Pictures! I've got pictures

the purse


And check this out:

This is a box of buttons. Most people are not terribly drawn to buttons. I am not most people.

My great-aunt passed away a few days ago. She was a wonderful woman, and I respect that she had made the decision not to have any more surgery or chemo or anything to fight against her cancer. The hospice service kept her comfortable, and she let go while I was on the way to her apartment to say good-bye. While puttering around her place with my parents and my sister, I peeked at her embroidery project, crochet needles, pattern books, and sewing table. And I found the button box. Every sewer, and many other needlecrafters, have one. And after the funeral today, when everyone was sharing the memories associated with various items in the house, one of the cousins told me I should take anything that I wanted. All I asked for was the box of buttons. As I complete more purse and handbag projects, I plan to use these buttons. I plan to use some of them practically, but some of them are purely decorative. There are rhinestones and metal tones and fabrics and designs. And every one that I use in one of my knitting projects, these projects that relax me and help me deal with my stress and give me a sense of accomplishment will also be a link to Mimi.

Felting frenzy

Remember how I was inspired to create purse based on the tote bag? It's done! And it turned out quite cute! And I took a picture! Which I can't post yet because I don't have a card reader at the office and I won't be logging on at home until at least tomorrow night! I'm shouting and I don't know why!

Seriously, though. I knit up this purse in about a week. That's a week, even while dealing with my full time job and my full time children. I'm using knitting as a stress reliever, and with the amount of stress I'm under these days, I am knitting up a storm. And I just took an order from another co-worker for a medium sized bag, with striping and dots, and a long strap like the first tote, but a button flap and thicker handles like the little purse. I am just itching to get started on it.

Felted bag- the first

A friend at work saw a bag I had felted earlier this summer, and asked if I would make one for her. There were a number of technique-y things I didn't care for in the original pattern, but I was pretty sure I could come up with an overall bag that looked like the original, but was more comfortable for the way I knit. She was very excited, and immediately asked how much I would charge for it, even before I had cast on a single stitch! Upon getting specifications regarding size, colors, etc. I embarked on the following:



The bag is from Patons Classic Merino in Natural Marl and Chesnut Brown, almost entirely in stockinette stitch (except for the i-cord small handles, a bit of garter at the tops of each piece, and whipstitching around the base to give it a bit of definition before felting).

Based on how it turned out, I came up with some variations on the bag to make various sizes and include some closure options. As I tweak my pieces, I've been writing down the developing patterns. My friend has kept her bag on display in her office for almost a week in an attempt to entice people to commission bags from me, so I've unofficially named the bag after her. I've already gotten a request from someone who wants to see the purse that is progress before giving me specs for her own custom bag. So this may be the first step to designing!

In the bag

Since I am a bit of an accessory addict, a lot of my potential knitting projects are purses and tote bags.


I made this using Lion Brand Woolease in Mushroom and Wheat using a free pattern I found on the website. The base is garter stitch and the body of the purse is just stockinette knitted on a circular needle. A few increases at toward the bottom of the bag, a few decreases later on, and an i-cord strap. People think it's way more complicated than it really was.

So, now that I know I can make a cute purse, my Ebay account will be active again!

Hello, Dolly

This is my first attempt at making a knitted toy. I saw the pattern for this doll in Weekend Knitting , and thought it was a good project to try with some leftover cotton yarn I had. I broke one of the cardinal rules of knitting by skipping the guage swatch, but since I was just playing with spare yarn, and I didn't much care what size the doll would be, I just went with it.



I tweaked the pattern a bit (kntting the head portion in one piece, for example, and using the face yarn for the back of the head instead of the hair color yarn) but didn't veer too far off course.

The instruction were easy to follow, and it turned out to be a great project for some travel I was doing a few months ago. The legs and body are knit in one piece, each arm is knit flat and seamed, so everything is on straight needles, and almost all in stockinette stitch. The sweater is knit separately after the doll is assembled, and the hair and facial features are embroidered on at the finish.

I found lots of places where I made minor mistakes, but everyone who saw the finished project thought it was quite cute (except my dad, who said it looked like something from the Blair Witch Project).

Since the doll turned out nicely enough, I decided to give it to my new baby cousin, who was born on the day I left for the trip during which I knit it. So, while she was going through her first days of life, I was passing the time during my layover in Minneapolis-St Paul Airport.