Appreciating the Good Things

I am so glad I washed all my scarves, gloves and hats.

Those that were dusty have regained their vibrancy. Those that I never bothered washing when I finished them because they didn’t need blocking have become a little softer and cuddlier. (There’s a lesson in that.) Everything smells lovely. I almost can’t wait until it gets cold enough to wear them.

Yesterday we had a bit of bad news. One that has me seriously looking for yarn to knit up a voodoo doll of our ex-builder. Last night I checked the comments of my last post and instantly felt better. When misfortune and strife comes, sometimes it’s hard not to think you must be a bad, repellant, stupid, loser of a person to attract it even though you know you’ve done nothing wrong. So it’s nice to read that you’ve inspired, amused or entertained someone, even in the smallest way – like writing a blog post.

So thanks for snapping me out of a low mood. (Mind you, I’m still going to make that voodoo doll. It’ll get more than a few laughs around here. And a lot of gleeful use by many friends.)

Accessorising

Most of the time when I knit something, it’s because I want to use the yarn. I’ll knit something because I love the pattern, too, but usually I’ll check the stash before I buy yarn for a project. And if I don’t have the yarn the pattern will go on the back burner and usually be forgotten.

But I only occasionally think “hmm, I’d really like a ____ in this colour”.

Lately I’ve experienced accessory cravings. The thought of a matching white scarf and hat in some thick, cosy yarn does it to me. And then I start thinking of a cherry red hat. And long, red silky gloves. And I need a black beanie.

I have too many hats, scarves and gloves already, I tell myself. So why are half of them hiding in drawers, hardly worn? Is it time to get rid of a few? Why is it when I put on a scarf I can’t find a hat to match?

So today I dragged out all my hats, scarves and gloves (and a few ‘pantas’) and laid them out on the day bed.

The Scarves. From left to right:

The Souvenir Scarf – made during my trip to the UK so I could never give it away
Magic Ball scarf – love and wear heaps
NSG Snake Scarf – could give away. Love the colour and pattern, but hated knitting the Noro Silk Garden
Purple Curly Whirly – more decorative than practical and could give away
Handspun Mistake Rib – love and from one of my few handspun yarns
Chunky Garter Rib – has to go, because it itches
Painted Warp – haven’t worn yet so I might put aside as possible present
White Diamonds Scarf – didn’t I say I wanted a white scarf?
Thin Scarf – great when you’re not sure it’s cold enough for a scarf
Piano Scarf – never giving his away as I made it when I was a teenager
This Ones For Me Scarf – like it, but it’s a bit stiff (later: softed up with a wash, though)
Red Mohair Scarf – itchy but goes with the jumper I made of the same yarn
Catch Me An Alpaca Scarf – I love and wear this a lot because it doesn’t itch

The hats and gloves. When I considered this lot, I realised that I’m fine with wearing zany scarves, but not so happy about being seen in zany or goofy hats. A hat can make your face look good or terrible, while scarves and gloves don’t usually make necks and hands look better or worse.

So I’m happy with all the gloves. I put a question mark on the burgundy fetchings and multicoloured mitts only because I’m not as attached to them. But I’ll keep them for now.

The two hats I was fine with getting rid of were both sideways knits but I don’t think that’s the reason I dislike them. The brown one doesn’t get worn because I love my felted alpaca one so much (the one with the brooch) that I always wear it when I want a brown hat. The blue one is the Wedgie Beanie that’s in my free patterns and I’m a bit over it. Hmm. Might remove that link…

I couldn’t get rid of the cream cabled hat as it’s the reason I rediscovered knitting. The blue and burgundy hat is reversable and I made it while I was in Orkney, so that has to stay.

Hey… I’ve got a black beanie! One I like, too. Hmm. Maybe it was good to just remind myself what I have. And wash it all, as some of these accessories are really dusty.

But what about matching up hats, scarves and gloves?

Okay, I clearly have a few burgundy items. The hat is the only piece here I didn’t knit myself. It’s a Flinders Island Fleece hat. What’s missing is a scarf. Well, I did buy that Shadow Tweed with the idea of replacing the NSG Snake Scarf, so I’ll go ahead and knit that.

Brown is also a favourite. The alpaca hat and scarf are a good set with the chocolate gloves. But there might be days I’d like the easy practicality of fingerless mitts. How about I frog the sideways knit brown hat and make some mitts instead?

It’s all very well having these quirky hats to go with the blue mitts, but some days I want a plain hat. Ah, that’s right. I have some Bendigo Neon in an interesting mix of charcoal with a blue/purple graduated thread. That would go with blues, purples and greys. Hmm, maybe I should dig up some grey yarn to make gloves, too.

