Moving Right Along and On Schedule

I'm on schedule with some of my knitting gifts and have actually finished my projects early. Now, I can sit and relax and continue knitting my CPH and another VBB (vintage bubble bag).

I have to show you a multi-colored bowl I knitted using Plymouth Galway for the main color (heathered blue) and Noro Kureyon (#40) for the contrast colors:



So this floppy looking bowl...




...became this beautifully felted bowl



I ended up using all of the yarn I started with: 4 skeins of Galway (2-brown & 2-blue) and 1-1/2 skeins of Kureyon. This is a wonderful example of using up every bit of wool yarn.




I also finished another pair of Cozy House Socks for a gift. I used a lighter worsted weight yarn in Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Denim Twist color. I wanted to use a machine washable yarn for this gift. This lighter yarn made the socks smaller or snug, which is the fit/size I was after. The recipient of this gift wears a shoe size smaller than mine. Here's the 8" length sock (I really like how this yarn color knitted up):




New Upcoming Project:

I've been checking out slouchy berets/hats on Ravelry. I plan on knitting my first slouchy hat sometime in December.

Vintage Bubble Bag - Completed

I've already started knitting another Vintage Bubble Bag and thought I should get this review posted for the first version. So, here it is my Chianti Vintage Bubble Bag:



Name of Pattern:
Vintage Bubble Bag

Designed by:
Pursenalities - 20 Great Knitted and Felted Bags by Eva Wiechmann (book)

Pattern/Garment Description:
Taken from the book: This bubble bag reminds me of my mom's shopping bag - room and practical. This vintage look is very stylish right now, and although I used colors that are subtle, you can make yours wild and bold.

Size(s):
One Size

Yarns Used:
Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted in Chianti (burgundy) (18 sts/4 inches, #8, 190 yds) - wool/mohair
Noro Silk Garden in 282 (beautiful colors) (18 sts/4 inches, #8, 110 yds) - silk/mohair/wool

I used less than 2 skeins of Lamb's Pride and 2 skeins of Silk Garden.

The bag is knitted with one of each yarn type (double stranded).

Gauge:
Not necessary to get gauge

Knitting Tools Used:
Circulars: 24 inch in size 10.5 (top & i-cord straps)
Circulars: 24 inch in size 15 (bubble bag)
DPNs: size 15 (3 needle BO)

Techniques I used:
Joined and knitted in the round
Garter stitch in the round (knit one row, purl one row…so on)
Stockinette stitch in the round (knit all the rows)
3 needle BO
5 stitch i-cord
Felting

Changes I Made to the Pattern:
The only change I made to the pattern was to lengthen the straps by 6 inches. This turned out to be the right call, as I can wear the handbag over the shoulders.




What I Like About this Pattern:
Quick & easy project. Ability to use different yarns and different colors. Straps could be lengthened.

What I Dislike About this Pattern:
Nothing to dislike

My Pattern Rating (Beginner, Easy, Intermediate, Hard):
Easy

Conclusion/Additional Comments:

I never really had an interest in felting a hand knitted project. I suppose I haven’t seen a felted project that caught my interest, until this project came along.

I first saw this felted bag at my LYS. A customer had brought in some knitted bags to be felted and then pulled a pretty black/multi color one that she had already felted. It was amazing to see this bag, before and after felting. I knew right away that I wanted a knit bag of my own.

The hardest part was trying to figure out which yarns to use and then what color combinations to use. Possibilities are endless. For this bag, I used similar colored yarns. I bought the Lamb’s Pride Worsted in Chianti (wine color) and came home to see what Noro yarn’s I had in my stash. The Silk Garden #282 was a perfect match.

It took about 4-5 hours to knit this bag and about 35 minutes to felt.

Another TNT pattern for me.


Before Felting Pictures:






Felting Process:

My LYS has a felting/agitating machine. I placed my bag in the machine. Added hot tap water, enough to cover my bag. Added a dime size amount of All liquid detergent (white bottle) and turned the machine on for 15 minutes for the initial agitation. Afterwards, I would check the bag by feeling the stitches/fabric. I set the machine for 10 more minutes and checked it again. I could still see the stitch definitions in the bag and the bag had shrunk. I set the timer for another 10 minutes and the bag came out perfectly. A felted fabric and nice size. I then placed the bag back into the machine with the soapy water and added a few drops of fabric softener to the water. I set the machine on 2 minutes, enough time for the soap bubbles to disintegrate. The fabric softener also gave the bag a nice scent.

The water had turned a nice light wine color and the machine had lots of fuzz/lint. I suppose that’s from the Lamb’s Pride yarn. I drained the machine into a bucket and used a fine mesh colander to scoop out any fuzz and lint.

The Lamb’s Pride had felted into a nice thick wool fabric with no stitch definitions. I understand that the Noro Silk Garden takes longer to felt. You can see some stitch definitions from the colorful Noro yarn. I like this effect.

NOTE: I am fortunate to have a LYS that has a special felting/agitating machine to felt my bag. I am certainly spoiled in this area. For those of you who will use a washing machine, your felting process, felting time and results will be different than what I’ve mentioned in this review.

Felted Bowl - Completed

Name of Pattern:
Felted Bowl

Designed by:
Leigh Radford for One Skein (book)

Pattern/Garment Description:
Taken from book: “I like colorful containers of every sort. Recently, I began making sturdy felted bowls and now have an assortment throughout my house. The bowls make colorful decorator accents and are ideal for organizing buttons, beads, yarn, keys, or other small objects that need a special place. I used a single color of yarn for each of the bowls...but imagine the fun you can have with stripes!”

