FREE PATTERNS - French Holidays Felted Bag

Yarn: 100% wool, Smyrnalaine 44m/100g, colours: maroon, violet, fuchsia (one skein each)
Needles: 7 mm straight, 8 mm circular, crochet hook
two markers

Bottom:
CO 30 sts with 7 mm straight needles, using violet yarn.
Work in garter stitch for 13 rows.
R14: k 15, place 1st marker, k 15

Body of the bag:
Pick up around 74 sts in the following way:
- place 30 sts from the straight needle onto the 8mm circular needle (make sure you have the marker after 15 sts), pick up 7 sts on one side, pick up 15 sts, place 2nd marker, pick up 15 sts, pick up 7 sts on the other side.

R1: k in violet
R2: k from 1st marker to 2nd marker in violet, change to maroon yarn, knit till the end of the row
R3: k in maroon
R4: knit in fuchsia
R5: k from 1st marker to 2nd marker in fuchsia, change to violet yarn, knit till the end of the row
R6: k in violet
R7: k from 1st marker to 2nd marker in violet, change to maroon yarn, knit till the end of the row
R8: k in maroon
R9: k from 1st marker to 2nd marker in maroon, change to fuchsia yarn, knit till the end of the row
R10: k in fuchsia
R11: k in violet
R12: k in violet
R13: k in maroon
R14: k in maroon
R15: k in fuchsia
R16: k from 1st marker to 2nd marker in fuchsia, change to violet yarn, knit till the end of the row
R17: k in violet
R18:k from 1st marker to 2nd marker in violet, change to maroon yarn, knit till the end of the row
R19: k in maroon
R20: k from 1st marker to 2nd marker in maroon, change to fuchsia yarn, knit till the end of the row
R21: k in fuchsia
R22: k in violet
R23: k in violet
R24: k in maroon
R25: k in maroon
R26: k in fuchsia
R26: k from 1st marker to 2nd marker in fuchsia, change to violet yarn, knit till the end of the row
R27: k in violet
R28: k from 1st marker to 2nd marker in violet, change to maroon yarn, knit till the end of the row
R29: k in maroon

Finishing the edge:
Purl for three rows.
(In this way you make a tunnel edge that curls into the inside of the bag.)

Bind off in the following way:
Put a crochet hook into the first st, then into the second st and into the back of the stitch you can see inside the bag three rows below - catch and pull the yarn out through all those three stitches, drop two stitches from the needle. Put the formed stitch back on the left needle and repeat the procedure - in this way you attach the tunnel edge to the inside of the bag.

When you bind off all the stitches, with a crochet hook make a chain and attach it next to the place you've started it - it'll make a closure.

With a violet yarn, attach four D-rings to the edge of the bag.

Handles:

Make a chain with a crochet hook 55 cm long. Then crochet it back and you have one handle ready to attach to the D-rings on the bag (make two).

Clousure:
With a crochet hook, attach the yarn in the middle of the top of one side of the bag and make a chain 25 cm long, attach it right next to the place you've started it.

Felt in 90 degrees.

Sew the button on and enjoy! ^^

After-wedding blues...

Wedding
Frankly speaking, it wasn't the best wedding I've ever been to...
Ceremony was nice and all, but then it turned out that the reception was held in a place 60 kms away from Warsaw borders, so we had to drive for an hour from the centre of the city to get there. When we got there - another surprise - it was planned as a garden party. None of this was on the invitation, I thought it's going to be held inside a restaurant and we were completely unprepared because it was boiling hot at 3 pm in Warsaw - me in a short skirt, with bare legs, sleeveless blouse, my husband without the jacket. It was quite nice outside at 6pm, when we started the reception, but from 8 pm it was getting colder and colder, not to mention gazzillions of mosquitos which bit every uncovered piece of flesh on you (remember me? - short skirt, bare legs, no sleeves...). You normally don't expect to carry with you to a wedding reception a travelling bag with spare warm clothing and a bug-repellent!... And we were assigned the places at the table with some total strangers from the other part of the family (the bride's) and I'm extremely nervous and shy in front of the strangers..., luckily the food was nice. Not to mention my new shoes almost cut off my big toes!... (well, at least THIS was my fault, I should have tried to walk in those shoes for a while BEFORE I put them on for the wedding...)
Well, I hope the newlyweds had a great time!

