Dye Hard with a Vengeance.

Another yarn story, Reader: I turned my Black Cherry samples into a a felted Tiny Tote, almost as awesome as it is alliterative. I had begun thinking I would just knit a swatch and leave it at that, but the swatch grew in direct proportion to my knitted dreams*. My second thought was to make a little soap saver bag for Ellen's package, and that's what my goal was until I reached the final stage of the project. I'm an unrepentant spoiler junkie, but I'll make you wait until the end of the post to reveal the twist**.

The unevenness of the dye on the yarn actually turned out to be a great effect--I'm not a great lover of variegated yarn, but the swatch came out pleasantly homey. The bottom half of the swatch is the khaki and the top, the cream, but I don't think you can much tell the difference.

Having started life as four separate bits of yarn and reached middle age as a flat swatch, the tote is crudely put together. I'd certainly recommend doing it in the round. I used size 4 straight needles and then just a tapestry needle to sew up the bottom and the sides. I didn't try anything fancy with the binding--just whip stitch--and that's probably the least aesthetically pleasing part of the whole thing, because I had to use the khaki yarn to do it, having run out of the Black Cherry.

The Black Cherry was sacrificed to a good end: I gave I-cords a try, and damned if they aren't just the best thing ever. I'm supposed to use I-cord to make the straps on the Tote of Doom (you can see it behind the swatch-in-progress) and was anxious to give it a go beforehand. During the OJ Simpson trial, I made a tube of finger-weaving probably long enough to wrap around the whole house. I believe I had the vague idea that I could use it to escape my bedroom during a fire. I should note that our house only had one floor. In any case, I-cords are certainly an advance in tubular yarn crafts.

Voila, Reader: a Tiny Tote casting tiny tshadows on the wall. I'm going to keep you in suspense until tomorrow for the actual felting. You'll love it, I promise--hey, where are you going? Come back! For god's sake--

*My dreams are not, of course, actually knitted, but I suspect that's only a matter of time. There's a scene in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie where the improbability drive turns the Heart of Gold into yarn dolls. It's not impossible, is all I'm saying.
**Lies, all lies.

Baguettes

I'm working on a felted tote bag (based on a Knitpicks pattern), and it's going fine, if rather boringly (rows and rows of stockinette). I am not going to do the needle felting and it's going to be a single color. I have a couple of concerns about the project. For one thing, I decided to use a single strand of yarn instead of a double strand, mostly because I did not want to pay 5 billion dollars for yarn, so now I'm worried that the bag won't be very strong. I can put a lining in it easily enough, though, so it could be all right. The other problem is the actual felting: I don't have much control over washer cycles since it's whatever piece of shit washing machine my apartment complex bought in the Jurassic period. So I'm basically just gonna go for it and hope for the best.