July 8, 2010

Just a quick thought

Wow, it's been like a month since I actually posted something here. Sorry about that. i keep thinking, Man, I have to post something on my blog, but then I never get to it. Here's the recap:

1) No, I don't have a job yet. working on it.
2) Sorrelle is Awesome, thanks for asking!
3) Adam's pretty awesome too. :)
4) Heather is 10 months now and freakin' adorable! Best niece ever!!
5) I found a knitter's group here, and fully intend to join the Downtown Knit Collective when it starts up again in September.

OK, so I promise, I will post an actual "how's your life been" post soon, but I'm working on a thought, so let me run with it...

I want to knit myself a project bag, because I don't have fabric right now (or a properly set up sewing machine) to knit myself one. But I have horseloads of yarn, and a whack of free time. I went looking on ravelry, and the bags posted there look much more complicated than I want to deal with right now (picking up stitches? wtf?). I'm thinking about designing my own. I mean, really, what is a bag, really, but 2 square sides, 2 long rectangle sides, and a rectangle base? Maybe some handles? Or, even easier, one long rectangle folded over on itself and seamed? I mean, you can get into fancy-schmancy "make the ends rounder so the bag is rounder and not all stretched and junk" stuff, but I don't want fancy-schmancy... it's just to carry a small project around in. Right now, I'm carrying my small project either in my purse, or in my big bag, and it's too big. Also, I can't felt right now, because I'm not spending $1.75 a spin to felt ONE ITEM. And I don't trust my ability to felt in the sink yet.

I'll get into making market bags later, but right now, I'm thinking about this project. What material should I make it out of? Should I break into the good Cotton for this? Should I stash-bust some of the acrylic I have lying around? Or should I hunt for something new and different? Do I go for a larger gauge and hope that eventually I can find a way to felt, or knit it up tight so I don't have to? (If I go acrylic, I don't really have a choice). What about lining it? With say, an old t-shirt or pillow case?

So many questions... So many ideas. Or, really, do I just bite the bullet and start making bags that involve picking up the friggin stitches, even though I really don't want to?

These are the things that dance through the mind of a knitter...

1 comment:

fineskylark said...

The real advantage to picking up stitches (aside from the part where it's actually a pretty useful trick) is that you can then knit the bag in the round, which will go much faster!

Felting is pretty awesome, in my opinion. What you might do is work on a project to be felted and save it until the next time you go to visit someone with a washing machine, or save up several and that way, you're paying $1.75 to felt three or four things, not just one.

If you do get around to sewing, there are lots of good project bags that can be made from two fat quarters, which should cost you less than $5 for the fabric.