9.23.10

I love this bag and it was fun to make. I have a
couple more of the suede bottoms but when I
finish with them, what do I do with them? Gave
one of the bottoms to my mother to work with but she is busy with socks and felting.

7.25.09

What is that? It WAS going to be a bathrobe.

Now it is the interlining for this project:


The light yellow in the photo on the right is leftover from the rubber-chicken purse linings. I replaced the horrible acetate. The newsprint is the paper I use to draft out my patterns.

6.29.09

Cute, yes? It is a Kate Davies invention found on Ravelry.com You have to be a registered member to access but all it takes is patience and determination. Navigating the site may take eons. People use it to see what others are making with a particular yarn, find out who might be having trouble with a specific pattern, and just generally get ideas--and LOADS of free downloads like the one above. I think the idea is one I might use on a bag or a tea cosy.

I have been working on my version of that bag above, from Knitty.com It is called Twiggy Tweed, designed by Missa Hills. Mine is not too far off in color. I had a ball of something called Di.Ve' from Cascade (#33051, pinks with a little chocolate, pinks with a little orange) which I used for the body. For the little belts, I had a skein of Karaoke in the color that goes from deep rose pinks to orangey pinks. Not what the designer called for, but ALmost enough yarn.


I decided to make the opening self-faced, so I ribbed a few extra rows, purled a row, and then roughly followed her directions. Luckily I had decided to knit both sides at the same time so when I ran out of yarn, I was at the same point on both panels. I knit the belt pieces, then took all the Karaoke I had left, hand-carded a lot of it, found some natural brown New Zealand Coopworth, and hand-carded it with the pink and tried to make a new yarn. I think I need a drum carder. The yarn I made was not quite what I wanted so I tried some core spinnng around the Karaoke. That was not right, either. Finally, I spun the Coopworth and plied it with the Karaoke. Not right, but useable. Right now the bag is pinned and blocking. I will update with photos later today when the sun comes up.


In the meantime, I cast on for a sweater which will be come my new dummy-knitting as soon as I get all the increases done and the sleeves on holders. My current dummy knitting is about 20 yards from the finish line. Of course, I always have dummy socks, the perfect carry-along.

6.27.09

One of my bags has been on display at my LYS.
The suede bottom comes with holes and directions to knit a piece and sew it on or crochet and sew on. Instead, I picked up stitches from the holes and used Cascade 220 and Berroco Jasper, changing colors as I wished. I'm not sure, but I think I remember single crocheting around the picked up edge.I figured out how to make eyelets, crocheted a drawstring, added tassles.

Here is a decision I made recently:

What could I have been thinking of when I chose such an inappropriate gauged yarn for this small suede bottom? DK to Worsted is plenty heavy enough.
It was hideous.