theraineysisters knitting and so much more

Why don’t cameras do these things justice!  I really tried to get a GOOD picture of the felted Mitered Tote — to no avail! I wish you could see it in person. 

Here’s a close up of the felting:

It is felted to a nice degree: nicely dense and not stretchy.  And it has the boucle finish that I wanted.  Even Hubby commented on how great it looked felted (and he usually just does the ‘uh, looks good’ without looking up thing).  Here you can at least see the difference in size after felting:

And Lettie asked, why does Mommy keep making felted bags in the same colors…..???

Lettie, dear, we have a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy around here and you better get used to it ;)!  The above picture (showing one of my many Market Squares bags) is much truer to the color. 

I am extremely pleased with the strap I ended up doing.  I used a provisional cast on for 160 sts; then I worked stripes in the green and red, and did an i-cord bind off all around.  It is the exact width and length I wanted and it felted very nicely, too!! 

So, all in all I am very pleased with the bag.  I do need to ask myself how many is too many, but Sally keeps knitting shawls, right?  Can there be too much of a good thing?

PS — in response to questions — a couple of you wondered about the felting and the fact that knitting usually felts more in one direction than the other.  I’m no expert, but it could be that it felted evenly because the knitting goes in all directions:

Arrows show direction of knitting

This is not the case with the bottom of the bag, but …

Finally I am at the point on the Mitered Tote where it all comes together. When I last left you, I was finishing up the “scarf” section. It wrapped up quickly (as garter stitch scarves tend to do ;)) and then it was on to the construction phase. I chronicled this phase in photos so you could see how nicely the bag comes together (and because it is too hard to describe in words alone).

First, pick up 240 sts around three sides of one of the large squares:

The “crinkled” edge is due to the fact that I am using Denise needles for some of the pick ups — I didn’t have enough Size 8 needles, and it takes a lot for this project.

Then pick up 240 sts along one edge of the “scarf”:

Join the pieces together using a 3-needle bind off (I used a Size 9 needle to do the bind off):

It gets a very nice-looking edge — similar to piping. Here’s the bottom, where the true miter is hiding:

Repeat for the other side and voila:

You’ve got one honkin’ big bag!!!!! Whoa! That’s a stash-keeper if I ever saw one.

The next step: the top edge. The pattern says to pick up and bind off, but I chose to do an i-cord bind off to give it a clean and bit heftier appearance:

Now it’s time to knit the strap. A fellow knitter who made this bag suggested that I make the strap wider to be more in scale with the bag’s girth — and I agree tote-ally. I have been playing around with different ways to make it wider and finally came up with a plan that I hope works — we’ll see in the next installment of the “Mitered Tote Turns” ;)! I’ll knit like Seabiscuit between loads of laundry today…

I hope to be able to felt this puppy this week. Woo Hoo!

Dear, dear, Lisa — it snowed in parts of Minnesota yesterday!  Forty degrees ain’t nuthin’!!

You know how horses like to turn it on at the end of the race?  Well, that’s how I feel about the Mitered Tote (and other projects right at the end).  You just want to knit like Seabiscuit to get to the finish line! Whinnnneeeee!!

Here are the two side panels for MT:

You can tell that this is lots and lots of garter stitch!  I am going to rework the pattern and make a smaller version in spring/summer colors.  I did not want to buy the yarn until I see how this Nature Spun felts.  I think it gets that boucle finish, which I want for this bag.

Here is the mitered bottom.  The two halves of the bottom are joined along the center.  I used a provisional cast on:

Here you can see the other side of the bottom where I already picked up the live provisional sts and started knitting.  This piece will change color and start to taper soon, forming a triangular shaped gusset at the top.

At the end, you pick up zillions of sts along the edges and join with a 3-needle bind off. 

And, they’re off!!!

PS — Response to Comments: I will definitely show the construction phase.  I had a terrible time figuring out how the bottom would even knit up.  It was such an odd shape and did not make sense to me at all.  I’ll share pics and diagrams. 🙂

 

I think Katomliz must be a better Mom than I — she spoke so lovingly about going to her kids’ soccer games.  I can’t say that with the same degree of enthusiasm — at all.  Yesterday and today, I froze my a** off and could not knit a stitch because it was so cold!  There is something about this particular tournament.  Every year I freeze.  Yesterday it was 40 degrees with a terrible wind in the morning and 90 without a breath of air in the afternoon.  Today was back into the deep freeze!

Here’s the final score:

knitting = 0
Housework = 0
Laundry = 0
Cooking = 0
Soccer = 12

You can see that the score is not in favor of anything getting done around here ;).

We were “tagged” by Dianna.  Here are the rules and our random facts!

Rules:

1. Each player starts with 8 random facts about themselves.

2. People who are tagged write a blog post about their 8 random things and post the rules.

3. At the end of your post you need to tag 8 people and post their names.

4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment and tell them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

 

Eight Random Things about Me (Susan):

1. When I was 12, I won The Froggy-Doo Drawing Contest.  Froggy-Doo was a kids’ show on a local channel.   The prize was a package of Doozies (?!) and when I stood next to the adult male host, I was as tall as he.

2. Our family lived in Puerto Rico for three years (I was ages 5-8).  Our dad was in the Air Force and stationed at Ramey AFB.

