Grape Harvest Felted Bag - Finished

I've finally finished the Grape Harvest Bag and just in time to share my pattern with the Bag-A-Holic yahoo group. The pattern will only be available for the month of September to list members only. The bag was made with Lamb's Pride Bulky and felted, and the embellishments (unfelted) were made using Knitpicks Wool of the Andes Avacado & Fern.

Fantissimo bag - Berroco Foliage

Love this BAG! Knit up quickly with Berroco Japanese Maple Foliage yarn. Here's the pattern: http://www.berroco.com/exclusives/fantissimo/fantissimo.html

Diamond Chevron Scarf - Knit-A-Long Progress

This is the progress report on my Diamond Chevron Scarf - A bunch of us knitters are doing a Knit-A-Long at the multidirectional yahoo group. The photo on the left is a new Patons Classic Wool varigated version. I love working with this yarn, and have made many felted items using the solid colors. I wasn't so sure of the colorway, but now that I've seen it in the photographs I've taken, I like how it is coming out. I may decide to steam this a bit, not fully felt it, just steam it so that the colors blend a bit nicer. The second photo is showing the 'hole' discussion that we've been having the past few days. I have the 'hole' too, but I think I'm going to 'not' close it up. I almost want to put a small ribbon there, and perhaps a label....not sure. I'll decide before it's all finished. This scarf is being made with Wool in the Woods Gold Dust Lottery. There are lots of gold specks in this yarn blend, and I also like how the colorway is working.

Kool Aid Dying

Just wanted to share my personal experience with Kool Aid dying. I used Knitpicks http://www.knitpicks.com Natural Bare Peruvian Wool Worsted. The wool was $3.49 for a 100 gram (approx 3.25 ounce) skein. The tutorial that I used can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/hzep9
I'm very, very pleased with the strawberry and yellow colorway that I did, but not especially pleased with the purple. I used 3 full packages of Grape Kool Aid, but I may decide to re-dye this wool with another 3 packages, just to intensify the color a bit.

Diamond Chevron Scarf - start up for KAL

Here's the beginnings of my Diamond Chevron Scarf, designed by Iris Schreier and published in the September 2006 issue of Creative Knitting. Some of the gals at the multidirectional yahoo group are having a knit-a-long, so I thought I'd join in. This photo shows parts 1 and 2 completed, with about 3 rows of step 3 begun.
I have to comment that the instructions for this pattern are very clear. Your knitting will look odd, and some of it will not make sense right away, but if you follow the instructions exactly as they are written you will have success.
Although I have some of Iris's beautiful yarns in my stash, I did not have anything with a varigation, so I decided to use a yarn that I purchased at the Knit & Crochet Show called Gold Dust Lottery. I purchased it from Wool in the Woods, and the content of the yarn is 48% rayon, 44% cotton, 6 % nylon and 2% mylar. My second choice was a 100% silk from Cherry Tree Hill (shown to the right in the photo).

Pre-Felted Grape Harvest Bag

This is a photo of a bag that I just finished knitting. I plan on felting it this weekend, and then embellishing it with grapes, grape leaves and vines. I work at a winery, and in a few short weeks we will be harvesting our white wine grapes, and shortly thereafter harvesting our red wine grapes. It's the busiest time of the year for me!

The beginnings of the English Carpet Bag from Crystal Palace Yarns http://www.straw.com
What a great new yarn - wonderful feel and love the colorway. Here are a few photos of the work in progress on my bag. Just started working on some of the embellishments last night. Hope to get the bag felted this weekend. Working on this was FUN!