Dragonfly amulet bag (or cell phone holder?)

Here is my latest creation!

Very simple, to be sure, but I am knitting again. Small projects like this one can be a learning experience, to be sure.

I cast on 48 stitches thinking I would have a 24-stitch repeat (on my punchcard KH864) but after casting on, decided I didn't want a fairaisle pattern at all.

I wanted to practice the "turning ridge" or (pants front crease line) that Lora Kinnan demonstarted at the Grand Rapids seminar. This involves using a separate strand of yarn and looping every stitch all the way up (on the wrong side, of course) after each row is knitted.

I chose a soft cotton yarn, because it was at hand. Probably not the best choice for this project if it would be used for a cell-phone holder or other use where it would be worn frequently or used every day, I would want a stronger yarn. For a cell phone or other delicate electronic equipment, I would consider lining the bag with something softer. Once I used a nylon macrame cord for a cell phone holder, but I found that after long use, the bag didn't wear out, but the phone showed signs of wear at the edges!

Since my bag had two "turns" I cut two extra lengths of yarn, and looped needle 13 on either side of zero. Duh. I didn't add this into the count of stitches I would need. So the front of my bag has 24 stitches and the back side has only 11 on either side of the crease. Good thing knits are stretchy! Note to self - the turning stitch takes up width.

I used three rows of crochet cast on, thinking that would give a nice, firm edge to the top of the bag. (Caution- it curled) When I got to the end (the desired length of the bag), I took the piece off on waste yarn and then re-hung the stitches so that they were doubled on the needles (this is when I found out I was short stitches! My plan was to knit one row, then bind off. Oops! when I re-hung the piece, the end of my yarn was in the middle. Thinking it wouldn't matter, I hand-knitted back out to the edge before knitting my one bind-off row. This does result in a visible difference in the bottom of the piece. Next time I would break the yarn and start at the edge.

I hung the bag on the needles and made a 7-stitch I-cord for the strap, when I had knitted enough I-cord I hung the other side of the bag on the needles and then bound off through both stitches.

I wanted to try some different embellishment, so I used my embroidery machine to create a dragonfly patch. I used some leftover (from Christmas) organza-like 4-inch-wide ribbon and hooped it with water-soluble stabilizer. I embroidered the ornament, using blue variegated thread instead of the gray that was called for in the design, then carefully cut out the piece, using embroidery scissors, right next to the stitching. I used fabric glue to attach it to the bag (Note: I put a block of foam packing material inside to prevent the glue from accidentally attaching the front of the bag to the back. I wish I could give credit to the dragonfly creator but unfortunately, it was a free download that I didn't document well enough.

I attached a fringe of green glass beads to the bottom, securing them with knots of yarn. Then I used a green wooden bead and I-cord to make a button-loop at the top to hold the bag's contents securely. Voila! One project completed!

While the embroidery machine was going, I thought I would use the time to figure out where I was on the g-carriage shawl I started as a gift for an expectant mother 3 years ago. It used two colors of yarn, and of course when I set the G-carriage for 50 rows one of the yarns broke at row 20. I found that I had actually ripped all the way back to the error and re-hung the stitches except for a few final stitches that had dropped. I re-hung these, then crossed my fingers and started the g-carriage. (the stitch pattern is very simple, 3 knits, 3 purls, then alternate on the next row, so I had a 50-50 chance of being on the right row) I was overjoyed that the g-carriage started, but it got to the end and didn't turn...

Now what? I looked on the underside of the carriage, but was baffled. Thinking it perhaps had stiffened up from non-use (rust? I hope not!) I gave everything a shot of machine lube, and worked the control back and forth several times. I'm not sure if this actually helped, or if perhaps I had one of the controls in the wrong position in the first place. Anyway, on the next row it turned, I set it for 30 rows, then went upstairs and had dinner with my dear husband. When I got downstairs, I noticed several holes in the fabric where stitches had dropped.

I examined the needles for bent ones. Yes, indeed, one was noticeably twisted. I replaced it, knitted a few more rows, and no holes! Set the machine for 20 rows and went over and worked on the embroidery machine. When I came back, I found several NEW holes, and they weren't consistent from row to row. I looked at the needle in the g-carriage, sure enough, it looked STRAIGHT, not slightly twisted as normal. I replaced the needle in the g-carriage, and it appeared to like it much better.

When I came back the next time, the shawl wasn't noticeably longer than when I had left, but the row counter was all the way down to zero. Hmmmm. Set it for 10 rows and observed. Found out it was turning rows at the end of the row, then turning again when it reached the first stitch. That moves the row counter really fast, but no actual knitting occured!

I decided to give it a rest until today. So far today, I've been out in the garden, cooked a FANTASTIC lunch for my dear husband, and in a few minutes my 4-year old grandson is coming over, so I may not get back to this until tomorrow. If you are reading this and know the answer, I'd welcome a comment!