Knitting Marathon

What do you do when you realize that you have not considered a knitted gift for someone very important in your life and their birthday is a week away? It's called a "knitting marathon" and I pulled one recently when I realized my mother's birthday was on the horizon. Here is the pictorial version of panic:

Day One: Have an idea, find a pattern, buy the yarn and cast on (don't forget to swatch):

It did not take long for help to arrive:

Pedro had his own ideas of what should be done on the project when I got up to get more coffee. He thinks the color suits him.

Day Two sees some progress. Please note I am doing this while still attending my full time job.

Day Three: I have the contrasting color stripes working and the inspector is liking the larger size and is in the process of softening it up.

On Day Four Pedro decides that he wants it and "Grandma" will have to get something else for her birthday gift.

By Day Five I am getting anxious to get this done. The toughest part of knitting this was doing the yarn in double weight and my left hand circular tip kept disconnecting from the weight and the angle I had to hold it to knit.

Day Six it is off the needles and ready for felting. Here it is posing with Dracubear for scale. It came out the size of a lapghan.

Now it is off to the washer for felting. Note: since this felting is an inexact science, do not cut your 2-inch styrene blocks until you have it felted the way you want. Then cut the forms and place two if them in the bag, stuffing plastic bags in the middle between the foam to get a squared look for your tote. Then if you want to make another like it you have the forms already built and hope that the next one comes out about the same size. This one had to go through the washer three times before it was felted completely. The finished size after felting was 15" wide, 5" deep and 15 1/2" tall.

Needless to say, Mom loves it.

Pedro got to visit it recently and did not like it as well as he did before it was felted.