| Swahaste tvahastam (from my hands to yours)

Scratching itches.

January 9, 2009 in Crochet | Tags: Decor, Doilies, FOs, FOs - Crochet | 10 comments

I didn’t realise I hadn’t blogged for the whole of December. I have become quite sloppy with my blogging and must be grateful to have any readers left!
So scrambling to fill the gaps, here are a couple of doilies I crocheted in that month.
First up is this one, an oval doily. Ravelry project page here.

I made this because someone on Ravelry was having a problem with some of the instructions and I had the pattern, so I decided to try and see where the problem might be. In the end, I had only two places where something was fishy. I do wish they’d convert patterns like this to charts, because trying to read and follow long written instructions makes me cross-eyed. Anyway, here goes.

Thread: Some of the Jyoti brand thread I got on my last visit to Hyderabad. Since it was white, there wasn’t a problem about whether the colour would run. About half a 50gm skein. Very good value.

Hook: 1.25mm

Pattern: Oval Doily #3 by Lucille LaFlamme from Leisure Arts #2791, Oval Doilies to Crochet. The Rav page for the pattern is here. I had the following points to note:

In Rnd 3, I fell one stitch short, but I fudged that.
In Rnd 13, the third Ch4 should read Ch5, but that is obvious when you come to that point.

Time: 4 days.

Size: 15.5″ x 10″ Despite using smaller thread and hook than recommended, I got the recommended size. Funny. I wouldn’t have thought I was a loose crocheter.

Extra #1 I hated the picots in the last row. I’m never happy with them. I try using beads in some cases.

Then Jaishree came visiting one weekend. We’d been talking when I visited her about which of us was a tighter or looser crocheter, because we found we use different size hooks for the same size thread. We’d even begun a doily to check how much bigger or smaller our final doilies would end up, but that pattern somehow got shelved. So this time, when I stumbled across some doily patterns at the non-English websites of Coats and Clark, we picked another, smaller pattern and began that. I picked up what remained of the Jyoti skein and she used a pink skein of Jyoti. Here’s mine. Ravelry project page here.

And here are the details.

Thread: Would you believe there is still some thread left from the Jyoti skein? If you believe the yardage requirements given in the patterns, this 50gm skein has amazing length…either the cardboard cores in the recommended thread account for a lot of the ball weight, or this thread is lighter, or something.

Hook: 1.25mm. I apparently have a death grip on my hooks, because towards the end of this doily I broke the handle on this one. It was quite upsetting because although I heard the crack, I foolishly believed it wouldn’t break completely immediately. But it did, and I finally resorted to reinforcing it with packing tape and pins to finish the doily. Very kindly, however, Jaishree brought me a spare for future use. I really love these hooks and haven’t used any others for thread since getting them.

Pattern: Tulpe (Tulips) from Coats and Clark GmbH (Germany). The Rav page for the pattern is here. I went looking for the non-English patterns, becuase I knew they’d have doilies. And I love the European doilies for several reasons, including the fact that they are charted, and they have unusual designs and motifs and shapes, plus it isn’t all pineapples. I found this one and a couple more, including one on the French site.

Time: 3 days.

Size: 15.25″ I still don’t know what size Jaishree’s ended up, but possibly it would be larger, since it was already larger at a comparative stage before she’d finished it.

Extra #1 Nothing much. Nice elegant pattern, quick results…

So. These two FOs of mine are not in the order they ought to have been (there’s a whole block missing after that shawl I blogged about last time) but these were handy to link to and write about.

Sometimes I just get an irresistible itch to make something with thread and hook. And then I can’t resist scratching.

Testing times

November 30, 2008 in Knitting | Tags: Accessories, FOs, FOs - Knitting, lace shawl knit pink, Pattern Testing | 10 comments

What just happened has shocked, angered and pained all in this country and a good many in others. There are no words in which I can describe my feelings. Bombay and the places affected have so many memories for us, that even thinking about it makes me tearful. A friend lost her mother in the attacks. I cannot dwell on it, so you will understand if I don’t talk too much about it, ok? I’m fine, not personally affected.

