Crafty weekend

As I said, I made a tote bag this weekend. Actually, two. I made the first one kind of on a whim Saturday evening. You see, we were vacuuming the study Saturday morning, and I had several varieties of knitting bags lying around: a big canvas bag, my eBay purchase from June, my backpack, a freezer bag for carrying socks to school... you know. I suppose I hadn't put any of them away because they all served a potential purpose. So while I was fiddling with knitted sock toes, the back of my mind schemed over bags. Including a break for dinner, I went into the blue room/guest room/no cats room/fiber storage room and emerged later that night with this:



My very own homemade knitting tote bag! And a vast improvement over the one I made a few years back when I first got my sewing machine (wobbly stitches, white thread 'cuz it's all I had, ragged edges and open seams... you know). This one only has two ragged edges, there by the handles where the fabric became just too thick. (Not quite sure what to do about that.) I still need to add on some kind of closure (as the cats' recent discovery of how to pull yarn out of the bag revealed - ugh), but otherwise it's done.

My first homemade knitting bag had a nice long pocket to hold straight needles, specifically placed so the needles stuck out of the bag and looked oh-so-knitterly. Now, I just made two big pockets for various knitterly gadgets, and two smaller pockets for pencils and DPNS. Circs can be loose or in the big pockets, I figure. But there's no designated space in that bag for straights. Not anymore. ("Ow," says the wrist!)

On Sunday, the weather improved substantially after Saturday's rain, and Coffeeboy and I took a nice walk on an old canal towpath. The weather was perfect and there were even hints of fall leaves glistening in the foliage above. I had grand plans to do work that evening, but really, I was quite excited that it had only taken me an evening to make a tote bag. So I made another. A smaller one, a little one-skein (ahem, ... sock) project bag.



The Fleece Artist "Autumn" sock would like you to know that this home is a vast improvement over what was expected... a clear plastic freezer bag. "Bletch!" says the sock! "This is much nicer!"



Meanwhile, the new Small Project Bag eyes that old plastic bag with disdain, thinking, "You *used* to carry socks to school! Well, now the socks get to ride to school in me! I am a homemade pretty green and blue bag! I don't even have any loose seams! I can be slung over Lazuli's shoulder or tied 'round a chair! I can carry her ID card and some cash to the coffee shop if she needs to run out for some coffee, doesn't have pockets, and doesn't want to find alternative methods of carrying her cash! I have a snap so that I can hold a ball of yarn while she knits! I hold DPNs! I have a pretty blue lining!" Yes, yes, we hear you on the blue lining.

Little green there has a bit of an attitude, doesn't she. She's pretty pleased with herself, but then, I'm pretty pleased too as the bags came out much better and were made much faster than I expected. It was great to have such a crazy crafty weekend!