Using this tutorial, (also the one I used for a bunch of mini-bags to wrap the neices and nephews’ xmas gifts—beads, of course) I decided to make a bigger version to hold my sock knitting.

cotton, silk, synthetics, ribbon, beads, including a hand-dishcharged scrap. 6-1/4 x 9" Manufactured 06jan09.

The brown fabric near the top is a pair of F2tY's old pants, which I discharged with bleach; the furry purple yarn is from my friend (and sock knitting teacher) Posy —altogether apropos for a bag to hold sock knitting; Yvanne Hamm gave me many fabric samples years ago, and now I'm finally getting to use them, yay.

The base fabric is an old pair of cotton pants in tan, which gave me the starting color. Some of the scraps were left over from the mini-bags I made at xmas (which in turn were scraps from Yvanne, or the kids’ Halloween tiger costume....) I was particularly happy with how well the smocking stitch (which is my very favoritist special-purpose) worked. The tapestry fabric is a scrap from my friend Page; the little ribbons are cutoffs from Firefly Embroideries (Chris Reilly); and the coral colored silk scraps I begged for in Viet Nam.

Overall, this is my favorite side.

Even at this size, I had a difficult time sewing the casing with the machine. Also, I discovered that I should've pushed the seam fabric to each side (I'd already learned to make the allowances fairly large, so raw edges wouldn't poke through the drawstring holes) before sewing the casing. At least I remembered to sew it this time—I forgot it entirely in the mini-bags till I started putting stuff in them, and discovered that they wouldn't stay shut—the tightness of the casing around the drawstrings serves to help "lock" the drawstrings...obviously, I should use the slacker casing in happything's next tutorial, because not only would it (probably) solve a lot of these problems, it would also allow me position the casing where I want it, which is usually further down than happens when I do it ahead of time.

I also discovered I'd forgotten to finish tacking some fabric down properly, so I hand-embroidered some seed beads from my roadkill to help reinforce the casing where I'd ripped it out, and sew the fabric down—I still have a bit more of that to do. Overall, it's just barely big enough to hold a sock and a ball of yarn, and would probably be perfect for 16" circs, a small sock and a 50g ball; but since I want to be able to cram a spool of wooly nylon, and perhaps a second ball of yarn, I think I'll make a bigger one. The other thing I notices is that, unlike the wall-hangings currently in the pipeline, I think the all-over pattern of scraps is too busy—the bag would would be quicker to make, more interesting visually, and lighter (a consideration for something hanging on your wrist as you knit) with less stuff. —I'd also like to incorporate inside pockets for stitch markers, measuring tape, etc. I love bags and boxes, so this one certainly won't go to waste...

item created 06jan09; photograph, post 07jan09.

Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.