To divert all our thoughts, I thought I’d finally showcase one of my testing projects. I test knit this shawl a month ago but was waiting for the designer to put the pattern up for sale, and then of course we travelled. But here I’m showing it off finally.

Sometimes routine helps:

Yarn: Common-or-garden acrylic, fingering weight, limper than foreign acrylic and softer. It’s usually what we use for baby stuff. A friend got it for me from Bombay. After finishing it, I “killed” the acrylic, using a damp teatowel and an iron. This way, the acrylic retains its shape. That probably shocks all the purists. First, I shouldn’t have been using acrylic, and second, no point in blocking it, and none at all in killing it. However, I was quite pleased with the end result. It seemed to have better drape and the stitches were nicely defined. And I’m defiant.

Needles: 4mm

Pattern: Aiwara (Rav link) by Elke Weinstroer (Ravelry profile). My Ravelry project page is here.

Time: About a month, but I took a while off in the middle. The pattern itself is pretty straightforward, and the edging is knitted with the body, so there isn’t any fiddling around with picking up stitches and adding it later.

Size: 65″ x 42″

Extra #1 My largest lace project so far, and my first full knit shawl. It isn’t very complex as these things go, but I liked the experience. My only quibble is that perhaps I don’t like triangle shawls too much. They seem a bit inadequate somehow.

#2 No issues with the pattern, however. It’s good when you need a soothing repetitive design to work on.

#3 I liked my yarn experiment. And I will repeat it. That’s a dare. I can’t see the convenience in having to reblock something each time you get it wet. So if the acrylic will maintain its shape, why not? As for warmth, if it is really that cold, a flimsy shawl wouldn’t be much use, I should think. Whatever it’s made of. You may try convincing me. Yes, I’m feeling obstreperous. As someone who lives in warm climes, I need sometimes to travel to places where woollens are needed, and even then I’m so cold myself that I cover myself in thick sweaters and coats. (coward) Perhaps for an elegant evening out where you travel in a heated vehicle and enter a glittering warm theatre or something…Yes, then this pattern would do very nicely.

Five cities in five cats

November 21, 2008 in Uncategorized | Tags: Cats, Fun, Travel | 7 comments

We’ve been back about 10 days now and I’ve been trying to catch up on everything. There was a lot of work waiting for me when I returned (which is good, because 3 weeks in Europe can be a huge drain on your pockets!), as well as plenty of email and blog feeds to read. So that’s my excuse for not blogging until now. (It’s weak, I know!)

We visited London, Belfast, Rome, Venice and Florence. We met some very lovely people: some old friends, some new ones who were welcoming and helpful. We walked our feet off, got lost in museums, went underground, flew around, slept in an airport, dawdled in cafes, watched a play, a musical and a concert, knit on the world’s largest tea cosy, got duped, had a complete stranger give us his entry tickets free, had pizza for lunch and dinner, ate Chinese cuisine in London and Thai food in Rome, drooled over dessert, fell in love with a car (and a people), met a TV personality, gawped at a Bollywood star, window shopped, celebrated a birthday…

Some of our pictures are here.

The common thread throughout the journey and my personal highlight were the cats we encountered. First, there was Fergus in London

Then there was Mystery Cat (we never discovered where she came from or who she was) in Belfast

Then there were the three lovelies in Rome*! (Yes, two of them are male, but they are still lovely).

Here’s Puddy (Paddington)

Max with Puddy

And a glimpse of Sunshine at the bottom right corner

That smile on my face says it all, really.

* Names changed because somehow that’s how I think of them.

