Joining Ginny’s Yarn Along, sharing what I’m knitting and reading.

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Yay! I finished this felted kid’s backpack bag. It was an experiment and was fun to make. The base I knitted in some blue alpaca yarn (it’s so soft.) I knitted it on the round as if I was making a super huge hat (but left it open at both ends.) And kept going and going. I wasn’t sure how small it was going to felt up. I stuck it in the washing machine and it turned out the perfect size for a kid’s bag. 

When my mom came to visit last, she brought some wool sweaters she no longer wore, knowing I love to use them for felting projects. I felted one of those sweaters and used a piece of it for the bottom of the bag, as you can see above. I sewed it on with the same alpaca yarn. 

I used another part of the felted sweater to make the straps.

Along the top of the bag I cut little holes and put a strip of felted sweater through to work like a drawstring. 

To close the bag, you pull the strand and tie it.

Now, are you ready to see it being worn? Bracken modeled it for me. He was moving around from one place to the next so quickly, it was a challenge to get pictures that weren’t blurry. 

Jeff got this one. Even with the closed eyes, it was too cute not to post.

Helping push the wheelbarrow.

Then taking a ride in it.

Examining something.

Being completely still for a moment and watching a hummingbird by the fuschias.

So there’s my first ever backpack bag. (I was going to add it to my projects on Ravelry, but I didn’t keep track of how many stitches or anything like that.) It’s a fun project and I would recommend it to others if you’re looking for something new to make. I’d like to make more. It does take quite a bit of yarn and takes awhile to knit, but it’s the kind of knitting that doesn’t require any thinking and is very relaxing. This one will be in our market booth this weekend (and I have some other wool projects I’m hoping to finish in time too.)

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As for reading, I finished reading ‘The Rhythm of Family.’ I really enjoyed it. It was calming and inspiring all at the same time. It’s one I’ll keep going back to for project ideas. 

Then I started reading an article, from Hobby Farm Magazine, our friend Christelle gave us after she saw me write this post, from April 2011. I read it at the time she brought it to us at market, but got it back out to read again. I want to learn all I can about growing happy blueberries.

The article says to dig your hole 1 foot deep by 2 and 1/2 feet wide. The roots spread out more than down. I thought that was interesting. It talks about pruning, fertilizing, bird netting (which we need.) 

It also talks about the different varieties. I used to assume that all blueberries tasted the same. Recently we tried spartan blueberries and wow! They taste incredible. We want to get some of those now. 

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How about you? What are you knitting? Reading?