Miscellaneous Projects

 

I love weaving but I'm not much of a weaver.  This project came from the book, Next Steps in Weaving by Patti Graver.  It's a pattern called Scarf of Lucky Colors.  It was the most complex pattern I've ever done and I made a lot of mistakes but the yarn was heavenly (2/18 Jaggerspun Zephyr) and I did well enough for government work.  The secret is I don't tell anyone how many mistakes are there and no one's ever mentioned them so I figure I'm good!

I love using a tahkli spindle to spin cotton but hadn't really used it for silk before.  This was an experiment using some undyed silk hankies given me by a friend. It resulted in an ultra-fine silk yarn that some day I will use for a shawl, or at least the edging of a shawl.  So decadent!

Another cover I came up with for a tablet.  This one has a pocket for peripherals on the outside and a little slip for the pen stylus inside the lid.  I'm not really sure how I came up with this pattern.  I'd used this fabric for a gift project for a friend of mine and had quite a bit left over. of each pattern.  It had just the beachy feel I wanted for the project.  

The tablet doesn't need a lot of protection but I added some padding just the same and it has worked a charm when I've needed to carry it around.

I spent about a year watching all the Fashion School videos put out my Nick Verreos on draping patterns on a mannikin and then making the garment.  He is a wonderful teacher and I learned a ton from him.  I'm a seamstress like I'm a weaver.  I've done it but it's not my forte.  He made me think about things differently and gave me a lot of skills I didn't know I needed!  This was a jacket that came of my practice of the skills from his videos.  This isn't the best photo but I can assure you that the fit was perfect and was just what I wanted for a jacket.

My point with sharing this project is to say, be curious about the world around you.  Take in lessons anywhere you can find them because you never know when they're going to inform your own particular craft. You might even find something new you never knew you'd love doing.

A quick photo of my mascot, a knitted version of Shawn the Sheep.  He's watched over me these past 18 months through some personal challenges.  He's really good at making me smile. 

And finally, a little beaded box.  It started as a little doodle but using the book, Little Bead Boxes by Julia S Pretl, helped me make it into a proper little box.  I didn't go fully along with the pattern but it was enough to keep me out trouble for an afternoon.  And that's got to count for something, right?!

Beading Your Purse

The other night I was looking for something in my home office and found this little beaded coin purse that I'd made about 10 years ago.

After posting it on Facebook, I had a request for the pattern.  It's a really basic beaded purse pattern that you can adapt to fit whatever size purse frame you have.  These purse frames can usually be found at chain craft stores, although you can also find them online.

You can also find kits to made this type of coin purse at some craft and/or knitting stores or online but it's just as easy to buy a spool of perle cotton and some strands of pre-strung seed beads.

So here's how I made mine.  This is a "down and dirty" pattern, written out from looking at my purse. Make, do, change to your heart's content and to fit your own purse frame.  And, most of all, enjoy!

Beaded Coin Purse

• Size 8 perlé cotton (with beads loaded – load as many beads as you can manage since you’ll have to cut the thread to load another set of beads and then make a join.)
• Size 10 or 11 seed beads (pre-strung strands of bead make it easy to transfer the beads onto the perlé cotton.  You’ll use approximately 3,000 beads. The easiest way to transfer the seed beads to the perlé cotton is to make a loop at the end of the sewing thread holding the beads and rest the end of the perlé cotton through the loop.  This will allow you to slide the beads from the sewing thread onto the perlé cotton.)
• Size 0 or 1 knitting needles
• Lining material
• Purse frame

Piece is worked flat and then stitched together when attached to the purse frame.  This may not be the best project for working on the move. 

For the smaller coin purse frame, I cast on 28 stitches. Knit 2 rows without beads.  This will give you an edge to attach to the purse frame.

Basic row: K2, *slip 1 bead, K3* (repeat across to last 2 stitches), K2

Every row will be knit in this manner, the only difference being the number of beads you slip.

Work the basic row 2 times slipping 1 bead.

Work the basic row 4 times slipping 2 beads.

Work the basic row 4 times slipping 3 beads.

Work the basic row 90 times slipping 4 beads.

