Knit!  Knit!

Generally, I prefer hand-work to machine work.  I always sew my hems  and other visible seams by hand.  I know the supremacy of scratch-made baked goods, and that is, literally, the way I roll.  And I pull weeds by hand–no chemical weed killers in this garden, no no.  And the mere thought of machine embroidery gives me the gibblies–I mean what, really, is the point of machine embroidery, unless of course you own a major-league sports team?

But there are clear exceptions.  Now that I have a kitchen-aid with a meat-grinder and sausage stuffer, I will never return to the old, messier, harder way of making fresh sausage.  And don’t try to hack on me about it–you don’t even make sausage.   I know you don’t.  Unless you are Aes or Etaine, who have made sausages and have used the kitchen-aid because, like me, you know the harder path is very greasy and much smellier; and arguably less safe to your hands and your GI tract what with the increased length of time between grinding and cooking the meat; and much more likely to be woefully interrupted by kidlets or naughty dogs; and thus much less likely to result in lots of really good homemade sausage.  You also know that deer ligature makes their stifles function much like light switches.  But I digress.

I make knitted felt.  Dark Mary wants me to make lots of knitted felt, but to make it affordable to the masses.  Lookie lookie:

That swatch took me mere minutes to make, and I barely even know what I’m doing yet.  I do know what I am making . . . I am making a bag that will look much like a’this pottery.  I’m using a strand of Cascade 220 and a strand of Arucania nature wool throughout–two greens for the bottom, grassy half, and two blues for the sky.  You are looking at the back side of the sky portion of the program.  This will be a pocket, eventually.  The bag is a commission piece, and because I can do most of the knitting on my new contraption, I will be able to charge the cash-poor commissioner very little for labor.  And I will get a lot of grafting practice putting the bag together, but my mistakes will be obscured by the felting.  Good news all around.

Here are the photos of my Mom’s Mother’s Day present.  I love this bag.

I made up the pattern on the fly, making sure to narrow the bag at the mouth and finish the top with an i cord bind off for stability.  The button is a hand-made antler bead that I’ve been holding on to for years.  I lined the bag, and the lining has an integrated needlepoint canvas stabilizer in the bottom.  The lining fabric is a pattern called “flowering star of Ghana.”  I heart it.

I used Lamb’s Pride for the bag, and I have to say I’m not fond of the extra fuzziness from the mohair.  I gave this bag one heck if a trim, but I used scissors as if I were trimming a dog.  The halo passed appealing and reached feral sometime in the felting process.  The color is gorgeous, though, so I am ultimately quite happy with the finished product.

And finally, to celebrate my new office at work, I made this little mini-garden (which, as usual, is much more charming in person):

I hope the new office gives it enough light.  That window behind the plants opens onto the atrium, so it’s not ideal for my green charges.

Off to my Step-Dad’s birthday party, which will be full of adorable kidlets.

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