3. I almost went over a water fall that had caused the death of every other person who had gone over it.

4. Sally and I attended the taping of one of the last Seinfeld episodes.

5. My mom wanted to name me “Sunny Ann.”  Sunny Ann Rainey.  Really.

6. I could live without ever eating ice cream again, but not without cookies.

7. I have a thing for Colin Firth, the actor.  When I turned 50 my friends put 50 pictures of Colin in my front yard — oooh, Baby!! 

 
Colin as Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice (oh my, the poor man looks wet — I’ll help dry you off…)

8. I believe in lust love at first sight.

Eight Random Things about Me (Sally):

1. My favorite word in French is coquelicot.

2. Donald Sutherland once gave me a copy of Auden’s complete works, marking some of his favorites poems for me.

3. When I was learning to drive, I accidentally drove through a set of electric garage doors. Oops.

4. On my tenth birthday, I had chicken pox and my cat died.

5. I have a tattoo.

6. One of my jobs in college was answering a bat hotline. “Miss Rainey, Entomology, Fisheries, and Wildlife. May I help you?”

7. I’m addicted to salt.

8. I am the one who got Susan hooked on Colin Firth until I found my new Mr. Darcy. (That’s Clay Aiken in case you don’t recognize him.)

(To hear him sing, click the player below.)

[audio:Lover All Alone.mp3]

It is almost impossible to choose whom to tag next, especially because we can only tag those with blogs and those who have not yet been tagged. So here we go: Jennifer, Auntie Ann, Michelle, Gale, Karen, Shelly, Amy, and kmkat.  Have fun!

Yes, it’s that time of year. Tomorrow the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival kicks off. It’s a really wonderful, old-fashioned kind of event with lots of fiber, sheep, sheep dogs, food (including lots of lamb which always makes me feel a bit uneasy for the live sheep roaming around but maybe that’s just me), demonstrations, etc. This is one of the largest fiber festivals in the country, drawing knitters and spinners from all over the mid-Atlantic area. There is no charge for parking or for admission and the weather is supposed to be beautiful tomorrow. If you are near the area, you might want to check out the schedule of events and other information at this link.

Because the yarn store I used to work at is no longer open as a physical store, this would be the first time I’d get to go on opening day. Sadly, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to make it — if I do, it will be a pretty quick fly by. It’s my daughter’s 21st birthday tomorrow, my son’s first prom, a Clay Aiken ticket sale — so many important events crammed into one day.

Oh, who am I kidding? I know I’ll figure out some way to be there for a couple of hours. Note to self: take no $. Do not buy more yarn. Do not buy more yarn. Do not buy more yarn.

Peggy, one of our readers, has posted this in the comments:

“I’m attempting to finish a Debbie bliss pattern from Junior Knits. It’s the Molly bolero. It needs to be finished by Friday (I’m in big trouble). I can’t get the front edging to come out right, I’ve tried everything, the instructions don’t make sense to me. Has anyone had experience with this pattern. My grandaughter has to wear it on Saturday morning and right now it looks like I should have made her a shawl (or bought one). Thanks for any help. Peggy.”

Ack!

I did a google search and found a photograph at this link.

Can you be a bit more specific about what it is that’s not working? Can you describe what’s going wrong? Does everything else about the bolero seem to work? If you can provide a bit more information, one of us (or one of our other readers) might be able to help. (Note that the person who knitted the one in the photo I linked to did the side seams first so that she could do the ribbing in the round. Would that help you? If nothing else, maybe you can contact that knitter through her blog.)

P.S. I’ve been emailing back and forth with Peggy, as was Susan. We think we’ve figured out the problem she was having with the directions. Thanks to everyone who tried to help.

Here is the reverse side of the Mitered Tote by request:

I am a bit of a maverick.  I do not slip the first sts to make a selvedge to make the pick up easier (I think it makes the edge too loose).  I pick up into the nub at the end of each garter ridge.  The fourth square was picked up along the vertical line you see on the lower left.  The 4th square is seamed to the first.  You could obviously join them as you go but I decided to just follow the directions.  Aren’t I being a good little knitter by following the directions ;)?

Before posting another knitting update, which seems so frivolous and small, I have to speak about how much my heart is aching for the people in Blacksburg and those at Virginia Tech.  I cannot believe that as I sit here with my mundane life, there are people right now going through the most horrific and painful experience that anyone could imagine.  And people thoughout the world go through this every day while we go about our business totally unaware.  These events bring the reality home in a very personal way because we know it could be our son, our daughter, our sister — and it is too much to bear.

The folly of one man can bring down the many.

P.S. From Sally: I wondered whether to post anything on this today or not. It’s been weighing so heavily on me. Blacksburg is relatively close to DC; lots of students from this area attend Virginia Tech and I know families whose children are there.

It reminded me of 9/11, when my then-fourth grader was in school on Capitol Hill, just a few blocks from the Capitol. His classroom had a view of the Capitol Dome. When word came that a plane might be headed for the Capitol, it was a hopeless and helpless feeling. We are 20+ minutes away when there are perfect driving conditions, and of course all of the roads were closed. There was no way for us to go get him.

When that yellow school bus finally pulled up at our house after they started letting people out of the cordoned off area — well, it was a wonderful feeling. I have thought all day today about those parents who are not getting that relief and that happy ending.