2 questions

I started the Garter Stitch bag on Wednesday in a class taught at my LYS (local yarn store).  I decided to make the bag smaller than the sample (17 stitches instead of 25)  and I’m wondering if it will be too small.  That’s really beside the point.

The point is my color placement.

I have 7 of the 22 squares finished and I decided I wanted to add a shock of lime green to the muted ruby-red and charcoal grey.  Anyway, I’m thinking that having a green stripe in every square is not as shocking as say, just one or two stripes of green.

What do you think?

Second question (and I’ve already decided what I’m going to do):

See that arrow pointing to the space between the two squares?  That seam is thicker than any other seam.  Now, I’ve never felted anything before and don’t know if this make a difference in the finished product but I think I want to redo that seam.

What would you do?

Of course if I take out the green stripes in most of the squares, my second question will be answered.

Today’s the day

My first knitting class is today.

I’m very excited to finally delve into the mysterious world of felting on purpose.  For you nonknitters that means shrinking and making the fibers of a wool item meld together.  I shrunk/felted the first sweater I knit for my daughter and was not happy.  A few other items have gotten felted by mistake but they weren’t as traumatic as the sweater.

Here’s a picture of the project from MoirasMama on Ravelry.  She’s actually teaching the class.

Courtesy of MoirasMama

 My yarn colors are Cascade 220 Ruby and Jet with a bit of Primavera.

Cascade 220 Ruby and Jet

Cascade 220 Primavera and Jet

I’m not exactly sure how I’m going to incorporate these colors but I have a vague idea.  Stay tuned…

New Pattern – Olive Oil Drip Catcher

Yesterday I posted a picture of a new pattern I made up using a suggestion from my brother:  The Olive Oil Drip Catcher.

In case you missed the post, it’s a small collar that fits around an olive oil bottle to catch the drips regardless of the “dripless” claim.

This little drip catcher uses 14 yards (depending on your mileage) of superwash fingering weight yarn perfect for all those bits of sock yarn you have left over wanting to be something useful.

Click on “My Designs” and “Olive Oil Drip Catcher” in the header bar for the link and let me know what you think!

Olive oil bottle sleeve

When Mr. Aitch and I went to visit my brother and sister-in-law in New Hampshire last month, I took along some knitting.  We went on the Harley so it had to be small knitting.

That’s the knitting bag I won from Dyed in the Wool along with a pattern for a wine bottle sleeve, needles, notions bag, and yarn.

It all fitted in there quite nicely.  I knitted a wine bottle sleeve for them one evening after dinner.

And they actually use it!

My sister-in-law’s sister visited them last week and she remarked about how wonderful the wine bottle sleeve was for catching drips.  If it was a bit larger around and shorter, it would be perfect to catch the drips on a bottle of olive oil.

So I manipulated the pattern and came up with this:

It actually folds down so it’s got two layers to absorb the drips.  Plus it’s larger around.  And shorter.  And has a “fold” line knitted into it.  And the ribbing is different.  And uses less than 14 yards of sock yarn.

Do all those changes make it publishable?  As a free pattern?