Pleated Beauty Bag

My mom made me a new bag using the pattern from Amy Karol's book, Bend-the-Rules Sewing. It's very cute, no? She used very fine wale corduroy for the body and a paisley cotton for the lining inside the bag and the pleats. Hence the name, Pleated Beauty Bag. Here's a closer look at the pleated part:

And here's the "beauty" part:

I really like that paisley lining. A lot. The icing on the cake is this wallet she made to go with the bag:


She is the best mom EVER.

Cable love

I love knitting cables. I try to knit other things, but I keep coming back to cables. Love those serpentine patterns with those alternating twists and turns; love the many variations that look so complex but really aren't; and most especially I love the finished fabric with all its texture and weight. Even a fine, delicate yarn can be made into a thick, warm hat or scarf if you knit it up into cables. I would love to make a cable-knit sweater one of these days. I really like this pattern. Or maybe this one. And I'm also pretty excited about this. You get the picture.

I haven't knitted many things for my mom. This is partly due to the fact that she can't wear wool ("It itches!!") and partly due to the lack of great cotton yarns at my local yarn shop. (Yes, I know yarn can be found online, but I like to choose yarn from an actual store where I can see and touch the yarn. Call me crazy.) And then I found this great organic cotton yarn at a LYS here in St. Catharines. They didn't have a lot of colours in the store, but this raspberry red caught my eye. A single skein went on and on and on...it only took a couple to make this scarf and hat.

The patterns aren't particularly complicated. The scarf is from One Skein: 30 Quick Projects to Knit or Crochet by Leigh Radford. However, I will say that I took some liberties with the pattern so it's not exactly the same. The hat is from Stitch 'n Bitch Nation by Debbie Stoller (again, liberties were taken). This is the third cabled hat I've knitted...it might be time to take the leap and make a sweater.

We're here!

Happy 2009! I know, I know...it's almost February. February, people! I have no good excuse for not posting any new stuff. No good excuse whatsoever. Life happened and...let's just leave it at that.

Even though I haven't been posting about it, there has been a flurry of crafting going on behind the scenes. New felted wool projects, including a rug (!), and some cozy pillows; knitted goodies; and--our favourite--new handbags. Including one for me, made by my mom (naturally).

Stay tuned...photos of all this good stuff is coming soon. I promise.