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I need your advice, please. That up there is a bag I’m knitting with Debbie Bliss Maya on Denise #13s. The lone ball you see next to it is all I have left of the wool. So I need to be working a closure for the bag as well as thinking of handles. I’m just winging it here, no particular pattern.
Having never made a bag for felting before, I don’t have the faintest idea what sort of closure I should make (i.e. flap, loop, zipper, whatever). Also what kind of handles should I do? I have some tacky plastic one and some tackier steel ones, but would obviously prefer something classier looking.
Please, please, please help me! If there are any lurkers in the woodwork, this is your chance to come out 😉
Sorry I’ve been missing from my blog for so long, but I am now in Hyderabad and am not constantly online as I am in Vizag.
I went to a used books sale here in Hyderabad and picked some nice knitting books, including:
Traditional Knitting Patterns by James Norbury, 1962 (I think this must be a classic. It shows traditional stitch patterns from several areas of the world.)
Knitting for Children by Louise Daniels, 1971 (It has patterns graded by age-group, whcih should be very helpful, even if I can’t make gauge ever and decide to do the patterns in a different group than I should.)
Knitting in Vogue by Christine Probert, 1982 (Mostly women’s patterns from Vogue magazine)
and
Wild Knitting ed. Angela Jeffs, 1979 (Now this is really wild knitting and I can’t say any of the designs appeal to me much. Maybe I’ll put this book up for a swap.)
All the books are in excellent condition, except the middle two are missing their original dustjackets.
I also found The Penguin Guide to Sewing by Julian Robinson (1974), which I hope will be helpful as I plan to take my mom’s sewing machine back with me this time.
I got the lot of them for about Rs 700, which is a good price and if I bought any of these alone firsthand, would have got me only one of them or not even that. I’m happy. 🙂
Oh, and my mom’s sewing machine was bought in 1967 in the US. It’s a Singer.
I wish more of my friends would have baby girls. There’s a rash of boys right now and my stash is full of “girl” colours. Sigh. And even my pattern stash has many more girl patterns than boy ones.
The buzz in knitting circles in recent weeks has been about the new interchangeable needles introduced by Knitpicks. While I was trolling the Web for info on which brand to choose, all the fora (forums) were agog with these needles, metal rather than the resin of the Denise set that I finally decided to ask for (a friend has promised me she’s getting them for me). I found a review today and guess what! The metal parts are Made in India. That’s really good. Despite knowing they will never be sold here, I can still feel happy someone in India is making something for themselves. Really. More power to them.
Although these are cheaper than the Boye Needlemaster, I still find them expensive (you try multiplying something by 47 especially when it’s “just a hobby”). I didn’t want the Boye because I’m not particularly fond of their metal crochet hooks. I find them heavy, the colours garish and the finishing is a bit odd (they have ridges on the backs).
Pony hooks might be bland, but I like them. They have a smooth finish and they’re not nearly as heavy as the Boyes.
Now I just have to sit on my hands and wait till I get the Denises. I sincerely hope they’re worth the expense (they must be in $$, but Rs?)
I went booksaling (new word!) today and turned the place upside down looking for crafty books. And I was well rewarded with this (Rs 75):
Knitting Without Tears by Elizabeth Zimmermann. Wasn’t that a lucky find?! I hope to be putting some of the techniques into use in a few weeks’ time. This is the original 1971 edition. There’s a slight tear on the dustcover, but I shall apply tape. I understand it is a bit of a classic.
I also found this book on needlepoint/plastic canvas (Rs 150). It’s been a long time since I learnt a new craft.
Needlepoint on Plastic Canvas by Elisabeth Brenner De Nitto. This must be the cover, because my copy is missing its dust jacket. Hopefully I’ll have fun. I have a pack of A4-sized sheets of plastic canvas hidden in a cupboard. I resisted buying a book on Macrame. I was strong.
In non crafty buys, I got a couple of books with cats in them. The sale was purportedly of surplus books from US libraries. I had a nice haul last year. The man promised to look up more books for me and asked me to go in next week. I am not that hopeful actually.
