Pattern Mods:

1. Knit gusset in interior color instead of exterior color
2. used 3-needle bindoff to attach gusset to back instead of seaming
3. used heavy nylon rope to hold hoop channel open instead of ribbon, to avoid sides of channel felting together
4. did some hand-felting w/ rings in to flatten sides & remove the wavy/bowed texture
5. weighted the bag to flatten after felting, during drying
6. needle-felted embellishment instead of embroidered it
7. abstract circles embellishment instead of cherry blossom pattern

Made this for the felted bag contest at Handmade Memories

9/19/08: Gah! Although I didn’t even TOUCH this during Ravelympics (dang, more procrastination), it is now done. Finis. Outta my freakin’ hair! All it took was sewing up those handle holes, which took all of about 4 minutes, but who’s counting? Love it. Plan on carrying it at our Fall Equinox festival, the Northcountry Fair, tomorrow. Yay me!

8/6/08: Goal: finish during Ravelympics 2008.

7/15/08: Aaaaalmost done! Decided to remove the ropes after all; they made it pretty heavy. Channel still holds its shape just fine. I needle-felted the circle pattern on the front, using earrings & rings as templates. I LOVE this bag! All that’s left is taping the ring ends together and sewing the holes where they went in. About 20 mins. worth of work to go…

6/27/08: Took a couple more 20-minute bouts of hot/cold beating & rubbing to really feel like it shrunk as far as possible; really needed this extra felting to remove the waviness of the sides. Lost one end of one of the ropes inside the channel, but after trying many tools to grab it (tweezers, 2 kinds of plyers, a safety pin), I managed to get ahold of it with a crochet hook and tug it out. Planning to melt the ends together before closing the holes.

6/26/08: Finally finished the last seam on the handle, wove in the last end, got some rope to thread through the channel, and FELTED this fucker! Two times through the wash cycle, put in the rings, left the rope inside ‘cuz I liked the rounded look it gives the edges, and then about 20 minutes of alternating hot/cold rinses while pounding it in the bathtub to felt it onto the rings. Needed some hand-felting on the inside, too. All that’s left is the embellishment!

6/4/08: Man, this frickin’ bag has been at “85% complete” forever, hasn’t it?? Took it to PnH again tonight, got about 1/4 of the 2nd handle seaming done; gonna try to finish seaming tomorrow and felt it, too, so I can bring to Midnite Madness on Friday the 6th. We’ll see…

6/2/08: Had a little energy left after spinning all day for the first time in forever, so pulled it out to finish the handle seaming. Did an couple of inches, then my anal side kicked in (again), and I realized that I want the symmetry of stitches that follow the angle of the curve, so I ripped back and angled ‘em the other direction. BUT, I finally finished one side! We’re close, very close.

5/31/08: Brought the bag to Farmers Market for some KIPing. I know everyone makes fun ‘cuz I’m so anal, but I had to rip out the seaming from last week, because in hindsight, it clearly needed to be done in black, not green like I used. Much better! Once again, I’m halfway through one side.

5/21/08: Started seaming front to back at the handle openings at PnH tonight, but I am the worlds slowest knitter when I’m drinkin’ and kibbitzin’. Only got halfway through one side.

5/16/08: Why does the finishing draaaag so long?? Took The O to Midnite Madness at Handmade Memories (the last one at the old location), and attached the gusset to the back using a 3-needle bindoff. The pattern called for seaming it, but that just seemed stupid, and I like how sturdy and smooth the join is. So close…

4/10/08: Bound off gusset. Tried attaching it to the back using the instructions, but it looked like crap, so I need to try another method.

4/8/08: Gusset knit, ready to be bound off.

4/6/08: Ok, so, I missed the contest deadline because I ran out of black yarn. Sigh… Didn’t have the $ to buy more ‘til Thursday, but in the interim had an idea: what if I made the gusset with the extra green? That would really make the bag pop. So Friday night I went to Elena’s bday bash, frogged the 12 gusset rows and picked up half the stitches in green. Then spent yesterday in bed with cramps and finished picking up, and got the gusset to the point I was when I ran out, plus 1 row. Today I’m finishing the gusset. The saga continues…

3/31/08: 10:45am - CRAP! I’m half way through the gusset, and it’s clear I won’t have enough of the black to finish it and seam the handle openings. Damn. Both LYSs are closed today, so I have to come up with a new plan.

