can you ever have too many bags?

  



knitted and felted Sophie bags (Magknits pattern) in Cascade 220 and Noro Kureyon
and a crocheted version in Noro Daria

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Sunday again, and here's an update of my current non-knitting crafty pursuit, crochet.

ta da, it's the cro-phie!

The crocheted daria sophie bag all done! Shannon helped me pick out the zipper this afternoon. Crochet Claire from the Knitsmiths helped me sew in the strap during knitting group. And voila, she's finished with a little help from my friends.

I do love this Noro Daria yarn. The colors are so incredible. And you know what just occurred to me while I was crocheting the last few rounds?.... Pool-knitalongers, are you listening?.... I think you could pool this yarn to make stripes! If I could only think of something I could do with a six inch wide strap of stripey cord yarn.

Update: Now that I'm dressed, I can show you a picture of me modeling the bag!

wanna see a close up?

Here's my daria bag, finally starting to look baggy. I'm into the second of three skeins and hoping it'll be enough for a legitimate sized purse with strap. Hey, bonus points to anyone who can tell me what knitted bag pattern I'm trying to recreate here in crochet!

After all the straight stockinette stitch knitting I did on my trip, I wanted to treat my hands to something special for the next few days. I saw some gorgeous Daria Multi yarn at Purl Soho this weekend, and was reminded that I had a few skeins of it at home. One trip to the swift and one crochet hook later and I'm in heaven.

It's so beautiful - every stitch is a new color and looks so amazing with all the stitches around it. I think the single crochet really shows this yarn off well. Despite the yarn being a sleek cord yarn, it's not too stiff or awkward to handle. In fact it's a real pleasure to work with. And it's perfect for a little bag.

How perfect? Take a look back at the Knit Happens coin purse. Or Monica's purse. And check out CurlyQ's free Daria bag pattern. K2P2 offers a free knitted bag pattern on their site. And Purl also had a little bag made out of the Daria on display, which looked like this bag (kit available through Royal Yarns). But I'm now obssessed with an idea of Elisabeth's to make Annie Modesitt's Aline bag pattern with it. Cool or what? Um, Elisabeth, I may need more of that yarn....

But that was not enough. My hands wanted more. To be specific, they wanted cashmere. I've never worked with cashmere before, but after my Mom picked up some cashmere in New York and I had it in my hands long enough to put it in the bag, they had to have more. Rather than starting with mom's cashmere scarf, I bought a skein at my LYS for a little something oh so lovely. I can't say any more here now (people are listening!), but I can tell you that the cashmere is incredible. In fact, I must stop typing now. Gotta save the fingers for the caaaash!

Have you seen the new Knitty?! I am so impressed with this issue. I'll admit that I was a little nervous about the 'sex and the knitty' idea at first, but in my opinion they really pulled it off. The issue is another amazing mix of beautiful, clever, and witty knits. I especially liked the sort of old era, vintage underthings interpretation of the theme that several designers took. Those designs in particular are just exquisite! I immediately fell in love with this one and ordered the yarn right away. And Halcyon, as usual, sent the yarn in record time. I love them!

all lined up and ready to go

As soon as I finish any of my current projects, I'll allow myself to start this one. Oh, and this one too...

toucha-toucha-toucha-touch me

While I was at my local yarn store, buying a few goodies for some friends, a little siren voice led me right over to this lovely. It's Daria multi, a nylon cord yarn by Noro. Aren't the colors amazing?! And it feels so fabulous. I'd been visiting and fondling the one skein at my LYS for a few weeks, telling myself that I couldn't do anything with just one skein. Well, I found two more skeins this time! My excuse no longer being valid, I had to get them. Just as I started thinking how silly I was to have splurged for the Daria and how my idea of making a crocheted bag out of it could be really stupid, I found this online. Oh yes, crochet happens!

My first sophie bag was really for my secret pal, Marie. Hi, Marie! But I couldn't tell you that until we did our big reveal at the end of May. My secret pal, by the way, was Sarah. Thanks for everything, Sarah!

Anyway, I just had to make another Sophie bag for myself. This time I used some Cascade 220 I got from Colleen at our Knitsmiths' swap. I really love this pattern. And the lighter shades of Cascade are so pretty when felted. All sorts of little little color flecks show up that you wouldn't really notice otherwise. I think I want another one in the light green shown in the pattern pic. You can't ever have too many bags, can you?

While I was at the fabric store this week, I picked up some closures for the bags. The new beige sophie got a sweet frog closure and the pink kureyon sophie a matching zipper. Now where does one find those magnetic purse snaps?

Isn't that the plural of sophie?

Here's the first sophie bag. It came out perfectly after felting. I stuffed some plastic bags in it to hold the shape as it finished drying and now need only to sew in a snap. What a great little pattern! I enjoyed it so much that I immediately searched through my stash to find more wool. And what do you know, I had about a ball and a half of Kureyon left over from my new year's stripey sweater. It wasn't enough for a full-sized sophie, but I like it as a short, rectangular bag too.

I found some more Cascade 220 in my stash and picked up even more at the Knitsmiths' swap, so stay tuned for more sophies!

I'm up to the i-cord on the sophie bag. Despite not loving making i-cord, I have decided to lengthen the straps a couple of inches (after reading Carolyn's suggestions). I should be ready to felt this weekend. I've never felted anything before, so this will be a real adventure for me. Wish me luck!

I ran into Amy at the playground yesterday! She spied me starting a new project. Someone needs a Sophie bag. I saw Carolyn's recently finished and totally fabulous Sophie bag and when I realized that it only took one skein of yarn, I thought, hey, I have one skein of yarn!

Just call me the bag lady, 'cause I got another gift from my secret pal - a cute little tote bag (from Target, I think - gotta love Target!). It's striped and blue (my two favorite things) and is perfect for bringing my knitting to the playground. Thanks secret pal!

Bag lady (that's me) to knitalongers old and new (that's you, banffers, pant-alongers, spring flingers, and linen drapers): hey, how's it going?? I fell behind in my blog-surfing while the in-laws were here, so please let me know about exciting progress updates and/or finished projects. I can't wait to see what you've all been up to!