I've done some major knitting on the latest bag, but I haven't updated here...shame on me! But here it is! I've shown pictures of my swatches, so you can see the before & after effects of the felting process. This yarn shrinks a lot more in the length than in the width, so it is a lot of loooong knitting sections!
Sometimes, when I get an idea and I'm not sure if it will work the way I think it will, I'll do a "test knit". I'll make a small sample of the idea & see if it will work. I did that with this project, & I took pictures of my test knit. They are shown above. I wanted to be sure the bottom would work the way I thought it would and Jackpot! It worked. I had an idea about the top & handles, & part of it worked the way I planned, but the other half wasn't up to my expectations, so I improvised.
I also have pictures of the bag's progression. The bottom worked as I thought it would, but I didn't count on the color changes, but its okay anyway. This way is sort of interesting. The top worked fine as it had on the test bag.
The only thing...I was going nuts making the 10 stitch handle. I tried in the round at first. Let me tell you, 10 stitches on 3 needles...not fun. So I tried to make it like I-cord. That wasn't good either, so I unraveled that section. Then I settled on a method I had learned a few years ago. I put 5 stitches on two needles & just kept knitting around on them. When you get to the end of the first needle, just turn & knit across the second needle. It worked to my satisfation & was much easier to knit than the other way.
So now I'm attaching a few pockets. I like a lot of pockets & sections in my bags. So far, one is a knitted on pocket. I'm working on the second which is will be a free hanging inside pocket. I'm doing this one in double knitting, inside out. Both of these are extra long so they will be the right size after felting.
