Knitting and sewing like crazy

That's what I've been doing for the past few days!...
I'm sewing bags - two of them here finished:



I must admit this is my favourite model so far! It's very spacious, very neatly fits the armpit as well as comfortable while kept in hand. I'll be making one for myself definitely!
For the details and patterns - visit my Friendsheep Bag-o-rama blog! ^^

I've been also knitting.
Yarn Guard Basket for Bag Me KAL is almost ready. I still need to knit 10 top rows with some fuzzy yarn and the handle. And then felt it. I'm very anxious about the final size after felting. It's fun to felt! ^^

Ella is growing, too.

Look, I've arranged a heart shape with my Ella! ^^

I made two mistakes on the way and had to frogg two rows, but it's going fairly easy, once you get the rhytm of this pattern. I'm almost done with section II, and it's time to decide whether I want this to be triangular or like in the original design. I've already thought about that a bit and I think I'll make this one in the funky shape for myself, and the second one sometime in November for my Mom in triangular shape - I think I've found a pattern for her Christmas present! ^^

And because my camera played tricks today I cannot show you the blue skirt for Sylwia I've sewn yet... But I'll try to take a good photo tomorrow. Now I only have one to sew - the black one. Yatta! ^^

Last Saturday was the first really sunny and warm day in Poland this season. ^^ So, we spent time outside. First we went with Robert's father to a picnic organised for the Polish subway employees.

Sunny day, yatta! ^^

Firemen's truck that can go into the subway tunnel on rails and carry the rescue operation.


Robert and his father.

And then we and our friends Anna and Gabriel went to the Amusement Park, and Robert with Anna decided on a roller-coaster!... It wasn't very big, but they were scared anyway, and they both decided while being in the highest point that they changed their minds and want to quit, but it was too late!... ^^


You should hear them scream! ^^

Designing is fun!

Yes, it's true! ^^ I'm designing and making a bag for Bag Me KAL June project, and I've discovered it's soooo much fun creating something from a scratch, trying out the pattern you have in your mind and confronting it with reality of knitting needles and a skein of yarn!

Pattern soon, of course for public use, my dears! ^^

Today 've been to a very important (for me) event - exhibition of all the creations of the Artistic Centre I've been attending for the past school year! I showed you some of my jewelery pieces before, and today they've been displayed in the glass cabinets, together with my colleagues' works, and they've been surrounded by paintings, sculptures, pottery - all by pupils who attended different art classes for the past 10 months.
Here are some photos (although unfortunately I couldn't take good pictures of the cabinets because of the dim light...)


Gabriel and my best friend Anna are admiring my Butterflies Ring


My Angel (Bat) Necklace next to my friends' creations


My Mom and my Aunt Bozena in front of a Museum - we were listening to an opening speech by the Director of a Museum and the Headmaster of my Artistic Centre


Me, a happy artist! ^^ (Mom cut my legs, of course... ^^)
BTW, the things I'm wearing - the black embroidered coat - well... I've sewn this and embroidered myself like... three years ago, and didn't have a chance to wear it up till today... I simply forgot I had it in my closet!... Silly me!...

One more thing, I've created a new blog today - Friendsheep Bag-o-rama , where I've put some of my bags (the ones I've sewn/knitted up till now and have the photos of them), and will put the patterns for them and all the necessary details. I'll update it with new bags (today I've cut out four new ones! ^^), and I'll also add the missing patterns soon (I must sketch them).

TUTORIAL - Cord making (lucet)

In order to make a square cord you need:

A lucet:

It can be made of wood, thick leather, antler, metal, some say you can use your two fingers but I prefer more stable tool ^^. Lucet cannot be too big - in order to operate it freeley it should fit the palm of your hand. Some lucets have the hole at the bottom where you put the emmerging cord, but it's not necessary, the cord can hang down at the front of a lucet.

You'll also need the skein of yarn - wool, cotton or linnen - you don't have to cut a piece of a yarn but start with the beginning of a skein and then after you reach the desired length - cut it and tie the knot. You'll work with one thread only.

