Not So Petite Felted Bag

Last month was Helen's birthday & I decided to knit her a felted bag as she is always admiring the bags that I made. I know that Helen likes big bags & all my bags are petite like me.

So I went through my stash & found the perfect yarn - 5 skeins of Debbie Bliss Maya - a handspun 100% wool in aran weight & in Helen's favorite color, a touch of purple. Using my favorite design, A Petite Felted Bag, I cast on. After 10 minutes, I started sneezing but I just carried on knitting. This went on for almost an hour & then I realised that the wool is causing my sneezing. This had happened before when I started spindle spinning. I have rhinitis & my nose is sensitive to the little fibres coming loose as I was knitting. But I had to continue knitting as I know Helen will love this bag.

So for the next 3 days, I knitted on & my sneezing stopped as I found a solution. I wore a mask ! I used all the 5 skeins of wool & the bag was hugh ......

... the length of the bag was a metre long !

..... it looked great after felting & Helen loves it and it was worth all the sneezing!

By the way, did any of you notice my new look. As I mentioned in my last post, I was a little tired of blogging & so decided to give myself a new look & hopefully provide the incentive to blog more regularly. This is a free design from this site & it was so easy downloading the new template. The only problem was deciding which template. For the moment, the side bar is looking a little bare as I am still working on downloading more gadgets - so this blog is a WIP !

Another Featherweight ....

.... Cardigan ! Remember the 1st one that I knitted last year ? I just love wearing it so much that I knitted another.

It is such a great pattern - top down & all knitted in one piece & allows for some creativity especially for the bands.

I used a feather & fan stitch pattern for my 1st FW & now a chevron stitch pattern. This cardigan is knitted with a shorter length & shorter sleeves too for a more casual look. I just love how it turned out.....

Once again, I used Zen Yarn Garden Serenity Lace, a merino/cashmere blend which is so soft & nice to knit with. I use only 3/4 of a 1200 yds skein. Knitting lace weight on 3.5 mm needles can be tedious but I just love the feel of the yarn & the relaxing rhythm of stocking stitch.

This pattern is a good template for creating endless versions of a cardigan & I am sure I will be knitting another one !

I Love Lace, I Love Shawls

Yes, I am so much in love that I knitted 3 in the last 2 months ! They are great projects as lace knitting is interesting but not too much lace that will complicate matters. Plus shawls are great as gifts, so I gave 2 of them away.

This is the 1st shawl that I designed & it's a simple flower & leave design from Evelyn Clark's book, Knitting Lace Triangles. I designed this shawl for a special friend, Danuta who had given me so much help, advice & inspiration in starting my own vegetable garden.

This Cottage Garden Shawl is knitted in Zen Yarn Garden Bamboo yarn & I added beads on the border. The shawl turned out so well & Danuta loved it !

The 2nd shawl is also given away to a dear friend that I worked with in the school canteen for her birthday. It's the Travelling Woman knitted in Dream In Color Smooshy ......

This is another great pattern which knitted up very fast. I started this shawl when I was on holiday in Melbourne & finished it in 3 days but could not cast off as I did not have a bigger needle. So I had to wait till I came home to do the cast off.

I did an extra repeat of the pattern & also added a couple more rows to the border. The size turned out a little bigger & I love the curved shape of the shawl. I may have to knit another one for myself.

The 3rd shawl is the Haruni which is one of the popular patterns in ravelry & it's gorgeous ....

I love the border as it's really unusual but the knitting was tough as at one point, I had more than 500 sts on the needle ! It took a long while to get through 1 row but I enjoyed every minute of it. I will knit another one if someone wants one ( a good excuse for me to cast on). The yarn I used is so soft & silky & knitting it was heaven - it's the Mini Maiden in Topaz color. I love this yarn as the shawl looks drapey with a little sheen on it.

The crochet cast off is a new technique for me & it was fun doing it but not when I was blocking. I had to pin out all the little loops & that took a while. Anyway, all the efforts were worth it as the shawl looks great. This one I am keeping for myself.

I have also a couple of projects which I finished recently but I am suffering from blogging burnout. I am sure some of you may have noticed that my last post was more than 1 month ago & it took me a while to gather the energy to do this posting. I can't explain why as it's just the mood. Every morning when I sit in front of the computer, I prefer to just browse through ravelry & then read a few of my favorite blogs. Then that's it!

So, I think posting on my blog will be more irregular from now but I will try to update my projects page on ravelry. I will keep in touch !