Of Shawls and Purses
So in the fury of packing for Korea, I've been very lax in posting my FOs. Here are two:
Kiri
A lovely pattern. I knitted Kiri in Icelandic laceweight from my grandmother's stash (my grandmother attained SABLE* in about 1974). It blocked beautifully, as you can see. Instead of the very strange cast-off directed in the pattern, I did a crocheted cast-off as follows: (sc2tog, ch3) rep to end. The little loops created by this pinned out into a nice, lacy edging. A close-up:
And a close-up of the lace pattern:
All in all, a very satisfying knit. Due to this, I have caught the lace bug, and ordered two skeins of laceweight from handpaintedyarn.com for Icarus and a shawl of my own design based on the old Madeira lace motif. Icarus will be knitted in a variegated red-pink, and Madeira in variegated blue.
I also whipped up a purse out of some pretty green toile fabric I had on hand and a skein of KnitPicks Wool of the Andes in Fern.
I needed a purse for Korea that would fit in my carry-on bag and have a strap that I could sling diagonally across my body to discourage pickpockets. Not that Korea is full of pickpockets, but I always figure any large city, from San Francisco to Seoul, has its share. I sewed in what is, for me, an unusually successful zipper:
The pattern was quite simple, since I made it up as I went along. For the seed-stitch base, I cast on 30 stitches with a size 8 needle, then knit in seed stitch for an inch. I then picked up stitches around the edge of this rectangle with dpns and knit until I had a little box that was three inches deep. I cast off and worked a row of shrimp stitch (backwards single crochet) around the edge for firmness with a size F crochet hook.
For the strap I chained 150 with my size F, then worked back along the chain with single crochet, then worked all around that loooooong, thin rectangle with shrimp stitch.
I cut out two pieces of toile measuring 18" x 10" and lined them with iron-on interfacing. I sewed the two long sides and a short side together to make a pouch, then sewed off the two bottom corners at a 45 degree angle to give the pouch some depth. With the toile on the inside, I folded down the open edge of the pouch until the raw edge was 3 inches above the bottom, then whipstitched the knitted base to the raw edge. Voila, a self-lined purse. I sewed the handle around the top edge, then inserted a zipper, and I was done. A one-hour project.
I'll be in Korea for the next four weeks teaching English, but I'll try to post at least a couple of times while I'm there. The school where I'm working has wireless internet, and I'll be lugging along my laptop, camera, and knitting. I don't know if I'll be able to hit any Korean yarn shops, but I'll sure try.
*SABLE: Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy
Kiri
A lovely pattern. I knitted Kiri in Icelandic laceweight from my grandmother's stash (my grandmother attained SABLE* in about 1974). It blocked beautifully, as you can see. Instead of the very strange cast-off directed in the pattern, I did a crocheted cast-off as follows: (sc2tog, ch3) rep to end. The little loops created by this pinned out into a nice, lacy edging. A close-up:
And a close-up of the lace pattern:
All in all, a very satisfying knit. Due to this, I have caught the lace bug, and ordered two skeins of laceweight from handpaintedyarn.com for Icarus and a shawl of my own design based on the old Madeira lace motif. Icarus will be knitted in a variegated red-pink, and Madeira in variegated blue.
I also whipped up a purse out of some pretty green toile fabric I had on hand and a skein of KnitPicks Wool of the Andes in Fern.
I needed a purse for Korea that would fit in my carry-on bag and have a strap that I could sling diagonally across my body to discourage pickpockets. Not that Korea is full of pickpockets, but I always figure any large city, from San Francisco to Seoul, has its share. I sewed in what is, for me, an unusually successful zipper:
The pattern was quite simple, since I made it up as I went along. For the seed-stitch base, I cast on 30 stitches with a size 8 needle, then knit in seed stitch for an inch. I then picked up stitches around the edge of this rectangle with dpns and knit until I had a little box that was three inches deep. I cast off and worked a row of shrimp stitch (backwards single crochet) around the edge for firmness with a size F crochet hook.
For the strap I chained 150 with my size F, then worked back along the chain with single crochet, then worked all around that loooooong, thin rectangle with shrimp stitch.
I cut out two pieces of toile measuring 18" x 10" and lined them with iron-on interfacing. I sewed the two long sides and a short side together to make a pouch, then sewed off the two bottom corners at a 45 degree angle to give the pouch some depth. With the toile on the inside, I folded down the open edge of the pouch until the raw edge was 3 inches above the bottom, then whipstitched the knitted base to the raw edge. Voila, a self-lined purse. I sewed the handle around the top edge, then inserted a zipper, and I was done. A one-hour project.
I'll be in Korea for the next four weeks teaching English, but I'll try to post at least a couple of times while I'm there. The school where I'm working has wireless internet, and I'll be lugging along my laptop, camera, and knitting. I don't know if I'll be able to hit any Korean yarn shops, but I'll sure try.
*SABLE: Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy
posted by Lorraine at 11:01 AM
3 Comments:
Good Idea: Make a bunch of purses for your etsy shop. =D I would TOTALLY buy one. Or several.
Have a great time in Korea! What an exciting opportunity!
Kiri turned out sooo pretty, nice work!
Jen, thanks. It was tons of fun to knit. Now I just have to figure out when to wear it. Jeana, I can cut you a deal. Name your colors and number of pockets.
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