The last three we spent quality time with and got to know as much as they would allow us. Puddy is a big sweetie and the only one who’d let me pick him up. He didn’t like it much, though, so he’d emit a feeble ‘meee-ew’ and I had to let him go. Max was the most gorgeous, with a glorious mane which made him leonine, except he had a yellow streak as large and would flee if you so much as looked at him directly in the eye. Sunshine was good at pretending to be aloof and spent most of the night jumping around the house.

The trip started really well, because we gatecrashed Cindy in Bangalore and it was there that the whole “wonderful hosts and yummy kitties” thing began, with Cindy’s two felines. They were quite talkative and carried on a conversation throughout the night and although we didn’t get any pictures of them, Cindy’s promised me a few of their kittenhood. Yes? Please?

Funnily, though, most of the other cats we met didn’t say a word. Only Puddy with his ‘mee-ew?’ and occasional yelpings when he suddenly found his toys around the house.

There was a notice in Venice’s St Mark’s square for a black kitten lost (young and affectionate…), and it rained cats…and dogs in Florence. I spotted a cat who could have been Puddy’s Italian twin in Trajan’s forum, and a calico lady in a whiskey distillery in Ireland. So happy.

I know I ought to be telling you more…

Ok, let’s see.

– we nearly missed our musical (Chicago in London) because the husband was so fascinated by the displays at the Imperial War Museum he never came out (obviously he did, eventually, but I’d given up on him and left to reach the theatre on my own)

– loved the Tube (again!) (ooh the information!)

– took (and missed!) budget flights between London, Belfast and Rome

– slept at Heathrow airport in a cafe (see above)

– watched The Mousetrap and Chicago in London, and a baroque music concert in Venice (with costumes!)

– went to I Knit on two evenings, one of them when knitting was taking place on the world’s largest tea cosy (I added my bit!)

– as we were walking towards the Colosseum in Rome a gentleman returning with his grandson gave us the tickets he’d bought and then discovered didn’t need

– I spent too much for glass souvenirs in Venice (but, oh, the colours!!!!)

– the desserts in Rome were… words fail me. flaky. melting-in-the-mouth. inspiring. amazing. My mouth is watering at the memory.

– the Italians are such fun! And I wanted to pick up one of the Smart cars and bring it home with me, only we fell slightly short of the thousands of euros that would have cost

– I ambushed journalist Thomas Kielinger on my way to Chicago and spoke to him. He was looking for a restaurant, the poor man

– on two consecutive mornings we saw Ajay Devgan shooting a song for a film. Sans his wife, though.

– on our last day in Rome we celebrated the husband’s birthday with dinner at an interesting restaurant, which ended with everyone in the place singing the Italian version of Happy Birthday for him and the other person there celebrating, while they blew out their candles on their pavlovas. A great finale. Thank you so much, Carla and Ben!

We’re off!

October 18, 2008 in Uncategorized | Tags: Travel | 7 comments

We’re leaving for Bangalore this evening, and for London tomorrow. Yay! Amazingly, the Italy (Schengen) visa came through in just two days, after I went to Chennai to submit the forms on both our behalfs, had some bad moments with the travel insurance and so on and had the chappie tell me we’d most probably have to go to Mumbai for an interview! That would have been another 20K down the drain…And yet miraculously I took the overnight train back to Cochin the same evening (Tuesday), and by Thursday, the passports had arrived at home! That’s what I call efficiency 🙂 Considering the UK visa took exactly one calendar month to arrive…

So we go to London/Belfast/Rome with Venice and Florence thrown in somewhere…

I’ve been spending hours on the net booking/trying to book trains through the Trenitalia site…only at the end it tells me I need to scan my ID, my card, and what not, mail it to them and they’ll authorise the transaction. Bosh! I also thought raileurope.co.in allowing payment in rupees was wonderful, until I got to paying and found they only deliver paper tickets! How backward of them, to be sure.

In any case, London, here we come…Are any of my readers in any of these places and shall we meet?

Comment here or mail me.

