Snazzy yoga bag

I was asked by a coworker to knit her a new yoga bag.  She wanted one just like mine.  I knit a lace yoga bag a few years ago using a cotton yarn.  I used the yoga mat bag pattern  from Interweave Knit magazine Summer 2007.   I told my coworker if she bought the yarn and I would knit it.  She brought me two skeins of Red Heart Soft in teal and purple.   The yarn is lovely for an acrylic.   It's soft and shiny and easy to knit.  She wanted a striped bag.  I tried following the pattern but the lace didn't good striped so I improvised.   I gave her what she wanted a striped bag with a lace element.   I modified the tube and knit it in the round and followed a simple pattern.  Knit 3 rows in color A, knit 1 in color B, the lace eyelet row is a simple K2 YO to end, Knit 1 row in color 2.  The rest of the pattern follows exactly.   I like the results,  it reminds me of an 80s sweater and my coworker loved it.

Project details
Pattern:  Lacy Yoga Bags Interweave Summer 2007 by Alison Green here is my project on Ravelry.
Yarn: Red Heart Soft in Teal and Grape
Needles: 6,7,9
Modications: knit in the round,  changed body pattern

Summer Breezes make me feel fine.

This photo is how I broke my camera. 
Apparently pugs don't like to wear cowls!

 I am really going to try to be more regular with my posting. I don’t know why I wait and wait to post anymore half the time I have a blog post written and ready to go. Something happens to me when I sit down to my computer after work, ok what happens is Facebook. I spend way too much time on Facebook stalking my family and playing Café World. Ok I admit it so let’s just move on; unless of course you are on Facebook and play Café World then we need to talk about being neighbors!

This week I am still working my way through the FO pile. I was given a wonderful cowl pattern from Hanna over at Ever Green Knits. It is called the Manzanita Cowl. It has everything I love about knitting lace. The pattern is semi open and has bobbles how can you go wrong with that? You really can’t the pattern is well written and complex enough to be interesting. It fits well and has a nice slouch without being too floppy. I really like my cowls to be more like neck warmers and less like eighties cowl sweaters and hang over and down. I used Red Heart Eco-Ways in the Cinnabar color. I had two skeins left over from my Ditto. The cowl used less than a half of skein so you could get two out of one skein making it great for gift giving. The only thing I would change in the next one is that I would do the bobbles on both ends I just like the finished feeling of the end with the bobbles. Right now one end has a plain edge that rolls a little. I know why Hanna did that and it makes perfect sense but I get itchy when things don’t match.

I had this idea that Luna needed a mat to sleep on, she didn't!

Work continues on Citron. I just finished a section of the ruching that was over 600 stitches! Realistically I am not going to go much bigger on this one it is getting too boring. I will finish this band and go with only 7 bands and then the ruffle. I don’t have a time issue but I can only do so much lace weight purling and my wooden needles are starting to get dull and having trouble on some of the purl side rows. Yuck. I am also working on the body of my top down cardigan which is going fast on size 8 needles definitely perfect for movie watching knitting. I am searching for the perfect knitting project for my Red Heart Summer Swap partner. If she is
reading this I haven’t found the perfect pattern yet but I am having fun searching. I really need to do a stash inventory. I have been working almost exclusively from the stash and my little cheat sheet is out of date so I don’t know what I have in there anymore I doubt I have any sweater’s worth of yarn stashed away anymore but who knows what a little digging will uncover!

The cowl is lovely.  It is soft and squishy and very warm.

I found a great new podcast that I want to share. It is called The Savvy Girls and is by two sisters Melanie and Deborah. I love the repertoire these two sisters have with each other. The podcast is funny and intelligent. I recommend it. I was listening to one of the back episodes on the bus and I actually laughed out loud!

Links

Manzanita Cowl (rav link)

Savvy Girls

Facebook (friend me)

Winter Olympics and Knitting!

Today is the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics and also the start of the 2010 Ravelympics.  As you all know I am co-captaining  Team Redheart for the Ravelympics.  We have 55 awesome team members working to show that Red Heart yarn is a great yarn.  We have some great prizes donated by the Coats Company and we have team spirit.  Let's go Team Redheart and Let's go USA. 

Everyone else just try your best.  How cute are the Olympic Mascots.  I am in love with the Yeti his name is Quatchi.  I can't believe how excited I am about the Winter Olympics when I can't even stand to look at the snow at all after the snow bomb we got dumped with here in Philly this week.

Let's go watch the opening ceremonies and cast on!  My project is the Valkeryie Vest  from Interweave Knits and my Monedera de Señora Paceña purse from Andean Folk Knits.

