It’s Canadian Thanksgiving today and I am feeling thankful for many things.
Walking in the sunshine
Sewing with colourful fabrics
Eating good food
Family, friends, and you, dear readers.
It’s been a beautiful day, warm sun, cool air, leaves turning, squirrels gathering.
Dinner was fairly simple, just stuffed portobellos and roasted vegetables. The potatoes came from our garden and the purple cauliflower, carrots and Brussels sprouts came from the farmers market. We had apple crumble made with local Mac apples.
I’ve been sewing small drawstring bags with cottons from the stash. I need 24 small ones for my self-created yarn Advent calendar plus a larger one for the new knitting needle set which I’ll open on December 25th.
I had a production line going this afternoon but had to stop to cook dinner. Now that’s out of the way, I can get back to it.
My knitting and crochet WIPs haven’t changed much.
And I’m really enjoying this new tea from my favourite tea shop, with frothy soy milk and maple syrup.
I had a birthday recently and one of my gifts was a Knit Picks gift certificate from a group of friends. It was so generous that I was able to order a new set of Caspian interchangeables and a pack of yarn. I’ve been wanting to make myself a yarny Advent calendar for ages now so a pack of 24 Knit Picks Brava minis (100% acrylic worsted weight, 25 grams each) is perfect
The box arrived yesterday. It’s the rainbow colourway so there are lots of fun colours in there. And the blue-green of the needles is oh-so-pretty. My favourite colour!
I had a quick feel of the yarn (feels nice and soft) and the needles (to check for smoothness) and now I am going to figure out a way to pack it all up nicely for Christmas. How’s that! A birthday and Christmas present all in one!
My sock WIP for the Strictly Sockalong is proceeding slowly, as I have a complex sewing project on the go as well as having had extra work shifts lately.
I’ve reached the toe (the bit of green near the needles) and then I have to go back and insert a heel (where that yellow line is).
The dishcloth project is at the point where four are done. This is an ongoing thing as I still have a lot more cotton to burn through.
The complicated sewing project is a plaid flannel shirt. I haven’t made a shirt like this since high school so I am taking my time and only working on it when I’m not tired. So far, the body and sleeves are done. Yet to go: collar, button bands, buttonholes, hem. Photos will follow when it’s finished.
For now, I’m enjoying the fall weather. It’s a little cooler, the leaves have started to drop, and the squirrel actitivity around my walnut trees has ramped up to max stashing level. Have a great day!
That huge pile of yarn in my last post has shrunk considerably. The cardigan has a back and two fronts, joined at the shoulders, and even neck and front ribbing.
The finished backFront view pre-ribbingWith ribbing
I thought I’d only need to make the sleeves three squares wide by two tall but when I held the partial sleeve on my arm I saw I’d have to add another square. This’ll make the sleeves a bit too long, I think, but better that than too short.
First sleeve
As I progress, my colour choices get more limited. Some of the squares don’t seem to fit with the rest quite right but I think once it’s done it’ll be so colourful overall that it’ll look OK.
Mr Fixit and I took a little road trip today. By “little” I mean it was just for the day but it was still about 300km, according to him!
We headed south and stopped at a couple of towns to check out their farmers markets. We took the back roads for some of the way. We stopped at our usual fruit stand and bought peaches, plums, tomatoes, beans, apples, peppers and eggplants.
I had, probably for the first time ever, left home without packing any snacks. So as soon as we bought the fruit we ate a few pieces in the parking lot. Then we started back north and finally found somewhere for a late lunch. It was a vegan place, new to us, and we had smoothies.
I haven’t quite decided how I’m going to manage the large amount of fruit, because I don’t like canning, but usually I freeze the tomatoes in quarters to toss into spaghetti sauce.
Obviously my cardigan is not a portable project, with 15 balls of yarn currently attached, so I stuffed a bag with Knit Picks Dishie and some hooks for my road trip project.
1.5 dishcloths made
I have a bonus 4-day stretch of days off so I hope to be finishing the cardigan very soon. I’ll see you then!
Have you ever made one of those purses that have a metal frame with holes for sewing it to the fabric? I showed you my first ever frame bag on January 26th – I used cotton fabric, lined and padded and found it very tricky to sew together. However I decided not to let it put me off, and bought another frame with the intention of crocheting a bag this time.
I started it this morning and finished it this evening, on a work day, so it’s a quick project. I don’t think it took even half a ball of Knit Picks Dishie (colour: Begonia). I’ll show you the step-by-step method I used. I didn’t follow a pattern but I did watch a minute or two of a YouTube video where the lightbulb went on when I saw the shape that was made to fit the frame.
essential supplies – yarn and hook
I used this cotton worsted (medium) weight yarn and a 4.5mm hook. It’s a good idea to go down a hook size from that recommended on the ball band.
essential supplies – purse frame
The frame I used was about 10cm by 4cm when closed. It does come with some basic instructions but they aren’t that helpful, in my opinion.
A square frame is probably the easiest shape to use. When you open it out it’s easy to make a crocheted bag base to fit.
Foundation single crochet enough stitches to go across the width of the frame
With my hook and yarn, I needed 14 scs to make a piece wide enough. Then I worked 15 rows of single crochet.
crochet a piece for your base that’s the same size as your frame
Once you have the base made, you don’t turn your work to go back across for another row. You start working down the side edge, across the foundation stitches, and up the other side. You can just keep on doing scs or change to a fancy stitch pattern for the sides. If you’re doing single crochets, it’s simple to work 1sc into each row end and each stitch around the base. I chose to do a stitch pattern where I increased into every other stitch. In other words (2sc into next stitch, skip 1) around. On the next round I’d work the 2sc into the first sc of each pair from the previous round. But any dense stitch pattern would do. (Don’t increase at the corners because you want the sides of the bag to start forming straight upwards, not outwards.) I did joined rounds, but it did create a diagonal “seam” effect which I could have avoided by just working in a spiral.
When my bag was about 3.5″ tall, I fastened off then squished it to find the outer central points to match them up with the hinges on the frame. I used a couple of stitch markers to mark the spots.
I then used a doubled strand of sewing thread and a sewing needle to attach the edge of the crochet to the frame, pushing it up inside the hollow part as I stitched. This went a LOT better than the fabric one I made before. No swearing, no unpicking and redoing. Positively a breeze.
the three Among Us characters fit inside perfectly!
A lining would make it look even prettier but that would add bulk so I’m not sure I want to try that. I hope this helps if you decide to make one of your own. Since I took my fabric one to work, people have been a lot more interested in buying them.
NICOLA KNITS 