Knitting Dragonflies

I knitted this pattern once, and loved it so much I decided to do it again! I use my first bag constantly, and love the size, which is 16 long x 14 wide. This time I want to knit it in some vibrant colors, and make the stripes really stand out! I’m in the mood for some happy colors! I know another bag, I like to have a variety of sized bags to carry my flotsam and jetsam to work and around. Pattern: Baby’s Got a Brand New Big Bag from Maia Discoe  (pdf link), (love this pattern, I’m thinking of making a purse sized one soon, maybe decreasing the stitches by about 60 to 70%?) Yarn: Black, leftover from some projects, yellow, hand dyed by me, multi color orange, red and yellow, hand dyed by me, and some orange Malabrigo Needle size: 10.5 circulars OK, so a little further.. Before felting and after Felting was done in my top loader, measurements before were 17 inches wide x 19 inches long, after felting measurements are 15 x 15, which is an estimated of felting shrinka...

Continuing my felted bag obsession I found this pattern, Mini Skulls and Crossbones Tote, from Adrian Bizilia . Very cute but I wanted to use a different motif. I chose this one, a Fleur de Lis knitted chart from About.com.  Look on Ravelry at all of the different bags, from happy faces to peace signs. All so cute! Still in my destash mode, I found these two colors that seemed to go well together. And I was off with what I hoped was a quick project. I did have a problem with tangled yarns, until I talked to Eternal Arts and Craft blogger, and decided to wrap the yellow into little bobbins. That make it a breeze. I wished I had tried that at the beginning.Below is bag pre felting. I also felted this in the front loader. The original measurements were 13 in vertical x 10 in horizontal, after felting it shrank to 10 in vertical x 9 in horizontal. So that holds up to the current estimate of an average 30% shrinkage in height and 10% shrinkage in width. Modifications...

In a continuing effort to tackle the stash bins. I gathered all of my yarn up that is left over from other projects. I am surprised to find that I am able to separate the colors into, yellows (quite a lot of yellow and gold), greens and blues, black and grey and reds. I have an idea to make a scrappy sweater, after searching for patterns and looking at my yarn I decide against that and decide to search for bag patterns. I had the Big Bag pattern by Maia Discoe , in my Ravelry queue. I think this would be a great stash busting bag if I can get the colors to work. Her bag has such a nice stripe pattern of various widths. After playing around awhile I decide that the blues and greens and yellows are my best color combination. The pattern is knitted with two strands of yarn, and I decide to carry one yellow strand along the entire bag. Hoping this will tie the colors together. While keeping the pattern stripes with the blues and greens. Amount of scrap yarn: I had approx 38 oz of ya...

I bought a needle felting kit from Wildhare Fiber Studio on Etsy .  It was reasonable, and had everything I needed. I have never done any needle felting, but was intrigued by the Spin, Knit and Life blog and her results. She directed me to this great site . I decided to begin with my first attempt on my Sophie bag by Julie Anderson (rav link) . Which I actually saw on the Instructables site first and became interested in. It is a very easy felted bag, it would be great for a first time knitted project, the handles provide a quirky interest and make it look more complicated than it is. Bag is quickly knit and I start on the handle, along the way I decide to make it a tri handle twined bag instead of two twined together. Because, hey who can make a pattern without a little tweaking. Then just twist them all and attach. Easy. Prefelted photo and a close up of the handle. Here we are post felting. Then I decided to pick out some fabric to line it ...

I saw this bag in Bags That Rock and fell in love with it. It is a nice across the body, slouchy bag, with an easy style. From the beginning I had trouble deciding if I needed to knit it one stranded, (this looked much too thin), or double stranded, (oops, not enough yarn). Like any bewildered knitter, I just put my head down and started over. All of the pieces done, I wasn’t happy with the thinness of the yarn knitted up, but I kept going. Single crochet around all of the pieces. Now we sc the pieces together. And add the bottom, oops, the bottom is much too small!! I sc several rows around to make it fit, and then sewed it in. All together and ready to felt!! Now the fun really begins… All fuzzy and drying. It did end up to be quit thick and ready to finish up. I plan to get some fabric to line it with and haven’t decided on how to finish the closure. (zip, snap?) Straps are long enough to be worn across the body, the straps are knotted at the top, so the length ...

Spring quickly turns into summer.  We have had so much rain here, I feel like I am living in a rain forest, upside to that is lush growth of the garden and flowers. The air is heavy, even at 80 you perspire, and, as my friend pointed out, everything you stick in your pockets come out damp. This spring I began with my first felted purse, I am still carrying it and love it. This quickly turned into an obsession. Fast forward to now, and I have numerous skeins of yarn, patterns and friends that I have drug along in my felt mania. I’m going to try to arrange a “felting party”, some friends, (yes all of my friends have had knitting needles thrust at them), some wine, snacks and a Saturday on the deck. Knitting and felting a purse is a great project for a beginner knitter. No matter what style of purse you prefer there is a pattern out there, or you can tweak one. Pick your color, or colors and your off. Mistakes disappear, a way too big knitted sack appears and the fun really...