Lucy Neatby’s Udderly Divine Bag from Orange Kitten Yarns - Day 4

Ready for Pink...

Yes!  Finally done with all that cow, and on to the quiet inches of pink stockinette that will give this bag its “udder.”  Much as I love black and white, I’m tired of looking at it.

I’m also very tired of getting to the end of a stretch of one color only to realize I haven’t carried the yarn in back and I need to take it all out again.  I can’t tell you how many times this has happened in this project.  I think it’s because of all the color switching.  You get to a stretch of one color, and it’s like a raceway straightaway--you “floor it,” eager for some speed.  Then you realize you’ve left the other poor color hanging lost and un-anchored back at the starting line.  Tink, tink, tink, redo.  Sigh.  It’s annoying because I know better.

Still, like most projects that presented a challenge, when I look back at the completed section I feel a tremendous sense of satisfaction.  The primal “I made this” that drives why we all knit.  The interplay of color and texture that speaks to an inner need--even if that need is to be just a wee bit silly.

Lucy Neatby’s Udderly Divine Bag from Orange Kitten Yarns - Day 2

Fun and tangles...

I have to admit, the cow pattern is a great deal of fun.  It’s just now starting to be clearly recognizable--up until about three inches in, it just looked like random black and white.  Now, it’s clearly bovine.  I love it! 

Despite the large needles, this doesn’t feel like it goes fast.  It is a lot of complicated knitting.Two color work is hard enough, but two-stranded two color work?  The tangle factor is huge!  At the end of every row I have to take ten minutes to untangle the four balls.  I’m wondering if I need to buy three more yarn bowls and line them up on my coffee table.


After about three rows on my larger Denise needles, I went online and ordered KnitPicks Harmony needles (my current set stops at 11).  No matter what I do, I cannot get the Denise needles to stay connected, and the results of that break are no fun at all.

Lucy Neatby’s Udderly Divine Bag from Orange Kitten Yarns - Day 1

Have a cow, ma'am...

“The yarn always knows.”

It was a line I gave the character Lindy in my novel “My So-Called Love Life”--my first fictional knitting character, but it’s a truth that’s played out in my life.  The right projects always seem to find their way onto my needles at the right time.

And so it is now.  I often cope with stress--and lately grief--by doing the outrageous.  I’m sporting neon pink nail polish this week and have worn lots of bright colors because they speak life to me after weeks filled with death and dying.  What could be more perfect that the wild and wacky “Udderly Divine” bag by the equally vibrant and colorful designer Lucy Neatby?

Silliness feels wonderful after so much somber seriousness.  I’m soaking up the fact that my teenage son has told me he won’t come within 20 feet of me if I’m carrying this whimsical bag.  I’m enjoying the big bold nature of this project.  Even though it is two-color black and white knitting just like the Selbucozy I just finished, it couldn’t be more different.  Knitting can be that diverse, can’t it?

There’s a reason Neatby is famous for her ingenious designs.  The top edge of this bag features a strong, scalloped strap-holder feature that is downright clever to behold.  You need to pay attention for these initial rows.  She gives you a choice of black or white for your top edge, and I chose black, thinking it would hide the inevitable dirt better.  That’s good, but I found myself wishing for lighter yarn in the complicated parts--two stranded knitting is hard enough without adding black yarn to the mix.

I’ll check back in with you partway through the bovine pattern.