I've been thinking (ok, obsessing) about this weekend and am stumped about what to bring to knit. I started a bag out of the recycled silk sari from my stash (bought on ebay for a song) thinking that would keep me busy on the way there..but well, I started it Saturday at worked and finished it Sunday night during Desparate Housewives. And I didn't knit on it all day...I spent some time on my Mom's slippers, which, in their unfelted hugeness look like this:
Taken on the dashboard of my car, in the Kroger parking lot..the only time the sun came out all day and I thought, "take the picture", when I should have been thinking "Don't try to drive a stick and snap pictures in parking lots with your coffee in your hand!"
But back to the bag. It's fantastic for what I had in mind: a book bag for library books and something big (but cute) to carry my MDS&W loot. I hear the vendor's don't give out good bags, so I knit my own!
Now, I knit a bag out of this yarn last year and was terribly distressed at all the stretching it did, so this time I thought it through. First off, let me say, I was inspired by the construction of this bag. There are several qualities that this recycled silk sari yarn has that must be kept in mind
1. It is strong--you can put a lot of stuff in it without it breaking
2. It is totally inflexible--if you stretch it out, it will stay that way
3. It's scratchy and uneven--but fantastically textured...so show it off!
So although I loved the inspiration bag, I was unhappy with how the stitch pattern (yo, p2tog) hurt my hands when knitting. I didn't have pointy needles with me and my Clovers could not pull off a P2Tog without major arm acrobatics. So I decided on a twisted drop stitch (have you done this before, it's fantastic!): no need for pointy needles I only had to remember to do a pattern row every 3rd row.
Instead of knitting the side gussets in garter stitch from top of bag to bottom (which creates a gusset the stretches down, and in this yarn, never bounces back up),I decided, when I cast off of for the main rectangle, to join a wool yarn (Big Kureyon leftovers) and pick up stitches along half of one side, then turn and knit back to the top, then CO enough stitches for the strap and pick up the stitches for the other side. I knit back and forth in garter stitch (so the bag would stretch widthwise...to allow me to cram it full of books) 2 rows of both yarns, 2 with just the wool. I figured this would give the shoulder strap some give and soften it up, so it won't dig into my back as I wonder the stalls at the festival.So, now that I finished what should have been a travellin' knit...I don't have anything to knit on the car ride (even though my mom is expecting the slipper at some point, I don't want her to know I'm knitting it or see me working on it.)
What to bring?
