My New Winter Craft Bag

Behold my new winter craft bag!

Started in 2017, it was born out of a ball of Norro yarn. I only had one ball, so decided to do some flowers in the variegated Norro, and turn them into squares that could be sewn together. I had some navy yarn, and purchased some mustard yarn to give it some life.

I made the squares, joined them together, purchased the lining fabric, and there they sat until last week.

I blocked the squares, then used them to make a pattern for the lining. Last Friday I made the lining up and hand stitched it in place. On the weekend I made some handles. I tried crocheting a tube to place over some plastic tubing, but the plastic tubing was too rigid and didn't quite work. so I pulled them undone and tried again after talking to my friend R----. These handles contain black cording to stop them from stretching.

After stitching the handles on, I felt it needed some decoration. My first thought was some crocheted flowers, but there were already flowers in the bag itself so I opted for tassels. There are three tassels in all, one navy, one orange, and one mixed.

So I now have another bag to add to my collection, and another UFO is off the list.

A Textured White Bookmark

This little book mark was born form spotting a scrap of fabric in a bag on my coffee table. It was left over from making some Christmas decorations, but not big enough to make another one. It was big enough, however, to make a book mark.

What to do? Firstly it needed a buttonhole edge to finish it, and I had a thought I would work a needle lace edge later. I have found over the last few years that I find straight buttonhole stitch edging a little boring. It just needs a little something to add to it.

OK, so the buttonhole stitch was done, now what? I needed some inspiration so looked in a few books to see what inspired. I spotted a lovely edge of two rows of 4 sided stitch with bullions angled in a zig zag worked in between. This would do. I am so used to counting by four, I left only four threads between the two rows of 4 sided stitch. It really needed more, possibly at least six threads to make the bullions stand out, and then it may of been too wide for this little book mark. A lesson learned for next time.

So once this row was done, I was left with a blank space in the center which needed to be filled. Back to my book for some more inspiration. I spotted some bullion flowers that would work nicely, so spaced them out evenly,  then worked a row of satin in between, also decorated with bullions.

The little book mark was cut out, and I decided to only put a small amount of needle lace in the corners, rather than all the way around the edge. Then I made a tassel to finish it off.

I am quite happy with my new little book mark and do intend to use it.

A Fill In Bookmark

I have been working on another major project lately which requires twelve  little finished pieces, so I have been using up my linen scraps. Sorry, you will all have to wait a while to see that project. One of the scraps was big enough to get two of my finished pieces, but not four. I could have got three, but that would have left me with one tiny scrap of linen left which would not have been much good for anything. So I decided to work  two, and use the bigger scrap left to make a bookmark.

A book mark , well then I had to make some decisions as to how to work the book mark, what colour, etc etc. What better way than to Google some bookmarks to get some inspiration. I did think of some blackwork patterns, but worked in colour of course, but decided on a Hardanger one instead. Then it was a look in my stash of threads to see what colours I had that I could use.

The dark green was my first pick, a Perle 8, then I found the variegated one , also a Perle 8, but I needed a Perle 12 to do the eyelets and needle weaving. I found some leftover in a smokey blue that I had hand dyed, and previously used with this same variegated one. All set, I was ready to stitch.

All was going well, but as the base fabric linen was white, it needed to be toned down. so I decided to fill in the background. I tried a four sided stitch over four threads, but quickly pulled that out. Then I tried a four sided stitch over two threads. Still not real happy, but I left it there. Possibly would have been better with something diagonal. It certainly toned down the white. I worked this background in a pale green stranded thread. I used the same green to work the eyelets.

Then we came to the needle weaving. I worked two bars in that smokey blue before I quickly pulled it out. It was way to dark and heavy, and looked all wrong. I thought a yellow would be nice, but me have yellow in the house? A yellow Perle 12 thread as well? Not likely! I didn't even have much in the way of yellow stranded thread, nothing suitable any way.

In the end I just used the same pale green stranded thread I used in the background to work the needle weaving and Dove's Eyes filling. Stranded thread is a **** to use for needle weaving, but I did manage it and it looks OK. A tassel in the same dark green that I used for the hem, just finished it.

It may not win any prizes, but I have used up some scraps, entertained my self for a while, and now have something that I can use.