E, F and G

Well, I have gotten a little behind in my posting, so here are E, F and G altogether.

E is for eleven rows of swatching.
I knit my first gauge swatch for the sweater on size 8 circulars. The results are not good. I will need to buy new needles, size 9 I think. I will try straights before I go to the store.

F is for felting.

I love to felt my knitting. Felting uses hot water and agitation to alter the fiber. You have to use animal fiber in order to felt something. This purse is knit in wool. Here it is stuffed with plastic bags to maintain its cool shape as it dries. I think it looks a little like a pumpkin. What do you think?

Here is the purse before felting. You may notice the little leaves attached to the end of the strap vine that are no longer attached to the felted version. They fell off during felting. Oh well, I will reattach them.

Here are the big pumpkin leaves I knit. They look really weird after felting. Not sure what I will do with them.

G is for Gauge.

This is a neat tool that helps with gauge. Gauge is so important in knitting, especially if you want anything to fit correctly. This tool measures needle gauge and knitting gauge. I love it.