More Spherical Craziness

I made a larger version of Sharon Dreifuss' Dumpling Bag by casting on 8 stitches between the handle sections. It turned out a little too big. My ideal size is somewhere between the small size and this size. With the same needle and wool, I think I can do it if I want to. But I'm not sure I would actually carry this bag. I mainly wanted to make it for the sake of making it. I really enjoyed the embroidery on which I spent at least as much time as I did the knitting. At least one reader of this blog (I'm talking to you, Joy) should know that that the wool used for the embroidery was a handspun, hand-dyed wool purchased at Knitting Camp sometime in the late 80's. It has been hermetically sealed for a few decades. Note: overspun wool makes fantastic French knots.



The Squishy Balls are from Susan B. Anderson's Itty-Bitty Toys. I used remnants of Cotton-Ease, which worked quite well.



There are about two more spheres I want to knit, although the Learn-Along is officially over, but they may have to wait as I have started a lace project that will probably consume me.

These will probably be left somewhere for The Toy Society.

Crow and Star Felted Bag

The basic pattern for the bag is Pink Lady Bag by Designs by Shelly. The bag turned out rather small and also seemed to be crying out for embellishment. Maybe it is the piper in me that sees the need for adornment; we pipers embellish notes with movements called taorluaths, birls, doublings, and grace notes. These are part of what make pipe music sound like pipe music...but I digress.

Remember those wool pincushions I made back in February? I used one of those patterns to make the crow and star patch. My kind sister had given me a bag of wool scraps (she makes traditional hooked rugs) and there are several times that I have been so glad to have this fabric reserve.

To close the bag with a magnetic snap presented a problem. A vintage button from one of my button jars looked perfect but how was I going to attach it to the felted tab? The snap definitely had to be covered. This was a good example of necessity being the mother of invention. I cut a piece of wool just a bit larger than the button and sewed the button shank to the wool. Then I used blanket stitch to sew to the wool piece/button to the tab.

I used wool from the motherlode in my stash of Paton's Classic in the color "Denim". As these felted projects are mostly done with the wool doubled I am watching this pile of blue denim wool shrink at a relatively fast rate.

It's a Dumpling Bag

Rachel of the Knit Cents podcast has an LAL for the month of May. LAL means Learn Along. The concept is to learn something new and share. Knit Cents is becoming one of my favorite podcasts. Rachel has a pleasant voice and the show is informative as well. I chose one knitting theme and one less-knitting theme.

For My Learn Along...

1. Knit different spherical shapes.
2. Learn more about my two
   cameras and Adobe Bridge.
   Since much of my photography is for my blog and Ravelry, this is the less-knitting related.

Dumpling Bag by Sharon Dreifuss has been in my queue for a while. It is in the Fall 2008 Interweave Knits. I'm not sure how often I will actually use this bag but it is spherical so it seemed like a good time to try it. It only took a few hours to knit and an hour or so to embroider. For the embroidery I used handspun and hand-dyed wool that I bought ages ago.

Knitting spheres turned into a lesson on felting wool as well. I've not been very successful with felting in the past. In the two weeks that I have been felting I've learned a few things.

1. Felting works best for me when I don't care what size the end result is.
2. My front loading machine DOES work for felting. Yeah!
3. My favorite wool for felting is Paton's Wool Classic. This is an inexpensive wool that I bought on sale at a chain store. This wool was actually in my stash and somewhat of a buyer's remorse issue so I am thrilled that it works well for felting. It only took one time through my front loader and the stitch definition was gone. I put the bag in a pillow case with a few tennis balls. An old pair of jeans was added to the wash, outside of the pillowcase. I used a little bit of Tide.
4. Hot water, heavy cycle.
5. Try not to mix wools in a project. They felt at different rates and that can affect the product. I actually learned this while knitting Baby's First Ball which will come up soon.

Modifications to pattern:

• Eliminated the rings on the handles. Just looped the long handle through the little loop.
• Made the long handle 22" instead of 13".

I have since made a larger version of the Dumpling Bag which will be photographed soon.

This was a fun, quick project and would make a great gift for a younger person.