The Thomas Bag

Walking through Spotlight one day I spotted this Thomas the Tank Engine material in the curtain department and it was on special! Considering it was one quarter the price of the dress fabric I really couldn't resist.

I'd planned to make Jamie a bag right from the start... but wish I'd bought more to make a doona cover and curtains, ok, a lot lot more.
I fussy cut the pieces and got this nice big Thomas on one side.
And this Thomas on the other.


I interfaced it with Vilene fusible wadding for a little bit of structure. And it closes with a small magnet, which is easier for small hands.
It has a small pocket on the inside, but that doesn't get much use!
It took me a morning to whip up (Mother's Day morning - it was my trade off for having to get up at 6am, the kids were kept busy for a few hours while I sat at the machine) after I'd cut everything out.
It still needs the bottom closed up properly, I haven't decided whether I want stiffen the bottom or not, but he seems very happy with it and the trains are travelling well.

I've got a few more lined up - my daughter wants one (not Thomas, just a bag) for her DS.

Sewing oragami

Mum calls them Shirishimi bags (and I'm assuming that's how she spells it). She learnt from someone in the Victorian Hand weavers and Spinners Guild. So the pattern is definitely not mine.
I got her to teach me to make them when she was last visiting. I had to write it down step by step with my little diagrams.

So here it is, the square folded into 9ths (I think) or there abouts.
It opens up into a big flat square... and by big, I mean biiiiiiig. :o) Must remember to make the next one a little smaller.
This is what it looks like flat once you pull the corners out.
It has no handles, the two points tie together at the top.
That is a pack of 4 balls of wool, dwarfed completely by this bag.
Here it is tied together.
It's full of an entire project... in fact all the wool for the vest that was in the previous post and it could still carry more.
It's actually a soft silvery grey in real life. Very subtle.

What's on my needles?

My son doesn't like wearing things below his elbows and knees and is not too keen on things that zip up (yes the terrible twos have come early here) so I pulled out the wool I'd planned to turn into a vest for him thinking now was as good a time as any.

It's Cleckheaton Country Naturals in the green colour and it's a joy to knit with. Unfortunately he was a lot smaller when I bought the wool so I didn't buy enough.
He seems to have quite a long body as well, and with the whole "get these clothes off me" attitude I want it long enough to cover the tummy he keeps uncovering.

Anyway, Mum has some of the same range in a light blue (she made him a jumper last year) so I'm going to add that to it. Just waiting to catch up with her at The Old Bus Depot markets in Canberra next weekend.

So that's on pause.
I then had the bright idea to use the lovely wool I got in the last rainbow swap (yellow) I did through Ravelry.
Of course I don't have enough of this either, but a search of our local charity shop netted me these nice colours.

I might be able to squeeze two vests out of these. I love the green in it (in fact I love all the colours, which is probably why I chose them!) but I think the blue wool (which is 4ply) and the green, might felt so I won't just be able to put this one in the washing machine. (Little boys get their tops plenty dirty.)
If I'm good I'll have a fair chunk of it done before I head to Canberra next weekend, however I've been busy making bags as well, so we'll see!

The nearly finished 100 scarf

Actually it's more like a small shawl.
Anyway I finished on Friday night.. dropped the stitches and this is what it looks like now.

It needs to be blocked and have the ends sewn in, but the effect is quite nice.
Not my colours, but the drop stitch takes a bit of the orange out.
I think I'll send it to my Nanna for Mother's Day.

The 100 scarf

This scarf is so named because I've started it 100 times (or there abouts).
I took it to the US (with very long pencils so I could knit on the plane if need be) and undid it about 4 times in the car.
I mostly undid it because it was sizing up wrong. I only have one ball and first I cast on so many stitches it was just going to be a square. Finally when I did get it all right I dropped the stitches (which you are supposed to do) a little way through to see what it would look like, but mustn't have 'yarned over' again properly so when I dropped the stitches again later one side of it fell to pieces!

This time I'm holding off dropping until it's done.
I got the wool in a 'lucky dip' we had at the NE Victoria Ravelry day in January. It was dyed by the lovely Deb.
It has come out *very* orange.
Not me, but I might be able to find a home for it.. maybe.
It's not going to be a very long scarf and might end its life as something different... we'll see.

I'll be glad to finish it, even if it sits in the cupboard - how could something so simple be so hard???

My Bag - swapped

I am proud of this bag and I love it.
The material just works so well.

I made it for a swap on Ravelry - the bag swap that I was running.
It's my own pattern, but I do have to admit that I wouldn't have done the job as well if I hadn't cut my teeth on this pattern. Nicole does a great set of instructions and just by making one bag I was 100% more confident in my bag making.


I made my own pattern for this one.
It was square bottomed.The sides were slightly longer than the square wide.
And it closed with tabs across the middle - giving it the interesting shape.


I also added lots of pockets - knitters need lots of pockets in their bags.

My little pyramid bag inside - you can see some of the pockets.
I found this nice brown wool (I think it's wool) down at our local charity shop. A bargain.

I also put some buttons in the pyramid, added some green double pointed needles (from the same charity shop, as were the buttons) I found some groovy pencils that have ruler measurements on the side, I made some sweet green cloisonne stitch markers and there's a funky green tape measure in a tin too.

I'm not a green person, but everything just kept coming to me in green. Thankfully I think Kristen likes green.

Definitely going to make more of this shaped bag.

German Twisted Cast on/Cast off

I'm giving a little 'how to' at our Knitting Guild meeting tonight so I thought I'd post it here too.
It's hard to learn a cast on with out watching someone do it, so if you are interested follow the Youtube link to see my favourite demo.
German Twisted Cast On
Sometimes referred to as Old Norwegian cast on

Why use the GT cast on?
It’s a very stretchy cast on – good for top down socks, or anywhere a stretchy cast on is needed.
It’s an aesthetically pleasing cast on.

How do you do it?–
The GT cast on is a long tail method and starts with the familiar ‘slingshot’ of the long tail cast on.
It uses more yarn than the long tail so you need to take this into account for the tail.
The GT cast on is a long tail cast on with an extra twist added.

• Form slingshot with the yarn, thumb and index finger. With the tip of the needle go under thumb loop and bring needle tip up to the middle of the ‘V’

• Put the tip of the needle at the top of your thumb and run the needle down through the loop that is formed around your thumb. As the needle passes by the yarn (around the level of your joint crease) drop your thumb so it is sitting on the first joint of your middle finger (it is easier at this point to be holding the stitches on the needle with your right hand). Your thumb should now be securing a loop that is hanging upside down from the needle with one strand still over your index finger.

• Hook the yarn on your index finger bring it back through the loop you’ve formed, releasing your thumb from your index finger and gently pull the yarn to get the cast on stitch tensioned onto the needle.

This method takes some practise, there are other ways of executing and if this way isn’t working for you I’d advise hunting down a variation on the execution.
By using www.youtube.com and adding “German Twisted Cast On” to the search box you can find several versions of this cast on, one of which might make more sense to you. Lucy Neatby does a fantastic job and has influenced my information here as I learnt by watching her video.



German Twisted Cast Off

1)Pass sewing needle knitwise through the first stitch and remove from knitting needle; pass sewing needle purlwise through the next stitch and leave on needle.
2) Pull excess yarn through until almost snug; before loop of excess yarn closes, pass needle from front to back through closing loop.
Repeat steps 1 and 2 across.