Work the basic row 4 times slipping 3 beads.

Work the basic row 4 times slipping 2 beads.

Work the basic row 2 times slipping 1 beads.

Knit 2 rows.  Bind off.

Using the lining material, cut a piece a little larger than the purse.  Shape the ends to match the curve of the purse frame.  Sew the lining, making sure to leave enough of the side open to accommodate the purse frame. 

Sew the sides of the knitted purse together, leaving enough of the side open to accommodate the purse frame.

With the wrong side of the lining facing the wrong side of the knitted purse, fold in the lining to hide the edge of the material and stitch the pieces together.

Attach the purse and lining to the purse frame, making sure there is room for the frame to open and close.

Rabbit Trails

I was so looking forward to this weekend since it's the first one in a long time when I had nothing planned.  No meetings.  No trips.  Just a chance to work on the things I want to.

I had a list of things that I wanted to work on.  A lace project, finish my weaving project, spinning project, start a new bobbin lace project, etc.

What I actually did, however, was spangle 48 bobbins:

Stain 48 bobbins:

And varnish 48 bobbins.

What that started was something I hadn't planned on.  While I searched out the supplies to spangle my bobbins, I found a number of jewelry beading projects that had been sitting there for who knows how long.  Sooooo...

and

Plus another necklace and bracelet I don't have a photo of.  A whole new jewelry wardrobe, if spring ever does come.

The 2 necklaces at the botton of the last photo are special.  I know they look like plain beads but they were my Grannie's beads that I've restrung.  I used some of them for my bobbins and the rest I restrung.  The strings were falling apart and I was afraid to wear it for fear of losing the beads.  Now they're back into shape to be worn.

Not for lack of trying

I got some pictures taken finally yesterday and tried to get them posted but there was some problem with Blogger. 

While I was working on some stuff yesterday, I was watching some old movies.  One of them was a really weird movie called, "The Villain Still Pursued Her."  Came out in 1940 with people like Alan Mowbray, Buster Keaton, and Margaret Hamilton (the wicked witch from the Wizard of Oz movie).  If you click on the link above, you'll see a plot description but the better description is at the bottom of the page with the User Review.  This is a satire on the melodramatic dramas out there and is so bad that it's hysterical - by the way, it's bad on purpose.  Basically, every moment that could be overacted is overacted and every contrivance is used, all the way from the beginning of the movie which finds a newly widowed mother and her beautiful daughter discussing how their husband/father had left them with little money and the mortgage is coming due.  The slimey lawyer tries to convince them that the land owner is going to kick them out.  In reality, he is trying to get the beautiful daughter to marry him.  Fast forward to the daughter finding out that the handsome young land owner is kind and marries him.  On the wedding day, the young man declares that he never drinks and the new young wife says, that's great because no lips that have touched the demon liquor will ever touch my lips.  The lawyer realizes this is his in and tricks the young man into taking a drink, which turns him into a raging alcoholic.  And it continues from there.   Definitely worth a viewing if you're up for a laugh.

In getting ready for the Heritage Knitting Retreat, I decided I should probably get my silk beaded purse finished.  This is one of those projects that started out just to try out how the Gudebrod silk would work in a 19th century reproduction purse that would have originally used silk thread.  I learned a lot experimenting with the materials for this project.  Things like sizing for silk thread.  A is small, FFF is large (FFF is like smaller fingering weight).  "A" is thin, like thread thin, really thin.

I love the feel of the silk with the beads and would highly recommend you trying it if you have any desire to knit a beaded purse.  The thread is softer than mercerized cotton and accommodates the beads much more easily, although it will go a little hinky if it snags on a bead.  It only happend to me once and I used almost an entire tube of 11/0 beads.  It wasn't too bad, just not something that happens with the mercerized cotton. 

I've been working for quite a while on spinning a truely lace-weight yarn out of some Blue-faced Leicester.  It was my first project on my Fricke wheel and it's been a whole lot of spinning.  A.Whole.Lot.of.Spinning.  Now part of this roving has been spun on my Ashford drop spindle (which I've currently lost sight of - I know it's here somewhere) but the majority of it has been worked on the wheel.  I have no idea what the yardage is going to be but I suspect it's going to be in the neighborhood of about 1,200 yards.  1,200 yards is actually 2,400 yards plus plying so it's really 3,600 yards of spinning.  Like I said, a bunch of spinning. 

