The "Jeanne G. Tour" tote bag

I guess it's been a while since I've managed to finish a project ... but I've been on vacation all week, so I've finished a few. Some still haven't been photographed, though, so for today we have just one -- the "Jeanne G. Tour" tote bag.


This bag is based on the "road-trip tote bag" in Alicia Paulson's beautiful book, Stitched in Time. The bag was made as a gift for Jeanne G's birthday, and shows the route from where she was born to where she lives now, with french knots marking the cities where her family members live.


Details:
Main body of the bag is cotton twill, bottom is ultrasuede, both purchased at Mood.
Cotton lining fabric and embroidery thread from Purl Patchwork.
Leather strap for the handles from Leather Impact.
Vintage bakelite button purchased at the D.C. Big Flea Market.

Another project courtesy of Mimi Kirchner

When the Purl Bee published the pattern for Mimi Kirchner's "purl girl" doll, they included a link to her website, Doll. I added Doll to my list of favorites, and have really been enjoying seeing Mimi's delightful projects. The popularity of the purl girl doll pattern encouraged Mimi to write up a pattern for one of her other projects, the Tiny World Pincushion. Naturally, I couldn't resist buying the pattern as soon as I saw it. And those who know how obsessive I can be about craft projects will not be at all surprised to know that I immediately started looking for suitable teacups to make the pincushions in.

I ended up spending a little more money than I'd intended on teacups, but I did find two really lovely ones, that we're really that expensive. (I'm still hoping to score some really inexpensive thrift shop finds.) So here's my first Tiny World Pincushion -- the Tiny House of Violets.


The tree seems maybe a little too plain, so I may replace it with an embroidered one. Still, I think it's really charming. To play up the purple of the violets in the cup, I made the house yellow (purple's complementary color), with a purple door, then scattered violets across the grass. I pretty much followed the basic pattern for this one, but am looking forward to improvising more on the next one. I've got another cup like this, but with a different type of flower on it. There were a couple more similar ones at that consignment shop ... maybe I'll pay them another visit this week.

If you'd like to see more of these sweet pincushions, check out Doll, or the Flickr group that Mimi started.

There's also a new Flickr group for the purl girl dolls.

I (heart) Mimi Kirchner and The Purl Bee

... for collaborating to give us all, for free, the pattern to make this wonderful doll.


The pattern appeared in the April 8 post on The Purl Bee. The project journal, with thoroughly illustrated instructions, is here.

Mimi's blog, Doll, shows off lots of her clever, quirky, and whimsical creations. Be sure to check out her Etsy shop, too, for more photos. I'd seen her Tiny World Pincushions at Etsy before, but I hadn't seen her blog until The Purl Bee project.


I could hardly wait to start one of these dolls, and luckily I already had a stash of nice wool felt to work with. All I needed to buy was some embroidery thread and a couple of buttons. Then it was a just a matter of tearing myself away from my yarn for a while in order to sew. The pattern and tutorial are very well-done; I didn't have any trouble at all stitching this sweet doll.

For my first, I pretty much made her just like the originals -- except that I moved the rose from the front of the sash to the back, to camouflage the fact that my sash didn't quite reach all the way around (oops!).




















I do plan to personalize her a bit, though, with a small bit of knitting. I'd thought I would make her a sweater, but I'm not sure a sweater would fit well over this dress. So I think I'll probably knit up a little shawl. Next time around, I'll customize the clothes in order to incorporate a sweater into the outfit. Just had an idea .... maybe turn the shoes into ice skates, keep the nice full skirt, and knit her a sweater and scarf and hat ... can't wait to get started!

That bowl of yarn

So what was that bowl of yarn in the last post?

A couple of weeks ago, I went on a 10-day trip to Colorado. Thinking this was a wonderful opportunity to start a new project, I ordered a sweater's worth of yarn to be delivered directly to Colorado. Sure, I could have finished one of the many projects I have in the works, or started something with yarn I already had ... but I had just fallen in love with the sweater on the back cover of Vogue Knitting (here, if you're on Ravelry), and just had to have it. It would have been a great project, if the yarn had arrived in time. Unfortunately, it took so long for the seller to ship that the yarn wasn't scheduled to arrive until two days before the end of my vacation.

No problem, though, right? I had a pair of socks to work on, plus another ball of Socks that Rock in my suitcase, so I had plenty of knitting to keep me busy.

But then I went to Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins in Boulder. Wow, what a wonderful store! One of the first things I saw when I walked through the door was the book Beautiful Sheep: Portraits of Champion Breeds. Who would have though portraits of sheep could be so striking? That same table held a variety of Japanese knitting and felting books, something I've rarely found other than online or at Kinokuniya in New York. That was one of the best things about this store -- an amazing collection of books related to all the fiber arts. And years' worth of back issues of fiber-related magazines. I could easily have browsed for hours. And that was before I even started looking at the yarns!

