FO Friday - fast knits and not so fast knits!

I actually finished this Honey Cowl a couple of months ago. I just never got around to taking a picture. The Honey Cowl usually calls for a DK weight yarn. I used bulky. I cast on 250 stitches to start. Let me just say, this thing is HUGE! It can hang from my neck down to my knees!

Next up is Henslowe.

It's a little shawlette that fits just around my neck. It was such a quick knit that I started it last Thursday and finished it up on Wednesday. I used 1 skein of MadelineTosh tosh merino light in the Tomato color. There was something about this project had me obsessively knitting it. Otherwise, I don't think I would have finished it so quickly. I think I will make another one but much much bigger.

WIP Wednesday - a lull in the creating

I've been in something of a funk. I haven't knitting much, haven't sewn much. Haven't don't all that much craft-wise. Here are a couple of recently worked on projects though.

My watermelon sock are coming along. I'm at the heel turn and I'm stuck trying to decide if I want to keep in the watermelon yarn for the heel or if I want to switch to black and do something like an after thought heel. Decisions.



This is a bunch of hexi blocks. I plan on making a placemat and practicing some free motion quilting on the piece.

WIP Wednesday - window farm

This counts as a WIP, right? It's a work in progress that will go on forever and I'm actually not done yet with the build out.

I'm aiming for four columns in that window with 1 reservoir bottle and 4 plant bottles per column. What do I have in there?
Left column (top to bottom): basil (rooting for a dirt garden), parsley (incubating for a dirt garden), oregano and a currant tomato plant, sage
Middle column: Thai basil, scallions (from the supermarket!), basil, parsley - this is my fully grown column
Right column: Rocky Top Lettuce, collard greens, spinach

The far right column are still baby plants so I have water with a bare minimum of a nutrient solution going through them. The left and middle columns will have full on nutrient solution at the "aggressive growth" mix flowing through so I'm curious to see how quickly the plants grow. The basil leaves are already bigger than any I've ever seen before.

I keep learning as these plants grow.

Some close ups for you.

I'm excited to see some of the curly leaves start to come out for the parsley. It means that the roots are taking!

Thai basil! Leaves! I'm getting more leaves!

These little stalks of basil are actually cuttings from the big basil plant in the middle column. It's growing so happily that I'm trying to root stalks as the big plant grows so I can grow lots and lots of basil.

The oregano and the tomato are sharing a home because I don't have enough bottles for them all yet. I figured the oregano is still small and not taking up much space. It's exciting to watch the tomato grow.

Sage. I love looking at their little fuzzy leaves!

Finally, collard greens. I plan on keeping one plant in the window farm and the others will go into my friend's garden. I have them in here to incubate and grow a little faster.

Hex Bag - Fabric pieces and the bag interior

Well, now you have your pattern drawn and cut out. The straight side that you labelled for the Fold Line, fold your fabric in half and place that side along the fold. Pin it down and cut around the other sides. Cut:

• 2 pieces from the exterior fabric
• 2 pieces from the interior fabric
• 4 pieces from the medium weight interfacing

From your remaining interior fabric, cut:

• 4 pieces 5 inches by 8 inches for the interior pockets
• 2 pieces 9.5 inches by 2 inches for the frame casing - If you don't trust your top stitching skills, you may want to make it 2.25 inches.

Also cut 2 pieces of interfacing 9.5 inches by 2 inches. Iron this to the back of the interior fabric for the frame casing.

If you want to make straps for the bag, cut from the fabric of your choice:

• 2 pieces 21 inches by 4 inches
• 4 pieces 4.5 inches by 4 inches

The straps are designed for a square ring that is 1 inch long on the inside of the ring. The straps are folded the long into 4 parts. If the interior of your ring measures something else, take that measurement and multiply it by 4 to get the required width.

We start with everything that is being sewn to the interior of the bag.

Let's Get Started - Pockets!

Remember our .5 inch seam allowance!