I’ve been remiss

October 7, 2008 in Uncategorized | Tags: Fun | 2 comments

Two of my friends awarded me (separately) the following award, and I’ve been sitting on passing it on…I never quite know how to respond to these things, you know, never been good at this gracious acceptance thing at all. Anyhow, I’ve finally got up the gumption and ta-da, here it is!

Thank you so much Pearlin and Yasmin! It means a lot to me. Sorry I took so long to acknowledge it!

And now I have the pleasure of nominating a few people myself. This is difficult…

Here’s just a random 5 blogs, ok?

and, another one, because I’m feeling that way,

Serendipitous Opportuknitty

Now I’m off to go alert my awardees 🙂

My notes for the crochet BSJ

September 27, 2008 in Crochet, Knitting | Tags: BSJ, crochet BSJ, EZ, FOs, FOs - Crochet, Patterns | 1 comment

I’ve made a separate page for my notes for my crocheted version of the BSJ. You can find my notes here. (Also listed in sidebar).

Catching up

September 7, 2008 in Knitting | Tags: Accessories, FOs, FOs - Knitting, Travel | 14 comments

There’s a lot of loose ends to tie up. Well, not exactly, but my mind is all scattered in the past few days. I’ll tell you all about it, but let’s get the knitting out of the way first, shall we?

Me and bags…

I stole some yarn from Jaishree to make this bag. It’s now living with its owner in Australia happily, so I can blog about it now.

In the usual fashion:

Yarn: Common-or-garden acrylic, pinched from Jaishree’s stash. The recipient said she liked blue and this was what I found. I used two strands held together. I’m happy to report that despite being acrylic, the yarn shows off the cables quite nicely. Perhaps the tight gauge helped. This is light-worsted weight, the usual size.

Needles: 4mm, 6mm and 6.5mm

Pattern: The Lambe bag from Berroco. This came in a newsletter with four cabled bag patterns and I had in fact queued one of them when I read in the Rav RAK group that someone wanted this one, so it sounded ideal. The other one’s still on my queue, but will probably be made later. My project page on Rav is here.

Time: This took a while to make, because after starting it and finishing a repeat or so I realised that I’d miscrossed a cable, and had to rip. That kind of put me off a bit, but this was the only knitting project I took with me to Hyderabad, to ensure I would finish it. And I did.

Size: 9″ x 13″ across at the widest point, going down to 11″ across at the top.

Extra #1 I was glad to have the bamboo handles, which were almost identical to the ones the pattern called for. I bought them right here in Cochin.

#2 I like cables and bags. What can I say?

#3 I didn’t line this bag, because I felt the fabric was dense enough…Should I have?

#4 I had yarn left over and couldn’t resist the temptation to begin another pattern on my queue. I cast on almost immediately I got back and even finished part of it, and then found myself wondering if I had enough yarn. So of course I demanded that Jaishree send me more, which she has, the poor thing. So keep your eyes peeled for yet another blue thing in the future, ok? I know you can’t wait.

………………

Other stuff. Warning: will be hodge-podge-y

There’s this new job I’m doing (job? contract? assignment? whatever) and I have a couple of files to attend to.

Yesterday we had two separate meals out at the hospital, one a traditional Onasadya (Onam meal) for lunch served on a banana leaf, and the other a dinner in the evening to dine one of the doctors out. I got told off after the first one by the male in-law for waving my hands about when I talk. It isn’t ladylike, apparently. Not if I’m dressed in a sari. I wonder if I have a banner on my head that says, “Yes, I’m 34 years old, but I need to be told how to behave.” In a suitably tasteful font, of course. Needless to say, I tried to be very demure at dinner and did not go over to talk to the men which I normally do. Mustn’t blot my escutcheon further.

