Distractions

I have to admit that there hasn't been much knitting lately in my world. Although I've managed to finish 5 Christmas stockings (2 more to go and then I'm done done), not much else has happened. I did get a little more work done on my gansey, though and it's starting to take shape. I've got the gussets done and I'm well into the pattern. Somehow I must be in a diamond mood because I decided to do the first section as small diamonds. The second section, where I'm at now, is an argyle pattern. I think this is the first sweater I've done with knit/purl patterning. I don't believe I'm going to use any cables on this one but we'll see once I've got the back of the bodice done.

I still love the color and I do love knitting with Galway. I was going to do steeks, which would be perfect for this sort of yarn, but since I'm still not quite sure about the pattern, I decided to do the back and front separately. Less investment in case I decide to do something different. So far, so good.

Vintage Beaded Purse

I went over to one of the local auction houses a few weeks ago and found this lovely beaded crochet purse. Usually these things go for way more than I'm willing to pay but I must have been there on just the right night because there was nobody to bid against me and I got it for a steal. The lining is torn a bit but it's not obvious and the beaded section was complete and in good shape. There was some dirt in some of the beaded areas so I thought, instead of taking the chance of wetting it, I thought I would use a dry paint brush first. There's no telling what I breathed in but it worked a charm and cleaned things right up. A little wipe of the chain with a jeweler's cloth and I think it's cleaned up nicely. Certainly a pretty little thing. 1920's do you think?

Vintage Cute

I've started playing with patterns for reproductions of some vintage patterns. This one was from a picture of a beaded purse. In the original version, which was called a vase coin purse, the white stripes were beaded. I didn't do this one that way because I wanted to work out the pattern. It's made with size 5 perle cotton in powder blue and white.



I've posted a free pattern for it on my web site so have a look if you want to try it out. I've also been seeing 19th century patterns for a similar concept but in a larger size. This one stands about 5" and is really just too cute, don't ya think!


One of the other things I've been working on is a linen top. Here's the back of the bodice. It's going to have a square neck with a vintage lace inset pattern. Then it's going to have a lace insert at the waist with a 'skirt' that will go about hip length. This is the Louet Euroflax Linen that I love so much in color "Grape." and using US size 4 needles. The bodice is stockinette and cable, the skirt will use a cherry lace stitch from a 19th century pattern and a yet to be decided lace insert.

State Fair

The Illinois State Fair kicked off this week and my work to get some things entered paid off.

I entered a few things in the Illinois State Fair this year and was very excited to win several categories. There were 2 things which won big. One was the Skrå-Trøyer (Danish) Sweater which won first place in both the Scandanavian section and the Sewing with Wool. It also won the purple champion rosette for the best garment and for best wool construction.

The other was the Miser’s Purse which won the blue ribbon for best crocheted purse and it won the purple rosette for best purse and the silver platter for best in the division. I liked it but I really didn’t expect this. I’m guessing part of the reason it won was because it was so unusual.

There were a couple of other things that placed. It was really difficult to get good photos in the cases so I've used my file photos.

A knitted doily - 3rd place (the other one didn’t get a look in):

A knitted purse (second place):

Another crocheted (reticule) purse - second place:

A baby outfit - second place:

They did a much better job this year of displaying all of the entries and there were some wonderful things entered in all of the categories. I was amazed at some of the stuff. But I have to say, the cutest thing in the whole show, for my money was a wall hanging that didn't even place in it's category. It was a quilted wall hanging of an underwater scene and it was so cute that I had to go back and look at it 3 times!

The shame was that, the way it was hung, you can barely see one of the cutest aspects (see the little frog's leg?):

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.

Looky, Looky!

It’s finished and I’m so pleased with it. This is a reworking of the vintage purse I was telling you about. Of course, it didn’t end up anything like the original but it was great inspiration. How fun is this?!

The body and top is crocheted with seed beads and then the edging and fringe are beaded with a larger bead accenting. I wish you could feel how gorgeous the beads make the bag feel. Although I started with tone on tone, it’s quite a hard color to match for the larger bead, lining and handle but I’m happy with the brown accents and I think they add an authentic color combination. It is lined and I did use a French seam because the lining was quite ravely. I used a very light lining fabric and it gives a nice ‘stained glass’ sort of effect in the light through the lacy bit at the top.

Anyway, it was a very easy project and I think I’m going to write up the pattern and then play around with some alternatives to the techniques here.

Just a thought...

The preacher told this story this morning which I really liked. Ever feel like you’ve lost your focus?

An old lady used to ride a scooter every day across the border in Brazil. Each day she had a bag of sand strapped to the back. After a while the border guard began to get suspicious and wondered if she was trying to smuggle something in the bag with the sand. One day, he made her open up the bag and even though he went through all the sand, he found nothing and had to let her pass. Finally after this had gone on for months, every day a bag of sand on the back of her scooter, he told her he wouldn’t arrest her if she would just tell him the truth if she was smuggling anything. Yes, she told him, she was smuggling. But what are you smuggling, he asked. Her reply? Scooters.

I love surprises! I have this week off from my day job to get some things done for my fun job. One of the things I wanted to do is visit the bead shop over in St. Louis. There’s also a knit shop over there called Knitorious. Several of the ladies from our Fiber Arts Guild have visited and really enjoyed it so I thought, as it was in the same part of the city, that I would stop by. I just wanted to check the web site to find directions and found that they were hosting a talk by a Civil War re-enactor, Deborah Hyland, on Civil War era purses. I got there and found that one of my compadres was already there, also for the talk. Fascinating! She had pictures of a wide variety of purses as well as the old patterns, ladies of the era carrying purses, etc. I thoroughly enjoyed it as these old purses are a particular interest of mine.

As a bonus, I don’t know if I mentioned it but several months ago when I was in Omaha, I bought a couple of skeins of Artful Yarns Portrait mohair yarn in color 122. I didn’t have a plan for it, I was just taken with the colors (jewel tones – green, blue, turquoise, purple). I found a little shrug that I thought it would work lovely with so off I went. Of course, the pattern didn’t call for this gauge of yarn so I had to do a little figuring but I found that I could work the yarn on needles 3 sizes larger than the pattern and work at about 66% of the stitches listed in the pattern and it came out just about right. That is until I got ready to do the sleeves and realized that I wasn’t going to have enough.

Classic story, right? No problem, I’ll call the store and get them to send me 1 more. That’s all I needed – 1 more. They certainly had more when I bought my 2. Uh, yea. They didn’t have any more. But they couldn’t have been more helpful. The owner offered to call his rep and see what other shops would be carrying the yarn. Maybe they would have one. Four shops – yea, nobody had any and, as you can probably guess by now, the color has been discontinued. Classic.

So, Saturday, I’m standing in Knitorious talking to my friend and I happened to look down. There it was! Not only the Portrait yarn but the very color I needed. Probably the last 3 skeins in existence!!! There, right in front of me!! I had a little scream, did a little dance and bought all the skeins they had!! I know I only needed 1 but, honestly, tell me, how could I not!! It was only 3 skeins so I can always do a scarf or a hat or something. I’ll post some pictures once I get it done! How fab is that?