What’s in YOUR Happy Bag?

I had a wonderful unexpected surprise tonight, a visit from my oldest and dearest friend, Candiss Cole.  I’ve written about her before, we go back to 1980 when we met across the aisle in a craft fair, she is an incredible handweaver, designer, business women, and an incredible friend.  She was passing by on her way from Detroit to Tarrytown, NY to do another craft exhibition, (look at a map, Detroit is no where near here), Candiss and Rodger have been traveling for a couple of days, but we were on the way, and they stopped in for dinner.

We all got to chatting, sitting around the table on the deck, on this lovely breezy September night, including my two children, and somehow the subject came up that I like to knit socks while I’m on the plane.  I mentioned I always carry around my “happy bag”.  This of course meant I had to bring out my happy bag and display the contents, which produced lots of comments from my children.  Brianna, the 17 year old geeky one, defended me by saying, “Of course I have a happy bag as well, and it is full of Rubik’s cubes, and all the variations, and when I’m stressed or bored, I can pull out a Rubik’s cube and make myself happy.”  My 20 year old son, not to be outdone, mentioned that the contents of his happy bag would get him arrested in five states.  We all enjoyed a good laugh though I was giving him the evil eye across the table…

So I pulled out my “happy bag”, which I keep in my Vera Wang tote/purse, so it is always available for de-stressing or to relieve boredom when I am away from my studio, like on a plane, and shared the contents with everyone at the table.

First up was of course a sock.  I started knitting a new pair on the trip out to Wisconsin a week and a half ago.  I can’t believe how quickly they knit up.

Next was a wad of hand-dyed merino/silk roving from Red Fish Dyeworks, I bought last April at the CNCH conference in northern California.  I have a very small drop spindle, made from a dowel and a wooden wheel from a craft shop like Michaels.  So I’m spinning up the roving, yes I have two spinning wheels at home but there is never time to work on them at home, and I’m finding lots of time to spin on a drop spindle while I’m on the road.

I wasn’t thrilled when plying spaced dyed singles, getting that barber pole effect, but I read about Navajo 3-ply, and did some checking on Google and YouTube and somewhere found a tutorial and realized that Navajo 3-ply was just one giant long chain stitch run through the spinning wheel creating a three ply yarn so the color stays on top of itself.  The end result is beautiful.  I’m not experienced here, this is my first attempt, but I’m proud of it and the fact that like a 20 something, I wanted to learn a technique and looked it up on the internet.  🙂  How’s that for a 55 year old trained to spin back in the 70’s?

Anyway, I took a lace motif pattern from my late mother-in-laws knitting stash, and reworked it, scaling it down, and started knitting a scarf from the small ball I have of the 3-ply merino/silk.  I actually worked on it while I was in Harrisville, getting lots of opinions from my students who were much more experienced in knitting than I was, and from the Harrisville staff who couldn’t have been more helpful.  It was sort of a group project.  After trying different size needles, and reworking the design many times, I’m pretty happy with this little swatch, that will grow to be a scarf one day when I finish spinning and plying all my roving.

So that’s what’s in my “Happy Bag”.  Candiss wanted to know where I got the name, and I’m not sure, I sort of made it up, this little bag stays with me and it is plain white, but loaded with lovely color and texture, and projects that are small and portable, and I work on them in places I would never thought I could produce or create anything.  So far I’ve made a pair of socks, I’m almost through another sock, and I’m working  my way through the roving I bought last spring.  What’s in YOUR happy bag?