3/31/08: 8:30am - The penultimate day. The bag is due tomorrow morning; still to do: knit the other 21 rows of the gusset; attach gusset to back; design and implement the embellishment; seam the handle openings; felt this sucker; let it dry. Wish me luck!

3/30/08: Worked on The O in the morning yesterday and again last night (got about halfway through the 2nd lining), but had to grapple with a bullshit work crisis in the middle, so didn’t get as far as I’d hoped. Today is the day though, folks. I am going to kick ass on this bag today! LATER: finished the other lining. LATER STILL (REALLY LATE): Completed all the seaming except the openings around the handles and the hoop openings (seems like it would be better to do the embellishment on the outside with the ability to reach inside the bag, rather than w/ the openings closed), so I’ll do that after. Also picked up and knit the first row of the gusset before calling it a day. Boy, will my body be happy when I’m done with this project; the 5 day hiatus from spinning has been pleasant, but my hands are taking it in the shorts, as it were. All this knitting is tough on the wrist that broke years ago, and gets it all stabbing pain-y, to say nothing of the usual neck/shoulder/elbow pain I usually have. Ah, aging…

3/28/08: The good news: the deadline for entry has been moved to April 1, so I have 2 extra days! The bad: picking up stitches on the back is giving me fits! I’ve done it 4 times already and it’s still not right. Can’t figure out what the damn problem is. Back to it…

3/27/08: Takin’ another day off to work on this mother. Might have to get it done by Saturday, because the shop is closed Sun/Mon - doh! LATER: Finished the front lining - woohoo!! Tomorrow: line the back.

3/26/08: OK, come on! I finally figured out where the fuckup was (4 rows back, 4 rows frogged), and fixed it. Taking the rest of the day off from COLORBOMB and working on this, or there’s no way I’ll be done in time! Think it’s safe to bring it to PnH tonight? LATER: got the outside back completed (!), picked up all 210 stitches for the inside front, knit several rows of the lining, and managed not to muck it up while drinking at PnH. All in all, a very good day.

3/19/08: Took it to Purl ‘n Hurl (SnB) again this week, and again fucked it up. Dropped a stitch in the decreases on the right edge; not sure if it can be salvaged yet. Gave it a shot, but need to count stitches when sober. Sheesh!

3/17/08: Over a couple of pints of Guinness, I got almost all the way through the back. Yay, Guinness!

3/16/08: Chipped away a few more rows today; somehow, I keep missing a stitch here and there and I have to tink. But all’s well in the end.

3/15/08: Took The O to regular Sat. spin-in at the brewery, instead of my wheel (gotta get crackin’ on this fucker!), then continued on it at home in front of the tube post-Dollar Store foray. I think I’m at least a couple of rows ahead of where I frogged on Wednesday. Whee!

3/12/08: Took The O to SnB tonight, knit several rows, put in a short row where it didn’t belong, FUBAR, frogged, had another beer. (sigh).

3/7/08: Picked up the rest of my yarn at Midnight Madness, cast on the back and knit 4 rows.

2/10/08: Completed the outside (black) half of the front. About halfway through, I understood the construction process. Also: pattern calls for approx. 340 yards of ea. color, but I am well into the 2nd skein (190yds) of black, so it will easily require a 3rd skein of ea. for this yarn sub.

2/9/08: Finished last 2 rows of the hoop casing set-up. Oops! There’s only supposed to be 8 rows, not 9; ripped back, picked up the BO stitches, and joined to create the hoop sleeve (just a 3-needle bind-off w/o the bindoff!) Completed through Row 22. Also: Bea snagged me the brass rings (!) I need for blocking; yay!

2/8/08: No gauge swatch (hell, it’s gonna be felted anyway, right?) Cast-on at Midnight Madness with the black (outside); finished 7 of the 9 rows in the first step (stockinette).