Plans from last Sunday:
- Ella shawl - haven't touched it because it WAS too hot...
- Wristwarmers of Chaos - planned, and that's all... next week project,
- black skirt for Sylwia - done! ^^
- my knitting bag - I bought a zipper but didn't have time to finish it,
- bags for sale - no time,
- embroidered band for Robert's caftan - haven't touched...
- kokoshnik (sewing and embroidery) - finished the planning phase, now onto the embroidery phase! ^^
- anything else that comes to my mind... ^v^ - yes, lots of things came to my mind, of course! ^^ I sew a skirt and a bag for the wedding, I knitted the comissioned poncho, I knitted one bag for Bag Me KAL.

Plans for the coming week:
- French Holidays bag I designed - finish, felt, publish the pattern,
- Striped bag - felt,
- Run About bag - knit & felt,
- kokoshnik - start embroidering it,
- Ella shawl - continue,
- Wristwarmers of Chaos - on-going,
- poncho - publish the pattern,
- and we'll see what else! ^^

On Monday we are going for a one week holiday to our cottage on the riverbank and I'm taking with me my bellydance cd and lots of yarn skeins, so I hope for lots of fruitfull dancing and knitting time (and swimming in the river, and barbecuing, and walking in th eforest, and...). ^^ Sewing must wait till next week. ^^

FREE PATTERNS - Poncho

Needles: 10 mm, then 8 mm, 6 mm, 4 mm
Yarn: mohair, lace weight, gauge 5 sts = 1 inch/4 mm needles, about 100 g

With 10 mm needles cast on 86 sts holding two threads together.
Work in rib 2k x 2p for 30 rows.

Eyelets
R31: k1, [yo, k2tog] repeat
R32: p all

Switch to needles 8 mm.
R33: rib 2k x 2p

Switch to needles 6 mm.
R34: rib 2k x 2p

Switch to needles 4 mm.
R35: rib 2k x 2p

R36: BO all.

Pick up 20 sts along both shorter ends of the rectangular held side by side using 6 mm needles.
R1: k all
R2: [k1, kfb] repeat
R3: [k1, kfb] repeat
R4: BO all

Weave in the ribbon and enjoy! ^^

Changes...

Whenever I need a change, I move the furniture around the rooms or re-dye my hair. At least it worked in the apartment I lived in with my parents... Now, we've been living in a very small place, and the furniture is on the contrary - big and unmovable!... So, what's left? Hair colouring! ^^
I got a bit tired with the red head, so I'm getting darker now. In fact, it's darker than I thought it would be... Or maybe 'm not used to the shades of black on my head? I'll see how I look like tomorrow in the sunshine. ^^

Knitting

I have finished my Rainbow Scarf last night and here it is:

I really loved working with this yarn - it's the softest yarn I've ever had. Perfect colours and perfect size! ^^

And now I'm off to a poncho I was comissioned to make - this is my own design (I'll publish it soon), and you can see the similar ponchos I've made last year here. Very quick and easy! ^^

Today I also got yarn (100% wool) for my Run About Bag and another bag project (haven't decided yet what to knit).

(the photos are dark but these are the real colours of the yarn)

Sewing

I finished the bag for tomorrow's wedding, bought a pair of new black shoes (I can't go in the violet ones, they're made of plastic so they're not suitable for a hot summer day without stockings...), and I'm ready to have fun! ^^

Hot....

I've been looking through different blogs and I found the crafty Jo. When I saw her recent post I remembered one more craft I can do - please, don't shout!... ^^
Macrame!
I've been doing macrame many many years ago and then totally forgot about it, and macrame is the perfect way to make some jewelery for the wedding I'm going to this Saturday. So I dug out an amethyst and some acrylic beads and made myself a necklace. ^^

Have you seen this page? --> The Nipple Project
I like the idea and I'm sending them the nipple made by my husband! ^^ He naalbinded it from 100% yellow wool, using the antler needle.

