Cornrows bag-sans handle
The handle was another situation in itself. It is attached to the bag by D-rings. I had to cut several 4 metre lengths of yarn, which needed to be folded, cut in half, folded again, threaded through one of the rings and plaited, then threaded through the other rings. First I cut the yarn too short, second time around they all ended up different lengths, none of which were the required length as the handle was too short once I’d plaited it-one ball of yarn wasted. Third time was lucky as I made each strand longer than 4 metres, but once I’d plaited and started threading, I realised the plait was too bulky to fit through the rings easily so I had to undo it and get rid of a few strands. Then I threaded it through wrong, so yet another stage had to be back tracked. Now I have a whole load of messy ends to try and tidy up. The lining isn’t going so well either, I’ve decided to crochet one as I do not have the sewing skills to make it out of fabric. I’ve chosen a cerise pink DK that pops very well next to the slightly washed out red. I started it using double crochet and a 3 mm hook. This wasn’t progressing fast enough for my liking so I’ve now switched to half trebles and a 4 mm hook. And it’s still not growing much.
Next out of the craft bag (Thornton’s this time) was a lacy scarf I started sometime in summer last year in one of my ‘It’s sunny, I must go outside and knit’ moments. Bar those few hours I hadn’t worked on it since. Taking it along to my mother’s last week I remembered that I had grown impatient with the lace weight mohair and 4 mm needles whilst I was outside as it was a drop stitch pattern and I had to concentrate and make sure that I wasn’t accidentally dropping stitches or knitting into the loops of dropped yarn and creating extra stitches, which I did several times. I have doubled the length of the scarf so far, now it’s about 6 inches in length…I think this one will take a while.
Lacy 'scarf'-all six inches
I’m also starting a long abandoned project that was only ever in the planning stage. I had succumbed to the fuss and bought some pompom yarn early last year, which I’m pretty sure had intended to be my nemesis before I even bought it. The hank came wrapped in a band recommending that the yarn been wound into a ball with assistance, basically daring me to prove that it could be done without help. Sometimes it IS better to follow instructions….
And sometimes instructions prove no help-pompom yarn is one of the most hideous yarns I’ve had the displeasure to work with, for some apparent reason I just couldn’t get it to work. The ball had lain underneath my bed since then, occasionally growling at me when I picked up some yarn that understood how to behave. However, I found salvation in crochet magazine projects that use pompom yarn, but only on the surface of back loop double crochet. Now I am making a heart shaped cushion which I will cover with the ball of evil. This heart is my new nemesis. I made a considerably smaller amigurumi heart brooch about two years ago and I thought I could do exactly the same thing, but bigger. What I hadn’t considered was the additional shaping that creating the heart on a larger scale would entail. Four hours of working and reworking on a supposedly lazy Sunday, writing and rewriting the pattern on an old water bill and all I have is something that resembles a homemade E cup bra.
All my careful workings...
...lead up to this, isn't it beautiful?!
