Spring Fever: knit addiction

In the weeks between music projects, there’s been time to explore projects large and small, to finish a few UFOs, to work out and work on so many bits and pieces of larger ideas, research and sketch a few new ones, and search through stash and baskets of scraps in order to get a few more on track. At times it’s felt a bit like suffering from knit addiction, as if the next stitch might be my last, bringing to mind that knitter’s favorite, The Last Knit.

What’s been on, and come off, my needles these past few weeks? For the first time, I’ve been knitting bags to felt (or full, to be more precise). Some friends who recently learned to knit asked to make bags together, so this was my opportunity to reach into my ideas folders. Inspired by a couple of examples from Tink Knits (the Penny Bag, Silver Leaf Satchel and Pebble Beach Bag), and Noni’s many bags, I’ve started two.

The first is one of Noni’s “Rather Large” carpetbags, in Araucania Nature Wool, celery green, olive green and gray green.  It may be that making one of these bags requires knitting addiction even more than ordinary commitment, to persist with the hours of stockinette, working in circles over and over, as the bag grows to gargantuan proportions.  Fortunately, it did felt to a reasonable size. I’m on the fence about decoration, unable to decide whether I want to disrupt the calm of the stripes with a (more or less bold) flower. But if I do go the flower route, it will be peonies or chrysanthemums.

A second bag is on its way - a medium-sized black carpetbag (Knit Picks Wool of the Andes), to be felted and embellished with a mosaic of the international coins my father has given the boys after his travels. (What else does a grandfather do but empty his pockets of those leftovers?). The idea of gilding felted knits is especially appealing, and I’ll be working out a way to extend this special Tink Knits technique to a special project, as well as on some leaves for the TikkunTree.

Other projects are in various stages of design and preparation … especially for Passover. Much more to come, if I can keep the machine running.