Recently Finished Projects (Archive-the birth of this forum)

[Flappy]

Productive? Only a knitter would say that. My friends use words like "idle".

The pattern for Elmo's Girlfriend can be found here:
http://tinyurl.com/5byoa

And Elmo's *actual* girlfriend can be found here:

[VictoiseC]

That's funny. I still have to reassure myself that I am being productive when I sit knitting in the middle of the day or morning.
! Ridiculous when I love it so much.

I love those scarves esp the frou frou furry ones.

[Yvonne]

Below are my photos of what I am calling my Unfelted Unbooga. :thinking:
It's really just a prototype. I made it up as I went along. I had this ball of acrylic fleck something-or-other and just started playing around with it. It's Unbooga because it certainly isn't wool, is not felted, the handles are different and it has a lining.
I used size 8 needles, cast on 40 stitches, knit a bunch of garter stitch till I had a rectangle, picked up stitches all around the perimeter of that (100 stitches then) and knit in the round. Near what I figured was tall enough, I put in two sets of yo x 3 holes about where the handles should go through. A few more rows of stockinette in the round, then one row of purl to make a turning ridge, same number of stockinette rows I had after the holes but before the turn, four more holes in the same place in the lining (mirror image), then several more rows in same color. After I was deep enough into the lining, I switched to a different color to finish the lining. Continued knitting till the distance was equal from the beginning to the purled turning ridge, and from that to the end of the lining. Three-needle bind-off, then I just jammed the lining inside. I made an I-cord the length of what I thought two handles should be, threaded it through the sets of yo holes , and grafted the cord. I crocheted on that button loop, sewed on a button, and voila. Unfelted Unbooga Prototype.
The way the handles are, it can be two equal-sized handles, one long shoulder-strap handle, or the handles can be tucked inside entirely and it can be a clutch. Cool, huh?
I love that it has a lining because it makes the bag totally un-squishy and things don't poke through it. It makes it sturdy and gives it some body, even though it will never be felted. Easy, too. Just basically knitting a long hollow tube with closed ends, with a turning ridge right in the middle. One goes inside the other.
You may want to know why I chose that odd color for the lining? Well, it was handy and lying around next to me, left over from the Breast Cancer KAL moebius scarf (pics of that in that forum).
Now do I want to make a real one of these?
I'm not sure if I've attached all five photos of it. Seems like I did, but I only see four attached here prior to submitting this post. If it doesn't show up, I'll maybe stick on another one.

[Yvonne]

Oh--I forgot to say that after picking up the stitches around the edge of the original rectangle to knit in the round, I did keep 10 stitches at each side in garter stitch, then made it 8 on each side in garter stitch, then 6, then 4, then 2, then zero. But I didn't decrease or anyting. Instead of garter, just changed to stockinette. Gives the illusion that the bag gets narrower, but it doesn't.

[carollovesyarn]

Lovely! I'm so impressed that you made this up as you went along. I would've had to frog several times if I tried that, then it would have looked like I frogged a bunch of times...

I like the 'self-lining' feature, the purl turning ridge, the shape and style. I've never seen the self-lining idea before - is it your own or adapted? And of course I like the versatility of the handles!

Great job!

Carol

[amy]

Flappy, you really are productive! Love the baby hats, and the scarves too. Great stuff you've made!

LOL, I know what you all mean about not FEELING "productive." When I decided to start doing some pattern design, it took me weeks to get used to sitting on the couch in the middle of a work day, knitting! I'm used to knitting in the evenings, or while doing something else I can think of as "real" work.

Yvonne, WOW, nice bag pattern! You should write it up and post it in the Free Patterns forum! Looks great!!!

Amy

[Yvonne]

I don't know if I made up that self-lining feature, if I dreamt it or if I read it someplace else. I don't remember self-lining patterns I've looked at recently. I think I saw that purl row/turning ridge used for a hem on something and then wondered what would happen if you just kept on knitting and turned the hem into a lining.
Maybe I will write up a pattern for it, for real.
It's like those four scarves I made for the KAL. Apparently I make up stuff left and right but I've never actually "written" the pattern for anything. Hee hee xxx

[carollovesyarn]

Yes - definitely write up the purse pattern! xxx (I'm loving these emoticons )

Carol

[MaggieL]

Flappy,

I love your projects, especially your hats. They are just TOOOOO cute. The colors are amazing. Where did you get the patterns?

Maggie

[Flappy]

Aww shucks, MaggieL. Thanks for the compliment.

For the hats, I used the pattern for the "umbilical cord hat" from Stitch 'n Bitch. The pattern is very easy. Cast on 64 stitches, knit 4.5" in the round, start decreasing by k2tog 8 times per row (evenly spaced) until it all comes together. For the details, see the book. I'm not a fan of the i-cord umbilical cord, though, so I found other ways to top the hats.

I'm using #7 12" circular needles, and Samoa cotton/acrylic yarn. It's very soft and easy to care for. The yarn is here:
http://tinyurl.com/678rr

(Ok, I'll admit that I didn't use this yarn for the red & white hat-- I used cheaper yarn and I'm not as pleased with the results. Never again.)

The colors and patterns I dreamed up on my own, while staring at the selection at my local yarn store. I tried to not use baby blue or pink, just to give the new parents some other colors to choose from. But, you'll see when I post a picture of my current project that I'm breaking that rule now.