#76 of 365 - We Was Pretty in Pink

Today I went to Rebecca's house to felt the comet bag I have been making for her. She has a top loader and I don't. Top loader are supposedly better for felting knitted items. Besides, I was letting her washer fill up with the lint, not mine, LOL... Actually, we put the item in a zippered pillow slip for the felting process. It surely contain a great quantity of the fluff inherent in the process, I must say. Here's a photo of me, seaming the bag prior to washing it. Hopefully Rebecca will read this and get a photo of the bag which is now pinned down to her carpet and drying.

As a general rule, knitted wool tends to reduce by 30 plus percent in length and about 10 plus percent in width. We got the 30 percent but not the 10, so Rebecca is going to cut off a section and make a clutch from the remainder as she wants a messenger bag not an over-night bag. Most of my felted experiments are by guess and by golly, but so far there has been only one fail in the felting department and that was a piece that just never felted to it's own company specifications.

Whilst we waited for the washer to do it's thing, Rebecca gave me a gift of her musical talent. Basically, my own private concert, how kewl is that?

Bleah, I have cropped this photo twice, but it still didn't take, so you get to see a corner of the shawl that Rebecca is borrowing from me. It's a basic bottom up triangle in garter stitch on large needles, done in 4-5 colourways of Manos de Uraguay yarn that was left over from some of my Mum's projects. It's post over on Facebook in the Garden of the Gods Album, if you want to see it and the one that Rebecca was wearing for that photo as well.

In reference to the title, again great minds think alike as both of us had pink on today.

Dragonfly KAL and Read Along

I cast on the Dragonfly Socks for the Ravelry Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon Read Along and Dragonfly Sock Knit Along. Here is the cuff of the first one.

Of course I never do things exactly to the pattern, as I only did two rows of the 2x2 rib at the top of the sock. I wanted the scallop effect of the yarn overs and K2togs to be apparent at the top. These are going really fast, by the way, even if I am using a sock weight super wash yarn from Cascade. I got the yarn at Shuttles in Boulder about a year ago and I am knitting them on Size 4 DPNs.

Edited later in the Day:

So have you ever had one of those moments when it all comes together and you think to yourself, DOH? Well, I had one of them today. I have been unhappy with my left side decreases on the gussets of socks since I learned how to turn a heel last winter. I missed the lesson on decreasing, apparently. As I have said, above I am making these Dragonfly Socks which required both a right and left leaning decrease in the pattern on the leg of the sock and down the foot. To make the left leaning decrease, you slip a stitch knitwise onto your right needle, then knit the next stitch and leave it on the right needle and then bring the slipped stitch back over the stitch you just knitted (right leaning is Knit Two Stitches Together or K2tog). Pretty simple, right? Well, it dawned on me TODAY, that I could decrease for the gusset with Slip, Knit, Pass Slip Stitch Over and it would lay beautifully and match the decreases on the right side gusset and it does. DOH!

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

I am also knitting a drawstring bag out of some Lamb's Spun in the same colours, that I bought at Knitter's Kove here in Colorado Springs to go with these socks. It will be knitted then felted into the shape of a thistle. I have posted a picture of the green blob to start. I am knitting it on size 15 needles and it's getting BIG. As you may be aware, tho, felted knitting shrinks about 30% in length and about 10% in width, so it's going to seem monsterously big until it's shrunk.

Snowy Morning and Machine Felted Bags with Needle Felted Natural Designs

I have just finished a new knitted and felted knitting bag (made from black Lopi, washed and dried twice in the machines) with needle felted oak leaves done primarily with wool roving, the highlights and shadings are made of hand dyed silk rovings.

I added a needle felted thistle in wool and silk rovings to the blue felted bag recycled from a sweater that a friend made and gave to me a couple of years ago. It's ever so subtle, but loverly, I think.

Thistles are a favorite theme of mine and they appear in a number of iterations on any number of items. Like a quilt or two, a stomacher for a 1740s dress and now this bag. I have also done a locker hook one and I have a penny rug sketched out as well.

Some day... I talked to a wool strip rug hooker the other day about the process of hooking rugs and I have been interested in pursuing it, but haven't gotten the energy up to learn a new craft. I seriously don't need a new skill set, LOL. I have been reading about rug hooking in magazine devoted exclusively to the subject and looking at photo sources for hooked rugs and they are lovely.

Felted Knitted Handbags

Here are pix of the three felted handbags that I have made in the last 5 years. The striped one was done for a colour class I took with Heather Thomas in Boulder. The messenger bag I made last winter. The applique Celtic knot is I-Cord as my intarsia skills are not the best. The light blue bag I made this past spring as an exercise in Aran style knitting in preparation for a sweater I am knitting for my friend, judy, in Broomfield.