Box Bag II

This is my second attempt at making a box bag. I added a tab at the end of the zipper (a suggestion on someone else's blog) and made the lining separate from the bag. I topstitched the zipper for the outside fabric and connected the lining all at the same time.

I like having the finished seams on the inside. It's much nicer than the first version with raw edges.

But, there are still a few more tweaks I would like to try. 1) Would it be better to attach the zipper to the lining first (rather than to the outside)? 2) What sort of interfacing (if any) do I need? 3) Can I make the bag bigger?

My goal? A box bag pattern that will work with my handwoven fabrics!

Box Bag Bonanza

I know I already posted once today, but my husband is home and played with the kids and put them to bed (he's been gone on a business trip this past week), and I got to play!

I am looking for a container for some drop spindles. Neither of them are very large--7-9" shaft length--but they are a gift for a friend and I have been trying to come up with something nice to put them in.

Enter the world of Box Bags. Caro of Split Yarn has some beautiful box bags. I want! I want! But, they are more expensive than my budget for this project, so I searched for sewing tutorials, and found one!

Kelly of Dragon{knit}fly has a nice tutorial about how to make a box bag. It worked great! This bag starts with some 12"x16" rectangles of fabric, and creates a finished bag 7" long x ~4" square. My toy wheel drop spindle (10 1/2" shaft) pokes out the top, but otherwise fits great!

One of the challenges with this tutorial are the inner seams. See how the stitching is visible on the inside of the bag? I'd like to figure out a way to have finished seams. Some folks have used bias tape to cover the seams--it works, but there must be a more elegant way!

Even with my seam issue, I am pleased as punch with my new bag! Hmm! Depending on the fabric that my swap partner weaves, maybe I could make a box bag from her handwoven fabric!! :)

Huck Lace

This huck lace scarf is an 8-shaft pattern from Carol Strickler's "8-shaft patterns" book. Can you see the patterning?

Weaving huck lace with fine threads (the warp is 44wpi, the weft over 50wpi) is a bit like weaving the emperor's new clothes. If I look at the cloth on the loom just right I can see the texture. If I blink it disappears!

Wet finishing loosens the fibers enough that the pattern shows up beautifully--it's a very delicate overall pattern...and I can't see it at all in this picture!

I have a few more yards of this warp on the loom. Hopefully it will weave as beautifully as this did!

What a difference!

Check out the differences in these two pieces of fabric! The top one has a dark blue weft; the lower one a grey. The top one is one side of the fabric; the lower one shows the other.

Such differences--front/back, dark/light weft!

The dark weft fabric is for the Weaver's Swap. The grey weft is for me! :) I wonder what I will make?

More "Happiness Is..."

Happiness is a garage sale find. My children and I often walk to garage sales in our neighborhood. Today there was one that advertised a knitting machine and yarn. I grabbed a bag "just in case" I found yarn.

And boy did I find yarn!

Two boxes of clean yarn in beautiful colors and weights. Most of the fibers are cotton/poly blends and many of the yarns are fine--20/2, 16/2 etc.

I am a happy camper!

And now I need to finish some weaving so I can warp with my new yarns!! :)














One more piece of happiness: the roving I'm spinning is turning into a yarn that looks like flowers!

Dye Strike

Kathleen Taylor's "Yarns to Dye For" has some interesting methods for dyeing variegated yarns. I tried one last night. It didn't turn out quite as expected!

The dye was an acid dye (for protein fibers) and was a mixed color--blue dye and yellow dye mixed to give a deep bluegreen.

The method: wind your yarn in a loose (oops. Mine wasn't loose!) ball and immerse in dye bath. Every few minutes, pull out a few yards of yarn.

The result: My handspun wool yarn is now a beautiful robin's egg blue. It has subtle shading, but no overall variegation. (The idea is that the end that is pulled out of the dye bath first is pale and the end that is pulled out last is very dark.) Also, the blue dye obviously struck first--I added some rovings after the yarn was out of the dye bath and they are more green.

An interesting note: one of the rovings I added was a natural brown. It successfully picked up dye, so I know it can be overdyed. Unfortunately, bluegreen dye on brown looks sickly...it's a very creepy, witchy color to me! The photo below is out of focus but you can see some of the blue in the brown. What you can't see is the green that is also there! Eww!

I think I'll keep that one and see if it doesn't find a use around Halloween time!

Warped to Weave

I love the saying that you 'have to be warped to weave'. It's great because it fits me from many perspectives--that of being a weaver and of being a little off kilter from so many of the people I know. (Yup. You guessed it! I a little strange! But just little! :)

This is my latest warp. It's a 3/2 perle cotton commercially dyed a variegated blue. I really like this color blue. The photo looks a bit grey, but the yarn isn't. I'm weaving a networked twill and point twill variation from "Twill Thrills" to weave a sturdy fabric for the Weaver's Swap I'm in.

My current weft is a dark blue 2-ply cotton that is slightly small in grist than the warp. It's hard to see the design of the weaving, but I like how using the dark weft on the variegated warp hides the pattern....it's still there...it's just subtile.

Weaver's Swap

I am very excited! Dave at The Weaving Studio and Benita of Basically Benita are hosting a Weaver's Swap. The jist of it is that you weave 2 yards of cotton fabric, send it off to your partner, and your partner turns it into a bag for you! The partner gets to keep half of the fabric that you provide.

How cool is that? An excuse to weave, an opportunity to make a bag, and I get a bag in return!! Can you guess that I joined?

The timing is quick--fabric is due to be shipped to partners by the end of July and the finished bags are to be enroute back to the weavers by Aug. 31st--but a little pressure can be a good thing!

Shetland Sampler

A few years ago my husband gave me a wonderful collection of fibers from Amy King as a Christmas present.

These four skeins of yarn were from her "Shetland Sampler". The colors are beautiful. The fiber is soft. It was a treat to spin.

Now to decide what to make and how to make it!

Details (per color):
2 oz. of fiber
2-ply, sport weight yarn
~130 yards