Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Of felting and other monsters


I finally finished the Noro bag. Yes, I went and bought a whole additional skein to do four rows, but glad I did it, because I got to the end of the bag, cast off, and noticed that the handles were off center!!! I don't know how it happened, I don't know how I didn't notice it before, I don't know why I didn't check it before I bound off! So, I tried to unwind it, but it, well,.....it tangled (what is it with me and tangles lately!). You can see the resulting Noro monster in the photo below. My daughter enjoyed it (tangled noro makes quite a monster whig!). But I did finish, and then I felted and felted and felted some more, until I finally got the pretty cool looking bag being modeled by both daughters. It took 3 days to dry, but I like how it came out! Then, I happened to be listening to Lime & Violet, and heard a tip about using dish soap and putting a pair of flip flops in the washer with a front loader to help the agitation.
So I knitted up this really pretty new craftstore yarn: Patons Soy Wool Stripes, and the clutch pattern from One Skein. It felted really well and really fast (well, it was fast except for the extra trip I had to make to the craft store to get, yes, you guessed it, another skein of the yarn to finish the bag). The pattern calls for buttons to be sewn on; I'm still deciding about that. I have some cool things on the needles, including the toe of my formerly tangled sock (almost done!), a Baby Kimono from Mason-Dixon Knitting (no, I am not having a baby....) and a scarf for a friend out of the prettiest wool ribbon yarn I found on that last LYS trip. It's called Tagliatelli, and it is gorgeous! But my hands are itching to start more socks. More socks. More socks!