Friday, July 07, 2006

Done Wobbling

We're in the midst of a long anticipated visit with far flung family and have been enjoying a rare and welcome stretch of sunny warm weather. The weather combined with the company has resulted in a wonderful and action packed week. Though knitting time has been limited, I have managed to complete my Wobbly Circles Tote.


First I finished knitting both sides.

Both to conserve yarn, and to provide some knitting excitement, I decided to switch the colors around a bit, for side number two.

I brought the bag along on an excursion Out The Road to Eagle Beach. While the kids played at the edge of Eagle River, I finished sewing back to front.

Here she is awaiting felting:


Because we have a front loading washer, I thought I might have to resort to hand felting.




Before long, however, I abandoned the plunger and 5 gallon bucket and with a leap of faith, tossed the bag and some towels and jeans into the washer. I believe I ultimately went through 4 cycles before it was felted to my satisfaction..
..and I am very satisfied. After all of my angst and obsessive fretting about handle length I managed to achieve just what I envisioned - a too-rare occurrence in my knitting world-so I am delighted.

Wobbly Circles Tote
Pattern: Wobbly Circles Tote designed by Leigh Radford/Interweave Knits Spring 2006
Yarn: Lamb's Pride Bulky
Needles: Addi Turbo Circular size US 10
Modifications: I modified the handles so they would fit over my shoulder. At row 103 I only knit 20 stitches at each edge and bound off the center 26 stitches. On the next row I cast on 70 stitches across the gap created by the bound off stitiches. I worked 8 rows straight and then I knit an applied I-cord around the top of the bag and inside of the handles for reinforcement. (A recommendation I found here.)
SPECIAL THANKS to my brother Will, photographer extraordinaire, for patiently indulging his neurotic older sister me and photographing the bag on my shoulder.

6 comments:

bunchkin said...

Wow! That's awesome! Those handles on felted bags are tricky, glad yours turned out well.

Dropstitchknitter said...

It's fabulous - I'm glad it all worked out for you!

Terhi said...

Kathy, I really like it! The colours are great, and the size looks very practical. Congrats! :-)

gale (she shoots sheep shots) said...

Great bag, love the colors and the handle are perfect length.

Anonymous said...

Love the bag! By the way, I also have a front loader washing machine, and I have discovered that tossing an old pair of mr daughters sneakers into the wash with mt felting helps cut in half the the number of wash cycles needed.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I can't believe how awesome your bag turned out, that's such a unique and funky piece of work that you did - congrats on finishing it!