Fit and Knit



Today I had my last bellydance class this term. Have I told you that I lost 6 cm from the circumference of my hips? ^v^

Off to make my husband dinner. ^^

Blue Rainbow ^^

Since I'm recently turning blue (not in person, I mean, but blue colour is slowly but steadily crawling into my life... ^^), I have a blue question for you: have you seen how awful tea looks in a blue cup?
When we opened the shop two years ago, the colours of the shop were blue and black. So we went to IKEA and bought four blue cups for the stuff (you can see two of them here) . I always drink tea, coffee very rarely, so everyday, in the morning, when I made myself a cup of tea, I looked into the most terrible looking hot drink in the world! It wasn't that bad when I poured in coffee with milk, but pure tea - yuk! I wonder why we didn't change the cups for six months!...

Knitting

Okay, this is my Katia Mexico project I promised you yesterday:

It's based on a Dream Swatch's pattern by Wendy Bernard. She says: "So make one for yourself, and call it a scarf, (...)", so I'm making one for myself, only wider, and I call it the Rainbow Scarf. ^^
I thought the colour changes would be more irregular but it seems that I got almost perfect number of stitches for this yarn and I have stripes! ^^ Two balls should be enough to knit a 1 m scarf. When I'll be making another shawl in this pattern (and I'm sure I will! ^), I'm going to make it wider and try the following in the knit rows: 4 garter sts on either side of the shawl to stop it from curling.
BTW, I love steam-blocking! I blocked this part of the scarf to try this out and it worked! ^v^ So, I immediately blocked my Clapotis (which I washed and blocked on my bed with pins just after I finished it, but it was still rather curly...) and I love the result - finally I know how wide it really is. ^^ I'll definitely be steam-blocking my Ella shawl when it's finished.

Striped Bag for Bag Me KAL has been finished (no photo, because it looks the same as in the previous post, just with two finished handles ^^) and now it's waiting to be fulled, but first I want to knit another bag and felt them together at one go because I started to worry about my water and electricity bills...If I'm going to switch on the washing machine for the smallest item to felt they may go up high...
Next one I'm going to knit is the Run About Bag, modified of course, because I think the bigger the better so I'll be enlarging this bag. ^^

Sewing

On Saturday we are going to a cousin's wedding and I found out that I have nothing to wear!... My wallet is empty and there's no way I could buy anything new. So, I decided to make a skirt for myself and the matching bag in my favourite style. (I'm lucky I have lots of this gorgeous thrift store printed cotton! ^^)
Here is the result (forgive my blurry old mirror):

It seems that I misjudged my measurements a bit (I lost weight!... ^v^) and I have to make some adjustments at the hips, but two small pleats should do the job. Bag will follow tomorrow.
I have a pair of violet shoes and I'm going to wear white or black blouse, and it seems I'm ready for Saturday! ^^

Home decor

Project Spectrum Postcard Swap

Funny thing, I haven't received any new Postcard Swap Pal in June and I thought that maybe Lolly forgot to include me in this month's swap, but today I opened my letterbox and look, what I got:

Beautiful blue postcard from Jenn (my May PS Pal)! Don't tell anyone, but I am starting to like blue colour!... ^^
I may not get a new PS Pal this month but it's always nice to exchange the cards with the old pals, right? *^v^* Jenn, I'm sending you my blu card tomorrow!

Home Decor

Inspired by the beautiful tissue holders made by Stephanie, I decided to give it a try and make one for myself. I dug through my fabric stash and here is the result:

But I'm not telling you how I did it, because Stephanie sells her tissue holders and I don't want to reveal her workshop secrets. This one I figured out and made for my own use only.

Knitting

I started the July assignment for Bag Me KAL - we could choose two out of three bags, and ... I wanted to tell you that I cast on for Striped Self LinedBag, but in fact last night, during the Switzerland - Ukraine soccer game I almost finished it! ^^
Okay, it was a full match, then a playoff, and then the penalty kicks, so it lasted longer than usually.
I'm knitting the handles now and thinking about the embelishments. And I'll be felting this one (it's not felted in the original pattern - felting is the new black for me! ^^)

I also cast on for the Wristwarmers of Chaos, and I'll see how I can deal with this idea for this strange yarn...

Yarn Shopping

I shouldn't buy new yarn since we have no money this month for any extra spendings, so of course I went for yarn shopping today!...
Well, okay, I planned to buy the wool for those gorgeous gloves from the Japanese book some time ago, so it was justified.