In order to remember that I'll always be turning the lucet to the left, I marked the sides of my lucet with a dog running away from a chasing cat (animals' noses are turned to the left). ^-^

Let's start:

Wind your yarn on the LEFT horn, back to front. Continue winding the yarn on the RIGHT horn, back to front, and once again on the LEFT horn, back to front. Leave the tail of the yarn at the front of the base of the lucet.


Now bring the yarn across to the front of the right horn.

Turn the lucet clockwise (the painting on the lucet changed from a dog to a grinnning cat! ^^).

Lift the lower thread (nr 2) over the upper thread (nr 1) to form your first stitch.

Tighten down the stitch, pulling the working yarn gently to the right.

Bring the working yarn across to the front of the right horn.

Turn the lucet clockwise (the painting on the lucet changed from a cat to a horrified dog! ^^).

Again lift the lower thread (nr 2) over the upper thread (nr 1) to form the stitch.
Tighten down the stitch, pulling the working yarn gently to the right.

ect., ect...

You will soon notice a nice square cord! ^^.

TUTORIAL - Cord making (circle)

Here is what you need to make a round three coloured cord:

A circle:

It can be made of wood, leather, stiff cardboard, even a cd. Make many cut-outs around the edge to secure the yarn.

Three pairs of different colour pieces of yarns - the length depends on the desired length of the cord, but keep in mind that for a 1 m cord you'll need three pairs of yarn pieces about 2,2 m long each.
Although the instructions may seem to be complicated at the first glance, the technique is very easy! ^^

Setting up:

Fold each piece of yarn in half. Place the pairs of yarn pieces across the circle, the same colour next to each other, leaving at least one free slot between the colours (to manipulate the yarn).
I numbered the first yarns we are going to work with for clarity.
Always start with the colour that is on the very bottom underneath the other colours (this advice helps when you have to put away the circle for a moment, and then you want to continue the job).


Take yarn end nr 1 from the top and put it in the slot at the bottom, next to yarn end nr 3.


Now, take the yarn end nr 4 from the bottom and put it in the top slot next to yarn end nr 2.


Turn the circle a bit counter-clockwise, so the red yarns are now on the left side. Tigthen the cord a bit, pulling all the yarns.
Now, we are going to work with white yarns.


Follow the same steps as with red yarns: take yarn end nr 1 from the top and put it into the bottom slot next to yarn end nr 3.


Now, take the yarn end nr 4 from the bottom and put it into the top slot next to yarn end nr 2.


Turn the circle a bit counter-clockwise, so the white yarns are now on the left side, with red yarns beneath them. Tigthen the cord a bit, pulling all the yarns.
Now, we are going to work with yellow yarns.

ect., ect...

The result can be seen after several turns, when your cord appears through the hole in a circle, at the bottom. ^^



Another tutorial here: Kumihimo. Looks, like simple crafts can be very international! ^^

Ella troublemaker

So, I'm knitting Ella shawl.
I started on Sunday and knitted the first section. Nice and easy.
Then, on Monday, I knitted the first 8 rows of section II and found out that something was wrong - two stitches were missing and I couldn't complete the pattern...
I frogged eight rows and even managed to catch all the stitches correctly but the number still wasn't right - I had 52 st instead of 54.

So, I frogged it all and started again from the beginning. Finished section I, counted the stitches - 52...
Okay, I said, let's breath deeply for a moment and count again.
So I did. And you know what? There were in fact, 54 stitches on the needle! (*^-^*)
I just made a mistake while counting. So, I knitted 4 rows of the section II and the pattern's fine! And I even know what was wrong first time - in the last row of section I you should make double yarn overs in places where you were doing singles yarn overs before, I must have not noticed this detail while reading the pattern.
(note to myself: clean your glasses! ^^)

I really like the way Ella started to appear and the pattern is fairly easy to follow (although not so easy to memorize, so I have to look at the print-out very often).

