as I learned in the Skra-Trojer class this past February, plus I combined knitting and purling, and — here’s the kicker — the hat stretches to fit over my head! A triumph! Well, it is a little tight for me, but that’s because I have a big head and this is a smaller hat. The fabric itself is wonderfully flexible. I have finally been successful at holding my yarn loosely enough to turn out a stranded project that has give. Perhaps it is time to start swatching one of those two fair isle sweaters I have set aside for me. Here’s the hat:

Pattern: own; cast on 83, 3×3 spiral rib worked in two colors
Yarn: Brown Sheep Nature Spun worsted, 100% wool, in color N93 Latte and N91 Aran
Needles: size 5
Size: Adult small to medium

Tomorrow I’m off to Dixon, California, for Lambtown. I’ve never been. All I know to expect is that it will be too hot for me: 96 degrees is the prediction. Yick. I’ll be the person melting in the shade.

For the first time, I attempted to spin fatter yarn on purpose. Up until now, I have been working on getting my spinning finer and more even. Usually I go for about a fingering weight yarn, but I wanted the colors in this one to streak a bit more rather than blend completely so I worked on making the singles fatter. This was nearly instant gratification; it’s amazing how much faster it is to spin up yarn at 8 wpi than, say, 15. Here is the result:

Fiber: 100% merino wool
Colorway: Rose Quartz
Supplier: Carolina Homespun
Quantity: 8 ounces
Finished yarn: 2-ply; one skein of 117 yards and one of 128 yards; 8 wpi = bulky

This week’s bus knitting is a small purse to be felted. I do not know whether this design is going to work after felting because that colorful strand is going to poke out of the felt (it’s a cotton and nylon blend), and I won’t know until I get to a good washing machine, but here’s what I have so far:

The felted bag is finally finished. I knitted it back in March and then it sat around, waiting for us to visit my parents. They have a great washer: it can be set for a small amount of water and it has a button for extra agitation. Two rounds through the wash cycle at their house yesterday and this:

became this:

Pattern: own
Yarn: 3 1/3 skeins Noro Kureyon, 100% wool, color 180
Needles: size 10 1/2
Size: after felting: base is 3″ x 9″, top is 10 1/2″ wide when folded at the edges, and 8 1/2″ tall from base to top

I saw a similar style felted bag at a booth at Stitches West this February, then found a nicely-priced mess of Kureyon a few minutes later and decided I needed a striped felted bag. I put in purled “seam” stitches at the fold lines which made the bag fold nicely pre-felting but which do not assist with the folding now, or indeed show up at all.  The base is garter stitch and the sides stockinette. I worked a few inches in garter stitch at the top because I thought it would make the top stronger, but that, too, disappeared in the process. You’ll see a row of eyelet holes in the pre-felting photo. I had mental plans of making this a drawstring top, using all those eyelets, but in practice it made much more sense just to use the four on either side and let the bag be more open. Luckily the eyelets pretty much closed in the felting process. I had to really hunt for the eight holes I needed, then stretch them to make the strap go through. I did not measure the bag before I threw it in the washer but I’d guess it shrank down to about 2/3 its original size.

The sock in progress went to the Conservatory of Flowers yesterday:

Humph, I did not notice before I took the picture that the foot is being choked by the strand coming off the ball. I suppose my digital photography skills will improve as I continue taking WIP photos for this blog. Sock #1 is now done and I started sock #2 this morning so it can travel to and fro with me on the bus for the next few days.

The to-be-felted bag went out, too. The bag itself is done and I’m now making the cord for the top:

I also did a bit of spinning this week. This is Mikey’s fleece as unspun fiber:

As singles:

And as finished 2-ply yarn:

Fiber: 100% Peppermint Pastures Pygora, fiber type A, goat’s name is Mikey
Colorway: dark teal
Supplier: Carolina Homespun
Quantity: 1 oz, 48 yards
Finished yarn: 2-ply, about 14 wpi = double knitting

Peppermint Pastures kindly includes the name of the goat that supplied the fiber in the little box. I like the idea of being able to look up a photo of Mikey although I could not find it on PP’s site. Their site as of today is still a bit of a work in progress.

The Wild Fibers Magazine site provides a good description of the differences between type A, B, and C pygora fibers. Mikey’s is a type A fiber, meaning long angora-style locks. While the fiber felt soft against my neck and my wrist, when I was spinning the singles it felt rough between my fingers. Spinning was easy but while plying it cut into my finger more than the merino, merino and silk, and corriedale fibers I’ve spun recently.  The finished yarn is a little coarse and hairy but has a nice sheen.