It's also been quite the learning experience.  Even though BFL is a longer stapled wool, when you're spinning this finely, it takes a whole lot more twist in the singles than you realize.  I've hit patches where I obviously didn't have enough twist in the singles.  It would be interesting to know what happened during those periods of spinning to make me not be paying enough attention. 

I haven't posted anything yet about the cotton roving I bought from the Woolery booth in Lexington.  The color is called Terra Cotta.  It's dyed, not one of the natural colors, but I'm thinking I may ply it with the natural coyote color.  The natural colors darken when you finish them and I think it might look nice with this.  I've been spinning this on the fastest whorl of my Kromski Minstrel using my own modified version of the long draw.  I find this modified version to be much easier to control than a proper long draw.  I'm sure it's just because I haven't practiced enough with it but this seems to work fine for what I'm doing.  Here's the start of the bobbin.  I'm not spinning it super, super fine but it should work out to a heavier lace weight sort of yarn.  I'm wondering if I can actually get enough spun for a summer top before it gets cold again.  That's my challenge, should I choose to accept it.  And will I accept it?  I'll let you know along about September time : ).

Spindle Spinning

When I started spinning, I started with an Ashford top-whorl drop spindle.  I learned with it and all the early stuff was done on it.  In fact it was about a year before I moved on to a spinning wheel but I've always kept my love for the drop spindle. 

Recently the spindle has come up again and I decided to spin some dark blue fiber I got on one of my trips.  I'm amazed at how quickly the first skein worked up.  Have a look:

It's not a hugely soft fiber, more along the lines of Border Leicester, but it's a pretty color.  This skein is a little over 200 yards for 2 ounces.  I have to admit that it took me a little while to get the rhythm again for the spindle but it was a lot of fun.  I still have a couple more ounces to go then I'll need to do some white because my thought is to do a pair of fulled blue/white fair isle mittens.  There was a pattern in a recent PieceWork that I would love to try.

In other news, I've hit a milestone with the Amish Center Diamond afghan.  I've finished the 3rd side!  Whoohoo!  Now I'm in the process of picking up the 252 stitches for the final side.  I have to admit, it's a little daunting, knowing how long the 3rd side took.  But it is cozy and I love it so I guess I'll just pull up my thick, felted socks (did I mention it's been cold here?) and get on with it.

I've also got a progress pic of the beaded purse.  Not much to say at this point except that this is it.

Cranberry and Gold

I thought I might have a silk beaded purse by the end of the weekend. Alas, I don't.  But I do have one in progress.

I looked through my 19th century pattern books and some more modern ones and just couldn't find a pattern that seemed right.  I cast on several of them but ripped them out again.  Actually there was one that I liked but I need to try the pattern on something a little larger than this silk thread to get the hang of it.  So I decided on the pattern above.  It's a repeat over 6 stitches that calls for K3, slide 1 bead, K3, slide 5 beads.  On the next round you K3, slide 2 beads, K3, slide 4 beads and so on.  On the first section you slide more beads until you get to 5 and on the second section until you get to 1 and then you go backwards. 

See what it's doing?  Making little diamonds and because over the 6 stitches you always slide some combination to make up to 6 beads, the shape of the purse is preserved.  Otherwise you would have a weird pulling and pushing according to whether you had more or less beads.  Determining the number of beads to slide is a way of increasing or decreasing the overall size of the tube.

I have to say, I'm adoring working with this silk thread and the feel of it is just wonderful.  Of course, it's very stong, too, so the sliding of the beads has not harmed the thread at all that I can tell.  I will probably just continue this until I run out of thread, since part of this experiment is to find out how much you can work with the 92 yards of thread on the spool, but I think it will work out wonderfully for a decent sized coin purse.

A Great Group

I had my "Knitting With Jewelry Wire and Beads" class this morning at Lincoln Land. Eight lovely ladies with plenty of creativity and laughter. As in previous classes, everyone had their own take on colors and combinations and it was great fun to see what came off their needles.

