CATEGORIES

Saturday 22 November 2014

Totebags from my flax stash

I recently discovered this box of flax stash that I have probably been carrying around for at least 20 years. Time to use it!! for tunesian knit tote bags, as I'm so sick (not life threatening) that I the only thing that keeps me sane is to knit really simple projects. and this beautiful tote bag by Purl Soho. so I made some different versions which I gave away to different people.
as I just work with the material I have I ended up with a design with a contrast stripe, as I needed something to seperate the 2 different flax yarns that I was using.

this bag was for Ellen, who has been so kind to me in this difficult time.




It could be a man-bag





selection of somewhat similar flax, I still have some of it left

my long forgotten flax stash in a cardboard box

Monday 3 November 2014

wrap-around blanket vest - the first

This is a fantastic knitted jacket or cardigan or something in-between, some people call it a flap jacket. It's one big rectangle in seed stitch with two sleeves inserted. so it's really simple. The trick or sophistication lies in how the shoulders are slightly raglan shaped which hangs the cardigan nicely on the shoulders, and then the sleeves are of the lovely top-down knitted style, credit to ByGumByGolly. so in the end there are also hardly any seams that need to be sewn together. great for a lazy knitter like myself, always nice to find out new tricks to save yourself time and effort.

This pattern is a better version of a cardigan that I knitted earlier for my sister, that one was really square, missing the raglan shoulders and top-down knitted sleeves.

I came up with this design as I was very, very sick in second half of 2014. I basically was lying down for 6 months (gastro-intestinal problems, not life threatening) when I was able to sit-up, reclined against a big cushion, the only thing I was able to do was listen to pod-casts and knit. so knitting big surfaces of just simple back and forwards was great. Being able to knit saved my sanity, I think.
(this is an ante-dated post, as obviously I was not able to write blog-posts at that time)

well, here are some pictures.