Sunday, September 28, 2008

Woolly Items

There's not much cotton fiber activity around here these days. I'm knitting when I get the chance, and my sewing room has been pretty clean for weeks. With my work schedule I don't get much chance to spend time in the sewing room and I don't have the energy for it either. I do want to quilt my Halloween quilt so I can put it out now that October's here.

Debra suggested tacking it with buttons instead of quilting, but since I want to use it for a table cover I've decided to quilt it. I've got a couple of quilts I've tacked with buttons, and I've discovered that when you use them on a table you lose flat surface space to put things like glasses or vases on. I've got second quilt pin basted, so when I switch on the sewing machine, that's what I'm going to do first.

But in the meantime, I do have a few finished woolly items: more fingerless mitts, and this hat for Allie.

Isn't she a great model? The pattern is from Crazy Aunt Purl's site. It's her Super-simple fast and easy chunky hand-knit beret knit with fat yarn on big needles. It makes up fast and it's very stylish.
I also made this bag up out of my imagination and some wool scraps. The buttons are 60s vintage: they've got a facsimile of a cave drawing on them.

The binding has an interesting story: A few years ago, I found at the thrift store a bag of wool bias strips, all double folded and wound on wood thread spools, . The person who make them was probably braiding wool rugs, and I could see (there were 8 or 10 big spools) they had cost someone a lot of effort, so I bought them not having a clue about what I would use them for. I've since discovered they're great for binding wool items like this bag.

Our Vogue Sweater knit-along is set to start on October 15, so anyone who wants to play along should give a holler. With all this wool I'm getting ready for winter.

9 comments:

Judy S. said...

Love the beret, Barbara. It looks terrific on Allie, that's for sure! Nice bag, too...you are very clever!

Debra Dixon said...

Very clever, indeed!

quiltmom anna said...

Hi Barbara,
I love the beret It looks great on
Allie.
The bag turned out wonderully well - what a terrific way to use up scraps.

I thought you might like to see the blog that I have started- I am no longer Anna No blog-VBG

If you do the address is:
http://quiltmomsjourney.blogspot.com/

Hope life at college is not to hectic.
Regards,
Anna

allie aller said...

My son Chad just wandered in here while Allie's picture was on the screen.
He said she is VERY attractive and if he had known he would have come with me to breakfast with you two!

If I was a knitter with any skill, I might join you on your knit-along...love the pattern.

Anonymous said...

That is a darling beret and Allie is a darling young woman.

If I could knit at all I would love to join your knit party.

Susan Elliott said...

All that wool plaid is just great and I agree with Allie's son about Allie. Very lovely young lady and the hat looks great too.

Kay said...

I second all these comments!

Granny Fran said...

I love that bag, it reminds me of the wonderful comforters Granny used to make for our beds, from our old clothing and discarded clothing donated from church friends. I wish we hadn't worn them out, I would love to have one, now. I keep thinking that I'll find the makings at Goodwill and make my own.

Nettie said...

GReat hat and she looks gorgeous in it.

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