My Constant Companion

I have been knitting like crazy over the past week, and I have a few finished projects to share. First, I finished my Feather and Fan comfort shawl. It came out great, and I am very excited about wearing it soon. I just need to weave in the ends, and block it. That will have to wait until this weekend because we have a lot on our plates this week, but I will share photos as soon as it's blocked.

Second, I completed my version of the Constant Companion from Knitter's Stash. I have wanted to make this bag for quite a long time, but I kept putting it off because I knew I wanted to use some great yarn for the project. I finally found the perfect combo of colourways of Nature Wool. I purchased Araucania's Nature wool chunky instead of holding two strands of worsted. I also increased the size by about 20%, and then made the straps much longer. Nature wool felts nice and strong, so it worked out great. I used 2 skeins of Chunky Multi in shade 210, 3 skeins of 136 (purple), 2 skeins of 132 (light blue), and 2 skeins of 120 (dark blue). I bought these during the holiday sale at my LYS so I saved a bundle.

Since this was knit on 11's it was a fairly quick knit. I carried it with me everywhere for about a week, and it was done in no time. It was massive pre-felting. The photo below was taken with the bag on two full size sheets of poster board to highlight it's scale.

I took it to a friend's house on Wednesday last week to felt it. She has a great washer for felting, and it gives me a good excuse to hang out for the day. It felted really quick, and it took about 24 hours to dry. She also helped me cut the holes for the handles since I couldn't bring myself to do it. I was so worried about cutting them too large or crooked. Thanks for all your help Barbara...you're the best.

Here are a few shots post-felting. It was very hard to take some decent pictures because of the rainy weather over the last two days, but you can see the basic shape and color. This picture is shot on the same two pieces of poster board.


I decided not to knit the button or loop. Instead I attached a wooden button on the front, and I am going to add snaps. I like the look much better this way.

Overall, I am very happy with the end result. I wanted a large bag that I can use for daily travels to and from work. This will definitely fit the bill. It is very thick and sturdy, but it is not heavy. I love how the color variation in the yarn makes the bag look swirled.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year's Day. Catch you again in 2008!