Remnants and Bargains

Just so you don't get the idea that I have completely fallen off the planet into the 'backpack twilight zone'......

...I have finished a couple of other projects....OK...so one of the other projects is a bag!  I guess I just can't help myself.

I was at the lake house and didn't have much in the way of projects, but I did have a couple of remnant pieces that I had picked up just because they looked like they should be together in something.  The something turned out to be a tote bag. 

...am I right?  The fabrics really do need to be together....and of course, I didn't have enough of either one to make the lining so I decided to have some fun....

I love the hot pink on the inside!  I used bias cut strips of a coordinating linen to make the straps and put some rivets at the pressure points to make them stronger.  Right now it is on probation as my knitting bag...we'll see...

Speaking of knitting 😉...We have a lovely Fiber Festival here the middle weekend of August and I get all inspired.   I figure I better finish the old projects before the shiny new ones suck up all the attention!  So sometime around the middle of August, I usually haul out the knitting projects that I started in the wintery months that got put aside for the summer.  I make one last stab at finishing them in time for the next round of wintery months.  If they don't make it, I figure I better just frog 'em and start again.

This year's UFO was an amazing alpaca cardigan that just needed one more sleeve...technically it still isn't finished, but I figure putting snaps on isn't technically knitting, so I'm counting it!  (I have yet to get a picture of it so that will have to wait as well.)  BUT...feeling all righteous about a finished project, I dove into another one right away....feeling even more righteous, because I was using stashed yarn!

My cardigan was a rather large project on small needles, I wanted an easy, fast, instant gratification type project.  Nothing that was going to hang around for too long.  Big yarn on big needles!!!!! 

I'm sure the yarn that I pulled out came from the sale basket in a darling little yarn shoppe somewhere, but heck if I can remember.  I'm making this assumption based on the red lines through the original prices and new, lower prices written in the same red ink, AND the fact that there were three colors of said bargain yarn, none of which was enough for a sweater.   The yarn was however, BIG.  And really soft and cozy.  A blend of wool, silk and cashmere, yum!  I watched a You Tube about "jogless color changing" and started knitting....I really didn't have much of a plan.  I just kept making decisions when I would run out of yarn...I am rather fond of the result!

Having finished a UFO and used up a wad of my stash yarn, I felt quite justified in loading up at the fiber festival!  ...and I made sure I will have enough to make a whole sweater this time!