Passeport pour TN 2011 : felted bag in Kauni
This bag is ideal to knit with Kauni leftovers from other porjects. You can either use the same colour of Kauni, by being careful to begin to knit with 2 contrasting colours from the same ball or you can use 2 different colours balls of Kauni as I did (EQ multicolour and ES)
Material :
- circular needles nr. 3 et nr 4.5 mm of 80cm - 1 crochet nr. 3 - 1 I-cord maker such as this one: http://www.bond-america.com/products/embellish-knit.html or knit Icordbyhand -1sewingneedle - Kauni yarn : EQ (multicolor) et ES. The bag is weighing 120g. I used approximately 70g of Kauni EQ multicolore.
Gauge:
- 10x10 cm unblocked with 4.5 mm needles: 18x24 stitches - 10x10cmfelted: 23x26 stitches Motif : Damask : 32 stitches repeat and et 36 rows high.
Damask Pattern : (1 error on row 23 : the 5th stitch from the right should be marked purple (knitted in Kauni EQ) see also http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/kauni-damask-understated-bag
Design1
A) Bag :
Step 1 : with the I-cord maker knit an I-cord of 90cm with Kauni EQ green. Hook off the-l cord from the machine careful to leave the last 4 stitches open and cut the yarn, leaving a 10 cm tail. Cut the tip/beginning of the I-cord to get 4 live stitches. You will join the I-cord in the round with a Kitchener stitch, careful to not twist a bit alter, after having picked up160 stitches in all (see step 2) with a Crochethook.
Step 2 : with the crochet hook pick up 157 stitches in the contrasting colour ES (blue) and put them on a circular needle 4.5mm. Then join the I-cord in the round with a Kitchener stitch, careful to not twist. Pick up remaining 3 stitches over the Kitchener joint. You have now a joined I-cord in the round with 160 stitches picked up on a circ. needle.
Step 3 : begin to knit the Damask pattern in the round with the blue ES as background colour and the Kauni EQ as pattern colour. Take care to always have a good contrast between the back ground colour and the pattern colour. Be aware that in some rows you have 7 to 9 stitch floats. Weave these in as you go. Knit in the round 2 entire Damask patterns = 86 rows. You will also note that your knitting is loose. This is good as you will felt this knitting. If you have to join yarn, spit splice them (= Russian joint). Step 4 : after having finished 2 pattern repeats knit 5 rows in ES (blue) only and increase 5 stitches over the 160. You now have 165 st. Step 5 : on row 6 after having finished the pattern ( row 92 from beginning of work) make the holes for the I-cord tie by casting off 1 stitch every 15 stitches and making 1 yarn over at the same time. Step 6 : Knit Knit 20-25 rows or as long as you want to get a nice border and finish the body of the bag as follows: knit a 2nd I-cord of 90 cm. Use a tapestry needle to sow it stitch by stitch to the live stitches of the body, thus casting them off at the same time. Close the I-cord in the same way as in step1 and 2.
B) Bottom of the bag :
Step 7 : pick up 160 stitches with a crochet hook and place them on a circular needle of 4.5mm. Place a marker every 32 stitch. To obtain a spiral knit together 2 stitches every row and before every marker until only 5 stitches are left (knit 31 rows). Cut yarn and thread it through the remaining 5 stitches and sewoff. Step 8 : knit a 3rd l-cord 120cm long to use as a cord to close the bag. .I recommand to wet block the bag before felting: it smoothes the stitches and the pattern To felt the bag : Thread a plastic thread or synthetic thread through the holes to keep them open during felting. Put the bag in a pillow case or laundry bag ( to avoid fuzzes all over your washing machine) Put it all in the washing machine together with 3 tennis balls (l used a plastic ottle of washing liquid filled with water), add a generous scoop of washing liquid and wash your bag for 30mn on the 40C° cycle for sport garment (low temperature but lots of agitation) Take out the tennis balls or bottle and spin dry with the 60C? spinning programme Take bag out of washing machine. Stretch gently in form and let dry.
