Seeing Red and the big reveal!

First I want to thank all the lurkers for coming out of hiding and saying hello!! It was wonderful to "meet" some of my readers and I hope y'all keep coming and commenting :)

Sometimes "seeing red" can be a really negative thing.

My one resolution for 2006 is "THERE WILL BE NO CRYING IN 2006!! so hopefully I wont be seeing red in that negative kind of way!

Now red is a lovely color and I'm happy to see red in this case.....

This is my meager beginning of my scarf for....

THE RED SCARF PROJECT

"Robert" Seaman's scarf from Stahman's Shawls and Scarves
I was visiting Norma who brought this charity to my attention (thanks, Norma, you ROCK!!)

To summarize, THE RED SCARF PROJECT is to provide care packages to foster children attending college. Often these kids have no family and once they reach their majority at age 18, they are often "cut loose" by their foster families. THE RED SCARF PROJECT was established to provide a warm scarf for a college kid that may be pretty alone in this world and putting themselves thru college!

Now the caveat is, these care packages will be delivered on Valentine's Day 2006 - hence the RED! February 14th is not all that far away but think BULKY and knit these kids a scarf, wont you? The deadline is January 31....plenty of time! :)

The scarves can be dropped off at any of the 419 Einstein Brothers Bagels across America or they can be mailed here:

Orphan Foundation of America/Red Scarf Project
21351 Gentry Drive,
Suite 130
Sterling, VA 20166-8511
You can read more about this wonderful endeavor HERE

Now for the big reveal! The first finished object of 2006....The Market Square Bag!

I wanted to give the bag a flat bottom for some stability. The pattern suggests using an empty popcorn tin...OOPS, no popcorn tins here at Casa de FKD! I had to improvise so I found one of the lamps in my living room had a circular brass fixture once I removed the glass lampshade and inner glass hurricane lamp (the white things to the right of the pic) I slipped a dinner plate into the brass fixture and voila! a perfect place to dry the MSB!!


Here's a close up of the bottom of the bag.....isn't it beautiful?


Here's my supervisor throughout the process....all that washing and stretching wore the poor lil guy out!


Here's the finished bag hanging from the very same lamp I used for my drying!


And the glamour shot

Isn't she lovely? I'm really, really pleased with how she turned out! I wanted more of a "purse" than an open tote so I added a felted closure flap to which I sewed a magnetic closure. The button is cosmetic only but I thought it suited the bag perfectly! It's a shell button with irridescent blue, green and purple - a perfect match who's beauty eludes my sorry camera skills.

Specs:

Market Square Bag from Knitter's Magazine Summer 2001 (also in the book: Bags, A Knitter's Dozen)

5 skanks Cascade 220

#8 US (5.0 mm) Addi Turbo Circ

This was a totally fun knit and I highly recommend it. Entrelac is very easy so don't be afraid to jump in and give it a try! One thing that would make it even easier is learing how to knit and purl backwards so you don't have to turn the bag so often! Some commenters asked for a resource on how to knit and purl backwards ....I taught myself how by reversing the path of the stitch but HERE is a good resource for those that asked.

Now, I've got to get knitting on my red scarf!! Deadline, ya know!

I'll be back soon with lots to show and my "B" for the ABC along!

Get crackin' on your red scarf and have a wonderful knitty week!