We are hoping to go to the UK/Ireland/Italy in a few weeks time, and now that The Man has been given approval from his headquarters, the visa process has begun. Last year I thought getting a visa to one country was bad enough. I don’t know what made me think trying for 3 at a time would be any better! If they had all been within the Schengen zone, it would have been nice, but alas, no! All three countries have minds of their own, so we need a UK visa, an Irish one and a Schengen one from Italy. Just the UK form has 21 pages.

Of course, a lot of it we don’t have to fill, because it’s full of sections for all categories of visitors, but the bulk is still intimidating. Also, finding answers to questions like “How much money will you need for your accommodation and food while visiting the UK?”, “Have you ever done anything which might make you not a person of good character? If yes, please give details.” is quite exhausting (I wonder if waving my hands about would qualify). And so much of it is plain terrifying. The Italy visa requires a long list of “mandatory documents” including a confirmed air ticket…what if we don’t get one? Then we’d have to add the visa fees to the cancellation charges as lost money.

Bright spot? I posted for advice on the Rav forums and found a great new friend who’s promised to put us up in Rome. Best of all, she has 3 cats!!! No wonder she’s so kind as to offer a bed to almost-total strangers.

Italy sounds more and more like India every time I go to a different website or source of information. The potholes, the pickpockets, the 60-day train bookings, the refusal to accept credit cards…But the men should be handsomer, no? 😉 And I always have been drawn to Rome and Egypt…Perhaps Rome because my parents and sister went there as part of their farewell tour (actually they were relocating from Canada for good and decided to cover Europe on the way back, touching London, Rome, Venice, Paris, Amsterdam, Belgrade and Egypt in 1972). Anyway, they had a photo-rich book on Rome I still have memories of.

Another India-like feature? The Consulate site tells me the VFS (Visa Facilitation Service) has a centre in Cochin, but the VFS-Italy site says there isn’t. This sort of confusion feels so Indian! I’ve sent a mail asking for information. I’m hoping not to have to travel to Chennai or Mumbai for the visa, sigh. Anyway, we need to get the visas in order, so nothing to be done until the other two come through.

Looking once again for help/advice on accommodation in London. And do any of my mostly silent readers live in any of these places and could we meet? It would be so much fun! This would be in late October, early November. Last time I didn’t actually get to go to a knit/crochet meetup. Or a real yarn store. Though I’m thinking that would be too tempting/depressing/dangerous for my credit card. So, anyone out there in London/Manchester/Belfast/Dublin/Rome/Venice-or-Florence?

Another example of the unexpected kindness of people: I saw someone queuing or faving the Ten Stitch Blanket (Ravelry link) on Rav and discovered the UK’s Knitting and Crochet Guild were selling copies of the past issue of Slipknot which had the pattern. I wrote to them to enquire whether they’d send a copy to India and the lady was sweet enough to send me a copy free! Gives you a nice warm feeling inside. The pattern itself is written in Elizabeth Zimmermann’s chatty style, not the row-by-row detailed style.

Thanks for listening! My mind is flitting from one topic to another these days, and the table at which I work is in a royal mess. Which is reflecting the other I am not sure, but the likeness is astounding.

Don’t mind me, I’m just a sloth.

All in a rush

August 26, 2008 in Crochet | Tags: Doilies, doily lace crochet doilie, FOs, FOs - Crochet | 12 comments

Oh dear! I hadn’t realised that I haven’t blogged in ages! It’s a good thing most of my online friends see me around on Ravelry and the mailing lists, else someone might have been worried. No? Which raises the valid question, what good is this blog? What purpose does it serve (aside of occupying cyberspace)?

Luckily for you, it is not a question I am not going to answer in this post. Instead, I’m going to smother you in a flutter of doilies (what is the collective noun for doilies?).

Here’s #1, Kaleidoscope and its specs.

Thread: One strand each of a plain yellow-orange and an ombre, both in size 30, of Coats Mercer.

