Lace Cowl Experiment

Oh the joys of trial and error. This is my first original lace cowl attempt, and all things considered, it turned out okay. Not really as lacy as I hoped, but whatever. It actually turned out as a lace rib, which is perfectly serviceable if not as feminine as I was going for.

It's an 8 stitch pattern repeat: *k4, yo, k2tbl, k2tog, yo* on the odd rows, and knit all on the even rows. (Knit in the round, of course).

I used a 9 and would probably have liked it better with a 7, and I think it's a little too wide and too short, but I'm my own worst critic, and I'm sure my friend will love it.

The pictures don't really do justice to the color. It's the Knit Picks Palette in Rainforest Heather, which=gorgeous! The main color is a DEEP teal, with little bits of magenta and yellow.

Fail-ted Bag Win!

So, mama always said, "If life gives you lemons, make lemonade." I am not a huge fan of tired, cliche adages, but this one is worth something, or at least applicable here.

This bag started as a laptop case, then evolved into a tote. When I felted it, the dimensions were all wrong; it was a complete catastrophe. In other words, it was "fail-ted". I don't have any pictures of its ugly duckling phase, mostly because I didn't want any photographic evidence.

I had pretty much written it off by this point, but it continued to haunt me.

Slowly, over the course of several weeks, I began to get ideas about how I could fix it.

When I attempted another felted bag (you can see it here) with only slightly better results, I dug this one out to finish it, and hopefully get some gratification.

I cut the excess material off of the top of the bag, then cut it into strips to use for the handles. The flower was also made from the excess, by cutting out the petals and hand sewing them on.

And voila! My personal fail-ted bag win, or The Lemonade Tote.

Look what I got in the mail !!!

My long awaited (10 days . . . ) package has arrived! 600 g. of beautiful imported silk yarn, hand spun from sari waste. Gorgeous.

I think I'm going to make the Okranana bag from Ravelry. Any other suggestions?

It's a slightly smaller gauge, and a little over twitsted, but perfect for a bag or garment.