Tag Archives: Knitting Projects; Needlepoint

Stashbusting – The Ugli Bag

Knoontime Knitting

This picture is a bit yellow, and the middle of the bag is beige and not lemon.  But behold, my friends, the Ugli Bag.

The top is super soft, fuzzy furry overdye with a thick central filament of a bulky yarn.  I didn’t have much of it, so I couldn’t at first figure out what to make; then I decided on a gift bag.

Then I ran out.  What to do?

The beige stripe is the leftover marino and alpaca blend that I used for a lovely scarf wrap that I’ll feature in an upcoming article.

Then I ran out of that.  Uh-oh.

Enter the blue.

Hrrrh?  The bag is a mixture of browns, pumpkins, and beige.  blue?  BLUE?

Well, orange’s complement is blue, and so it’s a natural choice.

Sort of.

Then it hit me – do the strap in blue, too.  The prior picture shows the top of the strap so you can see the texture.  This one shows the bag.

I didn’t realize, though, when I put in a 2-stitch edging of garter stitch that I would cause the strap to fold in on itself.  It worked to my benefit, actually, because instead of being ultra wide, the strap is now just the right width and the double-thickness means it will be stronger.

You can get a better idea of how obnoxious the blue is next to the orange, though, in this shot.  It’s not quite as neon blue as in the image, but it’s somewhere between muted and neon (how’s that for precise?).

I’m going to line the bag with muslin to give it some strength and I’ll show pictures once that’s all done.

Knit on!

Eden’s Project

Knoontime Knitting

Set of Four Coasters with Carry-All

I started this project for Eden with the intent of making coasters. Just a modest set of four coasters. This expanded into a carryall pouch for the coasters, based on a pattern from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson – the cover pattern, as a matter of fact. The bag knit up very quickly, only taking about four hours on the train. Knit in the round starting with 90 stitches, knit for about 3 inches and then do an eyelet row. The eyelet row came out very nicely; I like the way the stitches architecturally arch from one to the next. YO, slip 1, K2tog, psso, all the way around. This leaves 60 stitches. Knit in the round for about 6 inches and a three-needle bind-off means no sewing at the bottom! The two-stitch i-cord was actually difficult because it’s hard to keep the stitches neat, but it is coming out in a cubicle tube. Very cool.

Image I: The bag itself. The colors are from a Worsted-Weight (double DK in the U.K.) acryllic, washable in warm and dryable (although it may fuzz, so to avoid that, just lay flat to dry). The colorway was chosen for a volunteer event to tie in with the Museum of Modern Ice in February of 2008 in Chicago. Our knitting guild participated and this is one of the examples we had for people to play with.

Image II: Eyelet Row Detail. This picture is a little blurred, but I like the way the eyelets came out. They look like little arches.

Image III: I-Cord: Two stitch i-cord, size 7 US (4.5mm) needles. I like how it’s coming out as a square tube, but it’s a challenge to keep the stitches straight.

Image IV: The coaster itself. I like how these look; they’re very bright and festive. The base is a plastic disc and the yarn is the same Worsted Weight acryllic.