Tam’s Blog

I was inspired to make Mark a sleeve for his laptop by some really cool looking ones in the fall issue of Interweave Knits. Since I already had a slew of Lamb’s Pride Worsted Wool just laying around waiting for me to think of something to do with it, I thought this would be the perfect short project that would make Mark happy and also please the instant gratification girl in me.

knit up and sewed together, ready for the washer.

I pretty much knit up a rectangle 25 X 44 inches, folded it in half, sewed up one side and the bottom to make a bag, washed it a bunch and ended up with a bag that is 17 X 13.5 inches. I wish it were narrower. If I did it again I would knit a rectangle 25 X 36. As it is, we will just put the computer in sideways and it will fit perfectly. I mostly followed the pattern in the interweave knits mag, but the pattern was a little off and I had to cast on 95 sts instead of the 80 sts they direct you to do to get the 25 inch width (yes my gauge was right). I also made up my own stitch pattern. I used 7 different colors of yarn, and didn’t have equal amounts of them so I made up a pattern that would allow me to use my yarn scraps without running out of any of the colors before I was finished.

The Lamb’s Pride has quite a halo after felting so I gave it a little shave, (We can’t have all that fuzz getting the laptop all linty!) and planned on cutting a handle for the bag, but Mark changed his mind about the handle. So, no handle, I cut some of the end of the bag off , because if there is no handle, what’s the point of all that fabric? Mark turns the computer sideways and the computer fits very snugly.

He seems happy with it, but I don’t like it. It gets the job done, but it’s not pretty. Just after I finished this Mark got a new laptop, so now I need to knit another one. The next one will be pretty.