Winter Olympics
Ravelympics and Team Redheart
Valkyrie Vest by Lisa Shroyer (rav link)  This is a knitting daily free pattern
Monedera de Señora Paceña  (rav link)

Bamboo Ewe - A Review

In my press kit I got a skein of Bamboo Ewe in a lovely dusty teal color called mermaid. The color reminds me of the 1940’s. The yarn itself is 55% viscose from Bamboo and 45% wool. It comes in a 177 yard skein which is enough for a one skein project. Right now it has 10 colors including a nice gray. I decided to try it out by making a cowl. It was billed as being soft enough to wear next to the skin. I was envisioning a floppy soft cowl that would be beautiful peeking out of a winter coat without being itchy on the chin and neck. I started by winding up my skein. I hand wind my yarn before I start I don’t have a ball winder. So I start by pulling out the inner end and tug, out comes a small yarn barf, nothing major they happen all the time in machine skeins. The yarn is very soft and the barf just fell apart with no knots. The rest of the yarn wound beautifully with no knots, joins or slubs. I love the consistency of machine spun yarns! So I cast on for the Candle Flame Cowl (a great free pattern from Ralry) on my 16 inch interchangeable Boyle aluminum tips in a size 7. The yarn flowed smoothly and was not splitty. The pattern does give the yarn a workout and I was concerned that it would look over worked but it did not. The bamboo gives it a nice sheen which is nice because it adds a dimension to the texture of the candle flames. The entire cowl took most of the skein. I could have done an additional repeat but I didn’t want the cowl to be too tall. I did the garter border instead of the tubular cast as a personal preference I am still a novice at the tubular cast on and it still looks homemade to me!

So I washed the cowl up and I did notice some dye in the bathwater not at a lot and it rinsed clear after a second rinse so I didn’t need to break out the vinegar. Also no wet dog smell. I did a light block no pinning and set it out to dry. It was raining when I blocked it so it took a little longer to dry. When it dried it was even softer with a slight bloom of the wool giving it a very mild halo. I have to say that I like this yarn, I liked knitting with it, and it washed up well. The colors are nice some are muted others bright. I offered the cowl to a co-worker. I told her to take it and try it with her coat, if it wasn’t soft enough around her neck to put it back on the file cabinet in my office and not to feel bad about it. I was testing the yarn and would not take it personally. So it has been a week and I haven’t seen the cowl yet! I love the stitch pattern. In the pattern she mentions as shawl. I loved the oval shapes in my Shetland Triangle and in this cowl so I may look for that. Overall a good quality workhorse yarn that doesn’t price people out of the market for Bamboo. I have one more yarn from the kit the Alpaca Love which I will write more about soon.

Links

Bamboo Ewe - Stitch Nation Yarn

Candle Flame Cowl - Rav link Free pattern
Candle Flame Shawl Rav Link Free pattern

Stitch Nation - A Hot New Yarn!

When I picked up knitting again in 2005 my friend and co-worker Jackie had copies of Stitch ‘N Bitch and Stitch ‘N Bitch Nation. When I first learned how to knit in the late 80’s I was in high school and the patterns I had exposure to were either the free ones you got when you bought yarn from the major yarn companies or my mom’s craft books from the 70’s. They really didn’t appeal to me and I never went beyond making scarves.

I am sure that so many people can say that Debbie Stoller got them interested and excited about knitting. I know that it got me eager to get back to knitting. We poured over those books at lunch time and I read them through including the patterns. Recently I was asked by the Coats & Clark Company if I wanted to receive a press kit about a new yarn line they were creating for early January. All they told me was that it was developed in part with a “famous designer”, was going to be all natural and they would send me some samples. I said yes of course.

Imagine my surprise when I got my package in the mail and opened it up and saw a white box with a giant cowgirl swinging around a ball of red yarn. OMG the new yarn is called Stitch Nation and was developed by Debbie Stoller! So in my press kit (my first press kit) was the following:

3 skeins of yarn from the new line (one wool, one bamboo, and one alpaca)
3 paint sticks with samples of all the colors available
1 cd with promo pics of the pattern and yarn
1 press hand out with all the details about the lines
2 patterns both crochet and knit
1 a brochure with all the colors, yarns and photos of the pattern projects
1 post card with a “letter” from Debbie Stoller who wants to give me free yarn.

I have been petting the yarn for a week, looking at the colors in all kinds of lights and thinking about what to do with my samples. I was so enthralled by the press kit I didn’t try the yarn out yet but I will. So here is a sneak peek of the kit and the yarn the next Stitch Nation post will be about the yarn.  I promise, until then enjoy some exciting photos of the press kit!