Pink pix

The Pink Bag is now complete! AND...I have pictures. :)

As mentioned below, I went to a [brand new and enormous JoAnn's] fabric store with my new pink bag in tow in search of some fun fabric with which to make a lining for it. I happened upon the perfect one, and the pink in the fabric is a perfect match for the yarn I used.

I have never made a lining for a purse before, so I just made it up as I went along. I measured the knitted bag and just sort of made a matching "bag" of the fabric. (Took me a little while to wrap my brain around which way to sew the fabric...I kept wanting to turn it inside out. Did it wrong once, had to start over. Lesson learned.) I then gave it gussets at the bottom to match the knitted bag, and then stitched it around the bottom to the inside of the knitted bag to secure it. I then stitched the top part of the lining to the inside top of the bag, and was very pleased with the result! It's not perfect, the lining's a little skewed, but overall I am thrilled.

So, without further ado, here are some pix!

Here's the bag itself. To give an idea of size, it measures about 9 1/2" by 10".

Here you can see the whole bag, and the lining:

And a close-up of the lining, which I thought was just too fun and too perfect a match!

Pink purse almost complete

The pink bag is knitted! I finished the knitting portion over the weekend. Of course there was much indecision as to whether to put long or short handles on it. Finally decided to put short ones on it, as the pattern suggests. I am pleased with that decision. I actually used the purse yesterday when we went out to run some errands. I want to put a lining in it so I decided to use it as a purse when we went out and stopped at the fabric store along the way so that I could find some fabric to use as the lining. Kudos go to my dear husband who was very patient with me at the store, which was, I might add, a brand new JoAnn's. Very cool...a huge store, complete with many yarn choices. grin.

So my intent was to pick out a fun, coordinating fabric for the inside of the purse...and I was successful. (Now just to sew the thing in there...) I found a fat quarter (just the right amount of fabric) that has a design on it that matches the pink PERFECTLY and is a fun print. I won't share details yet...check back to see pix!   ;)

Pink suede hiccups

Had somewhat of a hiccup with the progress of the pink bag last night (Here's a link to my other post where I first mention this bag I am making). I finished the knitting of the bag to the height I wanted (about 9 inches...the width is about 10). I then needed to figure how many stitches I needed to bind off between the handles, since as I had changed my stitch count I couldn't follow the pattern exactly. Once I determined that, I started my bind-offs and put my handle stitches on holders.

Then it was time for the bottom, and here's where I made my error. I decided to start stitching across the bottom from the start of my rounds (I used mattress stitch--another variation from the pattern which had you casting on with waste yarn and then doing a three-needle bind-off). BUT...the problem was that the bag twists a little, so even though stitch-wise everything lined up, in reality my handles would be off center. So I decided to try and undo my stitching along the bottom and redo it where the bag naturally wanted the side seams. (Now in retrospect I guess I see that this is why the pattern has a side seam? Ah well, live and learn. Still, I am happy I decided to knit in the round because of this funny yarn.) But...trying to undo my stitching along the bottom gave me oodles of troubles and I could not get the stitching undone, so I decided my only option was to undo my bind-offs and redo that part instead. So I sat for a while, undoing each bound-off stitch and putting them back on the needles. Now I need to figure out how it wants to hang, and then act accordingly and put my handles where they will work better.