Knitted Bowls

Soon to be felted bowls! I wanted a quick project and this definitely fit the bill. I was able to complete the knitting for two bowls over this last weekend in between attending a pottery festival on Saturday and yard work and plant shopping on Sunday.

I had planned on blogging about the trip to the pottery festival. I have a collection that I have built over several years and most of it has been purchased from local potters at these festivals. Most of the potters I like were not there this time - big bummer. Overall the whole thing was a big disapointment and I didn't come away with one single item. My husband was stunned. I usually find something - a spoon rest, a small gift item, but this time nothing. So Sunday I went to the open house at Plant Delights and cheered my self up with a special plant. I got a really neat Japanese Cobra Lilly - I'll post a picture of that tomorrow.

But Saturday evening I needed a quick pick me up that would satisfy that need for instant gratification that was still hanging around. So I took a look through my stash and came up with a lone skein that was crying out to be used. I decided to try a felted bowl.

This first bowl I made is out of one skein of Lambs Pride Bulky in peacock. The pattern I used was the Large Bowl pattern from the Holiday Trio leaflet by Carol Bristol. She has several bowl and basket patterns. I have a couple more of her patterns that I'm going to try. This one was really basic and would be very easy for a beginner to complete. It did take almost the entire skein. The bowl was knitted up from a square base and was knit on a 16" circular size 15 US needle. I haven't taken any pre-felting measurements yet, but I will and post all of that detail when I get the finished item on the blog. I'll try to get the finished results posted by Sunday. The biggest pain will be getting all the fuzziness off of this bowl because of the mohair content. Maybe I can just live with it for this little bowl.

The second bowl is out of a skein of Manos in the wildflower color that had been hanging around. I used the pattern that is in the Oneskein book put out by Interweave Press. I followed the pattern for the large bowl, but held a double strand of yarn throughout. The yarn I used wasn't as bulky as the yarn used in the pattern. I also applied a 3 stitch I-cord around the top of the bowl. It's a pretty thick fabric and I'm not sure how well it will felt. I probably should have used a larger needle size, but US15 was the largest I had. This bowl was knitted top down. So when I got to the bottom I needed DPNs. I don't have DPNs in size fifteen, so I used two circular needles.

Overall, the patterns for the bowls were really easy to follow and I used up some of the yarn in my stash. I'm hoping theses bowls felt up nicely. They will make nice little accents around the house or perfect little gift baskets.