The Finished Entrelac Bag

Well, here it is! The finished bag. I am so happy with how it turned out. The handles are great, they are gray and I sewed them into the inside of the bag and lined the bag with a light blue fabric. As any gal will tell you, light colors lining a bag are a BIG plus! Maybe I will be able to find an item, like my keys, if they fall to the bottom. The black worked out great, because where I ran out of the colored yarn, was very close to where the bag started decreasing for the bottom. After I fulled it, you can still sort of see the stitches, I blocked it out over a plastic bucket. The bucket is about the size of one of those metal popcorn tins, you see for sale, with popcorn of course, at Christmas time.

Anyway, my plastic bucket came from a Shipley donut shop. It is what their flour would come in and they sold me the bucket. I have had if for years in the pantry storing bags of sugar, flour, noodles etc. You know, in Texas we have to be careful about those pesky bugs liking to invade everywhere.

Well, now onto other projects!

On September 7th, at the Cajun Lagniappe, in Louisiana, I took a yarn dying workshop. Here are the two skeins that I dyed. The ball of yarn is space dyed and the loose skein was dunked into a canning jar full of blue dye and then the other end was space dyed/painted. I am disappointed in the skein, because I had interspersed the orange color with the brown color, by handpainting the yarn. The brown ran and you can hardly tell that there is any orange at all. But, that is what happens when dying, so I am told, and the skein is very pretty anyway. These two skeins will one day be 2 pair of socks. Watch for them to start appearing here in a few weeks, I have other items on the needles right now. Some of the items I am knitting, I cannot talk about, because they are Christmas presents and my family reads, well at least I think they do, :) my blog.

New Bag is finished

Well, I decided to do 2 bags of the New Bag. I really like this pattern and it knitted up quickly, considering how much time the entrelac bag is taking. (See below) I didn't get a photo of the finished one, that I did for my wonderful friend, but I took a picture of the finished one that I knitted for me. I was able to take it to the Cajun Lagniappe fiber retreat, in Louisiana, on Sept 6. It was a great little purse to have. With the long strap, I could put it across from my shoulder to my hip, so it wouldn't fall off. I put a flower on both purses and a little charm on each too. My friend's had her initial and mine has a coffee pot. Now, if you see me with it sometime, you will notice that the rose and charm are not on it anymore. :( On my way home from Louisiana, it was pulled off, somehow. Both the red rose and charm are on the road at one of our stops. SO, if you happen to live along the road between Louisiana and Texas and see a felted red rose with a coffee pot charm attached, it is mine. You can post me here and let me know. OK?

The Saga of the Entrelac Bag

I have run out of yarn again! I do have the bag finished now, except the handles. I have only 1.5 yards of the yarn left to do the handles. They are going to be pretty small handles. Ha! Ha! :) The question is, what do I do now? Hmm. I have no more black roving to spin. I have no more of the colored roving to spin or knit. I could order more, but that would take time and I want to finish this bag and use it.

So, I did what any handspinner or knitter would do at this point. I went to Hobby Lobby and bought handles that are pre-made. :)

This picture is the finished bag before felting. You will have to come back to see the finished product. Any bets on when I will finally finish this?

My bag took over 200 yds more than the one in the Knitter's magazine. I don't know if anyone else experienced this or not. I have talked to other knitters about entrelac. So far, we have a love-hate relationship with this stitch. If non-knitters are reading this, entrelac is the stitch that makes this bag look kind of like it is woven. It is a great stitch, but it is a lot of knitting. Not usually a problem, since I like to knit. However, I also like to get projects done and get new ones started. It does take time to do this stitch. But, I can tell you the time is well worth it, because I am liking how the bag looks. Now to get it all finished.

New Bag

I have a great friend here, in Texas, who does LOTS of charity knitting. She has been knitting for our troops since the war began. She knits hats for them and before that she crocheted slippers for the navy soldiers. She wanted to knit more hats and faster, so she bought a knitting machine. Several years ago, when I asked her how many she had made, the total was about 475! She has continued to make these hats, at about 30 a month since. The yarn is supplied by her, on her fixed income. Not only that, but she knits for CIC and for an indian reservation in Montana, I believe. My friend just had a birthday and I wanted to do something for her, since she does for others all the time. Here is the beginning of a bag for her, that will be felted.
I am using my handspun yarns and it is my take of a pattern that was in Knitter's magazine. Stay tuned for the finish project!

The Entrelac Bag

Well, I am still knitting on the entrelac bag, that I
wrote about nearly a month ago. I have hit a snag though. What snag?? OH, well I have run out of yarn! I wasn't sure in the beginning if I had enough, but thought I would try and see. I was only about 5o yards short according to the directions. The pattern used many different colored skeins and I was using single skeins with many colors in them, so I guess I was hoping there was yarn left over from the original pattern. Guess not. Thankfully, the bag was started at the top, which I had taken into consideration when I started it. I figured that I could add another yarn to it, if needed. I also waited to make the handles. So, the question is, what handspun did I have that would work and would it felt pretty much the same as the colored yarn. None. I hadn't really thought that far ahead. Hahaha! So, I dug through my fiber stash. Oh, by the way, my family would agree that I DUG through my fiber stash. There is a lot of it, and the only way to get through it is to dig. :) Well, I came up with 4 oz of black wool. Don't you just love black? It can come to the rescue so easily.
Hmm. I liked that idea, so I went for it. Here it is. I actually love vivid colors with black. It reminds me of the church I grew up in. It has absolutely gorgeous stained glass windows.

The next time you see this bag, it should have black on it. The question is: Will I have enough yarn now?? We shall see.