That's My Story and I'm Sticking to it

Mea culpa (I'm not Catholic, but the image & words popped into my head.) It' s been over 2 months since my last post, so here's one I was working on BR (before )
I have been knitting, and here's proof: a felted bag project (my own design) finished and ready to shrink.

I also started (and finished) a larger felted tote, knit in a stranded design using two colors of Kureyon over the long, cold Thanksgiving weekend. The pattern was in MagKnits a couple of years ago and it turned out really nice. I hope everyone had some time to knit in the past few weeks.

I've gotten back into sock knitting recently as well. Must be the time of year. I finally finished my fishtail lace socks and started this spiral eyelet lace striped sock on Christmas Eve, and I'm also working on a pair of worsted weight socks for my DH.

I was an anthropology major in college but I got sidetracked by theater and costume design. My last semester in college I forgot to file for graduation so I took one Linguistics class and a whole bunch of fiber classes at the local junior college. This was back when they offered them for credit. I took quiltmaking, spinning and natural dyeing, weaving, upholstery and knitting, all in the same semester. The only two which stuck were knitting and quiltmaking. I stopped crocheting much and stayed with the quiltmaking through the following decades, coming back to knitting once when I got Kaffe Fassett's first book and then again about 9 years ago (for good this time.) The first item I knitted was a top down circular sweater made of Bernat Berella acrylic. My mom wore that sweater for many years up in the snow.

I learned to crochet right after high school and crocheted all through college, even during classes. Having something to do with my hands helped me to concentrate. If I didn't crochet, I would doodle and lose all of my focus. I made doilies, a tablecloth and a blouse from crochet cotton, along with shawls, afghans, ponchos and a room sized rug. When I learned to knit I switched to that because I liked the fluid look and feel of knitting better than crochet, even though crochet was easier and faster. I also wanted to make a fairisle sweater. Still haven't done that. Did I mention I was told that I was allergic to wool? I still am sensitive to Shetland wool and some other scratchy wools, as well as mohair and even some alpaca.

Instead of using my anthropology degree (did I mention I was also allergic to dust, which was a bad thing if you wanted to be an archaeologist), I owned a natural fiber clothing/fiber supply store for 11 years right after college. We had dye packets that didn't sell, so I dyed cotton and rayon t-shirts for the store. I also made custom cowboy shirts, wallets and quilts to sell.

I still love to dye fabric, yarn and clothing and create with color. I like to knit socks, felted items, scarves, cardigans and all manner of stranded and slip stitch designs. I first got into designing socks because I could never find patterns that fit my thick ankles & high insteps. I would just find a nice stitch pattern, adjust for pattern multiples/repeats and gauge and use my favorite heel and toe. After having success with socks, I have made sweaters for myself and family members. I would find a pattern with shaping that I liked and drop in my choice of stitch pattern. I usually don't write down what I do at the time I'm doing it, which I am trying to change.

Favorite Yarns for Felting Projects

I personally prefer a heavier bag, so I almost always double strand, except for the self striping yarn. If you can find a bulky yarn that's not too expensive you don't have to double strand. Lamb's Pride Bulky is great. It has 125 yards a skein, so it's actually cheaper than using two strands of the worsted weight Lamb's Pride at 190 yards a skein. It's harder to find in as many colors, though.

One way to use Kureyon without double stranding it, to keep the great stripes, is to use it in a slip stitch or stranded design with one of the solid yarns. I've knitted it with Paton's Classic Wool and Elann Peruvian wool and they felt together wonderfully. I haven't tried felting the Karaoke yarn from SWTC. It feels so good knitted that I'd rather keep it as it is. I'm going to try some entrelac with it, though. The Paton's SWS is a Karaoke knockoff, with more wool and less soysilk. It felts wonderfully, but it comes in limited colors.

Personal Faves:
a. Elann Peruvian Aran alpaca/wool (good sub for Jamieson's heathered Arans, but not as many colors)
b. Elann Peruvian wool
c. Knit Picks wool of the Andes
d. Paton's Classic Wool (limited color range, easy to find, often on sale, new striping colors)
e. Plymouth Galway (good price, harder to find, but has self striping and heathers, more selection)
f. Lamb's Pride Worsted
g. Noro Kureyon (just for the wonderful striping colors)
h. Cascade 220 comes in so many colors that it is a great choice for the exotic colored bags, or the bag where you need 5 shades of one color. It's more expensive than the others for standard colors, though.
i. Jamieson's heathered Arans, many colors, but expensive

Caron's Felt It is a lighter bulky yarn, and it's multicolored. I used it doubled and the hat came out great, with very mushed together colors. I tried to keep the stripes together when I double stranded but they would not stay together. It also comes in limited colors, not all of which are great.

I personally have never used Lopi, because the Icelandic wool bothers me. It felts great stranded with multicolored mohair, though. Other worsted weight yarns also felt wonderfully stranded with a multicolored mohair. I have a knitting friend who can tolerate knitting with Lopi and mohair, and she has made wonderful felted bags using them together.

I just finished two entrelac bags which I felted. My very first entrelac! One was in Kureyon, and it is lighter weight than the bag I made from two strands of the Elann Peruvian Aran. I believe that Aran weight is slightly heavier than the US version worsted weight. Bulky weight yarn is heavier than Aran. Last year I used Berroco Hip Hop with double stranded Cascade 220 for a bubble bag (Pursenalities) and was disappointed with the result. The Cascade was fine, it was the expensive Hip Hop that lost color and felted strangely. It's a thick/thin yarn.

Felting with SWS Soy Silk and Wool

I would be careful double stranding the SWS soy/wool. I tried double stranding a short striping yarn (caron's Felt It) and one strand of yarn kept stretching more than the other one, throwing the matching color stripes I started with out of whack. This may not happen as much with the SWS yarn, because the color stripes are longer.

I also "felt" the swatches at Michaels and decided against felting any of my SWS yarn projects. I have found that using slip stitch patterns works well to double up too light yarn without obscuring the pattern. They felt beautifully, and are much easier to make than a fairisle type stranded bag.

Here's a link to one: http://knitty.com/ISSUEfall06/PATTlittleslip.html
and another http://elann.com/ShowFreePattern.asp?Id=41024

Neither of these would work (IMHO) with the SWS, but this one should: http://notanartist.blogspot.com/2006/04/andrea-bag-pattern.html

Knit and felt a swatch first.

Slip Stitch Patterns in Felting

Slip stitch patterns make wonderful designs in felted items, and tend to strengthen the fabric, especially if you use one strand of worsted weight wool instead of a bulky weight. I made a small felted bag last week from my leftover Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride. I used the Ball Band Recipe from Monica's blog, with different yarn, of course. I also knitted the bag without a base, then picked up stitches from the inside of the base and knitted a mitered square to close up the bottom. I used an I-cord bind off to finish the bag, and put in holes for a drawstring just in case that's how I decide to finish it. I haven't felted it yet, but it looks great. As soon as I figure out how to get pictures off my phone or my DD's camera I will post some. I used a chocolate brown main color and, since I had lots of golfball size balls of many colors of the Lamb's Pride, every alternate stripe is a different color. The following is a slight variation on Monica's pattern stitch.

Multiple of 4 stitches:
Round 1 and 2 with MC Knit
Round 3 and 4 with CC *Knit 3, slip 1*
Round 5 and 6 repeat round 1 and 2
Round 7 and 8 with CC Knit 1, *slip 1, Knit 3*, repeat around between *'s
Repeat rounds 1-8 for pattern