Take two of the pocket pieces and pin them right sides together. Make sure to backstitch at the start and end to lock in the thread. Pivot and turn at the corners. Starting 1.5 inches from the end of one of the longer ends, stitch to .5 inches from the end, turn and stitch through the short side, then the long side, then the next short side. Pivot and turn and stitch another inch. Cut your thread. Trim the corners. In the picture below, I sewed with a white thread that blends into the fabric. I've drawn in the line you want to sew in grey.

Turn pocket right side out, making sure to push the corners out, and iron the sewn edges. Fold in the the unsewn edge and press flat. Top stitch the sewn long side, making sure to back stitch at the start and end. This is the first pocket. Repeat for the second pocket.

Frame casing
For each frame casing piece, make sure you have the interfacing ironed on to the bag.

Fold in half an inch from both short sides and one of the long sides.

Cut a little notch out of the corners of the fabric where it folds double to decrease the bulk.

Iron, press, make it all hold.

Top stitch the short sides of each frame casing. Make sure to back stitch.

Make sure you have a piece of interfacing ironed and fused to the back of each interior piece. For each interior piece, center the frame casing on the top of the bag top edge, matching the edges. Right sides of both pieces facing up. Pin.

Top stitch the frame casing to the interior along the long folded edge of the frame casing.

Pocket Placement
One pocket piece on each interior piece. The unsewn long edge of the pocket 2.5 inches from the bottom of the interior. Center the pocket from the sides. Pin and top stitch around the sides and bottom. Again, back stitch and pivot the corners!

For a divided pocket, figure out where you want the divide placed and you can either mark it with a fabric pencil that will disappear or, I taped a piece of painter's tape 1/4 of an inch away and used it as a guide for my presser foot.

Putting the inside together
The bottom of the bag is the long side of the trapezoid. Place the right sides together of your interior pieces and pin. Mark the center 8 inches of the bottom of the bag. DO NOT SEW THESE 8 INCHES. This is how we will turn the bag right side out after we sew it to the exterior. Sew each of the sides, pivot at the corner, and sew to where you've marked. BACKSTITCH! It is very important to backstitch on the bag bottom because you don't want the stitches to come loose as you're working with it.

For each corner, flatten the seams open, you will have a hard time ironing but you can certainly give it a try. Flatten each corner and match the seams. Pin through both seams of the side and bottom, this will help to keep them matched. Measure 2 inches along the seam in from the corner. Draw a line perpendicular to the seam.

Sew along this line and backstitch! Trim the corner off, 1/4 inch from the seam, we don't want a lot of bulk here. Do this for both corners and then you can see the form!

Hex Purse Tutorial - Materials & Pattern Drafting

This is going to be the first in a series of posts on how I made my little hex frame purses. I don't want to put it all into one BIG blog post because you'll be reading forever. Instead, I plan to present it in sections
1. Bag template design
2. Fabric pieces, pockets
3. Putting the bag together

I gave you the materials list here

Design Thoughts

Before I get into the pattern drawing, I wanted to explain a few things.

• I chose to use a 1/2" seam allowance. You can use whatever you want. Just note that, I'm using a 1/2" seam allowance throughout this series and in my pattern. This pattern is written with a 1/2" seam allowance built in. If you choose to use something else, you'll need to make some alterations.
• The 9" hex frame measured out to about 9.25" at the widest points so that is the measurement I used. With the hex frame, the top of the bag lays flat and I didn't want there to be too much space around the hex frame so I aimed for a finished measurement of 9.5" at the top. If you choose a different sized hex frame, you can use this idea as a jumping off point in designing your own bag.
• Just a reminder, the finished bag measures 9.5 inches across the top, is 6 inches tall. The bottom measures 10 inches long by 3.25 inches wide.

Marking out my pattern

I started with a piece of 8.5" x 11" piece of paper. My printer is next to my sewing area. You can use newsprint as well but make sure that you have at least one straight edge. Make the straight edge the fold edge.

Step 1. Line up two of the edges on the rotary cutter mat. My left and bottom edges are lined up and I measure from the left edge. Start by drawing a line across the top of the paper. This is the top of the pattern.

Step 2. Draw a line 5.25 inches from the left edge of the paper. This is the width at the top of the bag.

