Thursday, June 21, 2007

Moss and Ivy, Ann's Zeeby

At the end of May I joined a monthly dishcloth knit along: twice a month, for 5-7 days, they post a portion of a pattern for everyone to knit (theoretically) at the same time. The beginning of the month pattern for June was a unicorn--reverse stockinette on a bed of stockinette. I wasn't crazy about mine, so I didn't take a picture. But the middle of the month pattern was a lace pattern that the designer called Moss and Ivy, and I finished it last night. It was my first lace project, and I'm glad I started small! It's only a little lacy. I like how it turned out, although I think the pattern would have shown up better if I had used a solid color rather than the lovely variegated I chose. I used it this morning in the shower--as far as I'm concerned, it doesn't matter if the pattern calls it a dishcloth, it can be a washcloth if I want it to--and it didn't seem to do a very good job of lathering. But I seem to remember it taking a few days for my garter stitch cloth to loosen up and really make suds, so I'm not going to give up!


This is my take on Zeeby's Bag, from Stitch 'N Bitch. Not bad for my first biggish project, if I do say so myself! Of course, it turned out significantly larger than I meant it to--I need to practice counting stitches. (When I had my first sock class we started out by making a gauge swatch. I counted my stitches and got 17--my teacher counted on my swatch and got 12. I counted again--still 17. She counted again [and I watched her]--still 12. This explains how the bag could have grown, despite my use of a gauge swatch and doing of math prior to casting on.) I made the gusset bigger than the pattern said to on purpose, and knit it double-stranded for stiffness. Now I just need to make a nice, pocket-filled lining for it, and I'll be done! I plan to use this bag to carry my knitting around in (ooh, appropriate!), and it's big enough that I can toss my purse and my lunchbox into it on workdays, so I'll only have one bag to carry rather than three. Hooray!

Now I need to go order a book from Amazon. When I found the link for Stitch 'N Bitch, I happened to see that the sequel is only $3.19--how can I pass that up? I can even add it to an unshipped order I have at Amazon that was 3.04 less than the $25 needed for free shipping, and not have to pay any shipping! By ordering this book, I'm actually saving money. Can't beat that!

2 comments:

Barbara said...

Hey, I wanna see the unicorn cloth. Love the lace one. I wish I could see it up close. And your bag is gorgeous. Great colors! And now that you have a sewing machine you can whip up a lining--with pockets.

Ann said...

I plan to give the lace one another try; I lost a stitch near the end, so I just skipped a decrease in the next row. I want to do another one without messing up! So maybe you'll get a package one of these days. :)
I, uh, sort of left the unicorn cloth at A & S's. But I'll see if they can take a picture and send it to me.
I like the colors of my bag, too, but knitting with camel and black made me crave peanut butter cups!