Finished Bag!

Today's mail brought a little padded mailer in record time. It contained the hardware I needed to finish this bag.

The elusive hardware:

It to doesn't look like much, but it was easier and faster to order these things online than to find them locally. I highly recommend Strapworks for all your webbing and hardware needs like this. Awesome fast service, reasonable rates, reasonable shipping rates! They are going to be my go-to-first place from here on out.

What I needed and couldn't find locally: rectangular loops. Yeah. Something that basic. Also, while I was at it, I bought some metal slides because I thought they would look better and last longer than the plastic ones I found at Hancock Fabrics.


Interior view before finishing

The bag is a bit smaller than I first envisioned it. I didn't figure on the weaving drawing in quite as much as it did. I did learn a thing or two about how not to handle the lining, but that's ok. It worked out. There are some sloppy sections inside, but the public side is fine. All in all, I'm quite pleased with this project and it was nice to weave something other than a scarf.

Actual Knitting Content!

I've been knitting a bit! I'm making another pair of my Making Waves socks using this wonderful yarn I bought at YarnCon in the fall.


It's Turtle Cove Farm's Turtle Feet; colorway Standing on the Shore.

This yarn is really wonderful to knit with and the colors are so deep and enchanting, I feel like I'm snorkeling on a coral reef, not standing on the shore.

I also decided to take out an earlier effort to make the best of this Rowan Tapestry.

First it was a simple garter stitch scarf, knit the long way. Then, it started to become an oversize entrelac. Now, I've decided on just a normal-scaled entrelac pattern and I hope to never frog it again. This yarn really likes to stick to itself, so it's a bad candidate for frogging.

And there's been some weaving.

This is a piece of cotton cloth from which I'm going to sew a messenger bag. I had a cone of 8/8 cotton (knits at worsted weight) hanging around a while. The black stripes are Tahki Cotton Classic. I'm still thinking through all the details of the bag construction, so stay tuned for that.

Have you all noticed (well, Northern Hemisphere Dwellers, that is) that the days are getting longer? I'm eager for spring this year, even though there might be a lot of upheaval for us. We're hoping to buy a bigger house, still staying in the Madison area. We've been in this house for 13 years, which is longer than I have lived in any one place in my whole life. I'll add that I am not the only one in the family with pack-rat tendencies, and you can imagine what we're up against. Getting a loan? Piece of cake. Packing and moving? That's another thing altogether.