Sewing:
Yesterday I managed to finish two skirts for my friend Sylwia. The story behind those skirts is the following: she gave me four pieces of linnen: the pink one, the light green one, the blue one and the black one, and she said "Make four skirts for me in whatever style comes to your mind, what's left of the fabrics is yours."
So, here are the first two:


(technical shot to show the butterflies)
Velvet butterflies and velvet ribbons. Elastic in the waistline.


This one I adore! (I mean, the way it turned out). Velvet maroon ribbons with sequins and beads, elastic in the waistline.

Still, two more to go - the black one will be plain, only some white lacing around the edge, but for the blue one I decided to add some fabric with blue flowers on. I hope she'll like all four of them! ^^

Oh, and I managed to cut out the front panels for the sleeveless top I'm making for Sew? I knit, so I may even finish it this week as well! ^^

Shawl-ing again! ^^

Back on the knitting track! ^^

My current projects involve:

- third felted bag for Bag Me KAL June - this time I decided to design the basket for my I-am-currently-knitting projects, because I've just found out that maybe I have many bags for keeping the yarn in, but I don't have the basket-shaped container to keep the yarn ball in while knitting (and the yarn ball keeps falling off my knees, swirls around the floor, catches the dust and becomes the object of cat-curiosity, which is not healthy for a yarn ball at all!... ^^). So, I'll be knitting orange/yellow/green basket.

- Ella shawl from knitty.com - this one I caught from Alice (thank you, Alice! ^o^). I can't believe I omitted this pattern while looking through Knitty archives! It's beautiful and the shape is unusual (although it can also be knitted as a triangle). I've already knitted section I, using the moss green yarn I bought for my Swan Neck jumper... well, yes,...

- my Swan Neck jumper - unfortunately must wait for a better yarn, because this one is not good at all - when I knit with one thread it's too small and too lacy, when I use two threads together (like it says in the pattern) it's too thick and it doesn't look nice! So, it'll have to wait till July, when I'll go to a wholesaler for a new yarn.

- and maybe this week I'll manage to start the toe-up socks using the mysterious yarn I bought on-line, which I believe should give a good stripey result! ^^

Embroidery:
- I'll continue with the caftan band for Robert, frankly speaking I'm sick of this pattern now, but I have to do another 2 metres and it's bye-bye forever with this design!

- I've already designed the pattern for kokoshnik - the medieval Russian headwear I'll be making, I gathered all the fabrics and beads, so I hope to start making it soon.

Sewing:
- this week I'll definitely finish at least three skirts for my friend Sylwia (the pink one is almost ready, I need to make two more sewing machine turns!)

- I'll make some new bags and put them on-line on sale, because financial situation in this house is not funny at all, I'm telling you...

- maybe I'll start with the sleeveless top for sew? I knit

Other:
- hoping to post tutorials for cord making using the circle and the lucet (tools are almost ready)

All this in one week?...
Ambitious, ne? >*^v*^<
Happy creating!

FREE PATTERNS - Felted Knitting Bag

What I love about this bag is the different textures in the felted areas - stockinette stitch areas felted creating as if vague vertical ribs when the garter stitch - horizontal ones. It's a good size for a pair of needles and some knitted piece of garment, so I'm calling this the Felted Knitting Bag! ^^

Here is the pattern:

What you need:
- 4 skeins of wool in red, 0,5 skein of wool in orange, 1 skein of wool in yellow (Cristallo, 50 m/50 g skein, needles 8-9 mm recommended)
- needles 8mm circular, 7 mm straight (for the handles)
- tapestry needle or crochet hook

CO 76 st in red colour on 8 mm circulars. Place marker, join and start:
Work the first skein in stockinette stitch.
Switch to orange colour - work in garter stitch till the end of a skein.
Switch to red colour - work in stockinette till the end of a skein. Decrease 8 st equally around in the last red row.
Switch to yellow colour - work in garter stitch till the ned of a skein. Decrease 8 st equally around in the last yellow row.
Switch to red colour - work in stockinette stitch for 8 cm, then finish with three rows of 2x2 rib (it won't be visible in the final felted result, but it'll help the top part of the bag to stay more or less the same size as before felting).
BO.
Sew the bottom flat with red yarn.

Handle:
With 7 mm straight needles, pick up 11 st on the side of a bag.
Follow the pattern:
R1: k3, k5, k3
R2: k3, p5, k3
Repeat those two rows for 62 cm.
Attach the handle on the other side of the bag with red yarn using tapestry needle of a crochet hook.

The unfelted beg has the following measurements:

Felt the bag in 60 degrees.

Felted bag has the following measurements:

Felted flower (optional)

CO 6 st.
R1: sl 1, k
R2: sl 1, p
R3: sl 1, *k 1, yo*
R4: sl 1, p

Now work 10 rows ( R5 to R14) in stockinette stitch, starting with knit row.

Decrease:
R15: sl 1, k2 tog, k 4, k2 tog, k1
R16: sl 1, p2 tog, p 2, p2 tog, p1
R17: sl 1, k2 tog, k2 tog, k1
R18: k3 tog

Knit 5 of the petals. Stitch the petals together and felt the flower. Then, after it's dry, decorate it with beads and sew it on the bag.
I also added some felted three-colour cord (tutorial for making such cords soon!)

I've won! ^^

I still can't believe it, but... I've won the May contest for the Bag Me KAL with my Felted Bowling Bag! (*^-^*)
I'm so happy and proud, because it was my first ever felted project, I knitted the bag with confidence but felted with huge hesitation, since I had no idea about the felting abilities of my washing machine. Then I added silly flower and changed the handles into a cord, and... the girls liked it! ^^

I must say all the bags (there were 5 in the final contest) were interesting in their way, I preferred the one knitted by Allison - she used green, my favourite colour, but I also liked the violet bag by Monica, and colourful one by Maxine. ^^
Now, since I was the winner, I chose the rules for the June bag - I decided upon orange or yellow colours because it's almost Summer time, felted or non-felted and with the use of some funky yarn. I'm sure ladies will come up with great ideas! ^-^

More news from the bag front:
My bag for the Tote Exchange is dry, the flower is dry, so I'm stitching them up together today, and I'll try to take photos tomorrow, and finally post the pattern.
And then, next week, it's off to my secret exchange pal, with some gooddies! ^^

So cold...

How, on Earth, can I think about sewing the sleeveless top when it's soooo darn cold here?!...
Beginning of June and it's 10 degrees outside! (and inside it's so chilly that I keep my SnowWhite shawl wrapped around my shoulders while sitting at the computer or with the needles - I thought it would stay in the closet till Autumn!...).
And they say the whole Summer in Poland will be like this!... So, we decided to go on holidays sometime in September, and definitely leave the borders and visit some warmer countries, my husband especially likes the trip to Spain via Germany and France. We'll see about that (I dream of Turkey... ^^).

Anyway, Robert is away on business trip so I have the whole day to myself - I can do whatever I want! ^-^ (some things I have to do, unfortunately...). He left last evening, so I stayed until very late and was finishing some bags for sale and here are the results of my late night efforts (all patterns are mine, feel free to copy them if you like):

This one has a zipper closure and I'm proud of the way I sewn on the handle - it's attached not on the sides of the bag, but on the front and back upper corners, hidden under the triangles of leather. I have two more bags in this shape from different fabrics ready to sew.

SOLD! 2 June
These two have the rectangular shape, but they have elastic in a tunnel . The first one has a wooden button&velvet ribbon closure.


This one looks a bit like a skirt, because the bottom part is pleated. (Yes, I know, it's the third bag of the same fabric, but now I have no more of this one left! ^^).


This one is bigger and has a long handle that can go across the chest. The lining is yellow. I've made a skirt out of this fabric once and then I decided to make the bag out of the rest.


Okay, you've already seen this one, but I've added the closing buckle.

I also check the Tote Exchange bag every day to see whether it's finally dry to assemble it with a knitted&felted flower I created (and send it to my pal).
Have you got any good ideas for drying the felted bags?
I left it outside in the sun and wind, I used my hair-dryer, it's a pity central heating is off because I could leave the bag near the radiator (note to myself: felting is an Autumn/Winter craft).