finished recycled sari bag and seed stitch hat in progress

i finished the recycled sari bag. while we were in york this weekend, we went to ben franklin crafts store and i found some hot pink fabric scraps to make the lining for only a couple of dollars. (i also found some mission falls cotton on clearance, so i had to violate my moratorium on buying yarn and snatch that up.)

yesterday i sewed up the lining for the bag; for my first attempt at machine sewing i thought it came out really nice. then i hand sewed the lining into the bag and sewed on the handles with sari yarn. i hate doing all of that post-knitting work, but i have to say the finished bag looks impressive. i'm really really proud of it.

here is another "in progress" photo with the bag turned partially inside-out to show the lining.

also, i'm about 1/3 done with a seed stitch hat i'm making for myself. i'm using hand-painted "mutiny" yarn i bought on sale from the black stitch. i really recommend everyone check out this site -- rebecca's hand-painted yarns are really beautiful and so reasonably priced! the mutiny yarn only cost $4 a skein! i'm so happy with the yarn that i forgive rebecca for slipping some hard candies into the package, which led to my dog tearing up the box to get to said candies. i came home one day to find my living room strewn with cardboard, shredded plastic bag pieces, yarn, and three empty chewed-up candy wrappers. but the yarn appears to have survived ok, the dog survived ok, and all's well that ends well!

i'm not following any pattern for this hat, i'm just making it up. there is a "seam" area between the end of each row and the beginning of the next row where there are two knit stitches or two purl stitches next to each other, instead of the usual knit/purl/knit/purl seed stitch. but i figured that this faux seam would look better than a real sewed seam (especially considering my poor seam sewing skills), and i couldn't figure out any other way to make seed stitch hat on circular needles and avoid sewing a seam. we'll see how it comes out.

i worked on the seed stitch hat during my vegan stitch and bitch yesterday. it's a nice portable project for knitting in public. we had a nice time and had some yummy food. if anyone else is in the dc area, you should come knit with us! we meet the first and third sunday of every month at busboys and poets at 3 pm. email me if you want more info, or just show up!

still waiting for my yarn and needles to arrive for the christmas present poncho, and i'm getting stressed! never buy anything from joann.com -- they suck and their customer service is nearly non-existent. i re-ordered everything from another website, and hopefully it will be here soon.