Holiday Coming

Happy Fourth Of July everyone, a little bit early. You'll need the time to enter a couple of contests! I hope the fireworks in your life are either Safe and Sane, or the romantic kind. Which should still be safe, if not altogether sane.

Like most Californians, this year I'm concerned about fires. We've recently had over 800 fires burning at the same time throughout the state. The danger isn't here in The City, but out where Mom lives. We've done what we could to keep her land cleared up, but some of her neighbors on the hill haven't done a thing.

I'd been working the size 3s so much that my hands were aching to get back to something larger. Remember my experiment with wool/acrylic blend yarn dying, the Big Bad Blue Boo Boo? My original plan for the yarn was a shopping bag, so a bag I started knitting. And what a bag it is, folks! I really love the way it turned out.

I didn't stop 'til I was out of yarn, because I didn't want any leftovers. There were 4 100g skeins of Sirdar Nova, two I had dyed and two the original color. The bag is 17" wide by 20" tall, which is large enough to hold a pack of 24 double rolls of TP. It's sturdy enough to stand up to a lot of weight, I've tested it with a canteloupe, 5 lb bag of sugar, two 3 lb cans of coffee and few other items, probably totalling 20 lbs.

I think the size is also perfect for outings though, so - Big Bad Blue Boo Boo Beach Bag. Room for a towel/small blanket, lunch, lotions, knitting, book, music, etc. The Kitten may get a tan this summer!

The handles are approx. 10 yards of icord, threaded through a knitted tube which forms a pad for shoulder comfort. The cords are made from 5 colors of crochet cotton and cobweb weight yarn. I used a Cool Corder, a little crank operated Icord maker. It works very well with up to 3 strands of fine crochet cotton and really cranks out the cord once you get started. How funny that these cords, made several years ago just to test the Cool Corder, were the perfect colors and length for this bag. I came across them by accident as I was looking for a way to make the handles for this bag. I was going to do the same thing as on the crocheted bag below, but decided I didn't like that method for this bag. I hadn't enough yarn left at that point to knit handles, and wasn't I going to frog. So I was really lucky to find these again.

I really didn't need the shopping bag any more, as I'd brought this one home from Mom's. I made her two bags sized to hang from the handlebars of her power chair, after the mount for the metal basket got bent. The mount is part of the main frame, and suspiciously weak.
This bag is 2' x 1', but being mesh it really stretches. The other, which Mom preferred, is about 2' x 2'. Since she never used this bag, I brought it back home and added some split ring keyrings and the removable strap from a duffel bag to make it a tote for myself.. This is what gave me the idea to pad the straps on the new bag.

Nowadays Mom doesn't use her chair much, she gets most of her groceries delivered, the rest of the time we use her granny cart or one of those bags-on-wheels carts if she is alone. There are three local services that pool their assistance vans, and it a Godsend to Mom having this service provided. Most of the drivers are great about wheeling her cart up her steep drive, but there is one who always complains about her "injury" and leaves Mom to do it herself. The universe will settle her hash someday.

Contest Time!
You'll have to rush for this one at Wendy Knits as it ends today at 3pm EST. Leave a LOLcats comment about a pic of the kitty Lucy and the foot. There may be multiple winners, as more entries are received.

Late Edit: Sorry Kittenettes, I blew it on this one. I was past the deadline myself without realizing it. In my defense, I state the following:

I am not good with time zones. I feel it is important to maintain one charming flaw, so as not to appear unapproachable. This is mine.

If Ponies Could Knit Is celebrating both 1 year of blogging and 101 posts. That calls for a double duty contest, so there are two yarniliscious prizes. As I'm typing this one of my favorite kids shows is playing... Jacob Two Two. It's an omen. It's an omen.

Yarn to Knit is having a guessing contest about, what else, some Yarn to Knit. She got a great haul at a clearance sale, and if you guess closest to the actual retail price without going over you could wind up on a date with Bob Barker. Well actually, and I think this is much better, win some yarn.

Yarn It had a blogiversay 6 months ago. That was a hectic time in her life, so she has decided to honor that achievement belatedly with a comment question contest. Don't you wait 6 months to enter though, get over there right now! Come on, move along folks, there's nothing else to see here!

LATE LATE EDIT: Here's another contest I just learned about at DarcyKnotty Knitter's. The Great Yarn Company is having a comment contest about your favorite thing to knit. One random prize, and one for most referrals, so head on over there and tell 'em where ya came from, ok.