Hook: My current favourite size, 1.00mm Pony (the grey handle)

Pattern: Kaleidoscope doily by Julie Bolduc from JPF Crochet Club (it’s a free pattern). Here’s the Ravelry page for it, and my project page. I’d made it before, in a pale blue baby yarn and found it cupping, which I thought might be a gauge problem. I really enjoy the different patterns created with filet and net stitches.

Time: Overnight

Size: 9″ across

Extra #1 As I said, it’s a pattern I made before, but I had the inexplicable urge to make it again, perhaps to see how my skills have progressed since the last time I made it. At least my tastes haven’t changed in the patterns I like.

Moving on, here’s doily #2.

Thread: One of my thread finds in Hyderabad, Jyoti thread. This is size 20-ish and liable to fade. It’s locally made but what impressed me is that the wrapper has washing instructions and a pattern for an edging on the reverse! That’s the first time I’ve seen something like that on an Indian product for sale in India. The fading is disappointing, though. To work with, the thread is quite good. It didn’t chafe my fingers or leave colour on my hands. The next time I spotted it, I picked up cream and pale pink and white, since these are less likely to be dramatically affected. I saw some skeins which had faded just from being on the shelves.

Hook: 1.25mm Pony (the blue handle)

Pattern: Crystal Fan Doily by Linda Mershon from The Ultimate Doily Book by ASN, #1185. Here’s the Ravelry page for it, and my project page. I was attracted by the unusual shape. Blocking it was a bit tough, but then I’m finishing-challenged in any case. The beads were my own touch, in a desperate ploy to escape the picot curse :p Actually I picked up beads as well in Hyderabad and was in a “bead-y” phase.

Time: 4 days. We had a lot of power cuts while I was in Hyderabad and there was little else to do until I got a new battery for my laptop which replaced the one which kept dying after 30 minutes.

Size: 15.5″ across

Extra #1 Hmm. I liked the shape.

#2 Oh, and now I have this one and a few other doilies on my dining table, sandwiched between the protective plastic cover and the cloth underneath. The husband thinks I’ve gone overboard, but I’m basking in my own brilliance at thinking of the idea, and so have added variously-coloured motifs as well to the melange.

This one’s gone far, far away to live…

Well, not that far, actually, just about 4 hours away by train. It’s gone to live with Jaishree who drew the short straw and landed me as a partner in a swap. This is the first time I’m showing a Bruges lace crochet piece on this blog, but let’s follow the established pattern, shall we?

Thread: Red ombre rayon (sold as “silk” or “art silk”) just under one cone.

Hook: 1.25mm Pony (the blue handle), which seems to be usurping the place of favourite.

Pattern: Nameless square Bruges lace sample from a German book I have in the English translation, called simply Crochet. Published by Verlag für die Frau in the erstwhile East Germany. I bought the book along with a companion book on knitting/crochet at a book sale in JNU sometime in 1997 or so. Most of the patterns are charted, with some rudimentary written instructions. This book was actually how I learnt symbol crochet, teaching myself. I’ve made other pieces from this, I shall save them for later, since I don’t have too many details on any of them. Somehow I’ve never had the confusion over US/Rest of the World terminology, perhaps because I intermingled patterns from both sources willy-nilly. Also, at that point, I was not aware I had to be afraid of symbols…alas, perhaps I should have been introduced to socks as well at that vulnerable juncture.

I chose this pattern for two reasons. One, I wanted to give Jaishree a doily which she wouldn’t have in her formidable library (or photographic memory). As you can imagine, that was a challenge, because she appears to have almost every pattern ever published in the Western hemisphere (only half-kidding…). I knew she didn’t have this book, though, so that narrowed my choices between one of the patterns here or in a Finnish book I have.

The other reason for choosing this doily was that I wanted to make an entire piece of Bruges lace (well, the crochet imitation, at any rate). I’d tried it a few years ago and there’s evidence of it at my parents’ house, but that used a granny centre, so it wasn’t wholly Bruges crochet. Now that technique is something I can cross off my list. Whew.

