Patience is a Virtue

Last year I decided to make Jeff a laptop bag for his birthday. Jeff's birthday happens to be March 29th, and when March 29th rolled around I was no where near done with the bag. It was quite sad how much faster I thought I could knit. I still have some delusions, but I am much closer to realistic these days, and I've already begun the Christmas knitting.

Anyway, sometime during the knitting of the laptop bag, Jeff's laptop bit the big one. Once there was no functional laptop to squeeze into the bag time was less of the essence. I believe it was in October of 2006 that I finally completed the knitting and seaming together of the bag. This thing was monstrous, although I haven't got a clue where I might have hid my notes on it's production. Still, there was no reason to felt the bag, since I didn't have a working laptop to fit it to.

Well just a month ago Jeff tore apart the bag he'd been hauling his computer support gear around in. Then a couple of weeks ago he got his new MacBook, then the free bag that used to be my knitting bag started falling apart on him, and that's when he remembered that I still owed him a handknit machine felted laptop bag. That boy is persistent when you've promised him something that he wants.

Today I finished the final stitch work and I think it looks pretty good. So only a year and a half from start to finish... could have been worse. I could have insisted that he wait until his next birthday.

The pattern was based on the Candy Stripe bag in Stitch N Bitch Nation. Jeff wanted a messenger bag style flap instead of a zipper closure, and the wanted a real strap as opposed to a knitted and felted strap, so a strap was purchased from REI, and just clipped onto the sewn in D-Rings. All the knitting was sewn together before felting. The D-Rings and pocket separation seam were sewn after felting and drying were complete.