You can see I started at the bottom with the black/brown/grey mix, which has that wee bit of bluish in it. I was quite alarmed to see the rich chocolate brown towards the middle of the ball!
As one has come to expect, I first thought I would have lots of yarn, then thought I wouldn't have enough yarn, then thought I would put more black at the top, then thought that would make the bag too big, then worried it would shrink too much, then thought it was perfect, then thought it was not...
The handle, surrounded by garter stitch because I think it makes a sturdier handle and stronger top to the bag.
Where stocking meets garter! There's the orange at the bottom; green, which was alarmingly beige in the ball, in the middle; more orange at the top. I changed balls every five rows. Though I may have cheated on that when I did the handle because we wanted the orange at the edge.
The new bag with the old. How much will it shrink? Will it turn out too small? Will it shrink lengthwise a lot and widthwise not very much, making an oddly proportioned bag? Should I add more length now, before the final step of tossing it into hot water? The older bag was made with different yarn at different tension; who knows what it looked like before it was felted; we'll use a different machine; there are two yarns in the present bag: will they felt at the same rate??? Oh, my nerves.
And for posterity, the "before" picture with teacup. As I recall from the olden days, this is obligatory.
Edited to add:
Oh, dear. Look at this. I had to go browse through Stephen's iPhoto, back to 2005, where one gets distracted by kiddie shots and so on, and found these.
Unfelted, with teacup:
Felted, with the same cup:
I think I need to rip back to before the handles, and add in a few more inches! Oh dear, oh dear.
A Buttonhole bag!! I can't remember the last time that I saw someone knit one of those.
ReplyDeleteI am a trendsetter, indeed! It's the buttonhole bag renaissance.
DeleteI love the pictures with the cup!
ReplyDelete