Finishing off

I’ve been on a finishing jag this weekend.


The first thing I finished was the geometric miser’s bag I’ve been working on. I was moving right along when I ran out of thread but once I got more (and more than enough) I was able to finish it up fairly quickly. Every once in a while you make something that you just fall in love with; this is one of those for me. I definitely want to do others like this. The squared part is made from a cross stitch pattern so I’m going to try a few other projects with these patterns.

The second thing I finished was my prototype for my Scottish shawl. Here’s a shot of it as it was drying after being blocked. The original plan was to have the saltire (St. Andrew’s Cross) in the middle, then the thistle leaf pattern for the border and, finally, a knitted border. I did this prototype because I’d never done a Shetland shawl before and wasn’t quite sure how the middle would work out and because I wasn’t sure how the border section would work doing it all in the round. You’ll see the border looks more like seashells than thistle leaves. Ah, yes, well
there’s a story about that. I did it wrong. But at least I did it wrong consistently and made up my own different pattern! Happy accidents, don’t you love ‘em? I also wasn’t sure about the corners of the border. On this one I just did a stockinette stitch, which I’m not crazy about. But now I know I want to do a running vine pattern on the corners that should contrast nicely to the thistle pattern (once it’s actually done properly, that is!) and with this prototype, I can easily see how to work it in.

The nice thing, too, is that because so much of it was plain stockinette, this version went really quickly. The other adaptation I made was not working the knitted edging. I really didn’t want to invest that much time knowing it wasn’t going to be the “real thing.” I crocheted off the stitches and then did a couple of rounds of crocheted edging and I have to say that I kind of dig it. I think on another shawl of this type, I would definitely do a much larger crocheted edging as I think it would be really, really lovely and much faster than the knit off edging.

Happy New Year

Holidays have come and gone. Hope you had a wonderful time, not too rushed.

Much knitting happened during my break but nothing that I felt I could get a handle on. No work at all on the Danish sweater. For some reason I’m caught with that one and am finding it hard to get working on it. I’ve gotten past the armholes and much of the back section but will need to wait for new inspiration to get it finished.

I got most of a new Miser’s Purse done but went and run out thread. I thought 2 balls would be more than enough but since the flat side was done in single crochet, it took a lot more than I thought it would. But I love the way the pattern came out. I have a book with Celtic cross stitch patterns and found this one which was just the right size to repeat for each side of the bag. It actually ended up being a really easy pattern to work this way, it just takes lots of thread! The only challenge with it is that when you crochet with beads, the beads are on the side that sits away from you so you can’t see the pattern developing. I had to stop quite often to make sure I was counting the pattern correctly. Although I did have to rip out a little, I did alright with it and was more than pleased with the way it came out. Moving into the middle of bag, I tried to do a graduated increase into the double trebles and then a graduated decrease into the round side of the bag in order to have a nice flow from one side of the bag to the other. The last one I did was a bit more choppy so I wanted to smooth that out and make that middle part long enough to balance both ends. I decided to just do a spiral sort of pattern for the round section as it seemed to balance the geometric design of the other end without having too much trouble decreasing down for the end. I tried to use the silver rings I have for the closures but somehow the silver just didn’t look right. Of course, that meant a trip to the bead store to see what I could find! And I did find these lovely doughnuts made out of a seed (sorry, can’t remember what the seeds are called) and which were died almost exactly the same purply blue of the seed beads. How often does that happen for it to match like that?!

Another project I’m on the final lap with is the Scottish-inspired Shetland-style shawl. I’ve done a bit of corner cutting on this version because I decided to use this one as a jumping off place for the final pattern. I wasn’t too happy with the stockinette corners and I want to make sure the thistle leaf pattern I used for the border works like I wanted it to. I was also not totally happy with the way the Saltire middle came out so I’ve decided not to invest the time of knitting off the stitches with a knitted edging until I get the other elements worked out. So I’m going to crochet off the edge and do a little improvised edging like that. I’ll be more than happy to use it that way and then I can use what I’ve learned with this one on getting the final pattern worked out and done. The middle and the edging went really pretty quickly so I’m excited to get everything worked out and make the real version.

Anyway, once I get the edging finished, I’ll block it and get a picture posted so you can get an idea of what it will look like. I’ll also do a little bit to explain what I did so you can see how really uncomplicated this is – it’s certainly one of those minimum effort, maximum impact patterns. It’s not really hard at all but it looks very intricate and impressive.

Misers Bag

Just a quick post to show the finished Miser's Bag. I've got a number of ideas for variations and can't wait to finish them.

My main project now (apart from the Skrå-trøyer sweater) is a Shetland-style shawl in honor of my upcoming trip to my former homeland, Scotland. It's been 10 years since I've been there so I'm more than ready to get going. Alas, I'll have to wait until February. I know, I know, the potentially worst weather month but all the flight prices begin to rise in March for tourist season. There really is a smidge of method in all my madness. Not much, sometimes, but certainly some!

Can't get better than this.

Sitting here listening to Van Morrison working on a new bag. Don’t get much better than that, does it?

Have you ever heard of a Miser Bag? It was popular from the sort of mid-1800’s to the early 20th century and is something that has always intrigued me. I have sketches of it early on in my design sketch book. Here’s a picture of a 1920’s pattern for one – see the extensive pattern instructions! I think it’s the mechanics that intrigues me. As you can see, the bag parts are on each end with a middle part with an opening to access its contents. There are rings that can be slid one way or the other to get at the contents or each can be slipped out to the opposite ends to keep everything in and safe.

At the little presentation about Civil War-era purses, the presenter talked about the fact that these were great because they could just be hung over a belt to be carried and then be right to hand when needed (they were used by men at one time as well). She also mentioned something I had never noticed before – the 2 ends are made differently. One end is rounded and the other end is sewn flat. The reason for this is that the user would keep their gold coins in one end and their silver coins in the other end and would know what end to go into just by feel, taking the guess work out of the process.


I’ve finally started experimenting with a rather traditional patterning – here’s what I’ve got so far. It’s a smallish version but I think it’s really pretty with the green thread and the transparent grey seed beads. The beads are transparent enough to pick up the green of the tread and really complement it.

I’m thinking that you could really update the look with some cool ring beads in the middle and an interesting handle. The sample above doesn’t show a handle but I have seen examples with a sort of bracelet handle that I think could be made really modern. It’ll be interesting to see where it can go.


Skrå-trøyer update: Well, I have done absolutely nothing that I’d hoped to get done this week, mostly because I became obsessed with my Skrå-trøyer sweater. Here are a couple of photos that show that I’ve got the body worked all the way to the half gussets at the armhole shaping. The second photo shows the side panel and how it splits to work in the half gusset. The body is worked in the round and then at the point where I am now, I have to start working flat. I’ll have to be careful with my gauge because changing from circular knitting to flat knitting will produce a different gauge, especially since I’m working 2 different weights of yarn. I’m just making some adjustments now and I took today off from working on it to give my hands a break – one can only work for so long with US size 1 needles and worsted weight wool! I’ll get kicked back in tomorrow once I’ve finished my little Miser Bag. I certainly feel that I’m a good half way through although I still have to do the sleeves and they can be a little tricky with the way they’re made. But I’ve got a lot done and I think I’m not going to be too far off my goal of finishing it by the end of the year.