Fiber Dreams

I have had this dear, old project bag since I was in grade school, about forty years now (maybe thirty-nine, but close enough). It was crocheted by a good friend of my grandmother’s, Elsie…

When Elsie died, her children invited us—Grandma, mom, dad, and me—to go through her house, and take absolutely anything that we wanted. Though I’d met Elsie, I didn’t know her. She was an old lady, I was a small child. She’d talk with Grandma, I played in the garden. You know the sort of thing. As a result, going through her beautiful old house when she wasn’t in it was rather odd. Especially since her family kept telling us to take some­thing. Anything. Please. My mother had to be talked into it, but she ended up coming home with a beautiful old Singer sewing machine in a wood cabinet, black machine, lots of lovely painted gold decorations. Glorious. She made lots of clothes for me with that sewing machine over the years.

What did I bring home? This lovely project bag that Elsie had made out of scrap yarn.

In the intervening years this bag has rarely been empty, always loved, often crammed so full of yarn that it spilled out the top. I’ve taken it on trips, moved with it, taken it to friends’ houses, to school, everywhere. The lining fabric, though still in remarkably good shape, has split its seams from being over-filled one too many times. The yarn is moth eaten and worn. It’s had a good, useful life, and over all, I think, it is happy to be part of my world.

But it is falling apart. So much so that I’ve become concerned about it. I need a good, solid, reliable knitting bag these days. I haven’t done anything with this old gem, as I am loathe to part with it. It’s been in my life for so long, how can I give up on it?

I can’t. I can’t part with it. So I’ve decided to try to felt it to keep it from falling apart any more.

Before I do that, I have to have something to replace it with; it’s my only knitting bag.

Besides. I haven’t felted a single thing before, and I’m nervous about it.

Besides. I don’t want to completely ruin what’s left of Elsie’s bag!

I have this wonderful yarn from Deb. Two skeins clearly aren’t enough to make a garment out of. I don’t need hats or mittens or wooly scarves here in southern California. So I’m going to use it to make a new knitting bag. And I’m going to use the handles from Elsie’s bag. I have to remove them prior felting anyway, and after felting Elsie’s bag won’t be big enough to do justice to the wonderful old wood handles.

Yesterday morning I swatched, decided on a basic design, did some math. The plan changed several times while I was swatching. I liked the fabric I got with size 8 needles. The yarn is a dream to knit with. Soft. Awesome bumpy texture. Subtle color changes—especially in the overcast light we have today.

I ripped back the swatch, and cast on. I ribbed the first 1-1/2 inches. That part will go through the slit in the handle, and get sewed down on the inside of the bag. I’m increasing on either edge every fourth row. I’m hoping to have enough yarn left so that when the bag is long enough I can knit sides for it. We’ll see how far I get. That part’s optional.

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