felted things and malabrigo

A lot of knitting has been going on, but not a lot of typing due to an incident involving a bowl of soup and my computer keyboard. I can still access the internet and my mouse works along with half of my keys, but I have to click letters on my screen to make up for the other half of my keys that don't function. I'm waiting until I'm back home to get it looked at. Fortunately, I don't have to type many papers this semester.

Anyway, I've been knitting constantly and completing several projects. Most recently, I've felted a couple things.

Last night I just added the lining and button/closure to a felted bag.


I used Cat Bordhi's Moebius Sling Bag - Summer Weight pattern as a guideline, but I cast on about 20 extra stitches to the strap and 10 extra stitches to the body of the bag. The strap also isn't a moebius.


I used a few skeins of Classic Elite Skye Tweed (marmalade) and some leftover Madil Loden in a pickley grellow color that I got when I was in Italy last summer. The Skye Tweed took several hot washes to felt for me. I put it through a couple cycles in a top loader washing machine and a few times in a front loader. I've never had a wool that took that much washing to felt. It turned out fine though.


I sewed some quilting fabric together with a machine and then attached the fabric to the felted bag by hand with a tapestry needle and some Noro Shinano. Then, I just made a simple i-cord loop to fasten around a wooden button.


It's the perfect size for a small knitting project like a hat.

I also recently made a basket/bag type thing for Klose Knit out of Malabrigo in the Cadmium colorway.


It's been a little while since I worked with Malabrigo worsted and I've fallen in love with it again.

After making that felted basket I got a couple skeins of Malabrigo at Knit 1 in Chicago to work on a pattern of mine. I came up with a reversible hat idea last summer, but I'm finally perfecting it and starting to get the pattern written up.


I'll put the free pattern on here and on my Ravelry page in the next few weeks or so. The hat looks great playing with two different yarn as well as a solid color.


I'm excited to see other people knit this hat up in different colors.

My needles have been busy with hats in March. I worked with the new Noro Chirimen yarn and whipped up this hat about a week ago.


It's a wonderful cotton blend with gorgeous colorways. I'll be able to wear it in the spring and summer.



I'll still be knitting with wool over these next couple seasons, but I also want to work with some cooler yarns as well. Do you all have any favorite spring/summer yarns. What projects do you find yourself working on in warmer months or what to do you plan on knitting during spring and summer?