Pattern: from my own wee head; Four Hand Reel by Síle Maureen (pattern in testing! no link available yet)
Started: July 17, 2021
Finished: February 16, 2024
Made for: Síle aka Me/ design sample
Yarns: Bernat Premium (100% acrylic; 360yds/329 m = 198g)
- 115g of "58507 Red" (started with 198g; ended with 83g) = 209.1 yds
- 117g of "58510 Orange" (started with 180g; ended with 63g) = 212.7 yds
- 116g of "58514 Green" (started with 198g; ended with 82g) = 210.9 yds
- 119g of "58521 Royal Blue" (started with 178g; ended with 59g) = 216.4 yds
- 31g of "58003 Dark Gray Heather" (started with 202g; ended with 171g) = 56.4 yds
Total yardage: 905.5 yds
Needle size: 4.5mm/US 7 (2 24" circulars and 2 dpns)
Gauge: 17sts & 36 rows = 4"/10cm in striped garter st
Notes & Photos:
Feb 20/19: I may be turning into a bag lady. This one takes a simple 4 color striping sequence in garter st, and adds in the fun of log cabin blocks.One for the front and one for the back, a strip that combines the bottom, narrow sides, and strap all-in-one, with made as you go i-cord edges. I-cord across the top openings and you're ready to carry around the essentials: a book, bottle of water and your sunblock for an afternoon at the beach or park; water bottle, makeup kit, and ghillies for a feis or performance.
May 16/19:
Rainbow colors will make this fun :) I'm sure others will have neat color combos for this. Almost went monochromatic but nah
A = red
B = orange
C = green
D = royal
E = black
June 16/19:
Today pulled an all-nighter between this and another pattern. Everything was just flowing! I pretty well have this pattern written, minus the yardage and yardage breakdown for each color. And while I was s'posed to be focusing on my Ilvermorny assignments! Oops!!
July 9/21:
Finally ready to get this sample knit! I've also declared this as my Year 2 No Maj (B stream) project at Ilvermorny. Structured play is the assignment; team sports, dance lessons, etc. I will focus on the addition of céilí dances to children's classes after they've learned the basics of their light reels and light jigs. Link to declaration post here
"Learning to dance together is fun and a bit challenging but the sense of teamwork is important in what is seen as a very solitary form of dance. Dance friendships are friendships that often defy age groups and dance schools often have a family feeling, with more experienced dancers often acting as aides/guides to the teacher of younger classes as well as giving support at performances; helping with hair/makeup/costuming, acting as moral support/cheering squad at large community events and/or competitions, giving advice on technique or how to handle nerves, etc.
Céilí squads in competitions are made up of students across age groups/classes. The most common ranges are girls under 8, mixed under 8, girls under 12, mixed under 12, girls under 16, mixed under 16, senior ladies, and senior mixed. Sometimes adults are included in the senior categories, other times there are separate adult ladies and mixed; it depends on the set up of the particular feis/feile."
July 17/21: I need a break from fingering weight double-knitting today so striped garter stitch seemed like the best choice ;) Here's the first half of the center square with the provisional cast-on in place:
July 18/21: This is going so quickly! I'm already finished the center square and the first 3 strips :)
July 20/21: The first 4 strips are done :)
August 3/21: Just started strip 8 :) It's certainly bright!
August 10/21: Only just over halfway through strip 9 this week. It was too humid to hold any yarn up until Sunday. Seriously, my hands were stickier with sweat than a 3 year old who put their own jam on their sandwich! We're talking stick-eeeeee lol But I put a few rows on this so I'm happy with that. Strip 9 is the start of the final strips which will end with strip 12 making the tote side square again. Here's how it looks currently:
August 11-12/21: Finished strip 9; just slipping it onto its holder. I'm forgoing the purl rows on this last round of strips as I find they look a bit chunky in the knitting. Not sure if I'll skip them for the other side if the tote and then rewrite the end of each strip without them yet. They're not really saving any work with the ends which was my original reasoning of doing the purl row and then using the same color as the first one of the next strip. I also wanted to have a different order on each piece instead of all the exact same so this accomplished that without too much thinking. Working over the midnight timeline again, hence the date. Lol When do I ever work within "normal" time??
August 13/21: Starting the last rectangle of what will be the back of the tote :) Am toying with adding a pocket to the front, using the "seam" between two rnds of rectangles. So far my Twitter poll indicates knitters want both an outside pocket and an inner pocket. I usually do inner pockets as part of any lining I make, so would leave that up to the individual knitter. Here's what the back is looking like; the last rectangle will be along the bottom:
later: The first side is done :)
I used the following amounts for the first side:
red - 41g = 74.55yds
orange - 47g = 85.45yds
green - 39g = 70.91yds
blue - 41g = 74.55yds
A total of 305.46yds :) And the completed side looks like this:
August 31/21: 2 rectangles added since I last updated. One more will have the first two "rings" around the center finished. I hope to get at least one rectangle done each werk as I work on my project for this year's Tbird House Challenge. Here's the photo:
5 more rectangles to finish and then on to the bottom/sides/strap joining piece. I really hope that goes as I've envisioned it.
