Knitting at Home
I'm glad I took a few days off while my son recovers from his surgery. He's been up every night crying inconsolably, at midnight and at 3:00 AM. It's like having a baby around again. I'd planned to get some things done around the house, but I'm so tired all I can do is knit, and by that I mean brainless stocking stitch projects.
Here's a felted bag made from the apple green and canvas coloured Briggs and Little Heritage wool.
I don't really follow patterns, but I do read them through to see how items are constructed. For this bag, you make a garter stitch rectangle for the bottom, then pick up stitches along the sides and start knitting in the round. When you get to the part where the straps start, switch colours and purl a channel of stitches (2 on each side) as a guide for when you sew the straps on later. I rather like that part - quite clever. You can see the channels below (mine are 6 stitches wide), marked by sushi stitch markers.
When the bag is as tall as you want it, bind off and single crochet around the top edge. The single crochet gives it a nice sturdy finish and prevents the top from curling once it's felted. Here is the bag before felting. You can see that it's quite a bit taller than the finished version. The finished version is actually the same width, but shorter. I realize I should've snapped the picture with the TV control in it (which is why it's in the pre-felting photo), but, well, that's what happens when you've not had enough sleep.
Here it is while blocking. The Briggs and Little felted up beautifully. It took only one cycle of hot-wash/cold-rinse to get the desired amount of fulling.
Here's a felted bag made from the apple green and canvas coloured Briggs and Little Heritage wool.
I don't really follow patterns, but I do read them through to see how items are constructed. For this bag, you make a garter stitch rectangle for the bottom, then pick up stitches along the sides and start knitting in the round. When you get to the part where the straps start, switch colours and purl a channel of stitches (2 on each side) as a guide for when you sew the straps on later. I rather like that part - quite clever. You can see the channels below (mine are 6 stitches wide), marked by sushi stitch markers.
When the bag is as tall as you want it, bind off and single crochet around the top edge. The single crochet gives it a nice sturdy finish and prevents the top from curling once it's felted. Here is the bag before felting. You can see that it's quite a bit taller than the finished version. The finished version is actually the same width, but shorter. I realize I should've snapped the picture with the TV control in it (which is why it's in the pre-felting photo), but, well, that's what happens when you've not had enough sleep.
Here it is while blocking. The Briggs and Little felted up beautifully. It took only one cycle of hot-wash/cold-rinse to get the desired amount of fulling.
posted by ax174 at
8:29 AM
