Hours Later

Eventually there were no more ideas to try out, no more experiments to do, I had to get on with constructing the clutch bag. It took some time. I'm not going to put a clasp on the outside, so I've put a zippered pocket on the inside, to put anything precious. Pockets are 'recommended', so there had better be at least one pocket!  Here's a view of the inside:

And an outside view of the gusset:

I'm glad to have it done. Now I must get on with some of the cleaning I've been neglecting.

Felt

I've been worrying that the stiffener I plan to use for the beaded bag is not strong enough to support the beaded knitting. The practice purse is quite floppety. Then I remembered the felt that was the answer to constructing my glasses case. Perhaps I could use it for the bag too? I visualised a 'sandwich', with the satin lining on one side of the felt and the iron-on stiffener on the other side. Good theory, but I needed to make sure it would work in practice.

It may be a little bulky, but I think it'll work. I ironed the stiffener on (adding a dirty mark from the iron!) and then sewed it to secure it properly. I made the seam much wider than on the practice purse, in the hope that I will be able to sew the beaded knitting on without it showing on the lining. Note to self: don't mark the satin, it will show on the right side. Right, enough procrastination, now to get on with the real thing.

WIP

I'm still working slowly on turning the beaded knitting into a bag. I was thinking of putting a zip along the opening of the bag, until I read the competition specifications again and saw, 'The bag must open wide enough to enable easy access to the contents.'    Hmm. Better use a gusset then. When I made the practice purse, I used a rectangular gusset, but I don't think that'll fit well with the tulip design. A triangular gusset then. On the practice piece, the gusset is in satin, but according to my 'advisers' the gusset must be knitted, although it will have a satin lining as well. It'll be easier to cut a satin gusset to match a knitted one than vice versa, so I've been knitting the gussets. It took me several goes to get the dimensions right. Fingers crossed these will work:

Procrastination

It's months since I finished my beaded knitting, but I haven't got around to turning it into a bag. Now time is running out, I will have to submit it soon, so I had better get on with the job.

One aspect I need to decide is what sort of edging to add around the beading. Whether putting an edging on my practice piece is further procrastination or a 'necessary step' I don't know. I considered several ways to make an edging. I experimented with ribbon, but honestly, I haven't a hope of adding it neatly enough to pass muster. I considered sewing a line of beads around, but I think the edging should be made of something other than beads. How about tatting? A pearl tatted braid is one possibility. But I settled for a narrow split ring braid, because it echoes the beads without being beads:

More Ice Drops

These are all Diane's patterns, Pink Fudge and the her latest pattern, Doodle Ice Drop and Variation. I liked the Variation so much, I tatted two of them! 

Ice Drops

On Wednesday afternoon there was a tremendous crack of lightning and pfft, our power went off. It was restored 24 hours later, though our internet connection has only just been sorted out. There's a scorch mark on the floor where an electrical adapter melted, but thankfully there's remarkably little damage. There was no rain to accompany the thunder and lightning, sadly. We really need rain.

I went on tatting through the outage, but without the internet was restricted to patterns that I already had to hand.  That was no great hardship!

Top left is Nicola Bowersox's Birthday Ice Drop. The other two are Diane's: Rootbeer Fudge and Purple Fudge.

I have a new bag of turquoisey blue 'gems':

I think they combine well with white thread, though I'll try other colours too, of course.

That Won't Work

Since I was unable to connect to the internet, I had a look through my pile of knitting magazines to find a pattern for a knitted top, to use the yarn that arrived in the post the other day. I found one I like, in an Australian magazine called Creative Knitting, Summer 2013 issue:

I knitted a swatch, to learn the stitch used and try out different size needles:

The 7 mm needles work to the right tension according to the pattern, and look better. So I cast on using 7 mm needles. It soon became clear that I won't have anywhere near enough yarn to knit a top:

You can see that although the balls look quite large, they have a cardboard core that fills up the middle. I have 8 balls, which might be enough to knit the back. No problem, I'll put the yarn away until the right project for it comes along.

I'm a bit puzzled that the pattern is classified as advanced skill level - it seems pretty simple to me. The stitch itself is easy and the shaping of the garment minimal. None of the knitting patterns in the magazine are classified as easy - I wonder if they're trying to flatter the reader, but it might have the effect of putting beginners off unnecessarily.