Barn Bag (free pattern)

I know, I know....I'm supposed to be knitting baby things this week, right?

However, every time we go out to the stable to visit our horses, I give each of my kids a baggie with carrots and/or peppermints to feed the horses as treats. After returning from the stable today, I thought how nice it would be to have a small knit pouch to tote the horses’ treats around. Something with a handle that could be worn over the wrist/slid up to the elbow, so both hands would be free for petting.

Once I had the idea in my head, I had to give it a shot to see if it would work the way I envisioned it. It did! I now have a lovely small pouch with an i-cord handle for filling with treats for our "babies" when we go for a visit.

Barn Bag Pattern:


Materials needed:

16" size 8 circular needle
Size 8 dpn's
Tapestry needle
One ball of kitchen cotton - I used Lily Sugar & Cream Summer Splash Ombre

Directions:

Cast on 16 stitches. Knit back and forth in garter stitch for 24 rows (12 garter ridges). Turn work clockwise, pick up and knit 12 stitches from the short side (1 stitch from each garter ridge). Turn work clockwise. Pick up and knit 16 stitches along the next side. Turn work clockwise. Pick up and knit the next 12 stitches (again, one stitch from each garter ridge). You should now have 56 stitches on your circular needle.

Knit straight up in the round (stockinette) for four inches, or to desired length. Begin decreases: K6K2tog for one round (you will now have 48 stitches on your needle).

Switching to K2P2 rib, knit six rounds. Next round, decrease one stitch in each purl rib column (K2, P2tog). You may need to switch to dpn's at this point. Knit one more round of K2P1 rib, then bind off loosely following K2P1 rib pattern. Weave in ends.

For handle: Pick up four stitches at the base of one of the rib columns. Begin 4-stitch i-cord and knit to desired length. (Cord pictured on bag is 10"). When you have reached desired length, attach i-cord to bag by picking up four stitches at the base of a rib column on the opposite side of the bag, and using the 3-needle bindoff. Pull loose ends through to inside and weave in.

Fini!

This could be handy little bag for many purposes: toting around sock (or hat) knitting, discreetly toting, ahem, used plastic bags when walking your dog, storing Scrabble tiles during game play (the bag sits up on its own thanks to the garter base - you can just reach right in to grab your pieces).

Have fun knitting! I need to get back to my baby things. :-)

Babies galore!

Remember that song from the musical Carousel "June is Bustin' Out All Over"? Well, theme song for this June could be "Babies are Bustin' Out All Over"!

Two new babies born this week to friends! Both caught me a bit off guard, so I am scrambling to get some quick baby projects finished.

For Baby Juniper - born June 7 (cool birthday - 6/7/08!), an Elizabeth Zimmerman February Sweater (aka Baby Sweater on Two Needles):


I made a quick trip to Needlework Unlimited yesterday to grab some yarn for this sweater. I had a beautiful scarlet or ruby wool/blend in mind, and found what seemed like the perfect yarn after poking through several bins and shelves. However, as I was casting on I realized that there was no way this slippery, splitty yarn was wool. Checked the label & sure enough it the fiber content is listed as "Courtelle". Arrgh! Not so quick & easy to knit lace out of a slippery synthetic. The upside is it can easily be machine washed, so probably better for the new mama. *sigh*

I'm loving the pattern, however. EZ comes through again! The yoke knit up in a flash, and the lace pattern is very easy to memorize. I think I've invested about four hours & I've already made pretty good progress - so far, so good.

For Baby Abram - born June 11 - Moderne Log Cabin Baby Blanket:



I got the email about Baby Abram's birth after I'd already made the trip to the yarn store, so I dug through my stash to see what I could pull together. I had several skeins of Bernat Softee Chunky in neutral colors, so I decided to adapt the Mason Dixon Moderne Baby Blanket to a chunky yarn.

I pretty much just reduced each section by 25%, rounding up or down so that everything stayed in easy to remember proportions. Another quick project - I cast on as dh and I sat down to watch "The Bucket List" and bound off the second section as the movie was ending. Hope to finish before this weekend, so I can give it to the new parents at church on Sunday.