Size(s):
Small (2.5”x17”) and Large (5.5”x18”) - height x circumference

I made the Large size bowl.

Yarns Used:
Plymouth Galway Highland Heather in 712-Brown: 210 yards/skein, 100% wool

I used two skeins and knitted with double stranded yarn

Gauge:
Not necessary

Knitting Tools Used:
Circular needles: 24 inch in size 13
DPNs: size 11
Bent tip tapestry needle (thread through the last few stitches and pull tightly)



Techniques I used:
Join and knit in the round
SSK
K2tog
Felting

Changes I Made to the Pattern:
No changes were made


What I Like About this Pattern:
Quick and easy knitting project


What I Dislike About this Pattern:
Nothing to dislike

My Pattern Rating (Beginner, Easy, Intermediate, Hard):
Easy

Conclusion/Additional Comments:

I’ve been looking for man-ly type of gifts to knit for the upcoming Christmas holiday. Some of the men in my life live in a warm climate in the middle of winter. Wool scarves are frowned upon. So, I looked around and came across these functional felted bowls.

I’ve only had limited amount of knitting in the round skills and limited felting skills. I thought this would be a quick and easy knitting project, with a few challenges.

As I was knitting the bowl, it began to look more like knitting a hat (which I haven’t done one...yet). I ended up knitting 10 inches before starting the decreases for the base. I didn’t have #13 DPNs in my stash, so I ended up using my #11s for the decreases and finishing the base of the bowl. This unintentional change worked out fine.






I have to say this floppy looking bowl turned out to be a beautiful felted piece.




Felting Process:

My LYS has a felting/agitating machine. I placed my bowl in the machine. Added hot tap water, enough to cover my floppy bowl. I added a dime size amount of All liquid detergent (white bottle) and turned the machine on for 10 minutes for the initial agitation. Afterwards, I would check the bowl by feeling the stitches/fabric. The floppy bowl had shrunk considerable, but still felt floppy. I set the machine for 5 more minutes and checked it again. I could still see the stitch definitions in the bowl and it started to take the shape of a tall bowl. I set the timer for another 5 minutes and the bowl fabric was nice and thick. I could still see some ribbings of the stitches. I set the time for 3 minutes and let it agitate. I did another check and I could see I had a nice bowl. I then placed the bowl back into the machine with the soapy water and added a few drops of fabric softener to the water. I set the machine on 2 minutes, enough time for the soap bubbles to disintegrate. The fabric softener also made the bowl smell nice. This was a fascinating process to watch and experience.

The water had turned a nice light brown color and the machine had minimum amounts of fuzz/lint. I drained the machine into a bucket and used a fine mesh colander to scoop out any fuzz and lint.

The Galway had felted into a beautiful wool fabric.

NOTE: I am fortunate to have a LYS that has a special felting/agitating machine to felt my projects. I am certainly spoiled in this area. For those of you who will use a washing machine, your felting process, felting time and results will be different than what I’ve mentioned in this review.

Next Projects

I plan on knitting and felting several more bowls. For the next one, I plan on using blue yarn with a brightly colored Noro Kureyon yarn. I also plan on knitting the top rim/edge of the bowl in garter stitch and then the rest (base) in stockinette stitch.

A Chance to Felt...Knitting Projects and Other Things

I had the opportunity to felt my own knitting projects. My Vintage Bubble Bag and the Brown Bowl are drying. So far the Bag is taking 2 days to dry. My fault, I forgot to swap out the damp towels inside the bag for dry ones (overnight). I used small hand towels and stuffed them inside the bag to help shape the bag. I found a "lint shaver" at my local fabric store on sale for 50% off. I used it to shave the long pieces of lint/fuzz off the bag. The fuzz was not as bad as another felted bag I saw a few weeks ago.

The felted bowl came out beautiful! I wasn't too sure about felting with Plymouth Galway yarn, but I'm extremely happy with the results. I can now start knitting more bowls for gifts.



In the end, my bag took about 35 minutes to felt and the bowl took 25 minutes. I will be back to post a review for each of these items and my thoughts about felting.

CPH Status:
I've managed to work on CPH for a few hours. I'm getting ready to shape the front right neckline, do the decreases, and hopefully bind off the shoulders sometime tomorrow. I hope to start one of the sleeves this week.

On the Sewing Front:
I've been going through my pattern stash, looking for a needle case to sew. I'm in dire need to store my DPNs. I don't care to wrap them in rubber bands or dump them in a zippered case. I found a Butterick pattern that looks promising. It's for straight needles, but with some modifications I'm sure it will work to store my DPNs. Unfortunately, I can't start this sewing project until I finish my Christmas gifts. I'm hoping, maybe, Thanksgiving weekend I'll get to sew it.

Oh, I made a comment about being at my local fabric store and catching their 50% off notions sale. I also found a beautiful home dec remnant to make a simple tote bag to carry my knitting projects. That was also 50% off. I enjoy finding fantastic bargains.

I have a lot of projects to tackle as well as a lot of blogging to do over the next few days and weeks. Stay tuned!

Another Project in the Works...Chianti

A few days ago, I started another small project called the Vintage Bubble Bag. Here it is still a WIP:



I've used two strands of yarn and knitted the bag in the round. I have been knitting the i-cord handles and I'm almost finished with the second handle. The next step is to attach the handles to the bag. Then I can felt it. I can't wait to see the end results.

I'm calling my bag Chianti. Named for the main color of yarn I'm using. I will be back in a few days with the results of my felted bag. Stay tuned!