You only use double (UK treble) crochet and chains, besides longer length stitches for the “spiders” at the centres and turns. Good fun, though you need to keep close track of where to turn. Here’s my Ravelry page.

Time: 4 days. I had to do it quick, because I’d almost forgotten that I had to swap it! Luckily Jaishree reminded me so I only waited till I got back to Cochin and could access the book again.

Size: 12″ across

Extra #1 I think I’ve said it all up there. This would be my debunking doily, I think, as a fellow crocheter has now seen it close-up and while she wouldn’t be rude enough to tell me what she thinks of my skills and finishing, I can well imagine!

Leaving you a-flutter…

A bounty of blue – 3

July 30, 2008 in Knitting | Tags: FOs, FOs - Knitting, Kids | 7 comments

I promise my next blog post will be different! It’s just that once I actually finished making something with the Russian cotton, it was like I found it eminently suitable to lots of things. Actually, having spent a small fortune on having it imported, I thought I had to make a wearable out of it and was not willing to admit that I didn’t like the non-glazed, non-mercerised look of it when worked up. Now I’ve decided that since the ice is broken, I can use the yarn for whatever I want, just so my stash is reduced. So here’s another thing I made out of it.

Yarn: Kamteks Khlopok from Russia (Khlopok = cotton), just over half a skein. (Each skein had 250m yarn). Held two strands together.

Needles: Size 3.50mm (US 4)

Pattern: Modern Cabled Baby Bib (it’s a free Ravelry download) by Andrea Pomerantz (gibsongirl on Ravelry). I can’t see if it is available outside of Ravelry, though. Here’s my Ravelry project page.

Time: Overnight. I had to make a gift in a hurry for a colleague/neighbour’s baby (I thought the mom had left with the baby for a vacation, then discovered she hadn’t just two days before I left for Bangalore, so I needed to whip this up in a hurry. I had been considering a bib anyway and found this on Ravelry.)

Size: 7″ x 7″ not including the strap, of course.

Extra #1 Nothing much to say. Nice easy and elegant pattern. Suitable for either gender, perhaps slightly masculine. That’s good, though, because so many patterns tend to be suited for girls.

#2 I wanted to put a much larger wooden button, and even sewed it in, but then I found it was too large for the buttonhole. Duh. So I unsewed it and sewed on a slightly smaller one. (I’m calling the buttons wooden, but I think they might be coconut shell.)

I must warn you that I have (had) a total of 1500m of this yarn in my stash.

A bounty of blue – 2

July 26, 2008 in Crochet | Tags: Accessories, blue, fat bottom bag, FO, FOs, FOs - Crochet | 3 comments

Everybody in the crochet world seems to have made this one, and caught by my bagmaking bug, I finally did, too. The yarn was again the same Russian cotton, and of a much smaller gauge, I think, than the recommended yarn, so this is a bit small. But no matter.

Yes it’s the fat bottom bag.

Yarn: Kamteks Khlopok from Russia (Khlopok = cotton), just over half a skein. (Each skein had 250m yarn).

Hook: Size 3.50mm

Pattern: Fat Bottom Bag (Ravelry link) by Julie Holetz from Stitch’n Bitch Crochet: the Happy Hooker.

Time: 2 days. Much faster than I thought it would be.

Size: 9.5″ x 5″

Extra #1 I didn’t think it was this easy to make.

#2 I was lucky to find a bag lining tutorial before I finished and sewed it together, so I was able to sew the lining first and then finish the crochet part. My sewing was pretty bad as usual, but you are all used to that by now aren’t you?! I used an old favourite top to line.

#3 I’m ok with the yellow plastic handles (though the husband thought they were cheap – which they are). But I normally prefer shoulder bags to handheld ones. Might make the next one with some modifications. I have other ideas for the pattern in my head as well.

Just to make sure there’s no doubt of my sewing skills, I’ll leave you with a closeup of the inside of the bag.