gone roving

My husband would be the first to tell you: I have quite a few things on the needles right now. They litter the entire first floor of the house, the car, and of course my work room with their unfinished neediness. All of them are stalled for one reason or another: too much math needed, too tiny stitches, too many mistakes to fix, too little yarn to finish, too many stitches to pick up, too ugly yarn, too complicated pattern, too boring for words...

I seem to be in whiny-toddler knitting mode these days. And just like a toddler, I needed some instant gratification. A little short-term project that I could actually finish all by myself. Something so easy that even a -- well, toddler -- could do it and have it turn out OK.

For the fiber festival, I had overdyed some too-bright green roving with a blue to produce, in my mind, a  simply gorgeous colorway. Of course, not one bag of it sold at the fiber festival last weekend, but that did not dim my love for it.

Poking around on another knitting mission (the not-enough-yarn one) I came across a pattern for a messenger bag knit out of roving. Roving is the stage that a sheep's fleece is in post-washing and carding, and pre-yarn. This pattern did not require me to spin the roving before using it, and so was deeply attractive to my two-year-old mindset.

Per the instructions, I divided it into little strips and rolled them into balls, ready to go. I think they look amazingly yummy in their basket like that -- made me love the colorway all the more!

I dragged out my hot pink size 17 needles, and cast on. I will tell you right now that casting on was the hardest part of this project.

See how Hard I Am Concentrating? That should give you an idea.

Once I actually got moving along and used to the feel of the thick roving in my hands instead of thin yarn, it really started to roll along. Size 17 needles and a row that is only thirty stitches long will do that to a project.

I made quite a few modifications to the pattern and if you care, details are on Ravelry. Despite my futzing around, the bag fulfilled all requirements.

It was quick (less than 24 hours, even with having to frog a bit to get it how I wanted it).

It allowed me to use some gorgeous wool from our sheep, so now when people ask if this was made of wool from our sheep, I can finally say YES.

And if I do say so myself, it is completely and totally gorgeous.

Now that my inner two-year-old has been appeased, time to get back to all those unfinished frustrating projects, with renewed hope that I can actually produce something satisfactory.