On again about the Patons SWS.  The majority of suggestions you all kindly offered in response to my last post suggested felting the yarn.  I’m not a felter, have never really had any interest in the technique and don’t own a washing machine.  Nevertheless, given that I would never use this yarn for an article of clothing and did want to get at least some value for the money spent, I decided that was a reasonable option to pursue.

Happens I need a new purse :)  My devoted old red leather is seriously in need of replacement.  It has served me long and well and the thought of replacing it makes me feel vaguely bad - as though I’m tossing aside an old friend for a new one.  Eh…

Regardless, it still needs to be replaced.  Since I don’t tend to carry a lot of things, I don’t need anything too huge and a purse, since it isn’t worn next to the skin usually, won’t itch :).  And since I already knew what the yarn would look like when worked in a standard back-and-forth fashion, I decided to see what the entrelac results would be.

First, the initial swatch…

This is worked in the Yarn Harlot’s One-row pattern - a beautiful stitch for setting off an interplay of colors.

Now, the entrelac…

I’ve seen self-striping yarn worked up in entrelac before so I had some idea of what to expect.  But I was still blown away by what happened to the colors when the yarn was worked this way - maybe because it was me doing the work this time :)  Who knows?

That line down the middle is the division between the front and back of the bag - and believe me, I’m keeping this very simple :)  A front, a back and a flap that can be buttoned or clasped closed.  That’s it :)  Oh, and I-cord.  Lots and lots of I-cord.  That initial swatch above is going to be disassembled for the cord part of the project.

I want the cord to go all around the sides, bottom and flap of the bag and to form the shoulder strap as well.  I think I can do this as a single, contiguous piece and to that end, I worked out a little diagram to help me visualize how it could go…

Forgive the mediocre drawing - an artist I’m not :)

Beginning at S and following the arrow points along the line, this is what I envision the I-cord path will be.  It covers all the points I want covered and does so as one, long unbroken line, ending at E.  It’s geeky, I know.  What can I tell you?

Now I looked up people’s experiences with felting the SWS to have some idea of what to expect.  One of the things I ran into frequently were folks commenting on how fast this stuff shrinks down.  Given that, I think I may try felting this in the sink rather than co-opting my dad’s washing machine for a morning.

I also know, from reading about this yarn and about others, that shrinkage will occur far more along height than width.  Since entrelac is not knitted in a straight back-and-forth fashion across the width of the object being worked, I’m not sure what to expect there.  Even better, I-cord is knitted that way.  Well, not so much a back-and-forth as an around-and-around but the end result is the same.  In combination with the entrelac, what might the results be?  I can see me getting to the end of the felting process and winding up with a completely puckered purse!  Not that that wouldn’t be interesting, but it’s not exactly what I’m looking for :)

I guess the only way to find out is to try it so that’s my plan - to try it and see what happens.

On another subject entirely, I want to recommend a movie.  It’s silly and contains little in the way of plot elements that you haven’t seen before (many times), but it is beautifully animated, well written, well cast and absolutely hilarious.

This isn’t Schindler’s List or even Lord of the Rings but it surely is worth seeing.  I haven’t so thoroughly enjoyed a movie, nor laughed so hard at some of its antics in a very long time.  The irrepressible Jack Black voices Po the Panda who dreams of being a Kung Fu warrior.  I love Jack Black - I don’t know why, I just do and he is more that adequate to this role.  In fact he’s perfect.  Po is amiable, laughable and engaging.  Through a series of events (Unlikely and coincidental?  Maybe, maybe not…) he is named the Dragon Warrior - the one who will save the village from the evil that is heading straight for it.  Of course those with more training and far more perfected skills (Po has no training and no skills except possibly for making noodle soup) are confused and hurt by the selection of the panda.  But if he is inept, he is also indefatigable, indestructible and he will never, ever quit.

Just watch it.  I’d say I don’t want to give the story away, but even the preceding paragraph should tell you all you need to know about the plot, what it’s about and where it’s going.  It’s not the story though - it’s how it’s told.  This is one of the funniest - and sometimes touching - 90 minutes of movie you’ve seen in a long time.

It will be released on DVD on November 8th.

Treat yourself :)