September 14/21: One more rectangle finished and back to a square :) Now that my THC project is done I can get back to focusing on this, and get my second class submitted soon. I hope. Here's where it's at:
Septmber 21/21: And the second side is done! If it hadn't been for a stomach bug I'd have been at this point on Sunday. (And seriously I'd like to know how I even got the darn thing. I mask in stores and the post office. I wash my hands and use sanitizer as needed. I'm careful for the love of Lugh. Ugh. I hate getting sick. I digress.)
So here are my numbers for side 2:
red - 42g = 76.36 yds
orange - 40g = 72.73 yds
green - 44g = 80 yds
blue - 45g = 81.82 yds
A total of 310.91 yds for side 2 :) And that's 616.37 yds total. I have a photo of both sides laid next to each other:
Now for the fun part: knitting the bottom/side/strap while joining the sides together! You may be right; I may be crazy...
later (5:02pm): A few more joining rows worked. I think it's getting a bit easier to see how it's working out in this photo:
later (9:13pm): 14 ridges done now. Also had to make and eat supper lol It's much easier now that I'm not working right at the edge. I'm glad my original idea is working out so nicely:
September 27/21: Finished joining the bottom! I love it :) Here's a photo:
September 28/21: I've turned the corner :) I'm so pleased with how this joined as I go strip is working out for the sides. Here's how the corner looks:
Happily continuing on :)
October 5/21: Finished the side :) 2/5 done this section. On to the strap! Oh, the photo:
October 6/21: What a great day of progress! I knit 234 rows of the 324 needed for the strap! I mean, the rows are only 12sts long so they go pretty quick lol. But I'm nearing 4/5 of the way through this section now :) At this rate I might have this bag done before mid-month! Here's a side view of the strap:
October 19/21: I've reached 300 rows on the strap. This has taken a wee backseat to other things the last week or so. But progress is progress! Most recent photo:
later (12:02am): Done the strap section :) I increased back to 14 sts on the last row and now can start joining the other side of the bag :) Officially 4/5 through the bottom/side/strap. And the final section of the strap:
October 26/21: I've been more focused on my seasonal projects but I have started the final joining section on the bag :)
November 2/21: A bit more done this week. Jakey was sick again so my knitting time took a hit with my supervising "shifts"; my room is too small to fit a chair in and sitting on my bed offers my back no support so I really can't knit or crochet in there. My room is the defacto kitty quarantine space so I messed about with some editing and watching pvr'd shows on my phone while staying up with the furball.
November 7/21: Got the final bit of joining done :) Here are the grams/yards for the bottom/narrow sides/strap:
red - 32g = 58.18yds
orange - 30g = 54.55yds
green - 33g = 60yds
blue - 33g = 60yds
The third section took 232.73 yards. Adding that to the total for the large sides (616.37) makes 849.1yards. I'm debating whether to use the colors as I had outlined or use black for the i-cord edgings.
Here's what the completed side joining looks like:
I also took pics of the front and back of the (nearly) completed tote. With bonus Jakey photobomb! And yes, it did come out that big :''D Here they are:
November 18/21: Silver Belle (aka furry niece #1) decided my tote makes for a good bed
November 23/21: I started the i-cord edging over a week ago but still don't have one entire side done. Too many other WIPs taking my attention but 2 of them are gifts with a bit less than a month to go on one. So yeah. I do like how the very dark gray looks with the colors; there was no black yarn to be found at the store. All labelled as on order which doesn't help me finish a pattern. Oh well. I do like the gray. Here's the latest pic:
November 30/21: Got a wee bit more done on the edge of the strap this week. It's sloooooowly coming along.
January 9/22: Picked this up the other day and finished the first side of the edging, and also started the second side of it. But when I looked at it today it just looks messy and I'm not crazy about it. I love the color; the gray contrasts with the bright stripes but doesn't overpower them. I'm looking at the texture; i-cord should be smooth and this isn't. I ripped back what I had done on the second side, and quickly picked up 1 st in every ridge with the gray (with the RS facing), cut the yarn, and then continued the 4st i-cord from the bag edge around the strap. What a difference! And it's going so much faster! Seriously. I'm over half finished with this side already.
January 10/22: First off, I want to post a photo from last night, showing the new neat i-cord along the strap where I had picked up sts along it before attaching the i-cord:
January 11/22: Finished the knitting :) Now for the part I dread: sewing the lining for the bag and strap. I really need to quit thinking up designs that require further skills I don't have, like sewing :'D
Here it is with all the knitting done:
April 7/22: Um, yeah. Lining still not sewn or attached. I had misplaced the fabric for a bit but found it the other day. I really need to get that done. Maybe after SDW? Maybe?
July 28/23: Sistwerp is away and I think I can get this finished up (finally!!). The test knit is going well lol That started the 15th. So I think this may be a fall release; we shall see!
July 29/23: Once again, didn't get to this while Sistwerp was away. sigh I may have to cut things one day and do the sewing on another. Possibly. If there weren't a frigging Christmas tree still in the living room taking up space I'd have space to maneuver things. sigh
August 29/23 (1:18am NDT): With the coming rain I made sure to have this out to work on it this week:
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