FO - Everlasting Bag II

My friend Tawah bought this fun green cotton yarn a while back, but she was having a heck of a time trying to make it into a bag. She told me that she tried several patterns and none of them were working out correctly. She asked if she could send me the yarn so that I could take a stab at it. Naturally, I thought that sounded like a fine plan. So, she sent me the yarn and I decided that I would make a modified Everlasting Bagstopper. The yarn is DK weight though, so I couldn't use the numbers from the pattern, even if I had wanted to. But, I do love the construction of the bag, so that's what I went with.

I cast on for this bag and went to work. Everything I tried seemed to go wrong. The bag was either too loose, too tight, too big, too ugly, or some combination of these. It was a bit of a nightmare really. The problem? Tawah only had 1 skein of this yarn for me to use. That meant, it had to be just right or I would run out of yarn. I ripped the bag out at least 4 times that I can count because of the yardage issue. I tried at least 3 needle sizes, trying to get a good looking product. Finally, after several months of playing around, I figured it out.

I used size 7s for the bottom and then 10.5s for the body. I did decreases in the stockinette portion of the bag before starting the pattern. After much debate, I went with a simple stitch pattern because it worked. I also worked a few decreases at the top in the seed stitch portion of the bag. I wanted it to be just a little tighter at the top because it is likely to stretch with use. After all was said and done, I really liked the finished object. It's useful and that really is what matters for me. I met Tawah in Indiana just before Easter and gave it to her. She seemed to love it! Hooray! We loaded it up with snacks for her car trip and it worked beautifully. Next time she wants me to make a bag for her though, she's going to have to send me more yarn! That's all there is to it. :)

In case you are curious, that's a laptop inside the bag. I wanted to try and show how big the bag could actually become. :) You can see the fun pooling effect of the yarn in this picture. I'm not sure why, but it is much more apparent in the pictures than in person. Go figure!

Chapeau Marnier Pics

Like I mentioned in my previous post, my Chapeau Marnier is finished! It was very small and tight before I blocked it and I was truly afraid it wasn't going to fit. But, of course, blocking is magical and worked wonders. I think if I were to make it again, I would go up a needle size or 2 so it would be a better fit for me, even fresh off the needles. I lost a little bit of the length when I blocked it, but it seems to cover my ears well enough. It's really a very cute pattern and generally easy to follow. I did make a small mistake in the brim, but again, that's what we refer to as a "design feature". That's the only way to know that it was hand-made, or something like that. :)

• Pattern: Chapeau Marnier from knitty.com
• Yarn: Louet Gems, 1 skein
• Needles: Size 2 Addi Turbos and size 2 Brittany DPNs
• Size made: Large

FO - Chapeau Marnier

I took my Chapeau Marnier off the needles tonight. I was very upset at first because it was so very tight on my head. It needed blocking, so I went to it. I'm very glad that I did. It seems like it will be okay after all. The hat required one helluva blocking job, but I guess you have to do what you have to do. :) It is currently drying on my head so pics will have to wait until tomorrow.

2 Projects at once

I've been making progress on both of my most recent projects. I'm just a little shy of the half-way mark for my Chapeau Marnier. The flash washed the color out a bit, but I think it still shows how far I've come with it. I just discovered that I may have been a stitch off on part of the pattern, but I'm not going to fix it. It's really not a big deal and when I run the ribbon through it, I'm almost certain it won't be noticeable. Plus, it's a design feature. Yeah, that's it. :)


I've also made progress on the Everlasting Bag. The picture doesn't show too much at first glance. But if you were to look closely, and really use your imagination, you might be able to see that I've finished the base of it and have picked up the stitches to complete the base. After another inch or 2, I'll be switching to size 11 needles and moving on to the body of the bag. Once I do that, it will be a lot quicker and easier. I feel like I'm struggling to keep all these stitches on size 7 16" circs, and well, I am! It's a lot of stitches for those needles, trust me. I didn't have any 24" length circs in a good size, so I made do with what I had. That means stuffing a lot of stitches on a smaller needle. Oh well. They are my Addi Turbos so I imagine they are up for the challenge.

So far, I'm quite pleased with my progress on both projects. I wonder which one I'll finish first. Normally, I'd say the hat would win, but there are a lot of rows when you're making a hat on size 2s. It's a tough call for sure!

Marnier Update

I'm on the super tricksy row 11 of this pattern and I'm doing okay. I had to take a moment to figure out where I was and what I needed to do, but after only 1 small mistake that was easy to fix, I've not had too many problems with it. It looks like it's going to be a big hat! This is a good thing for me because I have a big head. :) I'd love to just bust the rest of this hat out in a day, but I have to pay attention during the beginning and I just haven't had the attention span yet. Honestly, once I'm finished with the super cute brim, the hat will be a breeze.

In the meantime, however, don't be surprised if I cast on for an Everlasting Bag for a friend. She's been hinting, not too subtly, that she wants a bag she can take to the farmer's market. I pointed out this new pattern and said I could be convinced to make it for her. She seemed to really like it, so it's now in my queue. I need to print it out so that I can have it on hand when I'm ready to start.

Marnier hat for me!

I decided to do something drastically out of character today (yeah, right!) and cast on for a new project! My latest project is Knitty's Chapeau Marnier. I'm very excited by this pattern and I'm not sure why. I don't have much of a personal style but I fell in love the moment I saw this hat. The designer has directions for 2 different styles and I haven't totally decided which one to do. I think I'm going to go with the one on her website. I'll make my final decision in about 12 more rows. Hooray for casting on for a new project! :)

So far the only change I would make to the pattern is a very minor thing. She called for using size 6 needles to cast on, but then switching to size 2 needles to work the actual pattern. That ended up being quite the fiddly thing for me to conquer and so I would omit it. I generally don't have a problem with casting on tightly, so I really don't think it was necessary. But, seriously, how minor of a change is that?

And just in case you forgot, I'm using the Louet Gems yarn I balled the other day. I really like this yarn. The red is fabulous and I like the feel of it. I hope this hat turns out as great as I'm thinking it will. :)