I took some time this week to look for what materials I had on hand to knit my bag. I had been wanting to do it for some time, but had put it off for one reason or another. I found some yarn that would felt, and sat down to start knitting it on Friday. I didn't follow a pattern, but decided to combine what I needed with what I found on the net. I made my bottom 8" x 12" in garter stitch and picked up the stitches around the sides and then knitted for 13". The kids and hubby don't like the colors, but it's what I had on hand, so the bag isn't costing anything extra to make.

When I casted off, I did a loose cast-off, and I'm not sure how it's going to felt, since it's rolling now. I think I should have done an I-cord edging or maybe a garter stitch edging, but being this is the first time trying this, I'm going with just a cast-off edge to see what happens. On top of the bag, you can see I've started knitting the I-cord. This is the first time I've ever tried knitting it, and I look at it in amazement. I know, the simplest things amaze me. :) As soon as the I-cord is finished (I'll be making it about 5-6 feet long), I'll felt it. This will be the first time felting a piece, besides a test piece I had done by hand to see how the yarn felted. Hubby has asked that I don't felt this until he is around, because he's really interested in seeing how this is all going to work. Cool, don't you think?

It's a good thing I started this, as Saturday, when I was just getting ready to go to town, I picked up my purse, and the handle broke even more - now just hanging by mere threads. I didn't take my purse and was lost without it. How's that for timing?

JoAnn's is having a President's Day sale that ends today. We went Saturday to pick up a grommet plier kit and some grommets so that my I-cord can run through my bag easily. They were 50% off, so you can imagine my pleasure at timing again. Wool-Ease was also on sale, and although I don't care for a mostly acrylic wool blend, these make some nice soft bed socks that the kids love. I used my 40% off coupon on the skein of Fisherman's wool that DH likes for his boot socks, and the Simplicity patterns were $1 each. To top it all off, there was also a 10% off the total purchase - so we did really well!!

I couldn't find the large double point knitting needles I needed for the I-cord, so I went to the knitting shop to buy them. I asked for size 13 dpns, and she pulled them off the wall and asked if I realized they were $13?!! She then asked what I was using them for, and when she found out it was for I-cord, she said I didn't want to spend my money on them for just doing the cording. She grumbled about all the books insisting on buying unnecessary needles and said I could do it with what I had. She pulled out a circular needle and showed me how to do it on them. I would just treat the needle like a huge dpn and slide from one side to the other. DUH!!! Did you ever have one of those moments when you thought "Why didn't I think of that?!!"

Since I didn't have to waste money on the needles, we came out with some new sock yarn for DS. He pulled out three different yarns he wanted me to make socks out of. I wasn't planning on 3, but he sounded disappointed when he thought he had to choose, so I took them all. This child asks me for nothing. He is extremely frugal (to downright cheap), so when we go out shopping, he hardly ever gets anything except for necessities. Socks are his luxury. We were discussing with him a bit one day about our consideration of the one house our son wants us to buy, and told him that if we moved, we'd have to give up everything except for the necessary things. He said that was fine. We named off things like camp, store-purchased goodies, etc. and he was fine with everything until we came to the socks (you know - sock yarn is expensive!). He said he'd give it all up, but not the socks. I thought my husband was going to choke on dinner. :)

On the subject of socks, here's an update on the socks for DS. I call them the "Ugly Socks". (Hey! They're almost as ugly as our couch!!) I still am disappointed, because I would have paid just a bit more for a different brand in a beautiful colorway. I won't be making this mistake again! LOL