Purse Lining January 14, 2009

Due to the intense cold and bulk of snow, I have yet to venture outside and go to the local fabric store.  Instead I decided to order some fabric off of ReproDepot.  They always have really fun fabric.  This morning I spent a long time perusing the different styles and comparing it against the purse I’m knitting.  Finally I made a decision on this and expect it to be here within a week or so.  Tonight when my friend comes over I plan to work on the strap.

I won’t seam the bottom together until after I’ve put in the lining.  Last time I put lining into a purse I disocvered what a pain it is to do when you’ve already seamed the bottom together!  This time I’ll sew the lining in a circle appropriate to the size of the purse and then seam it to the purse itself.  Only after then when I’m sure it fits will I seam the bottom up.  I may put the zipper in too before I seam the bottom.  That seems like it’ll work best also.

I checked the status of my order from KnitPicks and it should be here in two days!  That will be perfect timing so I can cast on something new with my knitting group!  I definitely want to felt it, but I’m wondering if maybe I won’t do the stripes (especially since I did stripes with this purse) but instead played with a design that felted together.  It’s something I definitely will have to look into more once I get the yarn.  Or, if I’m feeling a little burnt out on purses, I’ll c/o the socks for my dad!

I’m surprised January 13, 2009

I started knitting on Sunday and am surprised at how far I actually am!  Originally when I was in the yarn store I was thinking back to my last purse I knit.  I bought 200 some yards of yarn and it knit up only about 5″ high; so this time I thought that I’d need at least 600 yards for a decent size (I’ve been thinking messenger bag size).  Well, like I said in my last post, Prairie Yarns is sending me a second skein when it arrives, but the more I look at my knitting, the more I know that I won’t be using that second skein on this particular project.  The flirtation cable always makes my hands cramp up a bit (the whole 2 rows where it’s constant 5RPC/5LPC/5RPC and then 5LPC/5RPC/5LPC), so I try to do only a couple of repeats at a time.  Well, as of this afternoon, I’ve knitted 9 inches!  My plan of action is to knit 2 more repeats of the cable pattern and then 1 inch of straight st st so I can stitch the bottom together.  After this is done (probably tomorrow) I will start looking into what kind of fun fabric to use as lining.  I’ve always loved the fabric at ReproDepot and think that they will have something perfect.

It has been snowing and our entire state has been under weather advisories/blizzard warnings since Sunday.  I am so relieved that I can just sit in the house and knit or snuggle my kitties.  The only bad thing is that this bad weather is making me not so excited to wait for it to warm  up so I can go skiing or take the little guy sledding; I’m kind of just wanting spring/summer to be here already!