Step 3. Next draw a line 7.25 inches from the left edge of the paper (or 2 inches to the right of the first line). This width represents the full width of the bag plus the side width and seam allowance at the finished bottom of the bag.

Step 4. Draw the next line 9 inches down from the top edge you drew. This is about where the finished bottom will fall.


Step 5. The next line is drawn 2 inches down from the last line. The space between these two lines will the bottom of your bag, including seam allowance.


Step 6. The next line you draw, well, please refer to the picture below. The two points you are trying to connect are the opposite corners of the rectangle created in steps 1 through 4 but extend it through to the line drawn in step 5. This is the side of your pattern.


Step 7. Mark the left side as the fold line for the fabric. You'll also want to write in the number of pieces to cut from this template. You'll want 2 from the exterior fabric, 2 from the interior fabric.You'll also cut 4 from your interfacing. Also note that you have 1/2" seam allowance.


Step 8. Cut out this trapezoid shape. This is your template.

FO Friday - A larger bag!

I had to go get some brown fabric to make the handles and finish up this bag. More zebra print on the handles felt like over kill.

The bag measures 9.5 inches across the top and 6 inches tall. The bottom of the bag measures 10 inches long by 3.25 inches wide.

I really like the size of this bag! I can fit a small knitting project with a wallet and phone. Or I could probably fit a medium knitting project and make it a knitting bag.

Monday, I'll start the instructions for constructing one of these bags, starting with drawing out the pattern. For now, a materials list:

• 1/2 yard exterior fabric - heavy weight quilting cotton or lighter weight home decor fabric
• 1 yard interior fabric - quilting cotton
• 1 5/8 yard medium weight interfacing
• 9 inch hex purse frame - I bought mine from Sun Belt Fashion. It seemed sketchy when I placed the order since I didn't get any acknowledgement of my order but a few days later, my order showed up. An alternative source is Ghees.
• 4 bag feet - Also Sun Belt Fashion, Ghees, or Joanns
• 4 rectangular rings, interior width measures 1 inch - I bought mine at Joanns. If you choose to buy a different size, just know that you should alter your purse strap width.
• plastic mesh grid - for something solid in the bottom. You can find this at your local craft store
• matching thread
• ruler, rotary cutters, scissors, paper, pen/pencil, pins, and other general sewing needs.

A walking foot and a heavy duty needle for your sewing machine is recommended for when you're topstitching through some of the bulkier parts of this.

FO Friday - Bags!

I've been on a bit of a sewing binge, aside from the quilting. I love bags, I really do. I also really love bags that have a frame for the opening. I had made bags in the past and sometimes they worked out well, sometimes they didn't. The recent bags have been working out really well.

First up is the Cavernous Carpetbag from U-Handbag. I've had a 10" tubular bag frame sitting around for a couple of years and was trying to find a cute pattern to use it on.

I've also been an admirerer of the U-Handbag blog and it looks like in the last couple of years, she added this pattern. Her pattern is written for an 8 inch frame or a 12 inch frame. I had to modify the pattern for my 10 inch frame. Thank goodness for math skills and ratios!

The one thing I would do differently? The pattern called for quilting cotton for both the exterior and interior and fusible fleece. I had a home decor fabric that was slightly heavier than quilting cotton and I didn't want to make it too stiff so I used regular medium weight interfacing instead of the quilting cotton. I should have stuck with the fusible fleece since the bag body isn't as stiff as I would like it. Overall, I'm happy!



Next up is a little clutch that I had designed. A couple of years ago, I had made U-handbag's Hex Open Bag Frame. I didn't quite like the size and I wanted a wider bottom. At the time, I didn't quite understand the bag making concept and so I didn't quite get there. I've recently been reading up and watching Craftsy videos and the bag came together. It's a little small but I'm also working on a slightly larger one.

It's a good size for make up or to act as the catch all bag in your bigger bag.

I do know how I made this and my thought process for this bag so coming soon, hopefully Monday, I'll start walking through the pattern drafting process and then the bag making process.

Leggy Lettuce

The lettuce is getting leggy

FO Friday - Icelandic Sweater!

