Ravelympics: Day 6-9: Crossing the Finish Line!

Today, I crossed the finish line by adding the lining to the bag!

I decided to forgo making the strap for the bag. I might make another bag *with* a strap, but something that's a little better thought out on my part.

I washed & blocked the bag, and let that dry. Since it's been a little bit cold, it took a bit longer to dry than I had anticipated. In the meantime, I braided two ropes for the closure -- a three plait braid, each plait consisting of 3 strands of yarn of different colors. The first braid had plaits of: (3)white, (3)white, (3)blue. The second braid had plaits of: (3)blue, (3)blue, (3)white.


The inside & outside of the bag (unlined)

Saturday morning, I cut out the lining fabric from some nice gold fabric scraps that I had from a previous sewing project. The lining only took about 15 minutes to whip out, and then it was a matter of attaching it to the knitted bag.


The unattached lining

It took me a bit to handsew the lining into the bag, but then again, I've always been a slow handsewer.


Finished bag with attached lining

I'm inordinately pleased with how it turned out. I still want to "embroider" black noses for the cats, but can't find my embroidery floss. And, yes, there are mistakes in the bag -- tight tight a tension, too loose a tension, and some actual chart mistakes (that frankly, no one is going to notice).

I definitely want to do a bit more colorwork in the future. And considering I still have 3/4ths of a skein of each color, I might make variations of said bag. :-)

Ravelympics 2010: Day 5

Last night, I ripped back the eyelet section of the bag, and redid the whole color band. I'm much much happier with how it looks. So, I bound off the bag portion.

I decided that the i-cord was a bit too thick, despite only being 3-strands, for the bag closure. A simple braid worked a lot better.

There's still the little problem of the strap for the bag. My attempts to make one didn't work out as well as I wanted. However, I did find a potential solution of a braided icord strap that I might have to try.

Or I might just forgo the strap all together. I haven't quite decided yet.

Now, I just need to line the bag.

Ravelympics 2010: Day 4

I, more or less, finished the bag last night, including the eyelets. However, I've not bound off yet, as I am not particularly happy with how the eyelets look. I'm seriously considering frogging back to the beginning of the last color change and re-doing the eyelets.

While I debate that quandry, I started making a 2-color icord for the bag closure. While knitting icord is fairly simple, it's also rather boring. I'm highly tempted to go down to JoAnn's and buy one of those little icord making machines...as I need about 2 icords about 8 inches long.

Ravelympics: Day 1 - Day 3

My Ravelympics projects have proven a lot easier than anticipated. In fact, I'm having a lot of fun knitting my colorwork project for Team Sasquatch, AND I've fallen in love with alpaca fiber (Team Spindlers).

First, the yarn I picked for Team Sasquatch is Cascade 220 Wool in teal, white, and red. My knitting tools: Knit Picks 60" circular for use in magic loop. (US 7s), and several stitch markers.



Day 1
The broadcast for the Opening Ceremonies didn't start locally until 7:30pm to coincide with Prime Time, but I did cast on starting shortly after 6pm PST. I cast on with a circular cast on, then increased every other row.

Then I hit the rocky part of the slope. This part was so simple that I had to frog back after the 8th round because I wasn't paying attention and didn't increase when I should have, which promptly worsened as I tried to fix it.

After casting on the 2nd time, I managed to actually pay enough attention to finish the first part of the project.



At this point, the bottom of the bag measures 5.5" in diameter. I have repositioned my stitch markers to mark every 13 stitches in order to know where I am in the pattern

I thought about pacing myself, but I continued knitting, and started to really enjoy and get into the colorwork. However, I did have to really pay attention to the chart. I realized that I needed a better way to quickly look to see where I was in the pattern. I ended the day after finishing the 2nd band of colorwork.

Day 2

The start of Day 2:



At this point, I realized I had a made a mistake in reading the chart, which would mean that I would have to rip back all of the blue band of color so I could fix the mistake. I opted to keep it as a "design feature" rather than a bug. LOL. (Essentially, in the smaller band of white, there should have been single stitches of "blue").

I kept having minor setbacks at certain places, as I would misread a row in the chart. Again, this was due to not having a good way to just "show" the row I was working on at that moment. Often times I would discover my mistake one row above. Usually, this was mistake was the wrong color. I was loathe to rip back because of the colorwork, so I just opted to drop stitches and pick them up with a crochet hook. Luckily, with the color floats in the back, this was a little bit easier. However, if you inspect the knitting, some stitches are either a little tighter or looser than the ones next to it.

