Cutting a knitted piece

Yes, it sounds dreadful, doesn't it? But that's precisely what needs to be done with the front and the back of my purse (I knitted both pieces at the same time):







Notice how the very first section is too big compared to the rest. Plus, let's admit it, that very first color is yucky. So I'm planning on shortening that section down to a few rows.








I cannot believe I'm doing this on purpose. Wish me luck!

Design elements

This is how the colors are coming out in my bag. Please ignore the rolled up section, which will be eliminated.






I know it's hard to imagine what sort of bag I hope to produce, so I did a little search and borrowed the following image from this site:







Isn't that a pretty bag? It's also a very expensive Prada handbag. Just the sort of bag I would love to buy if I had the money. Wait, if I had the money, I would probably spend it on yarn. Anyway, I like how it tapers up on the sides and how the corners are rounded in the bottom. I'm going to use crochet trimming in lieu of piping.

And how about the stripes? Well, in this other site I found a straw bag with the effect I was looking for:




I know, I have eclectic tastes.

Surprises

Here's how the bag looks after knitting the first stripe plus a few rows into the second stripe:




What I find surprising is that the color gradation becomes very subtle. I know, the first stripe is very pale in comparison with the rest, but notice what happens next:





It seems that, with the exception of the first stripe, the color deepens gradually throughout the bag without visible striping. If that's the case, I'm thinking of getting rid of the very first stripe, which is too wide anyway. I think it will look much better.



I'm not making plans for the blue thing. I could fix the collar, I could frog it, I could make a nice pillow... but I've dedided not to decide anything about it until blue appeals to me again.



Have a nice weekend!

A little break

I'm thinking that if I give the blue thing a little break I will not make so many mistakes with it. So I've casted on for my felted bag:





Notice the thin 2.5 mm needles? Perhaps that will soon make me want to work again on the blue thing. It's a dull pink just now but eventually I will have wide stripes, each with more color saturation. I'm concerened that the stripes might be too wide for this little project. We'll see.



I'm happy to report that Nancy, from the Knitting Tantrum, has also begun translating her entries to Spanish. Check her Spanish blog at Berrinche Lanudo. There it is, another fun opportunity to practice your language skills. Way to go, Nancy!

It's a nightmare

I'm not usually paranoid about my knitting, but I'm beginning to think the blue thing hates me. I did a three needle bindoff (not so good looking but fair enough) and happily started crocheting the collar to the back. And then I had to stop. Here's why:





I know that I only have myself to blame and that I shouldn't take this against the poor blue thing. But I have another headache coming on and before I make a stupid decision like tearing this to pieces or leaving a twisted collar as a design element, I'm going to cast on for my felted bag. Here's the yarn I'm going to use:






I was trying to get bands of different intensity. It came out very uneven (and very un-purple) but maybe for a felted bag it won't matter.

Seaming versus grafting

Thank you for the comments on my stupid blue thing. I was relieved to read that other knitters have had their frustrating moments too. I had a conversation with myself, in which my practical side convinced me to forget about the grafting and use a seam instead. After all, it's going to be on my nape and I usually have my hair down. Who's going to notice it?



Me. I won't see it, but I will know it's there. Other knitters may relate to the feeling of defeat one can feel after being unable to learn a new technique that appeared to be simple... I mean, how hard can it be to graft two knitted stripes, each with eight simple stitches?



On the other hand, Summer is here, I bought the yarn a year ago and I'm not buying any more yarn until I've used up other stuff in my stash.




So, I'm about to make a three needle bindoff and move on with the rest of my knitting. I'm sure I will not regret it.



Oh, and I'm going to join a knit along. One that does not require me to buy any yarn, since I still have plenty of murky kool-aid yarn from that purple attempt:








I'm making a striped bag with different shades of eggplant yarn. Wish me luck!

It's all lies

I found the following statements on this site, explaining the health benefits of knitting:



* Patients with hypertension experienced significant decreases in blood pressure.

* Patients with chronic pain experienced less severity of pain,

* Women suffering from symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) experienced a decrease in severity.

* Patients who suffered from anxiety or mild or moderate depression were less anxious, depressed, angry, and hostile.

* Migraine and cluster headache sufferers found they had fewer and less severe headaches.




The article offers other tidbits of information, with links to the sources, but not for these little bulleted items. Which leads me to believe they're just empty lies someone came up with. Obviously, whoever wrote them has never attempted to learn how to graft a knitted collar with twisted stitches on a blue thing that seems to be taking forever to knit.



I, having failed at the task after too many attempts, can testify that I feel depressed, angry and hostile, have a headache and feel my blood pressure rising.



So much for therapeutic knitting.



Luckily, there's therapeutic dyeing:




Though let me warn you, my previous attempts were pretty frustrating, too. This time I used my regular oven at approximately 175oF and I'm very pleased with the results: Brick red and orange.



In other news, I'm happy to report that I was able to attach velcro strips to the little felted bag without it showing on the right side. It's nice to work on more than one project at a time. That way, when one of them is driving you bonkers, you can find consolation on another one.

Pictures

Here are the before and after pictures of the little case:




I wish I had passed a thread through some reverse stockinette stitches before felting so I could attach a velcro strip without it showing on the right side. But I did not think of it until now, and I can't find the stitches anymore. I'll still try to attach the velcro, but I'm afraid it's not going to work, so I'm open to other non-velcro suggestions.



Thank you for your comments on my laundry adventures. I must confess, Heather, that we don't know yet if the trousers shrank or not in the hot wash cycle. I suspect one of them did. But we'd counted both as losses, so saving only one is still a blessing. We'll see when my husband tries them on.



Tracy believes sooner or later I'll cause another disaster. What can I say? I always liked to perform experiments, ever since I was a little girl, so I'm pretty sure that eventually I'll have to ask for forgiveness again. Which comes more naturally to me than asking for permission, as you may have noticed.

Little domestic disasters

I finished my little pencil case. I crocheted the pieces together with yellow yarn and discovered that it was a tad too small for a pencil case. No problem, I thought I could felt it and use it for my lip balm, mirror, keys and all other small trinkets that I can never find in my Frankenbag. And I had a load of cottons about to be washed.... Can you tell where this is going?



Now, please remember that I dyed this wool with Kool-aid, and at the time of dyeing I had it all tied with cotton yarn which was soaked and zapped at the same time and never caught the color. Therefore, I thought this experiment was perfectly safe for my cottons.



As you might have guessed, it wasn't. If the kool-aid had been taken up by the towels, the underwear or the t-shirts, it would not have been a disaster. But the two items that were stained happened to be two of my husband's newest khakis. Well, they actually are like a year old, but that's new by his standards. I covered the stains with Shout, threw my shame into the hot wash cycle and confessed my sins. He's a sweet guy, he forgave me immediately.



Luckily, the Shout and the hot wash did the job and his trousers are no longer stained. Whew!



And the pencil case? Sadly, not very felted. But I got inspiration from Missy and did some sink felting with rubber gloves, alternating hot and cold water, until I got the result I wanted. I will show some pictures as soon as I can. I'm afraid that the sink is as far as I'll dare to go for a while when it comes to felting.

Pencil case

Here's the knitted pencil case, with the successful attachment of an iron-on patch and a velcro closure.






I'm very glad it worked. I was afraid the patch would not stick, or that it would have a halo, or that it would stick to the old t-shirt I was using to protect my ironing board. I would not have minded frogging the flap and re-knitting it, but that iron-on was expensive.



This pencil case was knitted in the round and even though I got distracted and did not finish it earlier, it was a quick knit. I now want to knit a smaller case, but not in the round. I'm using my eggplant Kool-Aid yarn:






Those are 2.5 mm needles, so I'm grateful it's a very small project. I like knitting with thin needles, but not that thin.

A finished pillow

I've been knitting like crazy trying to finish on time (the event took place yesterday). First, here's how the other square I knitted looked:





I got a pillow insert and crocheted the two pieces together. Here are the two sides:






Notice a problem?



Yes, you can hardly see the hearts. The original square would have looked much better on the afghan, where it could lay flat. Nevertheless, the afghan was gorgeous and I'm glad to have supplied a consolation prize.



I wish I had had my camera with me, but I left early in the morning without any coffee to bring me to my senses. I spent most of the morning filling up helium balloons and left when the walk was over and the balloons were released, so I did not find out who won the raffle prizes. But it was a beautiful sunny day and it was nice to see how people can get together to raise funds for the families of the children that need treatment.

Tagged Again!

This time by Michele. Here it goes:

If I could be an inn-keeper…I would buy some property at deserted beach, build a rustic hostel without a single TV anywhere, hire a good cook and let my guests enjoy the sheer joy of doing nothing while in the middle of nowhere for a while.

If I could be a musician…I'd sing and play Cuban and Andean music in a bar.

If I could be a doctor…I would be nice to my patients, I would not patronize them and I would give them as much information as they asked for.

If I could be an architect... I'd design appartments with lots of light in every room. The kitchen would always have a door and a window, and I'd avoid long, empty hallways.

If I could be a chef… I would be overweight. My bad cooking saves me.



Right now I am a very tired research technician who was sick all day yesterday. The ladies that were putting the afghan together decided to use 16 squares instead of 20, so my my heart square will not included. Too bad, because it's finished:






They sent me some more yarn so I can knit another square and turn this into a pillow that will also be raffled. Not bad at all, except that I need to finish by Friday (the raffle is on Saturday). I wish I had brought my needle to work so I could start right away.


I enjoyed today's tag game, especially since I was able to choose from several possibilities. I will now tag Stacie, Jennifer, and Kathy.

A better chart

I was too lazy to make any marks regarding the white stripes on my first chart, thinking I just needed to do the reverse of the previous yellow stripes. But that changes halfway through the design, so I made another chart with marks for both colors. Sadly, the heart was no longer visible, so I added a contrasting color. And just for the fun of it I added some instructions at the bottom, in case anyone ever wishes to knit a heart design like mine. Take a look at it and let me know what you think:








Here's how the afghan square looks so far: