Felted Totebag :: It's Finally Finished

I'm so happy to have finally finished this totebag (more the size of a purse, actually).  I cast on in June during our vacation, and got lots of quality knitting time in the car.  Then it hibernated in a drawer for many days because I was too lazy to sew in all of the ends left from the stripes.  I made a pact with myself to finish up a few of my unfinished projects before I started the Fiddlehead Mittens. So I finally pulled it back out and started weaving in ends.  Then a short 22 minutes of felting later, it was complete.  Still waiting for it to be completely dry, but I love the way it turned out.  I can't wait to use this on our long weekend to the wine country in a couple of weeks.

By the way, I did go ahead and cast on the Fiddleheads last night.  I managed to find a great combination of colors in my stash - so proud of myself for not buying new yarn.  The yarn that I'm using is slightly less fuzzy (it's a merino instead of an alpaca blend).  So the mittens might not be quite as fuzzy, but they will be washable which I like!

Fiddlehead Mittens

I stumbled upon this pattern tonight, and I have fallen in love with these mittens.

The pattern is called Fiddlehead and you can purchase it on Ravelry here.  I'm still trying to figure out which wool I want to buy to make these. This picture, knitted by JaneII on Ravelry, was made from the Sunset Collection by Riihivilla.  The company is based in Finland, and it appears that everyone on Ravelry who has the Sunset Collection of colors in their stash purchased it at the open-air market in Helsinki.  No trips planned to Finland anytime soon - or maybe ever - and Riihivilla doesn't have this collection for sale online anymore.  So I'm stuck trying to match this beautiful combination of colors with other wool. FYI - the beautiful "cool" color mittens in the first photo were made by purlewe on Ravelry.

I'm also going to have to knit these on the sly because I've had this hat on the needles for my husband FOREVER. This Lusekofte Cap pattern was my first attempt at Fair Isle knitting.  I got a little sidetracked with a couple of pairs of socks and a felted tote bag, and the poor skiing hat got pushed to the back of the knitting drawer. This picture was knitted by knittinmama on Ravelry - mine isn't even close to completion!! Kevin still brings up the abandoned/hibernating ski cap now and then. I know that if I whip out a new wintery project like mittens, I'm going to be listening to a lot of snide remarks about cold ears on the ski slopes.

So I may have to suck it up and finish the Norwegian hat so that I can make the Fiddleheads in peace!

Double Pointed Needle Case :: Knitting Accessories

Here's my latest sewing project: It only took a couple of hours with most of that time being used to cut and iron the fabric. I have been wanting a case to hold all of my double-pointed knitting needles. Having a sock knitting addiction leads to a lot of little bamboo sticks lying around the house. But everything I found online was either really expensive or very bulky, and I wanted something that I could roll up in a suitcase or throw in a tote bag for a long car trip.

I searched and searched and finally stumbled upon the blog of a woman in Brooklyn, NY.

She had this pattern and a great tutorial for this Double Pointed Needle Case here: http://onepotato.blogspot.com/2007/01/double-pointed-needle-case.html Many thanks to RFG over at One Potato for such an easy to follow tutorial and great inspiration in all of her projects.

The case started as this:

Four fat quarters courtesy of Jo-Ann Fabrics at $1.25 each. It happened to be a buy 3 fat quarters and get a fourth one free. So, in total this project cost me about $7 -- that included the interfacing and the thread. Not bad, eh?

Here's the final result. The case is designed to holder DPNs size 0-11. Mine isn't very full because I seem to have a lot of socks on the needles right now.It turned out even better than I expected. The inner lining fabric wrinkles a little bit once the case is full and rolled, but it is exactly what I was searching for.

And the best part? I have enough fabric left to make one of these handmade pin-cushions that I found over at The Purl Bee: