Yarn Cozy

My travel knitting for our trip to Colorado and Utah will be a pair of socks. As I wound the wool for these socks into center pull balls, I thought of Susan B. Anderson's fruit cozy pattern. She recently suggested that it could double as a yarn cozy. I decided to test it for myself.


She was right. It fits my apple-sized ball of yarn perfectly and will keep it intact in my backpack, no matter how full it gets.

Free Pattern: Pear Apple Cozy
Yarn: Red Heart Sport
Color: 0652 Limeade
Needles: US 5 DPNs


More about the sock next time. Off to finishing packing. We leave tomorrow.

Using Up the Leftovers

After I knit these booties, I searched Ravelry to see what I could do with the left over yarn. I came across this quick and useful project.


Pattern: Water Web (free) by Amie Gavin Glasgow
Yarn: Tahki Cotton Classic
Color: Blue 3818
Needles: US 6 DPNs

One thing that threw me a little about the pattern is the use of the asterisks in row 1. They are used instead of quotation marks to emphasize this part of the instructions, not as an indicator to repeat the actions contained within. I didn't realize that at first and kept wondering why I couldn't get the stitches to work right. It took me a while to figure it out, but after that everything went smoothly including the decrease section.

I ended up using every inch of left over yarn, so naturally I needed to replace it with more.

A stash of Tahki Cotton Classic is born!

Spiral Rib Bag

There is something very satisfying about knitting with your own homespun. Even yarn that looked like an unorganized mess coming off the wheel, can work up nicely in a project.



Pattern: Spiral Rib Bag
Book: One Skein by Leigh Radford
Yarn: My Homespun (3rd picture from top), 100% Colorado Wool, Natural Dyes
Needles: US 10: 16" Circular and DPNs
Size: Choice of two sizes. This is the small one.

This was a fun, quick knit. From start to finish, it only took me two nights of knitting. It could easily be worked in one sitting. The small size is worked on 50 stitches.

The body of the bag is worked first, starting with a provisional cast on. The live stitches are picked up later to knit the bottom of the bag.

I like the way the purl stitches are bound off in the rib pattern while the knit stitches are continued. This forms the tabs at the top. An I-cord drawstring is run through the eyelets in the tabs to cinch it closed.

I don't know if it's the stitch pattern or the yarn I used, but the bag has enough body to stand up on it's own without anything in it.

Market Bag

I learned about this reusable shopping bag from Debbie. It will work great for this purpose, but I can think of some other uses too. How about a poolside tote for carrying your towel, sunscreen, book, etc.? A bag for children's toys (as long as they are big enough not to fall through the holes)? Another container to store the overflow from the yarn stash? I bet you can think of more.

Pattern: Market Bag designed by Robyn
Yarn: Lily Sugar'n Cream, 100% cotton worsted weight
Needles: 16" circular in US 10 and straight needles in the same size
Notes:

I used just barely over 2 ounces of yarn for this bag. The variegated colors of Sugar'n Cream come in 2 ounce balls. The solid colors come in 2.5 ounce balls. Each cost $1.27 per ball where I shop, so this is a very economical project to make.

The handles of this bag are knit in the round and the body is knit back and forth. I originally thought that I could use a circular needle for the whole project. However, the wraps always seemed to slide over the stitches when they were on the cable part of the needle and I spent a lot of time repositioning them. It was frustrating and time consuming. I changed to straight needles and it was smooth sailing from then on.

This pattern can be easily modified to suit your tastes.