Another Crocheted Tote

I finished another crocheted tote recently. I've been meaning to post a photo of it for a week or two, but just got around to taking it. I'm not sure who this will be gifted to but it'll be a great catch-all/grocery tote for someone, not unlike the crocheted cotton totes I made a while back.

Felting a Bag: Steps Two and Three

I've finished steps two and three of my felted bag. After washing and drying this bag five times, I finally achieved a felted look! I also achieved complete domination over our laundry pile. After some thorough cat inspection (FYI: Mochi approves), I sewed the handle into a tube and wove it through the holes in the top of the bag. Now I've got to figure out if I want to add to this bag by needle felting a design or not. I'm going to sit with the un-needle felted bag for a while and see if the crafty spirits move me in that direction.

Felting a Bag: Step One

I've finally finished crocheting a huge bag. It's in the process of being felted right now, so the only photo I've got is of step one, which is the pre-felting stage. I'm felting the bag and the handle separately and will sew the whole thing together after I finish making several trips down to the washing machine to shrink this puppy as much as possible. You can't really tell from the photo, but I've crocheted holes near the top perimeter of the bag so that I can weave the handle around after the felting's done. Okay, back to the basement for felting #4. One good aspect of this project is that I'm getting a lot of laundry done.

Pet Peeve: Lost Crochet Hook

One of my pet peeves is when I lose a hook or needles from an in-process crocheting or knitting project. I am in the middle of making a big crocheted bag, which I plan to felt eventually. I got about halfway done with this project and ran out of yarn. It took me a couple of days to get to the store to buy more yarn, and in the meantime our cat Mochi decided that the halfway-done bag made a great toy. Somehow she managed to lose the hook. I know I can just go to my stash of hooks and needles to replace it, but it's driving me crazy that I can't find it. Fortunately my hooks are just the plain ol' metal kind, not like these fancy ones from Grafton Fibers.

Ginny's Coming to Visit!

My sister-in-law Ginny is arriving for a visit today. In honor of her trip, I've made her a little bag to hold her Charlie Card. This little bag is made from the same fabric out of which I crafted my second-ever art smock.

Sisterly Love

My sister Sarah knitted me this amazing felted bag as a Christmas present. I'd known she was making it (we knit together so it would've been hard for her to hide it from me) but I thought it was a present for my mom. Sarah used a lot of her excess yarn to make this bag, including some bits and pieces she got at a yarn swap at Karma Knitting. That makes me love it all the more. And the fact that it perfectly fits my stuffed Totoro is another endearing feature, of course.

Zippers Galore

Here's a little gift I made for yet another anonymous (because she hasn't received it yet) friend. It's a zipper coin pouch- made from 8 small zippers, which I purchased a while back at the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse, one of my favorite places in the world (this is probably another one, if I ever get there to visit). Talk about imagined treasure- EBDCR takes the cake.

But I digress... I intentionally stitched this with a bright yellow thread and wanted it to look handmade so I made the stitches big and visible. There's no official opening to this little bag- all eight of the zippers function. Cool, no?

Diane's Christmas Hat

My friend Diane and I often craft together. It helps that we live within a mile of each other in the 14213 (gotta show some neighborhood pride)... Today was a terribly snowy day and Di was brave enough to venture out of her house and over to mine for some impromptu holiday-present knitting. Her 4 wheel drive vehicle helped in that endeavor. Anyway, I'm featuring a hat that Di crocheted for her mom for Christmas. She's afraid that it looks more like a crown than a hat, but I think it's cute and I'm sure her mom will love it.


Also, see below for a little make-up bag I whipped up today as a holiday gift. Again, I can't say more without ruining the surprise... but I hope the intended recipient likes it.

Grocery Tote #3 (halfway there, with kitty guard)

So my never-ending ball of yarn has finally ended. I thought I'd be able to get 3 grocery bags out of it, but I wound up with only 2 1/2. Not a problem, really, since I bought 2 of these monster skeins at the same time, so I should be able to make 5 totes total. I continue to LOVE them at the grocery store-- I can fit the same amount of groceries in one crocheted tote that would normally fill 3-4 plastic bags.

My guard kitty Mochi makes an appearance in this photo-- she loves all things fiber, and is constantly carrying balls of yarn around to form "webs" in our house. She will basically unwind an entire ball of yarn around the legs of tables, into hallways, under beds, etc. until she's created a huge lair. She also has pica, and her non-nutritive substances of choice are wool and cashmere. I found this out the hard way-- I have two cashmere sweaters with "extra" seams in them now, in addition to scores of wool sweaters and socks that she's eaten. Anyway, the point is that Mochi has an inordinate fondness for the fiber arts, and she is quite enamored with these new grocery totes. Fortunately they're made from cotton yarn, so I don't have to worry about her munching on them.

Yarns Away...

After I finished my first grocery tote on Friday night, I decided to make another one because I had a huge skein of yarn (Lily Sugar 'n Cream, 400 grams in ecru) and my first tote only used up approximately 1/3 of the skein. This one is going to be a bit bigger than the first. It's coming along but I'm going to have to move on to another type of project after this-- I'm getting really sick of double crocheting without thinking. Maybe I'll make the reversible mouse pad (shown above) next. Here's the link to the tutorial on Gruene Tree, via CRAFT.

