An Unseasonal Finished Object

So, yeah, daisies in the middle of autumn!

I did most of the crochet for this last spring, when the daisy colours were very apt.
I did the assembly of the parts (ingenious) and the sewing in of most of the ends last summer, and then I started acting up at work and all things crafty took a backseat.
Back in my normal position at work now so I have a bit more free time at my disposal.

One thing I wanted to do was thicken the straps to make them stronger, and that seems to have worked well.

Here is my Daisy Bag then, my version of Inga's Hakelbeutel, which you can look up on Ravelry if you are so inclined.
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/ingas-hakelbeutel-2

It's made from Rowan Cotton Glace, 1 1/2 balls of the blue, less than one ball of white, yellow and green.

Don't let the time it took me to finish this trick into thinking that I didn't enjoy making it. On the contrary, I thought it was great, and I would gladly make another.

Why, yes, that *is* ladies and gentlemen playing croquet in the background of the middle shot!

I have included a closer shot of the daisy squares as the bright sunshine (believe it or not) is kind of bleaching out the colour in the main shots.
There are more shots of this in progress, such as how it it constructed, in this post from last year.
Daisy bag post last year

I'll use this as a wee project bag I think, certainly until next spring.

And lastly a shout goes out to karie bookish who first brought this pattern to my attention in 2010. x K

Daisy Bag in progress

Well, being back at work fairly impinges on one's crafting and blogging time, but anyway, here we are, I'll show you my Daisy Bag in progress.

Daisy bag comprises squares made of yellow in the centre, several rounds of white for the petals, green for the stalks and surrounding leaves and blue for the sky. All of this is in Rowan Cotton Glace on a 3mm hook. I went for 3mm to firm up my fabric because I used UK trebles.

You make 16 squares, you sew

them together in strips of four, you arrange

the strips in a pinwheel fashion and then you sew them together in an interesting way. I like the construction and I would certainly be happy to make this bag again, perhaps in a variegated yarn to minimise ends. I didn't grudge the ends this time because of all the versions I had seen on Ravelry

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/ingas-hakelbeutel-2/people

I seemed to prefer the ones with a cohesive colour scheme.

I like my spring-like colours,

even though summer is now on its way out. Trust me, it was springy when I started it!

All I have to do now is attach the handles and go round the top a few times to strengthen and stabilise.

Hopefully won't be too long until I have it as a finished object to show you. x K

Patchwork Project Bag

I've got a bit of catching up to do here to update you on some recent crafty makes.

Here's a patchwork project bag I made this spring.

The block itself is nothing new but I followed a diagram in February's Patchwork and Quilting Magazine and then improvised the bag design round the patchwork block.
I had made the "Shoo-Fly" block before but without the central contrast section.
Because I am inexperienced in patchwork I find some blocks fiddly, so I upped the size to make it less of a fouter.
It is wadded and quilted with a zig-zag stitch over the seams on my Elna.
I added a lining and handles in the marbly green fabric. If for any reason I feel the quilted side is too "loud" I can easily use it inside-out.

Overall I am very pleased with it and it makes a good knitting project or magazine bag.
Fabrics were fat quarters from the Galloway Gem Shop, King St, Castle Douglas.

Crochet shopping bag

Here's something I finished off on holiday- a bag made from my haul of Sirdar Indigo cotton yarn I got at the SECC in 2005- I'm slowly but surely working my way through it.

This took 3 balls of the Dark Denim shade and one ball of Light Denim. I hadn't really planned on having the light colour up at the top again but the fact that I was on Mull and my stash was in Glasgow meant that I had to tweak my plans a bit.

It really wasn't a problem with this style of bag, but I really must start to make sure I have the right stitch count after each row. I think I am not stitching into the last stitch of each row on a consistent basis. It probably looks pretty much deliberate because of the way the handles pull the top in, but the pieces are parallelograms, not rectangles as originally planned. Edit- not parallelograms- trapeziums/ trapezia?

The handles are Rowan bamboo ones. The denim yarn is starting to take on that weathered look after a vigorous 60 degree wash.
Nice for swanning around the town shopping with. Happy crafting. x K

I left a generous opening unsewn at the side of the bag, so it had a nice wide mouth for all the essentials.

Close-up of the crochet fabric- I call these trebles, what do you call them?

Crochet shopping bag

CD Bag

I've made this drawstring bag from some Ikea fabric.

"Belinda Fabric" 100% cotton, designed by Caroline Abild Jessen 2005 (although I bought it in 2006).
Wait for it...£1.59 per metre! !

It has light wadding and polyester lining and I hand-quilted some of the shapes.

Again, DH gets credit for naming it - the circles on it are like decorative Compact Discs, and of course it is to be used for transporting things like shoes back and forth to CD as Castle Douglas in good old Galloway is known. If it's lucky it may even get to travel further afield.

I've got plenty of this fabric left so I think I'll make a big laundry bag without the wadding for separating out your cleans and dirties while on holiday.

BTW I do still knit and I have one FO and one very nearly FO to show you in a couple of days.

Happy crafting! x K