Saturday, July 29, 2006

Farmers Market Bag Surprise!

Last night I finished the project that I've been working on, and have been waiting to talk about.

It's the Farmer's Market Bag from Weekend Knitting by Melanie Falick. I don't think this pattern should be included under the guise of being knitable in a single weekend. It should be in a book called "Knit for every spare second for over a week, and you might get it done".

The only time I deviated from the fair isle pattern was on the strap. It was supposed to be patterned, but I made it plain instead.

This picture is pre-felting (that's a 16 inch ruler beside it):



This project was actually inspired by my stash. Almost a year ago, I picked up 2 bags of Rowan Rowanspun Aran, and I've had no idea what to do with it since. I was surprised at how little yarn this project took. I only used about 3 balls (possibly 4, I can't remember) of the dark blue, and 2 of the light blue. At least I think it was 2. Geez, I should really start paying more attention! If anyone really wants to know, I can count the remaining balls and tell you exactly how many balls it took.

I used a double strand of this yarn, and a 7mm needle, and I "pretty much" got gauge. Hey. It's a bag, it doesn't have to be too specific.

This picture is post-felting (as you can see, it needs a shave!):


Stu kindly volunteered his old razor to do the shaving (Yes, I did ask first!). It was unimaginably fuzzy when I took it out of the wash, and it's getting better, but it still needs another shave.

I was searching around online to see if any other people had substituted yarns and talked about it, but I could hardly find anything on this bag. I was really surprised, since the book's been out for a while, and it's a really cute pattern. Believe me, it looks much more difficult than it actually is. I was even able to work on this on the bus.

6 comments:

aija said...

That looks great!!

Carol said...

wish I had one

Anonymous said...

Wow, it's just lovely. Very nice. Have you ever tried one of those commercial sweater pill removers to de-fuzz felt?

SP

Anonymous said...

That is very pretty, I love the colors you chose.

Anonymous said...

Hey Chrissy, I absolutely love that bag! Very classy. I use hair clippers on my felted bags. The kind you get so cut the kids' hair and trim the fuzz off the husband's neck. Works a treat.

Anonymous said...

Love it - very cool!