Saturday, April 19, 2008

Celtic Knots knotted


I'm pleased to report that my celtic tote is now knit, felted, and lined.

When I first started this project, I struggled quite a bit with the cable pattern -- it's definitely the most complex cabling I've done. After quite a long vacation from the project (about 4 months) I picked it back up and found it to be quite simple. Don't know what made the difference: better knitting skills, better neuron functioning? Regardless I didn't look a gift horse in the mouth and kept up the progress to finish the job. (Of course with this increased skill and ease I realized that I wasn't knitting the wrong (even) side rows of the chart from left to right but doing all the rows from right to left. Most of the time this didn't matter, but there are a few places where the cables aren't symmetrical so I do have some purls where I should have knits, but after felting it doesn't really show).

The knitting was finished about a week ago. Amazingly, the embroidery also didn't take me too long. I had seen several comments on ravelry complaining about that. For me, the seaming was more punishing, but that's only because I have a mental block about it.

Here she is, prefelting, lounging outside on one of our recent 90+ degree days.


And then into a bath she went. Now in hindsight I realize I probably should have felted it even more, but I was worried about overfelting and erred on the conservative side.


Post bath and drying, I sewed in a bit of a liner (which should help especially since it isn't very felted) and she's ready to go.


See the lining. Love the green myself.


It's a generously large bag. Somewhat narrow at the top, but deep and wide.


Celtic Tote from Interweave Knits, Winter 2007 by Jennifer Tallapaneni
2 balls of Patons Classic Wool Merino (100% wool)
Color: Old Gold (Color 204, Lot 175068 07)
1 ball of Patons Classic Wool Merino (100% wool)
Color: Chestnut Brown (Color 231, Lot 153067)
Lining: Batiks' Olive Green Floral (100% cotton) from JoAnn's
US size 9 circulars and size 10 dpns (because this is the size dpns I had)
cast on November 13, 2007
finished April 18, 2008

size pre-felt: 11" tall; 13" wide at top, 15" wide at bottom; 2" deep at top, 5" deep at bottom; straps 18" long from end to end.
final size: not much different, my felting was minimal

Modifications: Repeated cable pattern for strap 11 instead of 9 times to lengthen the handles. Cast on 10 instead of 6 for sides and bottom in order to make the bag about an inch deeper (and I'm glad I did as it still is fairly narrow).

On Ravelry here

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

That looks wonderful! :) Excellent job!

turtlegirl76 said...

It looks AWESOME! How pretty!

Linda said...

That is lovely Liz, I think it will go on my list of to dos. Love the colour you chose.

Anonymous said...

It looks fantastic! The lining you chose works so well, too.

Octopus Knits said...

Very nice!

Macoco said...

That is such a beautiful bag - I think I just found a new project for myself! Simple question - how do you felt in your sink? I've only felted in a washing machine (with mixed results).

Micki said...

Stunning! I love that golden curry color, and the lining is perfect.

Lola and Ava said...

Looks great! I haven't felted in forever. I might get that itch again.
-L

Ellen Bloom said...

Your bag is fantastic! One of my fave colors is that golden wheat tone! The cables look perfect from here.

Carrie said...

Nice work! I admire your ability to finish a bag and immediately line it--I've got a bag that I felted over a year ago that has yet to be lined. Maybe I should really do that . . .

Anonymous said...

Great bag, I just love how those cables pop.

lekkercraft said...

it looks really nice! I bet you'll be able to carry a lot around in it :) Good job on that lining too.

Anonymous said...

Fantastic job!

Anonymous said...

It's a lovely bag and a lovely colour. The size is generous for carrying all!