Potohar Felted Bag

Thus is named the bag I made last week. I have written the pattern and madeit available for free through my ravelry store. You can click on this link to download the file.

As, for the name, Potohar is the region of Pakistan, I belong to. Colors in the bag somewhat remind me of the local scenery.

"Some Bag"

So I rose to the challenge and knit up "some bag" with the Noro yarn (and some more) from the frogged glove. And now I have to admit, a bag was a much better project idea. I am in love with this one. It used two balls of Noro Kureyon, different colorways, and about 0.8 skein of Araucania Magallanes and 6.5 mm needles. It is my own design which I hope to write up and place in my ravelry shop soon, inshaAllah.

This has been so much fun. Even my resident critic a.k.a my husband declared it to be one of my "better" designs, LOL. But the downside has been that in knitting this, I totally neglected my Coatimundi KAL projects and now am lagging behind. So, I will be picking those up now and try to finish them fast.

Upcycling

I knit these socks last year. The yarn was not strong or suitable for socks and these develpoed holes at heel. So, I threw them in the washing machine and felted them. Then, did a quick surgery on them to come up with a drawstring bag. The leg part is the fair-isle front and back panels while the sides are formed by felted pieces from the foot.

The First Felt

My husband got a PSP (playstation portable) recently and I immediately offered to make a cozy for it. Apparently, DH was thinking of a safe way to carry it with him, so surprizingly enought, he accepted. While, nomally he is not thrilled with knitted items for himself.
After a great deal of pondering and looking around at patterns, I finally decided this simple, felted cozy would be best. I made many modifications.
I started out with full intention of following the pattern but had no 6.50 mm DPNs. So, instead,I worked on straight. Also, altered the number of sts and length to adapt to DH’s PSP:
I cast on 28 sts.
Row 1: (k1, sl 1 st purlwise) repeat to the end.
Repeat this row until the piece measures 11 inches.
Next row:( k1, sl next st onto a spare needle, k next st, pass the 1st st over this st)repeat to the end.
In this way, half the sts are BO. On the remaining sts, work in st st for 5 inches. BO and weave in end. No seams to sew and ready to felt.

The yarn I used was Araucania Magallanes. I really liked this yarn. This cozy used up only a small amount, maybe 50 yards. I still have the remaining skein. So maybe I can make a bag or something out of it.
Being done with the knitting, I went looking for a good felting tutorial. Then equiped with the necessary information, I went on to try for myself. And it worked. It is quite simple really. And fun!

The great thing is that the cozy turned out exactly right sizewise and more than that, DH was very pleased with it. I also lined it witha cotton fabric, to protect the PSP from any wayward wool fiber, LOL.

Central Park Hoodie Sans The Hood

After a brief interruption caused by a quite painful and febrile tonsillitis, I finally managed to finish my central park hoodie. However, I did not knit the hood. Instead I picked the same number of sts across the front for the neckband, as recommended for the hoodie but decreased 8 sts across the back. The rest of the cardigan fairly conforms to the original pattern. The yarn was the finest acrylic available here in Pakistan but had no label.

I still have two more WIPs to finish plus I want to start sylvi as well as a pair of socks this month, inshaAllah. Then I'll muster up the courage to take up a lace project. Oh, and I'm also considering some felting and steeking on the side. Last but not the least, I have spun 1/4 of the roving that I got from my friend, I hope to spin more of it soon.