By the start of the evening, I was pretty much done. We went out with friends that night for some needed relaxation time (involving Tiki drinks and food). Needless to say, I didn't knit during this time (mostly due to the low lighting in the bar).

Day 3

The start of Day 3



The cats are starting to actually look like cats instead of blobs of white. For the eyes, I opted to add "blue" for the eyes, which proved a little tricky trying to juggle three strands of color.

At this point, I'm using the principles of the Philosopher's Wool 2-handed fair island technique of 'weaving' in long floats. It took a bit of getting used to doing, as I'm a continental knitter, and they show the technique as an English knitter.

There are certain areas of pucker, but it's acceptable pucker. I'm trying to knit loose and to move stitches around every 5 or so stitches to loosen up the floats so they don't pull.

So, far, so good. I probably will have this finished long before the end of the Olympics.

Ravelympics 2010: Training

As part of the training for Ravelympics 2010, I decided to swatch last night, despite saying previously I might not, because I wanted to see what the *best* size needles to use. The yarn (Cascade 220) recommends the following:
* US 8 for 4.5 st/in
* US 7 for 5 stitches/inch

My gauge?

- US 8 = 4.75 - 5 stitches / inch -- a bit too "loose" of fabric weave for my taste)
- US 7 = 5 - 5.25 stitches / inch -- gave me a better (tighter) weave of fabric.

However, I did run into a slight problem. My US 7s were on my raglan sweater that I am currently knitting and I couldn't find a second pair. UGH! In order to swatch I took off the interchangeable needles off the sweater, then put them back when I was done swatching.

I hurriedly placed an order with Knitpicks (that I had been putting off) to get some new needles. Of course, I'm kicking myself for not doing this sooner.

But, when cast on is called for on Friday, I'll just take off the interchangeables and start my new project. (I'm putting aside the raglan sweater until Ravelympics is over.)

I just hope I can finish the Ravelympics project in 12 days!!!!

Training for Ravelympics

Team Sasquatch: I went down to Purlescence Yarns several weeks ago to pick up yarn. I had my chart in hand, and proceeded to sit on their floor looking at color combinations from Cascade 220 yarns. Sandy, one of the owners, had to walk over me several times as I contemplated this color over that and this color combo over that. (It's a good thing I already have a working knowledge of color theory or it might have taken longer!)

After about an hour, I finally picked 4 potential colors, of which, I only need about 3: a nice turquoise/teal blue, a lovely dark red, white, and a neutral grey. I picked up one skein of each color. Sandy particularly liked the color combination, so I think I have a winner.

I've planned out the color combination that I want to use:
* white for the cats.
* red for the background behind the cats
* turquoise/light blue for the other bands
* grey or white for the patterning on the inside of the other bands.

The skeins are now wound into cakes for ease of use later. I haven't really swatched, as this is bag and the pattern is just a chart, so I suppose it doesn't really matter. I probably will swatch with two colors just to determine the best needle size to make a nice fabric.

Team Spindlers: I'm going to be spinning about 2 oz of alpaca fiber on my Kundert spindle. Unfortunately, the spindle is currently filled with my *last* project -- Shetland. So I'm currently hurrying to finish the last 1/2 oz of shetland fiber so I can free up the Kundert.

Training for Ravelympics 2010

So, I joined Team Sasquatch for the Ravelympics 2010, just because I listen to multiple podcasts and this seemed the simplest way. I'm also on the Spindlers Team so I'll be doing two *small* projects.

For Team Spindlers: I'm basically doing what I have been doing, and working on new wool types.

For Team Sasquatch: I'll be doing a small color work project in the form of a bag using the Medieval Cat chart (ravelry link)

Here's my game plan:
1) Work in the round and do a two-sided bag.
2) It will be in 3 colors, but only two colors are worked at any given time.
3) Knitting in the round:

a) I'm going to cast on circular cast on and increase until I get to the needed # of stitches:
(78 stitches for pattern x 2) + 4 extra stitches on either side = 160 stitches

b) work pattern chart

c) finish with drawstring

d) add one tassel at the bottom.

4) Line the bag with denim or somesuch so that it doesn't stretch out.

5) Strap -- not sure what to do here yet.

In terms of colors:
I like SinisterSpinster's project with the jeweltones
but another did her cats in black which I find very appealing.

In terms of yarn:
- definitely wool & worseted, and probably Cascade 220 wool, methinks.