But, when I saw these colours I couldn't resist, and they are soooo soft (50% wool, 50% acrylic), it's Spanish yarn called Katia Mexico, and they were laying there lonely, only two of them among other one-colour balls of yarn... ^^

I believe I know what to knit with it, but I'll share it with you later! ^^

Last skirt! ^^

Sewing

I have finally finished the assignment for my friend Sylwia - four linnen skirts.
Here is the last one - the black one:

I decided to make it a bit avanguard, play with the pattern a bit, and I found out that such skirts are in fashion this season in Poland at least that's what I see in the streets). The design is very easy and I can share it with you.
First, you have to cut the long rectangle that matches the size of your hips, sew it at one side, sew the tunnel for the elastic, put it away for now.




Then, cut a square in the size of your choice (mine was 110 cm) and cut a circle in the middle of the square - you must calculate the radius according to your hip circumference, ex.:
95 cm= 2 pi r, so r=15,1 cm.

Now, sew the hip part to the skirt part, put the elastic in and it's done! ^^

I also added some photos of stylized skirt - that's how she could wear it with different accesories:

Friendsheep

What about the sheep appearing on my blog suddenly and where did the name "Friendsheep" come from? - you may ask.
Well, I've liked sheep for a long time now and when two years ago I decided to start selling my hand-made stuff on-line I had to come up with some good brand name for it. Something that was somehow connected with me, that sounded right, that was "marketable", not too complicated for people to remember. So, we did a brainstorming with my husband and I was giving many names like "Green wardrobe" or "Witchy Corner", but it didn't feel right. And then Robert said: "I have an idea! Call it "friendship", but spelled like this - friendsheep!". It was brilliant I thought! ^v^ So, Friendsheep it was. I registered a domain and opened a shop, and then it turned out that selling hand-made goods here in Poland is not so easy, but that's another story.
So, lately I decided to do a little make-over of my blog. I was tired of the browns and greys of the template so now it's all in greens! ^^ And the sheep in the picture has been drawn by my husband, so please do not use it in your stencils or anything (not that I thought you would, but just in case I want to mention that it's not from a free clipart, it's just mine, mine, mine! *^v^*)

Have you seen Not To Do List ?
Was this person peeking on me?... ^^ I'm always doing all those (or similar) 52 things BEFORE I get to a project and then, even during making of something, I easily get distracted and leave it for a moment, and it stays and UFO for a long time...
What to do to change my habits? I don't know...

Knitting

I have almost finished one Sock of Chaos and you can see it here for the first and last time. Why? Because I don't like it at all, it was interesting while I was still knitting the foot, it got very irregular around the heel part, then I added some stitches and the result was stripes more or less regular again, but then I had to add more stitches for the calf part and the sock looks awful in that part...

I don't condsider the time devoted to knitting these socks wasted, because I learned the short-row technique and now I know how to knit a sock toes-up! ^^
I changed my mind and since it seems that the only nice thing to knit with this yarn is something regular in shape, I'm going to knit the Wristwarmers of Chaos! ^^ I hope that the tube shape will reveal the nice stripes.

Ella shawl grew a bit, because it's soooooo hot in here lately that I cannot force myself to cover my lap with a mohair shawl... And my hands sweat the moment I pick up the needles and touch the yarn, so I think it'll have to wait a bit for a colder period.

Planned and Planning

Last week's plans:
- Ella shawl - grew a bit,
- toe-up socks - started and the first one almost finished, but I chabged my mind about them... ^^,
- another felted bag - haven't started yet but I have some ideas, waiting for the next assignment for the Bag Me KAL,
- fourth skirt for Sylwia - shame on me, but not yet...
- knitting bag for myself - almost ready but the zipper from my stash turned out to be too small...
- some new bags for sale - didn't manage to finish any...
- felted jewelery - done some swatches and felted them, they turned out fine, so next steps with this project this week

Felted bracelet Felted pendant with beads

Planning:
- Ella shawl - it it's not too hot...
- Wristwarmers of Chaos - plan, start, finish (I hope! ^^)
- black skirt for Sylwia - Monday or Tuesday the latest!
- my knitting bag - buy a 50 cm zipper (yes, this bag is a monster!... ^^), finish sewing,
- bags for sale - on-going
- embroidered band for Robert's caftan - on-going
- kokoshnik (sewing and embroidery) - finish the planning phase (draw the full pattern and transfer it onto the fabric)
- anything else that comes to my mind... ^v^

Project Spectrum June

It seems that I could find some blue items around, so here is my june collage: