Yarn for felting projects

OK, this yarn acquisition is bordering on crazy. I am obsessed with felting now and want to make lots of cute bags. So of course I had to get some Lamb’s Pride to try my hand as well as some patterns. I always wanted to make the Fiber Trends’ clogs and I love these little cute gelato bags. We’ll see how it goes in the front loader.

A couple of days ago, I decided to make my SP10 a booga bag using Wollmeise’s worsted weight yarn in Amazonas colorway. It knitted up really nicely, let’s hope it still looks good felted. I only did 60 rows for the height, instead of the 64. Pre-felting, the bag measured 8x4x11in. I didn’t want to bother doing a felting swatch since it’s for a bag, the final dimensions don’t have to be super exact. I don’t want to post any pictures of my SP’s gifts, just in case she might accidentally look at my blog! Kind of a bummer though because I want to show you what the before/after pictures are!

Kureyon for a booga bag

I also bought some Noro Kureyon to make a 2nd booga bag. I love the graduated colors! So it’ll be a good comparison between that and the Wollmeise’s worsted weight yarn. I completed knitting both of them (1 per day) and today I’m working on felting them. Keep your fingers crossed.

I broke my rule of one project at a time, but I really didn’t feel like knitting icord at Sunday’s stitch ‘n bitch. So I just started another bag using the Noro. I also made the Noro bag shorter, this time I think maybe 52 rows? I used up 2 skeins for the bag body and will use a wee bit more for the handles. So exciting. I am getting prepared to be severely disappointed, since it seems like that’s what happens to most people on their first felting try.

Frogged Monkey Socks!

So I decided to use the Snowbunny Scoutswag yarn. But what pattern to use? I thought of Hedera, but then changed my mind. Then I thought of “Monkey Socks” and started with that. I had to alter the pattern a bit because it was too small. I knitted a good 3 inches before I decided that I didn’t like the way the colors were pooling and it totally hid the design. So I took a picture (not very good one) and frogged it. I finally decided on Crusoe from Knitty.com. I knitted about 2.5 inches and so far so good. I don’t think I anticipated having too much white in it. I thought it would be more blue/brown. I have to say though, I like the yarn, it’s very soft. When I look at it, it reminds me of neopolitan (sp?) ice cream. Even though it’s blue and not pink. I wonder how this yarn will wear. I think it will wear out sooner than my Lorna’s Laces and Wollmeise yarn, but we’ll see.

For some odd reason, Michael calls the Wollmeise “Weissmies”, I think because that’s how he read it the first time. Even though I correct him a billion times, he still says it wrong.

I also joined two knitting lists, one in German and one in English. The German one is good and bad. Good because I’m practicing German – I even sent a post and got some really nice responses, but bad because I get 200+ emails a day from them and have to sort though my mail. But, I asked about the handarbeit fair in Cologne and someone responded and said it’s only for retailers. Thank goodness I asked! Otherwise I would’ve gone to Cologne for nothing.

OK, so it’s my fault that I hate it so much. I knitted this pattern once before for Michael and I had problems with it then. So I should’ve known… I thought I had everything right, but I finally turned the heel tonight and had Michael try it on. It is so dang tight! He has a really pointy heel (don’t know what that’s called, or maybe it’s a high instep). Anyhoo, so if I make it big enough to get around his heel, it will be too loose for his chicken calves. So I walk a fine line here. He is able to just barely get it around his heel. Once he does though, it fits really well.

The other thing is that the yarn I’m using – some gray Essential tweed from Knitpicks really is irritating me. I almost cried last night because it looked like the sock has been dragging along the floor and picking up stuff. Waaaa!

I decided to take apart and start from scratch the Baudelaire sock that I finished. It was too big and I wanted to try knitting two socks at one time. It was a hard thing to do, but I’m glad I did it. I am now knitting the two of them at once, and they are perfectly fitted for my feet. I am past the heel turn, I’m just working on the leg/cuff. Should be done in a day or so.