Tuesday 24 January 2012

Knit It - Knitting Bag

~ Knitting Bag ~
(UFO)

 This is a UFO.


But this is no ordinary UFO, oh no this is the mother of all UFO's.
This little-unfinished object has been hanging around since I took up knitting,
so...err...that would make it about 5 years old...eeek!


 You may be able to tell (though I doubt it!) from the above photo that is is the back of what is should have been a neat little 1940s tank top. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be, as by the time I had stopped (inches from the final cast off...lazy cow..I know!) I had no intention of ever knitting the front section. I had long since fallen out of love with it. So five years on I was all set to unravel this little blighter back to itty-bitty balls of yarn, when it struck me just how much this silly bit of knitting meant to me!

I love the stitch pattern (ignoring the wobbly blue bit at the bottom)...not so keen on the colour combination, as in real life it makes your eyes do that flickery thing they do when you look at one of those magic eye pictures!
  • It was my very first attempt at making something other than a scarf for myself.
  • It was a lot of hours of very slow knitting and It was on this very project, that I developed my hatred of the k1, p1.'s.
  • It was where (and clearly, why I never finished it) I decided to ignore the patterns instructions to A. Do a test swatch. B. use 4 ply wool. (I chose DK it was so too thick and stiff for the small needles especially with the slip stitch pattern it was very hard work).
It's a prime example of enthusiasm (and stupidity) over experience and therefore it was a massive failure. But even in failure this terrible bit of wonky knitting has taught me a lot, so for that, I am really grateful. How could I just rip it back to a nothingness?

I couldn't. So I was going to have to find a use for this awful, but highly sentimental bit of knitting. I umed and arred a bit, stuck it on me head and tried to fashion a hat...beret...ANYTHING...from it (I will not tell you what the BF said on witnessing this..it weren't polite) Then it struck me that if folded it in half I could make a purse, and use the welt (ribbed bit) as the closing flap. Hurrah!!


 So I (finally) cast it off and folded it in half, turned over the cast off edge to flatten it down a bit and the sewed it into place. 


Stitched with black wool down both sides and then trimmed the fabric to about 0.5 cm from the sewn edge (the scary bit!). I then worked my way along the cut edge sewing over it and binding the cut stitches in place.



Lastly, I made a button loop by plaiting 3 strands of yarn together, then attached it to the front of the flap and secured a big chunky button on the front!


Now it's ready to hold my very next WIP (Soon to be a UFO), let's just hope it doesn't take me 5 years to not finish that one!
Wendy x

11 comments:

  1. Clever! Good to put it to use after being a UFO.

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  2. well done for making so cute and useful.

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  3. What a great idea. And it makes a really cute bag!

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  4. Brilliant idea! It looks great as a bag too.

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  5. What a neat idea! It looks really good :)

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  6. Great idea, love it!

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  7. Aw it would have been sweet as a Granville style tank, but I understand what it's like when you just can't face going any further with something! It makes a great bag anyway, glad it wasn't sacrificed altogether.

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  8. Wow I love it. Very nifty and clever.

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  9. I really like the pattern, and would've loved a jumper like that, but I know what you mean about UFOs - once they get past a certain point, you just can't imagine wanting it anymore.

    The little clutch is highly ingenious, though, and I'm thoroughly impressed :)

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