New Knitting Basket

Two postings in a relatively short period of time for me. I'm not sure what's going on with the world, other than I'm in a holding pattern on some things and I spend a lot of time waiting and hence need mindless patterns to entertain me while watching tv...what can I say I like multi-tasking.

French Market Bag

I wasn't sure about this, but I really like it now that it's finished. And actually holds a surprisingly large amount of stuff. I think there are 4 skeins of malabrigo and 2 of summer tweed in there plus the first half of a shifting sands and the remaining part of that skein. Not sure what exactly I'm going to use the bag for. Originally, I thought it would make a good chairside knitting basket/bag. I'm contemplating using it for the farmer's market or a guest room basket to hold towels or other random things.

I realize now that it probably could have felted a little longer, but I actually don't mind it being a bit floppy and while there are a few stitches taht are visible, I'm okay with its imperfections.

Any ideas on what I should do with the remaining 1.5 skeins of cascade in the same colors? I was contemplating the felted potholders from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. We'll see.

S

S's My So Called Scarf

I've been plugging along on something like four scarves. And I finally finished one. B inspired me to try the My So Called Scarf. And I have been trying to find a scarf that would work with my new purple coat, and I haven't had much luck with it. So I found the Manos 100% wool that I thought I'd try. Unfortunately it's a lot pricklier than I want to wear. And I had some user errors. That madeit be one of my least favorite non-thought requiring project. So I put it down for a bit. I offered one of my classmates to make her a scarf as she is moving north of the Mason-Dixon line in the fall. Her oe request was that it was purple. So luckily a half done purple scarf is now a complete purple scarf ready to gift to my classmate.

S

Rusted Root part 2

This is Round 2 of the Rusted Root sweater. Used the yarn from another sweater that just wasn't the right size (the arms were too long). so I don't know how much yarn I used just less than that sweater. I'm thinking of attempting a mini version of this for a child, and hopefully use up some of the yarn I have left over.
- E

Pattern: Rusted Root, modified to take out the leaf pattern, added extra decrease under the bust, extra rows on th edging, and a short row along the back neck edge
Yarn: knitpicks Worsted Shine - silver sage
Needle: size 6 circular and a set of double pointed to pick up the edges.

Honeymoon Yarn Expedition

Well, not much knitting has been happening in my household this month as DH and I took our two week honeymoon to Italy. We had a wonderful time, and even got to visit a couple of yarn shops in Florence. I had earned a free day from Stashalong for completing the afghan square back in February, so I saved it for our trip. First, we went to Campolmi, which is in the center of the city. This shop is huge! The staff was lovely, but spoke limited English, so we negotiated our way through business and I ended up with the skein below.

The prices were great (1,50 Euro/$3 for the skein). It's not going to become any knitted item, but instead will be one of our momentos from the trip.

Next up, we went to Beatrice Galli.

Beatrice and her husband were there, and they were lovely too. I took my time and looked at the products that were made in Italy, since that meant more than buying a yarn that wasn't local. I came away with some Filatura di Crosa Cashmere/Seta (Gray and Orange), and some Mondial Giada (3 skeins in a Smoky Blue). Lovely yarns, and hopefully, Ravelry will help me figure out what to make them with.

I keep working on the Minimalist Cardigan and almost have the right front done! I also started the Yarn Harlot's One Row Scarf in some Mountain Colors yarn that I had in the stash. It's back to work tomorrow for us, so knitting in the evenings while watching the Yankees in spring training and the start of the regular season will begin again.

-B

Felted Yoga Bag

So finally an unfrogged finished project to show. I got some Cascade 220 for Christmas that I wasn't sure was the right hat and scarf color for me. So I needed to figure out something to do with it. I realized I didn't want one bag that was all one color so I found another heathered Cascade 220 that I thought would look nice with the aqua color. You can't really see it in the picture but the aqua has a fairly blue heather to it. I'd been thinking about knitting the Felted Yoga Bag out of Last Minute Knitted gifts (a book that I am realizing their estimated times are way off and take nowhere near their suggested times, or maybe I'm just really slow, but I'm going with the idea they are way off and not me). And I've never felted anything before, so I thought it might be entertaining. So preblocking here is my new yoga bag.

And now for the bag post-felting.

The aqua felted a little faster than the navy apparently. And the strap is a little longer than it

needed to be, but it'll still work and is honestly a lot easier to package up after a yoga class, if I can get myself going again. But at least I have a cute bag to carry the mat.

S

And the frogging continues

Thisis what my hokie colored yarn looked like early Friday night...until I tried it on with my heel extension and realized that unless my foot was growing in the next few months lengthwise, it was never going to fit me. So it became another of the manyfrogged projects tha I have had in the last few months. Nothing seems to be working if it requires any sort of measurement it isn't going to fit me. So may the hokie jaywalkers rest in peace...I will have to be subjected to another round of orange hands when I decide to venture on the socks again.

-S

New Sweater

So S and I were looking for something for B's Birthday, and decided to get her some new patterns. One of them was the Rusted Root. I was not a huge fan of the pattern that runs down the front of the sweater, but thought the puff sleeve was very cute. I had some yarn that was going to use to make a baby sweater, but as S pointed out, yarn that needs to be hand washed is not the most practical for a baby sweater, so I used it here instead. The sweater was a quick knit, probably only took me about a week to make, I did have to stop to get 1 more ball of yarn, since the I didn't have enough. Also, I think I would put in some vertical darts to bring the waist in a bit for a better fit. Will work on that next.
-E

Pattern: Rusted Root (modified, to skip the leaf pattern)
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Donagel Luxury Tweed (5 balls in a light blue color)
Needles: size 6 cicular and a set of size 4 double points