Finally Finished

I seem to have an aversion to posting pics of Works in Progress. So some finished bags. As these bags aren’t felted they needed linings, and I forced myself to complete them at the weekend. I actually really like hand sewing, it’s just starting it that’s the problem.

First up is the red and green tote which was finished some time ago. This yarn is handspun and I dyed it and several other skeins years ago with plants and it was all varying shades of beige or dull yellows. Yuck. So out came the chemical dyes a few weeks ago and half went in the blue and half the red. The skeins all came out differing shades of red and green, in tones which matched. This picture does not give the true green – it’s actually many shades of green. I used the green to do the hem at the top, and the bag is lined with blue cloth. Blocking the bag really helped. It will be a useful bag for a small project as I have a tendency to leave knitting all over the house. I like plain tote bags and here the handles are double knit which is fine for a small length and much less fiddly than using DPNs or a circular needle to knit in the round (the intention being to avoid seams of course!)





Bag number 2 is from the Bag a Knitter’s dozen book I have raved about previously. This is the one where I had to frog a square… The yarn is Rowan cotton bought for less than £2/ball in a John Lewis sale. I failed to block this and it has suffered a bit as I think I have sewn it up just a little tightly. But again it’s lined in blue cloth and will fit a jumper’s worth of a project in it.

And lastly, a cable pink bag. I’d seen a pattern in a book in passing for a cabled Big Wool bag. Couldn’t see the point in buying a book for just one pattern so made this one up by swatching and I rather like it. Two balls of Rowan Big Wool bought incredibly cheaply last year and the strap is again double knitted. I still have to sort out fastening for this which is a drawback. I quite like the idea of buckles which means a trek down the market. Need I say it is lined in blue cloth? I did try with all these bags to find cloth in the stash to match the colours of the yarn, but nothing I had was right so I played safe by going for a contrast.