A Quick Lil FO

Sunday, my friend e-mailed me and told me to pull my nose out of my new "The New Crewel Book" (so cool!) and get to work on making these bags. I quickly figured out the pattern (it's not that complicated, pretty simple actually for a $150 purse!) and got to work on Monday. I happened to have a skein of Brown Sheep Bulky that I bought over a year ago for a project I changed my mind one. I happened to have some really pretty fabric from my learning to sew phase that never took off. And a snap that I ended up never putting into a felted bag. Add in a handle and ribbon, and this is what I got:




Not bad for a couple of evenings, huh? It took me almost as much time to do the lining as it did to knit the thing.

Pattern: Made it up as I went along (I later learned that there was a thread on Craftster awhile back, I'm not sure if a pattern was ever posted there)
Yarn: Brown Sheep Bulky in Aztec Turquoise, a little less than 1 skein
Needles: Size 10.5 Circular
Notes: Very simple. The original is a super cute bag but incredibly easy for anyone who's been knitting for anytime at all to "knock off." I can't believe a $150 is that easy to replicate. I'm making one for my friend and another for myself in cotton, making a few minor changes. It would be a great summer bag. I think the thing I like about it most is that it looks like something I would buy in a store, not like a handknit. Not that looking handknit is a bad thing, of course!
I did 2 new things with this project, pretty amazing for such a simple knit:
1. Sewed in a lining. I'm not a seamstress but it doesn't look too bad.
2. Cabled without a cable needle. To be honest, I've always wondered why bother, it's not like a cable needle is difficult. I had practiced it on swatches. But in a project with 6 cables like this, it did go faster. I'm a definite convert!

I'm not officially in Project Spectrum but since I am the queen of pink, it's pretty obvious that I'd be touching something that fits this month's theme. One thing about being a single woman is that you can have all the pink in your house that you want. See my bright pink guest bedroom wall in the picture of the bag above! And my bed below...

I don't believe in spoiling my dogs

If I took pictures of all the pink in my house, you'd be stuck here forever!