Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Isabella and Anne

The ubiquitous little Buttonhole Bag (link opens .pdf file) has been knocking around in the back of my head for a few days.  I have stated here before that I have no desire to get into felting and that hasn’t changed.  It’s just that the bag has such a cute shape and…

Oh all right!  I just like bags - especially ones I’ve knit or crocheted.  Nothing wrong with that, is there? But no felting, nope.  I had the idea that worked densely in cotton the effect would be similar and still provide the sturdiness that the felting does.

I’ve had some yarn in the stash for a while that I’ve been curious about so last night, I dragged it out and began the bag.

This yarn is Classic Elite Isabella.  It’s a bulky cotton (70%)/acrylic (30%) blend.  My guess would be, from the drawing of the little girl riding her bicycle past the Tower of Pisa, that it is intended for children’s clothes.  It does have a nice hand and works up more easily than I had expected (I had kind of boggled at the idea of bulky cotton).  Perhaps that small percentage of acrylic makes the difference.  I also love the beautiful mottling of the blues and greens in this particular color - looks just like the ocean! 

In any case, I was torturing it into a very dense fabric by working it on smaller than recommended needles.  However, I don’t have DPNs in this size (the needles in the above photo are not the size I want, they’re just what I happened to have) and the circular I have isn’t short enough to be practical, nor long enough to use the magic loop method with.  Dratski!  So I don’t know how far this is going to go, exactly.  The needles are only part of the problem; the other part is that it’s coming out a lot smaller than I had imagined.  The solution here would be to rip it, make the bottom strip at least twice as long and then go on from there.

However, the construction of this yarn is interesting :)

It is made up of three strands of what seem to me to be about fingering weight yarn, each of which seems to be dyed differently.  It occurs to me (entering mad scientist mode: MUWAHAHAHAHA) that the yarn could be un-plied (is that a word?) and used to make something lovely and lacey?  I may not be able to resist the temptation to find out :)

I have begun getting things ready for my trip and, I kid you not, this is the first thing to get set aside for packing:

The “Anne” is a hand paint and it’s hard to photograph but the colors range from a deep cobalt to a medium spruce with some teal in between.  The colors are all in the same intensity range which is why they’re so camera shy.  This yarn will make the most gorgeouspair of socks.  “Anne” (if you’re curious) is 60% merino wool, 25% mohair and 15% nylon.  It comes in a 4 oz. Hank and is machine washable.

Sine the pattern is from Nancy Bush’s Knitting on the Road (many thanks again to Barbara for sending me the book), it just seems incredibly appropriate that I start these on the ship.  I am so looking forward to it! :)

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1. I swear I just read your post.  WTF?  Please read my entry today.  I posted about an hour ago and honest to God I always read your blog last (see how you’re listed on my links?)
   I know it is totally cliche but were we seperated at birth?

   Posted by Lisa  on  03/23  at  11:19 AM
   Location :



2. glad you’re enjoying the book- and isn’t planning for the trip always a big part of the fun??

   oh goodness, the colors in the bag are wonderful- i’m telling you, this ‘thing’ i have going on for the pastels will soon be out of control- (umm, i hear you saying ‘barb, knaki and grey etc are *not* pastels!’) is apricot a pastel? does that tell you what i got in the mail!!

   i like working with cottons- it does always take me a little while to get the proper feel for them though, especially after working with other yarns- i knit and crochet very tightly regardless of the fiber and i have to really keep reminding my hands to loosen up with cottons-

   stay happy-

   Posted by  on  03/23  at  12:43 PM
   Location : still here



3. Lisa - LOL!  I suppose anything’s possible but I don’t think my mom was anywhere near Canada in spring of ‘54.  And I don’t think that old either :)

   Barb - I like working with cotton too and don’t usually have problems with it.  My gauge tends to be a bit relaxed in any case and I’m sure that helps with the no-give cottons.  Also, I crocheted TONS of cotton before I ever thought about knitting so I guess I was already kind of used to the way it behaves :)

   And no, grey and khaki aren’t pastels and yes, apricot qualifies!  Yay - you finally got it!!!

   Posted by Robbyn  on  03/23  at  07:10 PM
   Location : Where the woodbine twineth...



4. I’m a yarnpath wannabe - when I see one of your new knits - I want to knit one too. I liked the buttonhole bag, but never thot it could work in cotton - so when I have some time, I’ll explore and maybe throw in some of that lovely seed stitch I’ve been wanting to try oh, so many weeks ago when you knitted your seed stitch bag.

   Posted by erin  on  03/23  at  11:08 PM
   Location : debuting in blog world



5. Erin - I’ll bet it would be smashing in seed stitch!  If you decide to try this, will you post a picture so we cansee it?  What a neat idea :)

   Posted by Robbyn  on  03/23  at  11:48 PM
   Location : Where the woodbine twineth...



6. Robbyn...you are always thinking, that’s for sure. The cotton yarn is a great color. I have one skein of the “Anne” yarn. I think it is the same colorway. I had bought it to make the Pooling Scarf in Interweave Knits. I could never get the stripes to workout properly. Maybe a nice pair of socks for me is in order. Thanks for the kind comments on the Shapely Shawlette. I think it is a pattern you would enjoy.

   Posted by Maureen  on  03/24  at  11:34 AM
   Location :



7. Maureen - How cool that you have some of the same yarn!  Someday we’ll arrange to meet up at Patternworks in Center Harbor and we’ll both wear our “Anne” socks :)

   Posted by Robbyn  on  03/24  at  12:01 PM
   Location :



8. Wow, I can’t believe Anne is machine washable!

   Posted by Laura  on  03/24  at  08:23 PM
   Location :



9. Laura - That’s what the label says, though I think I’ll probably hand wash it - just because I’m chicken :) And it’s way too pretty to take chances with!

   Posted by  on  03/24  at  09:41 PM
   Location : Cair Paravel

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