Grass is really greener

Dani came over last night for a little tea, a little Apprentice watching, and a little knitting. And she was good enough to bring over her digital camera (going shopping for one this weekend dear, I swear!) to take some pictures of a couple of my myriad of works in progress.

The idea, in my mind, is that by posting pictures of these sadly neglected knitting projects, I will be inspired to knit away on them (many of them are a scant few rows away from completion) so I can report to the world that I have completed them! So, feel free to bug me, nag me, or cajole me.

Here's one I tried to finish during the commute to school today. I like to call her Grass. Not because I was smoking some when I designed it, but because of her lovely green colour.



This soon-to-be felted bag was inspired by one I saw in a shop window on Queen street that was sewn from a thick wool fabric. The bottom was the thing I thought was very cool. This is my take on it:



I cast on with vibrantly green Cascade 220 using a short row technique to knit the bottom. I first saw the technique in an Elizabeth Zimmerman book to make a baby blanket. Actually, come to think of it, it was on one her her videos that I got from the library. Wow, I'm seriously a knitting geek. Knitting videos from the library? Wow.

Anyways, I knit the bottom square using the short rows, grafting in a place clearly visable in the picture. I figured, meh, it was going to be felted, and didn't sweat it about doing a good job. Then I picked up stitches around the edges, and knit up a longish tube, decreasing every now and again. The stripes, which I now think are quite charming, were born of necessity, as I grossly underestimated the amount of yarn needed. I begged the ever saving-my-ass Dani for any Cascade 220 scraps (I knew she had some) and she donated everything she had. So that helped make the bag a little longer.

The handle is what has me in a tizzy. I've knit and re-knit it about 5 times, trying to get it long enough to be usable, still trying to get some interesting shaping, and using every last inch of the yarn. Hopefully she'll get finished as a break from paper-writing tonight, and thrown in the washing machine.

Is anyone else as thrilled as I am that it's Friday?