July 19, 2006
Fabric
Thank you all for your assistance on the felted bag. As soon as the handles arrive I'll be ready to play with the lining and see what works best. I think I'll take some of the knowledge I gained from the Weekender Bag and apply it to finishing this bag. I'm really excited to see how it develops. As promised, here's the fabric I picked out for the lining.
And a close-up
The fabric has a variety of reds and matches the flowers nicely. I also like that it has a soft floral design, but isn't terribly busy. Hopefully it will look good once it's in.
The other fabric I picked up over the weekend is some cotton for the retro dress. The challenge was to find something cute and fun that didn't make people think of their grandmother's house dress (not that there's anything wrong with your grandmother's house dress, but it isn't exactly the look I'm going for). After much debate, "trying" many fabrics, and enlisting the help of pretty much everyone in the store (including my mom), this is what I came up with.
My mom is not a blue fan - it would be the very last color she's ever choose to wear (ok, fushia might actually be the very last color) - and she was very surprised that she liked the blue, which makes me feel pretty good about the choice. If she actually liked it, that is indeed a good sign. I still need to get bias tape and buttons - I'm thinking navy. I hope I can pick them up tomorrow. Travis is going to be gone all day Saturday, so I might actually get some sewing done. Or, I might not. You just never know around here.
Posted by Stephanie at 9:19 AM | Comments (17)July 18, 2006
Ask And You Shall Receive
Or whine and cry until you get your way. Whatever works for you (the whining and crying is my preferred method on most occassions). Back by popular demand, the Noni carpet bag. Just to refresh your memory and for comparison purposes - here is the pre-felted version.
And the post-felted version.
With toes for scale
As you can see it shrunk considerably. It's about 11 inches high by 20 inches long. The pattern specifies a bag 13 inches high and 19 inches long, but I figure this is close enough.
The flowers ended up felting very nicely.
My only concern is that the felted bag is still very floppy.
Is this just because it's so freaking huge or is it because I haven't felted it enough? If any of you expert felters out there have an opinion - I'd love to hear it. I forgot to take a picture of the fabric I got for the lining (I'm sorry), but I'll include it in the photo of the fabric I got for the retro dress - tomorrow.
Posted by Stephanie at 8:30 AM | Comments (38)July 14, 2006
Ready To Felt
I finished knitting the second huge flower last night and I'm ready to felt everything. You remember the size of the bag? Here are the flowers on the bag to give you some idea of their size.
I made a couple of extra petals on the second flower - one of the largest and one of the medium size. The resulting flower is quite a bit fuller. I decided it was ok to have 2 flowers that weren't identical because how many real flowers look just like their neighbor (see, I'm really not that anal).
However, I was cutting it kind of close on yarn. This is how much I had left after I put the second flower together:
Yeah, that's it - about 2 inches! It's a good thing I didn't want matching flowers!
Today I'm knitting up a dog toy for Rebekah's charity drive (nothing like waiting until the last possible moment) and I'm going to felt everything tonight. I'm really excited, but keeping my fingers crossed just to be safe. Tomorrow I'm going to the fabric store to find some fabric for the lining and the handles should be coming in the next week or so. I'll have a finished bag before you know it. After this project I'll focus my time on Butterfly and the long-neglected Trellis.
Today promises to be hot and dry and the sky this morning is crystal clear - not a cloud in site.
July 11, 2006
Giant Flower
Lately I find myself wishing that I had as much desire and motivation for all areas of my life as I have for knitting and spinning. What is it about knitting that motivates me? Is it the act itself? Is it the finished projects? Or is it the blog that motivates me to knit so I have something to talk about? Maybe it's a combination of all of those things. But, I really wish I could translate whatever it is into work and exercise and the ever-exciting laundry and house work. Maybe recognizing that I should is half the battle, or maybe I'll just keep thinking about it and not do anything.
I finished the first flower for the Rather Huge Felted Carpet Bag
And as you might imagine - it is also rather huge. But I suppose that makes sense so it looks right on the huge felted bag. I started the second one and will hopefully be able to finish it in the next day or so. And then felt! I am excited to see how this all turns out. Then it's on to lining and pockets and handles.
Posted by Stephanie at 9:11 AM | Comments (16)July 10, 2006
Skirt?
I'm not at all sure where the weekend went. I had big plans, but for the life of me I can't think of what they were or what I did this weekend. I know what I didn't do though. I didn't knit on Butterfly, I didn't sew, I didn't spin (well, I did spin for about an hour, but not as much as I wanted to), and I didn't finish my laundry. I did finish knitting the Noni carpet bag.
And it is indeed huge.
With the bag completed, I'm now working on the flowers. Because every very large carpet bag also needs a couple of very large flowers.
I'm almost done with the first one - I have 2 more small petals and the bobble center. I modified the pattern a bit. The directions don't have you wrap the short row stitches, but I just couldn't handle large holes in the center of the petals. I know they're going to be felted, but I'm anal and I just couldn't stand it. So there.
I did some more baking this weekend, but I've decided to spare you all more baked goods' photos. There was Irish Soda Bread (my first attempt at it and it's quite tastey), banana bread - a low-fat recipe with applesauce that is super moist, and some caramel hazelnut bars that Travis determined were "rich and good." High praise indeed.
Posted by Stephanie at 9:23 AM | Comments (21)June 28, 2006
Rather Huge
A few weeks ago (or maybe a month ago now) my mom decided she wanted to try another knitting project and she really liked the felted bag my mother-in-law made. I asked you all for your input, and Yahaira thoughtfully recommended the Noni bags. Well, as soon as I looked at the patterns, I knew I was going to have to knit one too - yeah, I'm weak like that, but come on - they're sooo cute. I ordered the felted carpet bags and the sculpture garden patterns. My mom decided she wanted to knit the small carpet bag and I decided on the large (a great work bag, don't you think?). And then I ordered some Cascade 220 from Purl (they had by far the best color selection and really quick shipping!). My mom ended up with a really fun coral color (the small size only uses 2 hanks) and I got a walnut color (Purl seems to be out of that color now) and red for the flower (because really, I think the flower makes the bag) . My mom is already finished with her bag and is ready to felt, but me? Not so much. My excuse is that I finished Hourglass and the Oak Ribbed Socks before I started, plus they aren't kidding when they call this the "Rather Huge Carpet Bag."
Here's what I have so far.
See the ruler? I know it isn't felted yet, but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to carry this once I get it full. I tend to put a lot of stuff in my work bag - knitting, work stuff, purse stuff, random stuff - you know, everything but the kitchen sink. It's just boring stockinette stitch in the round and I'm only a little more than a quarter of the way up the sides (row 30 out of 80), but once I get it felted then I get to figure out some handles and some lining, which could be fun. Oh, and I think knitting the flower will be fun - mostly because of the shaping and I can't imagine knitting a flower for a sweater, so this will be something new. I can't imagine you all will want to see more pictures of this until it's felted because, let's face it, it makes for pretty boring photos.
In sewing news: The Enabler and I have joined Sew Retro (yeah, I know, like I don't have enough to do) and we're going to sew this supposedly super simple dress. Now I just need to find some fabric that isn't ungodly expensive because the pattern calls for almost 5 yards!
Posted by Stephanie at 10:33 AM | Comments (16)