My Icelandic sweater is finished! It was about 556 yards of yarn, much less than I had anticipated. It is incredibly warm! It is so warm that I really don't think I need sleeves to wear it here in DC. If I ever moved to Iceland, I can see needing sleeves there for the winter but it's too warm for that here. The pattern is the Lett Lopi Vest. You'll have to scroll down to the bottom to see the link.

WIP Wednesday - Ready for Spring!

I've got some plants started in preparation for the longer days and more sunlight. There are a couple of orchids in the back along with a basil stalk that I'm trying to root. The lettuce and scallions I had read about as being able to grow from the scraps. I think I started with 3 or 4 leaves of lettuce last week and now it's a little head. The scallions have already been harvested once. I did notice today, while changing out the water, that there are some healthy looking roots and some that look like they may be on their way to rotting. I think it's from the standing water. Once I'm comfortable with the new water farm column, it will be moved there to get more air in the roots.

In other hand crafted, WIPs, I'm still working on the third Honey Cowl. It's a slower progress this time around.

And I'm now on the second Skyp Sock! Of course, this pair will probably be finished when it's too warm out for wool socks but at least I'll be a pair ahead for next year!

In the background of that picture, you can also see a zebra striped bag. I'll write a little more about that bag in an upcoming post. It was the product of this past Saturday night.

FO Friday - A quilt!

This is not my first quilt but it is the one I'm happiest with. The quilts I'd made in the past were for full/queen sized beds and they weren't very manageable on the sewing machine and I only partially knew what I was doing. I only knew what I could read from books. I didn't know any quilters and there weren't things like Craftsy to give you some lessons and hints and tips.

I started out with the Bungle Jungle and Kona Snow layer cakes and made a bunch of half square triangles. I wanted to keep the piecing simple. The order of the squares were randomly arranged with an eye out to avoid having the same pattern next to each other and keeping all of the colors evenly spaced around.



I'm also very happy with the hand sewn binding. I think all of the bead embroidery work has helped to improve my skill with needle and thread!

WIP Wednesday - Snowquester!

Most of the DC region is trapped indoors because it's March and we're expecting a large snow storm. They're telling us 4-8 inches of snow but all I'm seeing is large wet clumps of snow that aren't sticking to the ground. Of course, I'm in the middle of the city so the ground probably isn't cold enough for it to stick.

This week, I've got a few things going on. I'm very close to finishing up the baby quilt. I'm sewing in the binding on the fourth side of the blanket and then it's wash and block!


The Honey Cowl was coming along until I started binding off and found it to be way too long! So, this is what it did look like. Now, it's been ripped out.


I also picked back up the Maple Leaf Shawl. I know it has been at least 2 years since I last worked on it, probably at least 3 since I've been living in my current place for 2 years and was madly cleaning and sorting through things the year prior. Turns out, I'm a lot farther along than I had thought so, I'm hoping to finish it off!

FO Friday - Ishbel

I finished Ishbel! 3 skeins of sport weight madeline tosh. It's huge but that's how I wanted it. I love the color! The pattern was a quick and easy knit.

WIP Wednesday - Spinning Along

The quilt is still moving but it doesn't look that much different from last week. I'd like to get to the binding this weekend and then I can move on!

On the wheel, I've been spinning another Bullseye Bump in the Moody Valentine color. Last week, you saw white and grey, this week, you see



I'm trying to finish this up so that I can move onto the next set of Bullseye Bumps. I bought two of the Galaxy color in the hopes of spinning them up and plying them together so I have a nice gradient 2 ply yarn that I can knit into a top down raglan.

As for knitting projects, Ishbel is done and blocking. I took a break from the Icelandic sweater because I do actually have to figure out which color design I want to knit on the yoke. So, instead, I started another Honey Cowl (#3) knit with another of the Bullseye Bumps. I like how this stitch pattern makes for a very even blending of the colors


I also started a sock. The pattern is mindless but not boring. The yarn is some Lana Grossa and is a wool/nylon mix. I was getting tired of my hand knit socks all getting holes in them so I wanted to try out a more hard wearing yarn.