A bag, a flower and more Kauni

Remember the performance I had trying to find suitable yarn for the bag I promised to make? It was just as much of a performance to find the ribbon. That's the trouble with Rowan books - always asking for yarn that's been discontinued, always requiring bag handles, or buttons or beads or, in this case, "taffeta ribbon, 13cm wide". Hello!! I live in the rural backwater, finding any ribbon is a bit of a lottery, finding 13cm wide taffeta ribbon would be somewhat of a miracle.

Time was short. In the end I got some black, shiny, slinky stuff (all technical terms) and, dragging out the ancient Singer (that's not Pavarotti, either RIP), I made a ribbon thing myself. There were supposed to be "embellishments" but none of the ones I made looked any good. I thought about beads but my Not-a Barbie sister-in-law is not very "bling", so in the end I decided I liked the calm, understated simplicity of the brown bag and the black ribbon. I don't think it looks too shabby:



I've been taunting you with promises of pictures of the steeks in the Kauni jumper for far too long. Here you go:



You can see the one stitch left on the safety pin at the bottom of the picture; you can see the ten stitches cast on for cutting purposes later; you can see the chequerboard pattern in the steek. If you are Lixie you can also see the stitch marker you sent me at the top of the picture.

Here's the progress so far:



I'm so in love with this that I want one for myself. I cannot bear the thought of knitting the self-same jumper again. Apart from the boredom factor I wouldn't want to run the risk of looking like Tweedledum and Tweedledumber, so I'm considering using the sideways scroll motif from the Ukrainian socks in Nancy Bush's "Folk Socks", to make a Kauni of my very own.

When I ordered the yarn for the brown bag, I felt obliged to order other stuff too (free shipping over £20 - I was actually saving money). The pattern for the "9 to 9" Noni bag and the yarn to make it. I haven't started the bag yet but I've had a go at the flowers. You saw the "holes" that were never going to close up on felting? Here's the finished felted flower (no holes, but that's because I took steps to avoid forming holes in the first place):



Only another eight to go. Oh, and the bag, of course.