Tale of the Frankenberry Tote and Storm watching

I've put my 2nd sock on the back burner so that I can focus a bit on my tote for the International Tote Exchange swap. As I've mentioned before, this is my first swap involving knitting something for a complete stranger, but it's exciting at the same time, because you remain "secret" until you send out your package. The more I was knitting with the different colours of yarn, the more they reminded me of summer berries: blueberries, the dark purple of blackberries and the pinkish violetish color of raspberries. It also reminded me of Frankenberry/Booberry cereals as a kid and so I've decided to name this tote the Frankenberry tote.




I just got done knitting to almost the top of the bag (102 rounds to be exact). The pattern states that the felted dimensions of the bag (not including the straps which I haven't started on yet) is approx. 10"h and 14.5"w. When I reread the pattern, I was thinking "that small?" because look at how friggin huge this bag is right now:

It's probably a good 1/3 of the sitting area of my couch. It's about 21"w x 23"h and placed against my upper body, you'd think I was knitting a sweater! For a moment, I freaked and thought out loud, "did I make a mistake in the pattern?" and Bear sitting next to me laughed out loud until I glared at him (ok, not really, but I guess I kinda did, because the way he laughed made me feel like perhaps I did make a mistake in the pattern). But I have felted one bag before this one, and I know they do shrink down quite a bit. I guess I just feel the pressure (placed upon myself, not by anyone or anything, of course) making this bag because I want to make sure my pal will like it. She wanted a tote to put her knitting projects in, well I think you can put everything and the kitchen sink in it right now :)








In other news, last night we went to go watch a Seattle Storm game. This was my first WNBA game and I had a great time. Bear and I got into watching girls basketball, as Bear's daughter plays basketball and we go watch her games all the time. This year was great to follow along with, as her team won state. They beat a team that have been the State winners a few times in the past with some really big and tall players that you almost question whether they're actually highschoolers. Well their dedication paid off and they brought home their first State trophy and I was really proud of all of the girls, even if I didn't know them all personally. It was a great achievement and I was happy to share in Bear's daughter's win.



There's a different dedication and passion that the girls have as I watch them play that makes it more interesting - they're really intense and can kick some serious arse!!! Perhaps they feel they have to prove themselves more when they're just as capable (if not even better than) the guys. Sure, the guys in the NBA are the ones who get the $$$$$, but the gals have perseverance and dedication and it really shows. If you haven't watched girls basketball, I highly recommend that you go check out a game at your local high school - I'm tellin you, that's where it's at!


The Storm won their game and I *almost* won a t-shirt thrown out into the audience, but I didn't want to grab it out of the lady's hands in the row in front of me (although Bear's son told me I should have, heh). Didn't want to have a WWF throwdown in row 5 all for a free t-shirt :)