I always try to do something new for each class to make it fresh and this is what I came up with for this class:

It's done with dark blue 26 gauge coated wire and dark blue short bugle beads. Quite fun, I thought.

Round and Round

It’s been a while since I’ve had this kind of weekend. Of course, I always knit on the weekend but this weekend has been overdrive – in circles and circles. Remember the old mommy, mommy jokes? Mommy, mommy, I’m tired of running in circles. Shut up or I’ll nail your other foot to the floor. Seems kind of crude now but at 8 years old, that's funny, I don’t care who you are!

I’ve been fleshing out my 2-hour program on lace knitting to a 9-hour course and have been having a ball. But the overflow of that is that I’ve been a lace knittin’ fool. I’ve got 3 lace projects that I’ve had on the needles, one since February. This weekend, two of them got the business, especially the Shetland-style one. I worked 18 rounds on it in the past 3 days and considering it’s got over 600 stitches, I’d say that was a feat. Then I also worked about 35 rows on my Paisley shawl. Of course, that one’s only about 80 stitches but it’s patterned on both sides.

I’m nearing, I won’t call it the end because I still have the knit off edging, but I’m nearing the point where I can start knitting off the edging. I have to make the final determination about what edging I’m going to use and, at this point, I’m tempted to use a crocheted edging or small knit edging but I’ll have to take a breath when I finish the border to see what’s what.

The Paisley shawl is getting a little boring because you have to repeat this same pattern 6 times before you start the more interesting bit but I’m still enjoying it. We’ll see how I do when I have to join the middle and do 6 more of this pattern repeat. Maybe there will be enough between now and then to get me ready for it!

Oh, and one more thing. I did a class on knitting with jewelry wire and beads a couple of weeks ago and wanted to show you this. It’s something new I did as a sample because I didn’t really have a necklace to show. I love how it came out and it was a big hit with the class. I knitted over 3 stitches, passing the beads on every row and then, when I was finished with the necklace part, I took this wire disc I’d found somewhere and wove the blue wire I’d used in the necklace through it to pull it into the overall design and also to tone it down a little bit. I just want to wear it all the time!

Fun class

I had a Knitting with Jewelry Wire and Beads class this morning at LLCC and had a great group. There were 6 ladies who came along and all of them were up for anything. Several of them had never even knit before and I thought it was quite brave of them to come to the class. They did a great job, though, not only learning to knit but learning to knit with wire - not an easy feat, for sure, don't you think? A couple were able to finish pendants and we got the necklaces fixed up and the others got quite far in making their bracelets.

It never ceases to amaze me how individual and striking these projects are. I love it when people to catch on to all of the possibilities and the basic simplicity of the process which is why I always bring lots of samples for people to look at. I wish I had some photos but I always get too wrapped up in the class and forget!

I've just started a new lace project, because 4 projects are simply not enough to be going on with! I found Fiddlesticks Knitting from the Yarn Harlot's blog when she finished her Peacock Shawl. I don't always check out these links but I did this one and found this. The Paisley Long Shawl. In plum. Oh, yeah, baby. Paisley. Plum. Lace. I repeat, Oh, yeah, baby.

This is probably the most advanced lace pattern I've ever done with the pattern worked on every row but I'm very excited about getting it started.

All of a Quiver

I'm all of a quiver now that my big trip to the UK is looming. All the plans (that can be made in advance) are made, all the phone numbers recorded, all the stuff in the bag and I'm ready, ready, ready!

I'll try to post over the next 2 weeks but can't promise anything. Guess it will depend on how often I can get to a computer.

