Knitting Progress

I haven't written about my knitting in a while, mostly because I have been waiting to put up pictures of the felted bags I've finished lately. I made two mitred square bags from a class at the LYS. They use that lovely Noro variegated yarn with some festive novelty eyelash on top I made a scarf from a while back, and came out just incredibly cute. I keep having to show them to people every time I go into the store. The triangular one, I think, would have been cuter without the trim (purple and silver)--it was too much. Ah well, live and learn, I'll make more!

I just finished a "Lucy Bag" out of deep red/maroon wool with stripes of leftover winter hat yarns. It was IMMENSE when I finished knitting it, and its long strap was as tall as me. It took just ONE felting session (with too much water, too, which I thought might have slowed it down) to get it the size of a normal purse. And it looks spectacular! Felting sure makes a person feel good. The end result always looks way fancier than the actual product you knitted looked like. I am carrying my current silly knitting project in that bag. I am making (I guess) a baby blanket or something like that out of mitred squares made out of leftover sock yarn. It's like a memory quilt from yarn--all the socks I made Connie and gave away can be remembered in the blanket. I even have a diagonal pattern going (now that I am on row 2). Not sure how this will come out, but it is plain fun. Knitting should be fun.

I am also working on a cloche hat out of weird nubby cotton yarn with a lot of lycra in it that is almost like a rubber band in the amount of stretch it has. I am thinking of giving it to my friend's daughter who is going through chemo and might like a soft hat. I may crochet a flower to put on it. The hat looks rather interesting. Almost not knitted.

My final current project is the necktie out of Diakeito yarn calle Dailent. I can find nothing about this yarn on the Internet. I am knitting two strands together and it is the gauge of sock yarn. I'm using a Knitty pattern that originally was for sock yarn, actually. This yarn has 6 different types of strands: acrylic, cotton, viscose, polyester, ramie and nylon. It is the texture of dental floss. The nylon is shiny. It is dark "manly" colors. I hope to give it to my dad for Father's Day if I finish in time (hopefully will get a lot done on the plane to California in a couple of weeks). This is a MOST unique looking item and when I do finish I hope it photographs well.

Last but not least, I went to the lovely knitting store (LYS as knitters say) last night and talked to the owner's husband. Even though I do not NEED another web gig, I am going to do their site, as I get an exciting employee discount and, well, I think it will be fun. I was relieved to see that the sites Pat liked best were well within my capabilites and agreed with MY web principles. And that all the things Steve had learned in his "marketing your yarn shop" session at a trade conference were things I already knew to do. Whew, we're a good match. After talking to Steve, I helped out with a knitting class for beginners that consisted of women who just showed up, expecting a class, so Pat taught them. They were the cutest young women, all SO thrilled to learn to knit. We had a lot of fun picking yarn for their first real projects, and they all thanked me for being there. What a fun experience!