Felted bag? Check!

Finally, another post!

I finished my felted bag tonight. It was all dry from blocking and I stabbed the holes to insert the handles. It turned out fun! I like the color combo, but it's a shame that the variegated yarn stripe doesn't show up very well on the bag proper. It was really pretty before it felted, now it's just a little lighter stripe. Ah well - it's supposed to match the handles.

Colin's really impressed that the floppy giant-size thing I was knitting felted down into an actual handbag-looking object. Wish I'd taken a "before" picture, but I was just so impatient to try the felting that I didn't think about taking a snap until it was already in the wash. TOO LATE! You'll just have to make do with the "after" picture, plus a few stats.


Stats:

• Yarn: KnitPicks Wool of the Andes in Chocolate (3-5 balls? can't remember, unwilling to check ;-) and Winter Night (less than 1 ball), plus Shamrock in Doyle (2 balls). Probably should have held the yarn double to make it even sturdier. It's pretty sturdy, but a little floppier than I wanted.
• Needles: 10 1/2 circular (36 inch)
• Pattern: Took inspiration and general instructions from this Booga Bag pattern, plus the picture of the Oregon Tote.
• Original knitted size: 14 inches (height), 16 inches wide (side to side), 9 1/2 inches (base width)
• Felted size: 7 inches (height), 13 inches wide (side to side), 6 inches deep (base width)
• Capacity: 1 hardback book, 2 balls of yarn, a circular needle and a swatch. Well, so far at least.

Very little progress on other projects. I really want to do Juno, but am having issues with yarn. I found this Alpaca/wool/cashmere blend that feels just wonderful, but doesn't give me good stitch definition for the cables. I might try some different needle sizes, but I'm not sure it'll work. I do like the denim color, though (see inside bag above). Definitely need more swatching before I can commit to a sweater's worth of yarn. And anyway the Local Yarn Shop is sold out of Rowan Mag 40, so I can't get the pattern right now anyway.

So ugly it's cute, or just plain ugly?

So, I got this yarn. It's a little homely. Just a funny color combination (what looks grey in the picture is really olive-y/dusty green, then there's that mustard yellow and rosy pink). But it was $3/ball at Ben Franklin, and I was tempted. I think it's so ugly, it's cute, but others have their doubts. What do you think?

I'm using it anyway (it's Skacel's Schulana SuperCotton), to make into this: Elisa's Nest Tote. I think it's turning out great. The yarn is fun and stretchy and oh, the wild color combo. Wacky!

Oh, and did I mention that I went back and bought the rest of the balls they had (only 6). Not to mention, I'd also bought two backup yarns, in case I didn't like that one.
Hmm. I think I officially have a "stash" problem now. AKA, big useless piles o' yarn waiting to be made into something. Plus, too many projects on the needles. Max's hoodie is waiting for me to figure out if I've messed up the sleeves. Then I'll get going again. I've given up on the felted bag for now, cause if you do combined knitting, and you knit in the round, you end up twisting stitches all over the place. Yick. So, I went to "regular" knitting and it's slower and frustrating. So, sitting on the needles, gathering dust, until I decide that I should just knit it flat and seam it.

Aside from that, some more quilted postcards. One for Teri:
And one that I think I'll keep:

We've been busy making stuff this summer! Here's a snap of Max relaxing after a hard day of berry picking and jam making.

This batch set up. Yay!