Finished: Grocery Tote

I finished my grocery tote in time for it to make an appearance at the farmers' market this morning! I simply double crocheted (as if I were making a huge hat) and when it was tall enough to resemble a grocery bag, I started double-crocheting a handle (back and forth 7 stitches to make a long scarf-like thing protruding from the bag). When the handle was the length I wanted it to be, I connected it (single crochet) to the other end of the bag. Ta da! Above you see the bag itself, below are the spoils I brought home from the market today.



I bought delicious plain yogurt from White Cow Dairy, some lovely dark leafy greens from Native Offerings Farm, and 4 tasty squash fruits. The bag could have held more but I didn't have a lot of cash at the market this morning; I'd forgotten that I spent it all on admission and drinks at Qualia's excellent show last night. (It's not like the show was expensive, it's only that I only had a $20 bill to begin with!) If you're in the Buffalo/WNY area, check them out:

Qualia

September, 7 2007 at Club W
Delaware, near Chippewa, Buffalo, New York
Cost : $3

w/ LAZLO HOLLYFELD

Making My Own: Grocery Tote

I decided to make my own grocery bag this week. I'm just using a neutral (undyed) cotton yarn and crocheting it like a big hat. I hope to have it finished in time for my weekly trip to the producer-only Elmwood-Bidwell Farmers Market tomorrow morning. I don't know if I'll have time to finish it today or not, because I'm working during the day and making a trip to hear/see my brother's band Qualia tonight at Soundlab. Regardless, I'm hoping this will work out well as a shopping bag because it's been a challenge for me to find grocery totes that hold up over time and are big enough (or have enough give) to hold a bunch of stuff.

Knitted Knitting Bag

I made this knitted bag to hold my sister's knitting supplies a while back. I gave it to her when she first was learning how to knit, and then she knitted her own bag (a massive felted bag that reminds me of cupcakes because of the yarn colors) and gave me back this one (whose colors remind me of Grover or Cookie or Harry Monster). I used a silk scarf I bought in China to line the inside of this bag, so it's kind of impractical as a grocery tote, although it is not a plastic bag. I'm including a photo taken at a strange angle so you can kind of see the lining. Also, the button on the bag (somewhat camouflaged) is a vintage button I bought at a street fair in San Francisco a few years back. I actually think the button is my favorite part of the entire bag.

Fashion and Eco-Sensibility Collide: I'm Not a Plastic Bag

I basically live under a fashion rock, so I was until recently unaware of the buzz around designer Anya Hindmarch's wildly popular new tote, the "I'm Not A Plastic Bag" (cloth) bag. Actually, "buzz" is likely too soft a term; people are lining up for these bags like I did for Cabbage Patch Dolls in November 1983.

There's something ironic about people waiting in line for hours to buy a canvas tote for $15 and then turning around and selling it for over $100 (yep, it's true- check eBay if you don't believe me) when the bag itself is making an environmental statement. After all, isn't the idea that by using canvas, rather than plastic, bags, people will curb environmentally degrading, materialistic habits? Sigh. The bright side is that people may actually stop using so many plastic bags now, I guess. And because I am eternally hopeful, I present to you several tote bag pattern links. In the amount of time you would spend waiting in line for one of the I'm Not A Plastic Bags, you can make your own:

1. Singlet style tote bag, link via CRAFT.

2. Knitted bag folds up onto itself, link via CRAFT.

3. Really simple sewn tote bag.

4. Fancier sewn tote bag.

5. Easy oilcloth tote bag. You can always buy oilcloth from one of my favorite websites, Mexican Sugar Skull, if you don't know where else to get it.

6. There's a nice photo tutorial for this sewn tote bag.

7. A pattern for a cute crocheted and felted tote bag can be found here.

8. Don't sew, crochet or knit and don't want to pay $100 or wait in line for something that's not a plastic bag? Here are some cute and inexpensive options I found on Etsy:

1. Little Odd Forest Shopping Bag
2. Tree Hugger Tote
3. Vintage Farm Scene Tote
4. Big Brown Bag
5. Blue String bag

ReadyMade ReJect Follow Up

Some of you will recall my first attempt at entering ReadyMade magazine's MacGyver Challenge. Of course I was sad that my clutch purse didn't win, but I have to say that the people at ReadyMade are super nice. I received my precious back in the mail a week or so ago, along with a note from Associate Editor Jen Trolio encouraging me to enter again sometime. Their current challenge is to make something out of old, non-working pens, which isn't an inspirational challenge for me... but I'll definitely enter again sometime. I want to be a MacGyver winner!

I still haven't given the bag away... uh oh, is it really my crafting precious? Does it have a strange, magical hold over me? Stay tuned.

ReadyMade ReJect

Well, here is my first attempt at ReadyMade magazine's MacGyver challenge. My sparkly crocheted clutch purse and I didn't win (some potholders did) but I did, at least, merit a mention in the article! It's actually crocheted, not knitted as it says in the blurb... but it's hard to tell.

I'm going to give this away once I get it back from ReadyMade but since I haven't done so yet, I'll edit later with more information about who the (lucky?) recipient is.