Disappointment

I think just about the last thing I wrote was about how green the Noni bag turned out to be. I may have mentioned something about the uncertainty of the felting process, especially since I have a front-loading washing machine. Never a truer word spoken.

This is the bright lime green bag after felting:



It has turned what can only be described as a "mucky brown" (technical term). On the plus side, it is a more suitable size for a bag. I'm trying to think what to do with it because I certainly don't want it to be that colour. Dye it black? Remove the colour and dye it back to the lime green it started off as? Dye it with what? Throw it behind the sofa and forget about it for a while? Everything is possible.

Not content with the bag itself turning into a nightmare, the flowers are not far behind. There are five flowers. I had already felted one because I couldn't wait to see how it would turn out. I made the others and felted them. I'm sure you will spot the problem:



Guess which one I did first? That's something else with a whole lot of questions attached.

I decided to get back to something where I know what I'm doing:



This is clue 2 of the Spring Shawl Surprise and it's still looking good. The difficulty has stepped up a bit in this part - the Bird's Eye pattern at the top centre there doesn't have that plain private side row but is patterned on both sides. It's not impossible but you do need to keep your wits about you.

Here's a shot of the side border:



It's the usual lace-in-progress story - it looks like a crumpled handkerchief until the blocking, so you will just have to use your imagination.

After the setback with the Noni bag, I thought I'd have a go at a little bag in the latest "Let's Knit" magazine. It's called "Audrey" and consists of two moss stitch squares, two cabled squares and a garter stitch gusset. The handle is meant to be a chain with yarn wrapped around it but I might do something different there. The recommended yarn is RYC Cashsoft Aran and only one ball is required. Of course, I'm not using that yarn because there is so much yarn already in the house. I'm using Debbie Bliss wool/cotton doubled and size 4.5mm needles. Strangely, there is no gauge given for the pattern, though we do have finished dimensions. It's a small bag but I think it's meant to be dinky (technical term).

Here's the cabled square, which I did without the aid of a cable needle (oh, the joy! the liberation!):




Here are the rest of the ingredients, looking slightly wonky (tt):



And, finally, just because you haven't seen it for a while, I give you a soggy back field:



No sign of the horses, one of which bit me the other day (don't ask).