Knit One, Purl Too: A Knitlog

I know - two entries in three days - shocking! With time off from work, I made one of my Christmas gifts. It’s a felted tote, the Retro Bag from Designs by Shelley in Outback Wool and Outback Mohair by Plymouth, colorway 902 It’s sweet and girly, with a garter-stitch bottom, lots of mohair and contains plenty of what may be my favorite color: lime. Here’s a closeup. So delightfully fuzzy! Dig that I-cord! And here’s the glamorous “I’m blocking” shot. Thanks to Kathy Wortel’s basic felting article from Knitty, as well as the King of Felting’s great tips, I was felted and fabulous with two trips through the washer.

This pattern was easy and fun. One thing I would change next time through - the handles for this tote are stitched on pre-felting, which means, of course that the yarn used to stitch them on felts as well - and shrinks. Though the handles are securely attached, the ends of my handles curled up a bit, which I can fix with needle and thread. But next time I attach handles, I’ll make sure to stitch the ends down.

So what’s next? I have yarn for a few more hats, including a Bucket O’Chic in Cascade Pastaza (thank you, Rob), a Booga bag, and of course, the Tote Around that seems much more do-able - I think I can fake my way through knitting a flat bottom and picking up stitches (rather than torturing myself with DPNs). I have Koigu for some Crusoe socks too (thank you again, Rob), but I may just pick up my lonely top-down raglan - it needs some love.