I actually finished this bag a few days ago, but it languished waiting for some suitably old towels to accompany it in the washing machine, and then it languished again waiting for me to find it a nice button. After all the procrastination here it is finally:

Knitted felted bag

It is knitted on 8mm needles if I remember correctly, using 4 strands of 2ply lambswool from Uppingham Yarns. Then it went through the washing machine and the dryer twice with a nice selection of similar coloured towels which are old enough not to impart fluff on anything they are washed with. I am part way through the next bag which will be shaded black and purple, I haven’t got very far with it yet though as I have been waylaid by the multicoloured cotton jumper which always seems much more exciting when I sit down for a spot of knitting.

The weather has been a bit off and on the last couple of days so the tennis has been a bit stilted. I still caught a bit of both the women’s semi-finals yesterday which were good for watching while I knitted a couple of rounds on the cotton jumper. Cotton jumper is progressing, though rather slowly, I’m onto a stripe in a kind of tomato red, which actually looks a bit subtle compared to my other colour choices. Not to worry, I have a nice bright green to knit the next large stripe in. I’ll hopefully post another pic of the progress tomorrow if the weather is good enough for an outside picture.

Thanks for the comment Tari! I love bright colours, always have done, and am always on the look out for lovely coloured yarn. I think it is the first thing that draws me to a yarn, whether the colour jumps out at me, and then I have to stroke it to see if it feels nice!

I have been a good girl and have been weaving in the ends as I go along, the horror of having thousands of ends to weave in after the knitting has been motivating me in this task. I’ve been trying out the method recommended in this Knitty article, and it looks pretty good so far if I do say so myself. It is a bit noticeable on the wrong side because when I cut the ends I left a bit of a tail since cotton tends to work its way through to the right side otherwise, but the right side looks very smooth. The only thing is that I haven’t really conquered how to weave in ends in moss stitch (I think this is seed stitch in American).

In other news I ordered a new wedding ring today which is quite exciting. My fingers tend to swell up a lot in the hot and humid weather and I realised last week that the wedding ring I bought last year is really just too small. I think it depends on the shape of the ring because my engagement ring is exactly the same size and although tight in the hot weather I can still get it on and off, however the wedding ring had got to the point that I couldn’t get it on and off at all if the temperature went above about 25 degrees (C that is, I have no idea what that is in F). So I have ordered a new ring and it should arrive in about three weeks, it is going to be hopefully practically identical to the first one, just three sizes bigger, so I shall have a summer ring and a winter ring 🙂