No muppets were harmed in making this bag. I doubt anyone will remember, but I started this bag back in February and had an issue with the pattern. Anyhow for the second side I went with plain stockinette and found it produced stripes. I didn’t go with a belt handle, but chose instead to crochet one with some Moda Dea Ticker Tape that I got in my April CAT PAC from Kathleen. The idea was given to me by Skip in our last CAT chat. Thanks, Skip!
I’ve given the bag away to my neighbour’s daughter. It is a bit frivolous for me at my age 😛 Anyway, I believe her brother now wants one for a gift for a friend. This time I might stockinette the whole thing without a pattern. Maybe even on circulars, to eliminate the pain of sewing seams.
Here are the gory details:
Yarn: Vardhman Fun Feather 50g skeins (2), Small amount of Moda Dea Ticker Tape
Needles & Hook: Size 7/4.5 mm straights, Boye size J/10/6 mm
Pattern: Loosely based on this
Time: 5 months?!
Size: I didn’t actually measure it but it might be about 8″ across and about 5″ deep.
Extra: I might actually sell something like this, wow!
I was mightily relieved to see this picture on my knitting feed from Flickr. Not only are the colours gorgeous, there is yellow!!! I’ve been secretly worried since The Subway Knitter began her bee baby outfit, because the colours are supposed to be yellow and sage and all I could see were a pale beige and grey. I said as much in a comment when I first saw pics of the yarn, and had my wrist slapped for it 😛
Now that I’ve seen this picture, I’m happy to report the yellow looks like yellow. You can’t imagine my relief. It must be some freak with Apple and LCDs and whatnot.
In case anyone was wondering (why would they?), this is how far I've come with my pink sweater (watermelon, actually):
Can't give you inches or centimetres. But it is now heavy enough to tire my fingers. That's one of the disadvantages of knitting something in one piece, I suppose. Wouldn't it be nice to have circulars to take the weight off?
Also, having to work the front and the back with two different strands, and having only one skein, I decided to burn the candle at both ends and use both the inner end and the outer end. This is fine, except as the skein got used up, it is now collapsing on itself and creating a mess. Besides which, it won't be enough to finish this thing, anyway.
The end product will also be good for some weirdly proportioned child, I think. The charts I find online are not very helpful.
End of lame excuse list.
Another cotton Sugar and Cream FO. This time it’s a facecloth from the Dishcloth Boutique. I decided to make one of the patterns without a picture, just like that. I’m quite happy with the result, except I don’t see any eyelets in the border. Maybe I knit too tight.
This finished the skein of the Sugar and Cream. So I got two ****cloths (dish, wash, face, whatever!) out of one 2.5 oz (70.9 gm) skein. Nice. I probably wouldn’t be able to crochet two full pieces, but knit is possible.
Details:
Yarn: Sugar and Cream in Cornflower Blue. The other half of the skein left over from the Round Dishcloth.
Needles: Pony 3.75 mm (UK 9/US 5) straights
Pattern: Eyelet Border Facecloth from the Dishcloth Boutique
Time: Overnight
Size: 8.5″ x 7.75″
Extra: #1 New stitch pattern learnt! And without a picture, too 😀
#2 I literally had less than an inch of yarn left over at the end. Gasp!
The Dishcloth Boutique is a great place to practise and learn new stitches. They have both crochet and knit patterns. Now if I could only arrange for an uninterrupted supply of cotton yarn or find a good substitute for it here.
Since I’m so pleased with myself about this thing, some more pictures of the neat marching rows of stitches:
Dang. WordPress isn’t letting me upload any more pics. Must be tired of faded blue knit pictures. Sigh.
S I saw these very interesting dishcloths (yes dishcloths) on my Flickr Knitting feed and hopped on over to the maker's blog and begged her for the details of the pattern. She kindly obliged, so I gave my weary fingers a break from the pink sweater (which is getting heavy) and turned this out overnight:
Close up:
Yarn: Sugar and Cream in Cornflower Blue
Needles: Size 4.5 mm (7) straights
Pattern: From Mielke's Farm (she's also got the crochet potholder that is made in one piece but ends up double-sided – Magic Square, I think it's called)
Time: Overnight
Size: about 10"
Extra: #1 First time making a circular piece in knitting
#2 Short rows again
#3 Too holey where I picked up the stitches, maybe it'll be better next time
#4 I want to be able to do this without the scallops and in different colours in the same piece.
swakrta.com 