Back to work - I'm on a knitting frenzy......

Emma's Birthday Bag (Free Pattern)

My baby niece, Emma, is growing up! Yesterday was her first birthday, and I really wanted to knit something for her to commemorate the day. (This girl loves the handknits. She loves to go through my pile of baby hats and dishcloths, touching the knitted fabrics and playing with them contentedly. She is also a very accommodating model, as anybody who views my Flickr or Ravelry accounts can attest to.)

Her birthday party is on Sunday, so I had just a day or two to pull something together. I made a quick stop at the big box craft store, saw the Patons Soy Wool Stripes, and knew that a felted bag would be just the ticket. Something small, soft, and colorful that my sister could tuck a couple of board books or little soft toys into for taking to church or out on errands for Emma to keep herself busy.

Lo: Emma's Birthday Bag



Pattern:

Materials needed:

2 balls Patons Soy Wool Stripes in Natural Pink, 1 ball Patons Soy Wool Solids in Natural Snow

Size 10 16" circular needle (Addi Turbo is perfect for this project, as the slippery metal helps keep the knitting nice and loose for felting.)

Tapestry needle, measuring tape

Directions:

Base of bag: Cast on 34 stitches with Natural Pink and work 22 rows in garter stitch (11 garter stitch "ridges"). At the end of the final row of garter stitch, turn the work clockwise and pick up and knit 11 stitches along the "short side". (This is very easy, as you are just picking up one "bump" from each garter stitch ridge.) At the end of this row, turn the work clockwise again and pick up and knit 34 stitches along the cast on row. Repeat for the next short side (11 stitches) and again for the next long side (34 stitches).
Body of bag: You now have a total of 90 stitches on your needle. Simply knit in the round straight up for 14 inches, joining a new ball of wool when needed.
Ruffle: When you have reached desired length, begin the next round by increasing every stitch. I prefer to do this by knitting into the front and back of each stitch - in knitting terms, kfb 90 stitches. (If this bag wasn't being felted, I might have chosen a more invisible increase, like the M1. However, since it is being felted, the appearance of the little bumps that the kfb increase makes won't matter. You can still use whatever increase you prefer, I just find the kfb to be the easiest/fastest.) You will now have 180 stitches on your needle. Knit straight up for approximately an inch or until you run out of your second ball of yarn. At this point, join in and begin knitting with the Natural Snow color. Knit another inch. Bind off loosely.**


**Actually, before you bind off, read the additional step I've posted in the next paragraph. If you HATE purling/ribbing and absolutely do not want to add this next step, continue knitting in the round until your ruffle is 2.5 - 3" (you want it to measure 16" from top of ruffle to middle of garter stitch base) and go ahead and bind off. You will have then (nearly) completed this project completely in the knit stitch - hurrah! What a great finished product for such little effort. If you're up for a little adventure, however, bind off now and continue with the next paragraph.

Now, bear with me - there is another step to the ruffle that may seem silly and unneccessary, but I found that it really adds a nice bit of body to the finished product. After binding off your ruffle at the 2" mark, go around and pick up 180 stitches from the bound off round. When you have picked up all 180 stitches, begin knitting in k1p1 rib for another 3/4 inch. Bind off loosely in rib. Adding this small bit of ribbing firms up the top of the ruffle and really helps the ruffle hold its shape after felting.



Weave in all ends - you are now ready to make the straps.

Straps:

When I was thinking of strap options, my first thought was i-cord. But, I really wanted something that would be more of a flat-ish strap than a cord-ish strap. I had just been reading through Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitting Workshop and recalled that she mentioned a "MYSTERIOUS i-cord belt" for her "Rorschach Sweater". Love EZ, love her ideas, decided to give it a go. Perfect! Super easy, super fast.

So, strap directions (make two): Cast on seven stitches using Natural Snow, leaving a tail of about 8 inches after you cast on. Knit 4, bring yarn forward, slip next 3 stitches purlwise. Turn, repeat, continue until you have 16 inches of cool flat strap. Bind off, leaving approx. 8 inch tail.

Using the tails at each end of the straps, sew straps to bag. I eyeballed it, aligning each strap about 3" in from the outside edge of the bag. I sewed the ends of each strap in two spots, about an inch apart to give the straps extra support. See photo for a better visual:


Felting:

Bag and straps are now finished! Take a moment to savor your work before you ruthlessly throw it into a hot washing machine:


It should measure 16" from top of ruffle to center of garter stitch base, and 11.5" side-to-side. If it doesn't, it's really not a big deal. The great thing about bags is that they are not highly dependent upon accurate gauge! It is important to remember that felted items shrink more lengthwise than widthwise, however, so keep that in mind if you are modifying the pattern on the fly.



To felt this bag, I simply zipped it into a lingerie bag and put it in the washing machine with a few pillowcases. I set the water level to low, and filled the machine with hot water. The bag was fairly well shrunk and felted after just one cycle, but since the recipient of this bag is a toddler I decided to give it another go-round to shrink it just a bit more. Another half cycle was all it took.

Finished dimensions: 9" from top of ruffle to bottom of bag, 7" side-to-side.


I rolled the bag in plain white towels to absorb most of the moisture, and finger-pinched the ruffle into place (though I must admit that it didn't need much adjusting at all - it came out of the wash looking almost letter perfect!).

All that's left is to finish drying the bag (it's in front of a small fan as I type this) and fill it with the books my kids picked out this afternoon.

Happy Birthday, Emma!

Leap of faith

Last spring I spent a lot of time knitting in the dark. I had a family member who was dying, and I was often called late at night by the nursing staff to come and sit with her when things looked bleak.

I typically brought my knitting so I would have something to keep me occupied during the hours I sat with her in the dark. I would bring small projects I could knit in the round - things that didn't require much light or much concentration. I started experimenting with cables - started with a few hats and then decided to try a small sweater using Elizabeth Zimmermann's percentage system.

My sister was pregnant with her first child during this same time, but she had not found out the sex of the baby. I wanted to make something gender-neutral, and I had a few skeins of Plymouth Encore in a soft celery color that would be perfect. I thought I'd make a basic sweater with one fat cable running up the center front. So, I cast on and worked on it during my visits.

The problem with working in the dark.....is that you can't really see what you're doing. The sweater flew off my needles, but when I sat down to actually look at my work in the daylight I noticed that I had not been paying proper attention to my cabling!

Something about the random wandering of the cable made me smile - as if it were a wayward toddler that just felt like going it's own way. But when I was honest with myself I knew that I couldn't bear to leave it the way it was. I had a rough idea of what needed to be done - pulling out the mis-cable stitches and re-cabling them - but I had no idea how to do it.

So, I let it lay for nearly a year before I worked up the nerve to figure it out. Life went on - my loved one died in June, just three days before my sister's baby was born. I continued knitting other projects, but all the while the bad cable on this sweater was nagging at the back of my mind.

I finally just googled a bunch of terms "fixing bad cables knitting" "fixing miscrossed cables", etc., until I found just the help I needed: a blogger who had given a step-by-step tutorial on this very subject!

I printed out her instructions and sat down with my scissors, warily eyeing the crazily snaking cable. Was I really going to cut through my knitting?


Yup.

Once the cuts were made and the threads pulled, kitchenering it up was actually the easy part. Not saying it didn't take me another six weeks to actually get up the courage to *try* it, just that once I did try it I was amazed at how quickly and easily I was able to finish it.

(Side note: is it just me, or does kitchener stitch have what could quite possibly be the worst reputation of all knitting techniques?)

The sweater is still not a vision of perfection. I didn't take into account the fact that cables pull inward, so I probably should have cast on another 8 or 12 stitches when I began. The neckline is just mediocre - I was knitting largely in the dark, after all, and just knit a few rows straight up after I completed the decreases. I had been aiming for a simple rolled collar, but the cabling makes it look a little wavy.

Overall, though, I'm happy with it. It reminds me of good things. It makes me think of family, and of being there when I am needed. And it helps me remember that, when it comes to knitting, I can be fearless and try anything. It just takes a leap of faith.