Michael Phelps and Me - Part 3

Yesterday, I left you with the agony of defeat. Today - the thrill of victory.

The night of the peas and carrots I went to bed discouraged. This bag was pledged on a deadline! Then, just before I woke in the morning, I had a dream. I dreamt I was walking through a palace in India. I was admiring all the beautiful textiles - curtains, bedspreads, pillows - in those brilliant, Bollywood colors. As soon as I woke up, I knew what to do. Before I'd even had my coffee, I dug out some polymer clay beads I'd made two years ago to match a skein of sari silk yarn. There was that same orange, along with the other colors you see in the bag above.

The red is Jamaica Kool-Aid which is a hibiscus flavor, the yellow is Mango (another ebay obtained color), and the pink is Slammin' Strawberry Kiwi mixed with a little Cherry to make it more intense. The Mango is a bit more saturated than you see in the photo, and it smells divine when in the crockpot.

Once I had the yarn dyed, the rest was a lot of work but relatively easy. I am a blazing fast crocheter and the design itself was simple. I made a 4" X 17" rectangle for the bottom of the bag in single stitch (it's the orange thing at the bottom of the bag in the photo). The rest of the bag was simply a single stitched tube sewn to that bottom rectangle. I changed colors when I felt like it. The handles are knitted I-cord sewn to the inside of the bag. The top row of the bag has metallic gold thread crocheted along with the Jamaica yarn. The gold was to honor Phelps as well as my other Olympics favs, the men's and women's US beach volleyball teams.

When the bag was sewn together, Helen Brown at Helen Parker Textiles let me felt the bag in her shop's washing machine. The Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool felted beautifully in just one cycle through the machine which is NOT the case for every wool. When it was dry, I posted it on Ravelry at the Bag'NTote Backstroke Finish Line. I had done it in 8 days.

But that's only 1 of my 8 medals! And what do the Red Sox and Barack Obama have to do with the other seven? You'll see next week. I'm off to house and cat sit until Monday. If you are very, very lucky, I'll get a photo of that cat I'm taking care of. He's so gorgeous he was named Romeo.

- Maureen