Tag Archives: bag

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KNIT RAINBOW BAG

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I’ve always been enamored of net shopping bags, and now I finally have my own!

knit rainbow bag, made by Julianne

For demonstration purposes, it is filled with yarn. What else?

knit rainbow bag, made by Julianne

The bag is perfect over my shoulder, but if I hold it in my hand with my arm down the bag drags on the ground. I knew the bag would stretch, but I still wanted to be able to fit everything in it. Next time!

knit rainbow bag, made by Julianne knit rainbow bag, made by Julianne

I call this jumbled area “the Mojito vortex” and it’s a fond memory of a new friend (who I met via the Internet, and she lives .6 mi from my house). By the way, that gorgeous yellow flower embroidery came out of the trash in New Orleans. It’s one of my favorite things ever.

This pattern was simple and easy to follow, but I was still able to pick up a couple new skills. This was my first time using m1 increases (for the base of the bag), which are easy but I’m not nuts about the holes they create. For future bags I guess I’ll use a different increase. I also got to bind off together when I joined the handle back onto the bag.

knit rainbow bag, made by Julianne

I love the idea of cutting plastic bags into yarn to make a craftier, stronger plastic bag, but I don’t have that much plastic on hand. Eventually I will go full monty with a big ball of plarn, but in the meantime I used Red Heart acrylic for $3, and I loved seeing the colors change.

knit rainbow bag, made by Julianne

Since this is a good project to use up not-so-fancy yarn, and makes a useful gift, I think I will be making many more of these. I’m so new to knitting, and I don’t want to repeat any patterns, so I might make this bag next, with a tape handle like here. Or maybe I will try i-cord for the first time! Does anyone have recommendations for other bag patterns?

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RAINBOW WALLET

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Last week my wallet was stolen. I won’t go into it here, how a guy actually watched the store and planned, how he went straight to the workroom the one time I was busy with customers in the front, or how he grabbed my wallet and ran out the backdoor. Neither will I get into how much loosing a week’s pay has fucked me up, or how I couldn’t pay the mechanic because my credit cards have all been frozen (those sweet Swedes told me to come pay them next week). This is about my new wallet.

rainbow wallet front rainbow wallet inside

rainbow wallet detail That’s right, I keep a picture of me and Rick Steves in my wallet.

In concept it’s actually quite similar to my old wallet, but now that’s a non sequitor. The seafoam green vinyl has been in my stash for a couple years; I got a big piece for $2 at a Joann’s in Ohio. I love the color but it’s tricky to work with! The sticky plastic doesn’t slide through my machine at all, so I wind up facing it with tissue paper and tearing that off. The extra step gets tedious, but it seems to work. Anyone else have any other methods for working with a non-slip material?

The rainbow is a variety of fold-over elastics from Fabric Planet that I stitched onto some white ripstop nylon. I really love the way it shimmers through the vinyl! The loop is an awesome metallic elastic we have at the store; I will be putting a chain through it to clip onto my bag (which wouldn’t have prevented the theft, but it helps me keep track of my wallet).

rainbow wallet detail rainbow wallet detail

Now I’m wishing I had used another color strip so that the wallet would be a bit wider, but as it is it works pretty well for me.

In other news, I’m about to head back to NOLA for March, so postings may be a bit sporadic until April. Laissez les bonnes temps roulez!

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