Chicago Bag: December 2003 Archives

I am one extremely lucky felting lady tonight. Guess what I finished up?

A Finished Stripey Chicago

Yep yep yep I had enough yarn. I had decided after my last bag that I wanted to try one with shorter handles. Nothing like desperately wanting to finish a project with the amount of yarn I had on hand to motivate me to try that idea out for real. The first bag started with 34" handles. This bag went into the washer with 19" handles.

Successful Kitchener

I was pretty pleased with my technique execution as I connected the handles. If you didn't see the dramatic difference in striping colors, I bet you couldn't tell I had Kitchenered those pieces together! That little piece of yarn to the side of the handles, attached to the needles is exactly what I had left over. And after I sewed in the ends, I had this little pile to contemplate:

The Pitiful Leftovers

I'm just so pleased when I can be so efficient with my yarn. I am also pleased when I can figure out a way to handle a problem in an elegant way. In this case, the problem I had: get two handles the same length and the piece I need to graft to the other side. The solution... knit from both ends of what remained of the last skein. I knit up one i-cord to a reasonable length, then knit the other to match. Then I just kept going on both sides until I was pretty sure that I would have just enough to finish the piece to be grafted. This had the extra added benefit of having both i-cords end in a similar color.

So, so far, so good. This bag can be knit in three skeins of Kureyon if you don't mind shorter handles. If you want an over the shoulder thing or you're really worried about color matching, you're definitely going to want 4 skeins.

Of course, even though it was 11:30 CST I just couldn't resist throwing this project into the washer. I'd show you the results even if I didn't like how it turned out (probably especially if I didn't like how it turned out), but I'm pretty pleased. After two cycles through the wash, I think I can officially give Kureyon a thumbs up for this bag!

Wild Chicago

The garter stitch in the flap didn't quite full to completion. I hope the lighter colors of this bag make it easier to see what I did with the binder clips. Like the Cascade 220 version, the flap on this bag will need a little post drying manipulation. Here's a side shot that gives you a better look at how I am pinching the sides of the bag to create the shaping.

Check out the Wild Side

I'm two for two on getting bags with even handle lengths. That's the thing I was most worried about with the Kureyon. The Kureyon fabric is a little drapier than the Cascade fabric, but I think it will still do the trick. In case you were interested here's the starting and final dimensions:

A little drying and a little steaming and this specimen will be ready to go on it's way. Another Chicago roadtrip to Indy!

In case it isn't incredibly obvious, I'm pretty psyched about my little bag design. Thank you to everyone who has left suggestions, nice comments or inquired about when the pattern will be available. And a special big thank you to Steph who did a very successful test felting using Patton's Classic Wool. For the time being, you can pick up a hard copy from ThreadBear. Once I figure out PayPal, you will also be able to buy the PDF version directly from me (hopefully by the end of the week).

A number of people have asked/mentioned "What about a Chicago in Kureyon?". Well, from a color perspective, I love Noro Kureyon and all that magic striping action. And it occurred to me that the perpendicular stripes in the flap and the body of the bag could produce an interesting look. But when it comes to felting Kureyon, I feel about it the way I once felt about an old boyfriend: I dearly love it, but due to past history I know it can't be trusted. (No, I am not referring to John... I love him dearly and have always trusted him!)

I've done/seen several felting projects with Kureyon. I've seen both good results and bad. When I used it for a pair of Fuzzy Feet, I discovered that I loved the fabric it made and the subtle shading that developed, but that I wasn't so keen on the fact that it didn't seem to like to felt in all dimensions. In fact, it was very difficult to get the stitch definition to fade. When I do a felted/fulled project, I don't like to see the original stitches. I also like the fabric to have a nice thick slightly stiff quality, and Kureyon tends to be a little drapey after felting. Maintaining the shape of Chicago post-felt requires a reasonably stiff felt.

Lately I've had the priviledge of seeing several of Julie's felted Kureyon projects up close (if you haven't seen Lily yet, you really should take a look) and I've been more impressed with the felting results from Kureyon. I don't know if they've changed how the yarn is processed or if the dark colors just behave better than the lighter ones (which is not uncommon). But I'm a little more comfortable now with the yarn being likely to "do the right thing".

And since there's been a lot of interest in doing this bag in Kureyon, I thought the most responsible thing for me to do would be to try to test felt one myself. That way I could pass on anything I learned along the way, or let everyone know that Kureyon is definitely a "felt at your own risk" operation with my pattern.

Noro Kureyon #52

Here's the lovely colorway that I am going to test out -- this also came from ThreadBear, and, if successful, will return to ThreadBear in the form of a felted bag. The big mystery of the week: will 3 skeins be enough?

At the Base of Chicago

I did the base last night (and picked up stitches) and I finished the body of the bag tonight. This is actually a pretty quick project when you don't run out of yarn in the middle of it. I'm very into the blues, purples, greys and browns in this colorway. Tomorrow night I'm hoping to get the flap and the handles completed. I'm a little worried about yardage, though. Here's what I have left:

How Far Can I Go?

I have a nasty suspicion that this is going to be enough to finish the flap and maybe start the base of one of the handles but probably isn't going to be enough to get me to the home stretch, even if I opt for short handles. I've really got to get better at doing these sorts of estimates.