I had a lovely surprise on Sunday. One of the ladies in our Fiber Arts Guild, Ms. Pat Harper, the amazing, generous woman of stash, brought me some perle cotton. Now, she did tell me she was going to bring me some. I was thinking a few balls of the little DMC perle cotton. What was I thinking!! She brought me a trash bag FULL of sizes 5 & 8 perle cotton - 60 balls/skeins of perle cotton PLUS about a dozen spools of decorative colored edging thread. The cotton was mostly of 2 brands (I'd never heard of either) but one brand has almost 300 yards and the other brand has almost 500 yards of cotton. Geezaloo! The cruel thing is that as I was going through the bag drooling like an idiot, I kept thinking - ooh, I could do this with this one and with that one I could do this and use these beads and ooh, I can't do any of that now. No time before the trip and I don't think I'm quite insane enough to bring beaded knitting or crochet on the trip. I can't guarantee that until I'm off but I don't think I am. The thing that's got me going absolutely potty is a gorgeous rayon thread (about size 8, I think). There are 2 skeins of white and 2 skeins of champaigne. They are going to be so, so, so...I can't even think of the word...knitted with beads. I'm all of a quiver thinking about it!

A Watch on Your Finger

Sometime before Christmas I was at a local Antique Mall and saw a watch mounted on a ring – something I’d never see before – and, of course, I was intrigued. The ring part, as best I can remember, was a beaded band and the tag on the watch said it was early 20th century. The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. I had several watch faces in my bead stash.

By the way, is it stash if it’s not fiber? Is it like a covey of dove or a knot of toads (really, it’s called a knot of toads – I don’t know why that amuses me but it does) or a crash of rhinoceroses or is it all just stash? Enquiring minds want to know.

Anyway, before I interrupted myself I was at watch faces. I have several but most of them were too large, I thought, to work with. My hands are really small so it may be different for others with normal size hands. Every once in a while I found myself sort of musing about what I would do to make a watch ring but wasn’t coming up with much inspiration. So last night I put on a favorite Campion dvd (Peter Davison, also known as the 5th Doctor in the Doctor Who series and Tristan Farnon in All Things Great and Small – one of my favorite actors) and sat down to put something together.

I wasn’t really set on doing some final something, I just wanted to know what I was working with and what the challenges might be to wearing a watch on my finger. This is what I came up with:



I’m one of those people who really hates to have anything on my wrists. Don’t know why, I just do. I push up my sleeves and resist wearing a wrist watch. With this in mind, I wore the ring watch all day and I have to admit to all and sundry that I LOVE it. I love having the time, not quite at my fingertips but in the general vicinity, and not having anything on my wrist. Plus I think, especially with a watch face that’s a wee bit smaller, it could look very cool. (Take into consideration my cool-o-meter and make your own judgment.) I really, really, really like it. Of course, I didn’t really do any special kind of look with the beading, the goal was just to have something to try out. But I think it’s definitely worth exploring.

Have any of you ever seen a watch ring? If so, what did it look like and what do you think about the idea?

In case you're interested, I found this:

ants: colony
bears: sleuth, sloth
bees: grist, hive, swarm
birds: flight, volery
cats: clutter, clowder
cattle: drove
chicks: brood, clutch
clams: bed
cranes: sedge, seige
crows: murder
doves: dule
ducks: brace, team
elephants: herd
elks: gang
finches: charm
fish: school, shoal, draught
foxes: leash, skulk
geese: flock, gaggle, skein
gnats: cloud, horde
goats: trip
gorillas: band
hares: down, husk
hawks: cast
hens: brood
hogs: drift
horses: pair, team
hounds: cry, mute, pack
kangaroos: troop
kittens: kindle, litter
larks: exaltation
lions: pride
locusts: plague
magpies: tiding
mules: span
nightingales: watch
oxen: yoke
oysters: bed
parrots: company
partridges: covey
peacocks: muster, ostentation
pheasants: nest, bouquet
pigs: litter
ponies: string
quail: bevy, covey
rabbits: nest
seals: pod
sheep: drove, flock
sparrows: host
storks: mustering
swans: bevy, wedge
swine: sounder
toads: knot
turkeys: rafter
turtles: bale
vipers: nest
whales: gam, pod
wolves: pack, route
woodcocks: fall

Never know when you'll need it for your crossword puzzle. Don't say I never gave you anything.

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.

Class with glass

With beads, that is. I taught my first class at the local bead store last night - La Bead Oh. The class was on knitting with wire and beads and I had an absolute ball. There were 4 students (one of whom didn't even knit) and each one of them finished a project during the class. And let me tell you, they were gorgeous. I keep telling people, the technique is so easy - the beads and wire make it elegant or fun or flirty or like springtime.

