I'm trying to come up with a design for a small knitting bag - something just right for carrying around a pair of socks in progress. I'm thinking I want something tall and skinnny, with a base about the size of a ball of yarn... but I'm not too sure how I want to shape the top. Maybe a drawstring?

I came across this:

http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=137930.0

.. and I was thinking that making the base like the side of that bag could be a good way to go about it. I've done the jordy bag in the past, and  want something a little different.

I'm getting stuck on how in the world to attach the lining piece if I'm doing a drawstring top. When I did the jordy bag, I left an opening in the bottom and pulled it through there. But since his one has a different setup for the base, that worn't work. 

Also - if I'm using fabrics like silks for the outside and then a cotton for the lining, what would the cheapest way to give it some 'oompf' so I don't end up with a completly floppy bag be? Interfacing gets pricey FAST and I have several of these to make.  could a thin batting possibly work? Is that cheaper? Felt? Fleece? I don't want something that will stand up on its own, but I just don't want it to be so floppy that it looks like a puddle of fabric with no shape to it.

I'd appreciate any help!
Jas

Seriously, I"m telling you, it's a sickness.  I'll give you just one photo here since I just got done blogging about it, and there's more yarn waiting for me to go fondle it (and hopefully it is dry enough to reskein now)



Check out the blog for more pics and the names of all the colourways.
http://createdby.artsygal.net

Yay for dyeing. My poor fingernails will never be the same again.
Jas

Yup.. it's the same stuff as that magical 'yarn crack' ... This was a test run to see how I'll like the dyeing process, before I beef it up and start dyeing it in quantitiy.

More pics in this post in my blog..

http://createdby.artsygal.net/index.php/a/2007/03/30/artsy_halo_what

It's so soft I just want to roll around in it!

I've been waiting impatiently for my electric skeiner to get here so I can wind off and dye yarn. Well, last week it finally arrived, so I got to work winding and dyeing!

I started with this..



which turned into this...



Which yesterday became this...



And for some closeups...
Roses Are Red


SeaFoam (this is the blues above - this image is more accurate, but still not 100% yet)


This one hasn't been named yet..



And my favoriteist one of them all..
Chocolate Chiffon


These are just quick pictures of them, some need to be rephotographed for better colour accuracy.

This was just WAY too much fun!
Jas

I'm a fairly new spinner - I've spun up less than a single lb of fiber that I bought to play with - and  I'm still at the stage where I'm totally fascinated that I'm actually making yarn.

Now.. to that add the fact that I love colour and dyeing.. and that I love my camera with the loverly super macro lens.. Here's my latest creeation..

http://createdby.artsygal.net/media/users/artsygal/Dec06/rainbowyarnporn.jpg

In all, I have about 6 oz of this yarn - I haven't measured the yardage yet, but since my 3 oz skein came to 150 yards plied, and the singles here are similar in weight to those, it stands to logic that this should be atleast 4 times as much, right?

I haven't decided whether to ply it or to keep it as a single yet - the colours look so delicious like this that I hate to mix them up by plying.



Jas

It's been a little while since i had the time to dye - but here are two that I did recently.

Golden Temple - this was a custom dye job for a friend who wanted to knit what i guess could be the called the equivilant of an altar cloth for the sikh temple that she goes to. It's just so bright bright bright!


Moody Blues - because if blue was good enough for picasso.. it's good enough for me. This one looks almost solid at a glance.. But there are so many shades of blue in it. That's apparently my new 'thing' to do - making semi-solid yarns.


Click the linky below to see bigger images
Jas

Here are some of my more recent yarns that I've dyed. I've resigned myself to funky colour fingernails for life now..


Spot O' Irish


Purple Rain


Chocolate n' Wine

I've got a few more colours in my gallery on my site (linky on the WWW button)

This is just TOO MUCH fun! I've switched finally from wiltons to aciddyes, and once I  got over my fear of the idea, it wasn't too much different. Just that I had to make sure that all my dyepots and tools are now no longer to be used for food. That's ok, it's not like I've been cooking these days - my apartment has been taken over by yarn and dyeing! lol!

jas

Are there any more suitable names for these..?

I wanted to share my most recent reason for why my fingertips are multicoloured. There's 3 more skeins hanging in my bathroom as we speak - last night they weren't dry enough yet for me to wind into skeins yet, so that will happen tonight.

EDIT to add a little more info on the yarns - these are actually laceweight. Depending on how things go over the next week or so, if I get some orders on this stuff, I'll also order some undyed DK weight to work with. The fiber content of these skeins is a blend of tussah silk and merino. And while you can't see it nearly as well in the pics, the sheen of the silk is... well, lets say I get warm fuzzies each time I look at it, and I keep petting the skeins. LOL. Is it narcisstic (sp?!) to be THIS much in love with my own dying?
Jas

I have this obsession. It first became apparent that there was a problem when I went stir crazy with all the white walls in my apartment... and next thing I knew, I was painting them red. RED walls.. in a rented apartment. Walls thath ave to be white when I leave. WHO CARES?!

Now i have red walls, that isn't enough. My kitchen is still boring. So I keep performing mad scientist experiments in it that inevitably result in staining of the floor or counter in any one of a myriad of colors.

Here is what this past weekend's experiments ended in...



Step a little closer now... It won't bite you, I promise:


And one last shot:


I present to you, 650 yards of silk/merino laceweight. Prior to this all I'd used was fisherman's wool. The difference between that and this is so amazing I could cry.  I actually brought it to work with me today and sat it on my desk like art.. and I can't resist petting it now and then.

I still have its twin at home - still white. I'll have to think of something equally fabulous for it.

Jas

I'm in the process of designing an afghan that will consist of squares of 2 different colors sewn to each other checkerboard style. One color will be plain stockingette squares, while the other will be made up of all kinds of different patterns - cables, textured stitches, etc.

My concern here is - I know that different stitches will result in my getting a different width for each square if I keep the number of stitches the same over all of them. SO...to get the same width on each square, I'm going to have to work a different number of stitches for each square. THe problem is - HOW to plan for this? I want to make fairly large squares, approximately 14 inches across. The fear that I may end up knitting and RE-knitting squares over and over till they're the right size scares the crap out of me. 

Does anyone have any suggestions to make this process a little less painful? I absolutely MUST start on this this weekend - I have exactly a month to finish it in! 

Jas