Time for another mission trip!

I’m heading out Sunday with our senior high youth group to do recovery work in New Orleans.  Since I’ll be gone a week and have two long road trips I decided I better start thinking about what knitting I want to take along.  I’m working on the Log Cabin Blanket in Mason-Dixon Knitting but that seems like a large project for a road trip.

I know that I’m taking the Baby Cable Socks from Sensational Knitted Socks:

But I’m not sure what else. I printed off a couple of patterns this morning that are options: Noro Entrelac Scarf (pdf) and the Summer Breeze  (scroll down) short-sleeved top from freepatterns.com.  Both look okay for a road trip though I might want to do the lace part of the top before I leave. I’ll probably do the scarf since I knitted the entrelac tote when I was on youth choir tour in June. It would make it a theme trip summer!

Happy knitting!

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A Little Bird Told Me Bag

Since I had so much wool left over from the entrelac bag I decided to use it to make a smaller felted bag.  My friend Melissa is a beginner knitter who would also be sharing a bus with 35 teenagers during our youth choir tour in New Mexico. She wanted an easy project to work on during the long bus rides. I turned to trusty Google and found “A Little Bird Told Me” over at knitty.com. I decided this would also be a great pattern to use up the left over wool.

However, when I started knitting, I soon became apparent that I didn’t have as much left over as I thought. I used up  what was almost a whole ball of Wool of the Andes Spruce and realized that unless I wanted my bag to look like Joseph’s coat of many colors, which I do not, I was going to have to order more yarn.  I bopped over to Knit Picks and ordered a couple balls of Spruce and moved on to something else.  The yarn came yesterday so I can finish my bag and get it felted.  I’m not sure if it will be all one piece or if I have enough of one leftover to make the flap and strap a different color. We’ll see.

One change I am going to make is the flap decoration. Instead of embroidery, I am going to make a felted flower and pin it on. The felted flower will be made from leftover entrelac yarn since I know they all go with Spruce!  Below is the WIP photo. The photo makes the yarn look almost navy but it is really more of a blue/green color.

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Entrelac Sweater?

I really enjoyed knitting my entrelac tote and am wondering if I love it enough to try an entrelac sweater. I Googled “entrelac sweater pattern” and found my way to knitability.com and ordered their Seamless Entrelac Sweater pattern. It is a seamless entrelac that uses verigated yarns instead of switching colors. I like that idea! I can’t imagine weaving in all those ends, I had enough of that with the tote.

The pattern came in yesterday’s mail. Also in yesterday’s mail was a birthday check from the in-laws, plus Jay gave me cash for my birthday. Looking at knitpicks and a few other sites, my birthday money is enough to buy the yarn I want for the sweater. Now all I have to do is decide if I’m ready for that much entrelac.

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Lace Edge Top

I finished this top about a month ago and am finally posting it.  It is made with Knit Pick CotLin, a very nice yarn to work with and wear.  It feels good against the skin and breathes well.

I used another pattern for the lace edging and then just knit without any decreases until it was the length I wanted. Then, I sewed up the shoulders and sides before adding one repeat of the lace pattern around the neck and sleeves.

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Entrelac Tote

Of all the projects I have completed, this has got to be my favorite.  I purchased the pattern and recommended yarn from Knit Picks though I did substitute Chocolate for one of the yarns because it wasn’t yet for sale.

This was my first entrelac project and I was concerned that it might be too much of a challenge for me but Melanie Smith’s instructions were very easy to follow. I did have a question about whether or not to felt the bag with the handles attached and asked her through her Ravelry account. She answered very quickly (either attached or not is fine) and I set to felting.

I ran it through the wash cycle twice (6 mins. each cycle) before it was the size I wanted. I was so excited when I pulled it out of the machine. I just couldn’t believe that I had created this awesome looking bag! My poor husband did a great job of being as excited as I was, giving me high fives and all. My teenage daughter just said “yeah, looks great” and turned back to the TV. What does she know from good knitting anyway?

I’m not sure if this is the beginning of a love of all things entralac but I am willing to say that I will try the technique again.

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