I thought I'd pick up a little project to make up for the fact that I couldn't start my sweater. Then I saw the Koigu rack.


Lots of stores carry Koigu, but very few seem to have much of a selection of the solid colors. SS&S had them, though -- dozens of gorgeous hand-dyed solids. My first thought was that I might pick up some yarn for a couple of pairs of lacy socks. But then I remembered why I really needed some solid-colored Koigu ... the Babette Blanket!


This pattern is in the Spring 2006 issue of Interweave Crochet. I don't even know why I happened to pick up that magazine when I saw it at Barnes and Noble three years ago, but when I saw that blanket I decided to buy the magazine -- notwithstanding the fact that I hadn't crocheted in years. Every once in a while since then, I've pulled out the magazine to look at that beautiful riot of color and contemplate whether I was ready to tackle it.

So I guess all the stars were aligned on that day that I went to SS&S. They had that rack full of Koigu, and the magazine with the pattern in it. And the series "Knit and Crochet Today" had recently piqued my interest in trying crochet again, and given me a bit of a refresher course. It was time for Babette!

I picked out seventeen colors, more or less the same as those used in the original version. I spent hours winding them into balls (since my skein and ball winder were back at home). And I started crocheting. Here's what I've got so far. Isn't it gorgeous?


The blanket is divided into ten modules, and I've finished the first six. (They get larger as you go, though, so I"m not yet half finished). The crocheting is very straightforward, and luckily Knit and Crochet Today taught me how to weave in the ends as I work -- with all these squares, and all these colors, I believe there are approximately 967, 347 yarn ends in this piece! I'm sewing each module together as I finish it, partly because I'm anxious to see the blanket come together, and partly to avoid the daunting task of sewing it all together at the end.

On my project page on Ravelry, I've named this "Memere's blanket," in honor of the grandmother who taught me to crochet when I was a child. My Memere was an expert crocheter, and I'm so glad she gave me the skills to make this beautiful blanket.

I'm still here ...

... just haven't gotten a chance to post anything for a while, partly because I've been off enjoying a wonderful spring break ski trip. I still don't have much, mainly because I need to take some photos, but I wanted to share this beautiful bowl of wool:


Twenty-two balls of gorgeous Koigu. What's it for? More on that next time ... when I get some more photos taken!

Little Bunny Foo Foo

Little Bunny Foo Foo, hopping through the forest, scooping up the field mice and bopping them on the head. . .

Two years ago, I decided to join the insanity at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival by lining up at The Fold to buy some Socks That Rock yarn. Sure, you can buy it online, but I thought it would be fun to see lots of colorways in person. The thing is, there was such a crush of people in the booth, that I got overwhelmed and completely forgot to look for the one color I knew I wanted to see – Little Bunny Foo Foo. (Really, how could you not love a yarn called Little Bunny Foo Foo?) So while I was in line waiting to pay, I saw someone holding a skein, and asked her to pass one out to me. The woman behind me saw the yarn being passed over, and told me that she had used a skein of the same colorway to knit Monkey socks, and that she was really pleased with them. So I made a mental note to check out the Monkey pattern for this yarn.

I seem to buy sock yarn a lot faster than I knit it, though. So finally, nearly two years later, I pulled out my Little Bunny Foo Foo, printed out the pattern, and started on my socks. Monkey turned out to be a great pattern to knit – more interesting than simple ribbing, but not so complicated as to require my full attention.



This is my first completed pair of lace socks (let’s not speak of the other pair, 75% finished, languishing among my UFOs). The design is pretty, but simple enough for a lace novice.



I’m still not sure that I’m ever going to be a big fan of lace knitted in multi-colored yarn, but I do like my Little Bunny Foo Foo Socks.

And that name is going to make me smile every time I wear them.

Happy Valentine's Day

Pattern: Heart Sachet, by Vicki Sever for Interweave
Yarn: Koigu premium merino
Needles: size 1, bamboo DPNs
Made for Valentine's Day for my mother.

This pattern was a bit of a challenge to get started on, mainly because I have no three-dimensional spatial sense whatsover. But after the first couple of squares were done, it was fairly easy to see how all of the pieces fit together. After square 1, all the subsequent squares are attached by picking up stitches from earlier squares -- the only seaming required is to close up the top. The sachet is filled with lavender, and smells wonderful. I really like the cute, tiny i-cord for the hanging loop.

Happy Valentine's Day!