So I’ve now got a scarf, hat and two pairs of gloves to knit. And I still want a white hat. I’m thinking the Stone Path hat from Interweave Crochet Winter 07. And cherry red hat, perhaps Koolhaas, and gloves.

Wait a minute. Didn’t I just say I had too many accessories already?

The Backup Bag

Being a bit of a worrier, I decided to make a ‘backup’ bag in case the Green Fair Bag got lost in the mail. It would have to be a quick one, though, as I didn’t have time to make two knitted and fulled bags with lining and zips and such.

My recipient had once expressed admiration for a jumper I’d made out of Naturally Vero:

I had plenty of the yarn left over. Since the jumper had an annoying habit of felting just from wear, I’d been thinking of felting the leftovers. At about that time I’d also read somewhere that you can felt woven fabric. So I could, er, kill three birds with the one project.

I warped up the loom with some cotton and, with a bit of unweaving as well as weaving, managed to get the first and second half (front and back of the bag) to match. Then I took it off the loom, tied the warp ends and felted it lightly by hand.

In the fabric stash I found some lovely thick satin to be the lining. I put the shiny side on the inside, so the sides of the bag are the reverse side of the fabric.

At Camberwell market I found some bag handles, and decided I’d attach them by tying the warp ends on and leaving the fringe on the outside…

I’m not 100% sure this was a good idea, as it has made the opening smaller. But you could still get a paperback novel in there. Or a sock yarn project, perhaps.

In truth this didn’t qualify as a Bag Lady Swap bag, because it’s not knitted or crocheted. But I figured nobody would mind if it was a backup bag. As it turned out, the Green Fair Bag arrived safely, which I’m glad of as it took a lot more work. Still, I’m chuffed enough with the woven bag that I’d have been happy enough to gift it or keep it myself, which is exactly what a backup bag needs to be, really.

This was my first woven bag and I’d like to try making more, but if I used a handle like this again I’d buy one as wide as the bag. The felting of the wool is subtle, but fused the fabric in a way that is good for a bag, but reduced the drape a bit so maybe not good for a scarf. I love the lining the most… though my sewing is dreadful!

The Green Fair Bag

Back in January, at the ACS Mill shop, I asked the lady serving me which yarns would felt, as I had an idea growing for my Aussie Bag Swap recipient’s bag. She said none of those in the shop would, but ‘come out the back’. Turned out she’s an enthusiastic felter and her source of yarns is a huge cardboard box the size of a small skip, full of cones like this:

My recipient likes green, so it had to be a green bag. But what sort of embellishment? I knew that she works with stage lighting. I looked up stage lighting symbols. Not really interesting enough to use on a bag. But then I remembered reading a post on her blog about visiting a medieval fair. Hmm. Some sort of celtic knot, maybe? Or scrolls reminiscent of ironwork?

I knit a swatch, embellished it with black yarn (leftover Nundle 8ply) and felted it. The first run through the wash didn’t produce a dense enough fabric (I have a front loader, so it’s a bit gentle) so I threw it in again. Perfect. Taking advice from Beverly Galeskas’ Felted Knits, I’d sewn in cotton markers 10cm apart to let me know how much it would shrink lengthways and sideways. Then I sketched out a design and calculated how many stitches would get me a bag about A4 sized, and deep enough to not fall over. I noted that Beverly had used garter stitch around her work for a thicker edge, so I did that, too.

I knit up the bag:

Then crocheted around the front and back, made crocheted chains and sewed them on, plaiting them for the handles.

Then I felted it, and nearly fell over in shock when it not only felted evenly, but fit exactly over two A4 reams of paper (wrapped several times in plastic).

Now that the fun part was over, I procrastinated over the sewing for some weeks, but finally made myself sit down and get it done. I had some sturdy cotton in my fabric stash, and some facing. I sewed and sewed and sewed, adding pockets…

Lots of pockets, because I like bags with pockets…

Then I reinforced the handles with some cotton tape and sewed the lining in. By hand. Urg.

But it was all utterly, fantastically worthwhile.

Because, darn it, I really liked this bag and didn’t want to give it away!

But when projects work out like that, they’re always the best gifts. They’re the ones you know you’ve outdone yourself with. And my recipient has given it her stamp of approval, which means I’ve achieved the goal of the swap, and I can go a long time on that sort of satisfaction.

Now I just need to pop back into the ACS mill shop and get me some red feltable yarn, so I can make my own variation. I’m thinking a curved top, like a bowling bag shape. And white edging and handles, so it matches my mini…