I Love Recycled Stuff!

It provides me with so much more materials to work with than I might otherwise have! One of my old school friends, Leanne asked if I could make a bag for her using the same owl pattern I used in an small bag I made my daughter. Didn't seem like a hard ask so I went and plunged into my stash!

It's kind of difficult because most of the wool I have is deliberately treated so it doesn't felt and the stuff I know will felt I don't really have enough to make the bag. But finally I dug out the yarn from two jumpers I'd bought from an op shop and unravelled. A pale green and a blueberry purple. They were quite fine yarn so I held 4 strands together to make a bulkier yarn. Then I drew up the pattern in those colours and prepared to begin!

Once started I really sped along! I love with stranded work how you can watch the pattern appear row by row. Finally, at 12.40am I cast off the garter edge top.

Next morning (or rather, when I got up after sleeping in because I stayed up until a ridiculous time of night!) I knit the two straps in I-cord and crocheted the loop for the button closure at the top. Then I sewed up the bottom, attached the straps and loop and then stood back and briefly admired my  work!

Pre-felting it looked pretty good but Post-felting...

...it looked even better!

So tonight I'm waiting for it to dry before sewing a lining for it, attaching it, sewing on the button and then,  Ta Da!!

It'll be all finished!

Happy Knitting :)

Return of the Felting Foray

Just to give myself a change from threading beads (Sooo over that!) and knitting large projects like jumpers I decided to give smaller projects a burl. But, since that would be far too simple, I thought I'd add felting to the mix. You know because finishing a project in a day just isn't fun unless you have to wait until the washing machines finished with it to see whether it's been a success or not!
So since I was still desperately seeking a slipper pattern that I really like that stays on my foot without me having to adjust it after felting I downloaded a pattern off Ravelry called "Duffer". With a name like that, how could I resist? Very quick knit, easy directions and quite pleasing appearance even before felting.

But after felting and drying on a pair of shoe airers it's superiority to every slipper pattern I have thus far tried became evident.
They stay on my foot without ANY adjustment!!
What more need I say?



But while trawling around on Ravelry I found this lovely chart for a barn owl and a few elements came together in my mind. Darling Daughter and The Boy kind of collect owlish things, (The beginning of this particular theme has become hopelessly obscure and includes some line he keeps repeating at times which is simply "Hoot Hoot.") and I have some pieces of various naturally coloured spun wool not to mention a ball of beautiful mohair that I spun myself but have been unable to use since if it touches any part of my skin besides my palms it makes me itchy! So, with no preparation or forethought I dragged out the wool and cast on. It only took me about 3 hours to finish but by then it was past midnight so I sewed up the sides and made myself go to bed without putting it into the washing machine yet.

But first thing in the morning in the machine it went! And after it came out I nearly made myself late for work by sewing it onto a cutting board to block it and putting it outside to dry. Was very pleased with the finished result and it feels like heaven when you run your hand over it! The mohair and wool are so lovely, silky and warm it's like having a small rectangular pet on your lap! I attached two felted loops and two large wooden buttons and Behold! a bag!

Yes! A bag! For holding all those important things like...a waterbottle?
A slightly large but not too large book?
A Netbook maybe?
Okay, it's a kind of strange size, 23cm wide and 27cms long, not really big enough to be a useful bag but not small enough to be a purse. But it is gorgeous!!
I don't care, I'm proud and I'm sure Daughter will love it being that she's in Canberra, the chilblain capital of Australia!
Keep on Knitting :)

Finished a New Celtic Tote!

Over the Christmas break my brother's fiancee admired the Celtic Tote bag I'd made. I asked if she'd like me to make her one and she said she'd love that, her only requirement was no brown.
Okay, with those provisos in place, I embarked on the project!
In the end, wasn't as straight forward as I'd hoped. The yarn I bought didn't come in very interesting colour ranges and I couldn't find a contrast yarn that I really liked. So I had to do some thinking.

I ended up using the blue and knitting the first side. Wasn't coming out as big as the first one but didn't worry about that too much. My big problem was trying to come up with a contrast colour I liked because I wanted to make one of the cables a feature, doing it entirely in the contrast colour.

In the end I pulled something out of my stash. I had some spun and dyed corriedale wool that would felt nicely and I thought the colours were lively enough to be eyecatching.

So, when I began the second side, they became the feature cable!

But I was still really unhappy with the colour and finally decided the only thing would be to dye the whole thing! Decided on red since it really made the contrast yarn pop but my first attempt wasn't very successful because I didn't have a whole packet. It came out a sort of wishy-washy purply-colour.

So I decided to let it dry, press the pieces and sew them all together and dye them like that since I had to wait until I could buy more dye! But the bag did look lovely all sewn together.

Finally I got the dye and once that was done I threw it into the washing machine and felted the daylights out of it! I knew it was going to come out much smaller than the first one but I was a little concerned with just how small it came out.

But still a very usable size, much more like a handbag. So I got the lining material I'd bought (which now the bag had been dyed went with it much better than it had before!) sewed it all up, attached the button and Viola! A very beautiful little Celtic Tote!

I'm very happy with the end result, especially the colour! The feature cable was horribly fiddly to knit and although I'll never do it again! I think it really makes the bag its own individual and extra special. Now all I have to do is get it to recipient. That could take a while too :)
Hope you like this. Happy Knitting :)

The Modern Vintage-y Look

I bought these great ball of yarn from Spotlight, Moda Vera Irena. They're so soft, almost like chenille. And I wanted to try making a bag, sort of a market/carry bag. So, after cannabilising two other patterns from Ravelry, one the bottom of a bag and the other is the lace pattern from an in-the-round hat, I improvised the rest. I think it turned out pretty good.

If I did it again I'd do the gap between the handles different. I knit the stitches together instead of casting off because I thought it would be too floppy. Now it's a bit stiff which means it'll probably wear out quicker. And the vintage handles that I had didn't unscrew as they appeared to so I had to knit them on. Not difficult but definitely more fiddly.
So there's my latest project up on this wonderful Australia Day here. Hope everyone's enjoying it and our wonderful country.
Happy Knitting :)