Yes, this great felted Fair-Isle bag’s been traveling the world with me!
Oh… so THAT’s where you’ve been…
Yes- but I’m BACK and it’s going to be nothing but free video techniques and free patterns every week all summer here at KnitFreedom. I’ll tell you all about my adventures, too, but first, the goods:
Why This Fair-Isle Bag Is The Awesomest
If you already know how to knit Fair-Isle (that is, with two colors at once), this bag will be a really quick knit.
It’s knit in bulky yarn and the chart just flies by.
If you are curious about learning to knit Fair-Isle, this is also a good beginner pattern for you.
In this pattern, I link to helpful KnitFreedom videos showing the basics to help you get off to a good start.
This is the pattern that we use to work along together in the Fair-Isle video e-book.
Although it’s been much too long in coming, I’m finally publishing it for all the readers who don’t have the ebook.
A Team of Knitting Geniuses Created This Pattern
A shout-out is imperative. Tracy St. John of Tangled Knitting and Crochet Webzine designed this pattern, which was a perfect project for the Fair-Isle ebook.
Stix Yarn sold me the super-soft Malabrigo for the sample (although I think they did try to talk me out of this color-combination…). Their new online store is growing, but it’s already my favorite place to buy yarn online.
Camilla Emond, photographer, hand-dyer, and yarn-spinner at Free Range Chik, photographed the Fair-Isle bag in the bracing springtime of her Montana home.
Which leaves me… what did I do again? Oh yeah – I knitted the bag and painstakingly filmed every step, thinking up awesome tips and tricks for you along the way.
My favorite tips: how to knit Fair-Isle on Magic Loop and DPNs without making the corners all funky, and how to fix a mistake you made in the chart even if you notice it like six rows later. Learn more about the Fair-Isle Knitting video course here.
The Goods: Download the Fair-Isle Felted Bag Pattern Here
This felted fair-isle bag pattern is FREE to all newsletter subscribers. Download it here or see more photos and check the pattern details here: Easy Fair-Isle Felted Bag.
Please remember to link your project to the pattern page on Ravelry, and share your photos in the KnitFreedom group! This way, other KnitFreedom fans can see all the color combinations and read if you have any tips on knitting the bag or choosing the yarn.
So, Where The Heck Have You Been?
Getting some quality family-time – halfway across the world.
I left on May 1st and headed to Madrid, Spain, where I got to stay for a week and practice my Spanish, meet new friends, and try to sleep in a room full of strangers.
The first order of business was to get to the yoga studio, and stretch and squeeze and twist my body until I felt right back at home (or too tired to tell the difference).
Staying in a big city is such a treat – you can walk anywhere, or take the metro if you get tired.
It’s also easy (and fun) to get lost in the city, which I did a few times.
Each side street is filled with small shops and cafés to look at as you pass by, and of course, if you need to practice your Spanish, you can always ask for directions.
Unfortunately, because there are so many tourists, the average person doesn’t know how to get where you want to go.
Line Break
Some of the main streets in Madrid are breathtaking, like this main avenue below.
A group of friends and I went out for tapas (appetizers) one night, and I learned something new: they’re not called tapas here. They’re called pinchos. Who knew?!
After dinner, we wandered along the streets until we came upon a jazz club with people overflowing out the door. Our curiosity piqued, we squeezed inside and were treated to a small but happening bar with a four-piece jazz-and-blues band playing. A few of us stayed until closing, when I snapped the picture below.
I also met a lovely new friend at the hostel, and we walked and took pictures in the Parque de Retiro, the “Central Park” of Madrid.
Below, on the left, Merryn and I goof off.
On the right, we’re at a trendy tapas “market,” to which she’s brought a menu she’d created with English translations of all the Spanish food-names she could possibly encounter.
The menu was also color-coded to show which of the foods she definitely wanted to try, might want to try, and would under no circumstances be prevailed upon to try.
I’ll leave you with a little video I took in the market, where my friend Jesús tells us, in a beautifully typical Spanish-from-Spain accent, where we are and why.
You’ll see the different tapas counters and, woe betide anyone wearing high heels, the complete absence of seating. I ate my weight in jamón serrano and was in heaven.
Translation:
Liat: You’re on video!
Merryn: (waves)
Jesús: (waves) No tengo ni idea de inglés… (“I have no idea what you just said…”)
Liat: Here, say something, say something in Spanish-Spanish, like really fast.
Jesús: Cómo? (“what?”)
Liat: Say something in Spanish, speak..
Jesús: Ah, que hablo en Castellano.. (“Oh, you want me to speak in Spanish..”)
Liat: Yeah. Like, really fast.
Jesús: Qué que te diga? (“What do you want me to say?”)
Liat: Anything.
Jesús: Estamos en el Mercado de San Miguel, vamos a comer ahora unas tapitas, muy ricas, tipicas españolas, y, bueno, os traje para aquí para que conozcáis este sitio que es un poco… especial. Bastante especial. (“We’re in the San Miguel Market, right now we’re going to eat some little tapas, that are going to be delicious, very typical Spanish food, so, yeah, I brought you guys here so that you could get to know this place, which is a little… special. Really special.”)
And so my whole week in Spain was actually quite special. I then left to stay with my family in Israel, and I’ll tell you more about those adventures in next week’s post, which is on How to Pick Up and Knit Wraps on the Purl Side – a trick for making your short-rows amazing that you won’t want to miss. See you next week!
More Resources:
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