I'd been dreading binding off the Chinchilla scarf. I hate binding off anyway, but with this yarn, I knew it was going to be a nightmare.

My normal bind-off is the one where you knit two stitches, then pass the first one over the second and off the needle, but I found a new way to bind off this morning as I was reading through the Big Book of Knitting that I got from the library.

It showed a method of knitting two stitches together, then putting the stitch you made back on the left-hand needle, then knitting it together with the next stitch, etc. Maybe that's the way the rest of the world already binds off, but it was a revelation to me. Still not a walk in the park with the Chinchilla, but better than it might have been.

I'd give it to someone, but I have a fear that one of these days it's going to spontaneously self-destruct and start unraveling from the middle . . .

My knitting bag is a Cherokee tote bag chosen for two reasons: 1) it's light, and 2) it zips (I have cats, and I assume that needs no explanation). (Okay, explanation, because it's cute: If I leave yarn or knitting in a bag with an open top, there's a 100% chance that the next time I see it, it will be on the other side of the house and in a condition suitable only for a cat toy.)

The only real disadvantage is that it doesn't stand up by itself (it's kind of floppy). Well, and I guess ideally I would prefer a bag that doesn't zip, but with the cats, that's not possible. So, all things considered, it's not bad.

The bag came with what would normally be used as a cosmetic bag--a smaller zippered bag made from the same fabric. I use it as a catchall bag for small objects and tools. The middle bag, the teal colored larger cosmetic bag (you may or may not be able to tell that it's printed in a pattern of Clinique skin-care products), is what I use as my sort of ultimate portable knitting bag--it's large enough to hold a small project (currently the sock monkey stocking) and one or two small balls of yarn, and it fits into my backpack that I carry to work, so I don't have to carry the larger knitting bag and feel like I'm schlepping everything I own everywhere.

In the outside pocket of the larger bag, I have a notebook (actually a book of wire-bound 3x5 cards) and a pen to jot down changes to patterns, etc.

In the inside pocket of the larger bag are a pair of folding scissors on a ribbon (I sometimes tie them to the outside handle of the bag if I think I'm in danger of dropping or losing them), a tape measure, a row counter, double-pointed needle packages with the currently unused needles, and a crochet hook of an appropriate size to whatever I'm working on (used for picking up dropped stitches, not that I ever drop any, of course . . .).

In the smaller bag are a plastic needle size thing (what are those things called, anyway?), a couple of plastic Patternworks yarn and pattern conversion cards, pillboxes full of black rubber stitchmarkers and jewelry pins (coilless safety pins), a stray, small gauge circular needle for emergencies (like having a needle pull out of a row of stitches and having to save them before something dire happens), a "Chibi" container with a couple of big eye darning needles, and a couple of band-aids in case of bleeding (can't let bleeding interfere with knitting!).

Also in the small bag are a few plastic yarn bobbins, a baggie full of stitch holders, crochet hooks, and cable needles, and an embarrassingly large collection of yarn labels. I really need to do something with them, paste them in an album or scrapbook or something, but for now, I just carry them around.