I have about 2 dozen examples of different things I've done with the technique, all the way from rings to bracelets to necklaces and pendants. These creative ladies took those examples and the 2 second lesson and went to town. One was plush and rich and elegant with a crocheted gold chain, one was a bracelet bursting with lavender and purple springtime, one was black and white and glittery with copper bracelet and one was the same sort of mix of beads with gold which made another elegant pendant with a whole different feel.

Sorry I didn't get photos. I meant to. I had my camera. I even had my camera out. But when everyone got close to finishing it went a little wild and, well, um, I didn't get photos. Take my word for it, they were beautiful (and I'm not just saying that!). And let me just reiterate that one of the ladies didn't even knit. She learned to knit and made a gorgeous pendant all in one night - how's that for talent!

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.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We've been getting very spoiled here in Central Illinois with temperatures as late as day before yesterday at 70 degrees. But it did finally decide to cool off in time for the holiday so it's a very autumn day as I watch the local squirrel jump round my patio in search of the plants I rescued into the house. If you've followed the squirrel saga, he did discover how to move a few of the rocks in the herb pot but he didn't manage to do too much damage.

I've almost finished my little beaded clutch experiment. The body was quite easy as it was just round and round with the beads being slipped on each half of the double crochet stitches. It was interesting to see that each half of the stitch twisted the beads in a different direction. I don't know that you can really see it on the pictures below but in person it created a sort of chevron pattern.

I was a bit stumped on the flap because I would have to work it flat. When you're crocheting with beads in this style, the beads present to the side away from you which is fine when you're going in a circle but wouldn't work working back and forth. It was already getting a bit heavy since there were so many beads in the body of the bag. My solution was to work the flap without any beads. The pearl cotton is quite heavily mercerized so has a bit of a sheen on it so I thought this little shell stitch would compliment the beaded body. I didn't quite work the flap wide enough so I decided to do a couple of rows of the shell stitch on the outside border of the flap and then finish it up with a row of single crochet with the beads along the outside. I'm really very pleased with how it ended up. I just need to do the lining which I'll have to do with some heavy facing to give the body some...well, body! It wouldn't do to have it flapping about, would it!!

It's pretty small - only 5" wide by 4" tall but I really like it. As with others bags, I'm not sure what I'll do with it but I'm enjoying it. Maybe that's enough.

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday.

Now it's really finished...

I've finally finished a little handle and the lining for my little purse. Like I said before, it's now the most perfect but the first time I had done something like this and I did sort of make it up as I went along. So not so bad, right?

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time off but just wish it could have been 2-3 weeks. I've averaged about 14 hours a day knitting, sewing and beading and I STILL don't have time for everything! When my ship comes in, I'm definitely going to be busy!!

The one thing I haven't gotten as far as I wanted to is with my Danish sweater. I have finished 2 of the pattern repeats but I have about 10 more to go. I worked out the other day that it will take about 60 more hours work to finish it. The goal is still the end of the year and I do have a little more time off before the end of the year so it's still do-able.

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.

I Love Beads

Can I just say, I love beads. I love how they feel and how they catch the light and how the fabric feels in your hands and how they look. I’m enamored with beads. No one who knows me will be surprised by this sentiment but I just felt it needed to be said. I also love the fact that, even in the hands of a novice, they make things lovely. I’ve knitted with beads and I’ve crocheted with beads and I’m learning how to tambour with beads. But this is my first foray into just plain beading for a bag like this. Well, not the absolute first. I’ve done a couple of little amulet bags but this is the first real people size beaded purse. As you can probably tell, it’s my own design – not very even but did I mention it’s my first? And I’m in love with it. Just like a first car or first house or first love, it’s special. Even if it’s a first beaded bag that only a creator could love, since that’s me I feel pretty good about it!

As with other things I make, this started out life as something else. This was the top half of a bag knitted from Noro Silk Garden (which I still intend to finish by the way). But when I got into it, I didn’t like the proportions so decided to finish this off as I did and I’m ever so pleased with it.

Did I mention I love beads? OK. Good.