Bobblilicious babe and the birth of a knitter

Okay, the secret is out - I made Tracy a Noni bag for her birthday. I started on Friday afternoon, and three skeins of black Cascade 220 later, I had the base bag knitted. That was Sunday, about midday. Then I took this--
Basically this was my entire stash of Cascade 220, a few purchased with the purse in mind, some leftover from previous felting projects, even some leftover orange pumpkin yarn. I discarded the dark green because it wasn't interesting enough, and I came up with around 8 colors. The pattern called for 16 different colors for the bobbles. I don't think you could find 16 different colors of Cascade 220 in this city, so I went with what I had.

The pattern called for 4 bobbles in each of 3 sizes in each color. I initially doubled that to account for fewer colors, but after a few hours and only one color done, I decided that unless I wanted to be buried in bobbles, I could reduce the amount of bobbles in half and still have plenty.

Bobbles took me until Monday afternoon. Monday evening was stuffing the large ones, sewing them all shut and sewing them on the bag. Maurice cooked dinner, bless him.

Tuesday morning I had this-


Cell phone included for scale.

At one point in the bobble sewing, Grace said in all seriousness, "Mom, I don't think that hat is going to fit Tracy." At that point, Grace and Alex had to wear it around the house as a hat.

Tuesday morning Tracy tried to lure me into coffee with her, but I resisted--I had a bag to felt. On to Mom's to fuzz up her washing machine, and one quick trip through the machine, it was looking good.

Then on to find lining fabric and heavy interfacing to hold up all those bobbles (I saw that on a knit along somewhere). Joann's was a strike out, of course. Hancock had interfacing, magnetic closure, and zipper. After Grace's dentist appt. (life gets in my way), Grace and I went to Quilter's Paradise, keeper of all good fabrics. I found the perfect stripe, with black and multi colors, just sassy enough to set off all those bobbles, and black fabric with multi color circles to line the inside of the zipper pocket.

After school, I started the lining. Yes, the bag was still wet. Damp, actually. I lined it anyway.
Here it is with the lining pinned to the bag.

Watched Dancing with the Stars while sewing the lining to the purse, and got a little distracted by Mario Lopez, so I put off sewing the handles until morning.

I wrapped it and it was finished at 7:30 am. Knotty Knitters is at 8:30. Could I cut it any closer?


Fortunately, Tracy liked it. I'm glad. I think it turned out well. Thankfully, she is a felter too, so the fact that it is still a little damp didn't distract from it too much.


She's all smiles even before it was opened. Maybe she sensed knitted thing inside.


















Still smiling. I'm glad it matches her outfit.

Happy Birthday Tracy! We Knotty Knitters will miss you while you are sailing the ocean blue!














We also witnessed the birth of a new knitter today. Suzelle joined our little group, and learned to knit today. Hooray! She actually had a short lesson one other time, but today we made sure it stuck for good. Welcome Suzelle!





















Lisa finished her poncho. Aren't they a good looking bunch?