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 shrinkage o

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: Ju

Summer is here! I was looking around for something to put in my hair to keep it under control while outside in our high humidity and hot weather. I’m letting my hair grow (at least for now), and the humidity turns my hair into a frizz bomb. I was searching for something to tame it, yet be stylish. When camping it would be nice to have a good looking alternative to a bandana. You know how head bands either squeeze your head and stretchy bands migrate off you head. Well I remember the Calorimetry pattern from Knitty winter 06 and wondered how it would knit up in cotton! I love it! I did make some alterations due to the cotton yarn, and added ties instead of a button to accommodate for shrinkage of the yarn. But this head band just gets better every time I wash it! Soft and the ties allow for a good fit. I used smaller needles and adjusted the number of cast on stitches. I would also make this in other types of yarn, I’m thinking a cotton/linen blend, I found this CotLin at Knit Pic