I'm back from my unintended blog break. Not sure what happened there. The end of the winter sports season took over, with swim meets and basketball games requiring me to drive all over the place. When the storm hit, I got stuck in a hotel with my daughter at a swim meet for two nights unexpectedly. We made the best of it by watching movies and eating take-out. The meet went on and she ended her season with a great time in the 200 IM.
I also took a break because I have been working on a baby blanket and the progress shots are like watching paint dry.
Then I got busy teaching a few workshops on how to make these little bags. This design is great for a workshop because you can almost finish the top of the bag in a two hour class. Then, the bottom is the same, just a little deeper, so the students have all the skills they need to finish on their own. The best part is how many techniques covered in such a small project: knitting in the round with circulars and doublepoints, colorwork, decreasing, picking up stitches, felting.
I never tire of watching students gain confidence with new skills. Most of these women lead busy lives with jobs and children so they have little time to devote to knitting. Some have a learning style that is best met in a classroom format. They will get stuck on something and wait to come to class to fix it and move on. Sometimes they even apologize for not knitting between classes. These busy women always make for lots of interesting discussion during class about what is going on in their lives outside of knitting!
My bags are stuffed with newpaper and still drying. These bags require "rigorous finishing" as it states in the pattern. They are lined with plastic needlepoint canvas for stiffness, then lined with fabric, a zipper is sewn in and then they are topped with a ribbon handle. I put all that out of my mind as I happily whipped up the bags.
