Boxes and Boxes and Bags, Oh My!

This was a busy week. The fall yarn orders from the TNNA (The National Needlearts Association) show I attended two weeks ago started to come in, as did some orders I'd placed with strict instructions to the companies NOT to ship until after the show. So we had the sheer fun and challenge of wading through boxes from Skacel, Plymouth, Louet, Martingale Press, and Mango Moon, getting them priced and tagged, and finding places for them on the shelves. With 550 square feet of shop space, trying to squeeze in new yarn as it comes in is a real challenge. Esther, who comes in late afternoon to straighten up and put away all those balls of yarn that wandered throughout the store during the day, did an amazing job of rearranging things to make room for the new arrivals. I haven't told her yet about the other stuff that'll be coming in soon. I'm not going to tell her the address of this blog either. She'll find out soon enough ;-).

In the course of all that, I managed to finish two projects, both of them felted bags. The first one I knit mostly during meetings and business classes at TNNA and felted when I got back. It's based on the Vintage Bubble Bag in Pursenalities, but instead of the Cascade 220 and Silk Garden the pattern calls for, I used Plymouth Outback Wool and Outback Mohair. I knew this yarn would felt, but I wanted to be able to show people how it would look. The lovely sage, brown, and maroons on the shelf would speak for themselves, but the bright aqua, orange, yellow, and hot pink I wasn't so sure about, so that's the one I chose to try. Here's bag before it was felted. Note that it fills the seat of the recliner:

...and here it is after felting:

After felting, the colors weren't nearly so scary, and I've been carrying it around as my purse du jour.

Bag No. 2 was one I'd started as part of a Booga Bag knitalong on the Delphi Knit & Chat Forum. A friend had given me some white Lopi she didn't want anymore, and I was curious to see what it would look like felted. I added some light blue and aqua Plymouth Paradise and some light blue Colorlash, and here's what I got

before:

and after:

I'd like to find some grommets to put in so that the handles slide more easily. Some blue buttons would be nice too.