Wattle Tote

I’m making an effort, in between knitting projects, to diminish the pile of Ink and Spindle linen bags I have cut out. I began with this heavyweight Golden Wattle on Indigo 

My idea with all these bags is to embroider a couple of highlights but let the hand-printed linen speak for itself.

In this case I planned to cover some of the wattle bloom with Ghiordes knots. For those unfamiliar,  Ghiordes knots are made by creating and anchoring a series of loops close together then cutting the loops. 

The fun part is fluffing up the cut threads.

Creating the loops is exacting, and, to me, a bit tiresome on scale. I was pleased to get to the end of the small bunch I’d chosen.

The threads need to be brushed up with a small stiff brush. When I first worked these, some 15 years ago, I bought a boo-boo stick - a brush designed for removing mistakes in cross-stitch. It’s a while since I used it, and I couldn’t find it. It’s in that safe place.  They are hard to come by in Australia. I’ve ordered another one from Tasmania, a guarantee the original one will turn up!

In the meantime. I found an adequate substitute in the brush end of a dressmaker"s pencil.

Ink and Spindle linen comes in three weights, and I use all three for these bags. This one is heavyweight, which does give a lovely firm surface to work with.

I have a big pile of these bags waiting to be made, all cut out ready to construct once the embroidery is done. I cut according to the shape of the piece, which in this case was separate front, back and sides for the outside, but the lining was cut with the front and sides on one piece and the back and bottom on the other. It took me a while to figure it out! The strip left for handles was a bit thin, so I substituted some denim.

Once I figured all that out, it took under an hour to stitch the bag together on the machine.

I tested the result out on a couple of family members. As I feared they thought there should be a little more embroidery, suggesting  the lower right-hand corner.

I was inclined to agree.  While not ideal, it was possible to embroider through the layers of bag and lining, so I did. It won't hurt to hold the two layers of linen together there near the base.

It's a definite improvement. I'm now pretty satisfied with this one. 

I have no specific purpose in mind. No one I know needs another Ink and Spindle tote - but I'll add it to my stock, which will find a good home one day.

Knitted Impressionist bag

Piecework Magazine for Fall 2025 had a knitting project that appealed to me. Called Water Lilies Tote, by Sarah Kelly, it is a knitted bag inspired by Monet’s Wattler Lilies series. I liked the look of it and thought it would be an interesting knitting challenge. I also happened to have some wool in similar colours, some of which was even in the recommended wool, Rowan Felted Tweed though not enough dark pink for the whole, and none in the dark blue background colour. I did, however, have a whole 200gm ball of Bendigo Woollen Mill’s  10 ply Rustic Tweed in a very close colour, and three pinks to mix.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, so I gathered resources and set off stitching. 

I found the instructions a little confusing.  I didn't want this to be my debut in double-layer knitting. I didn't have enough of the pink and green wool to work two sides and I had no intention of working it using the intarsia method. I therefore adapted, working the floral front back and forth, using mainly Fair Isle, then a plain back, sides and base. I added a few stitches to the front, to allow for joining. Unfortunately I miscalculated, and ended up needing to adjust the chart. 

It took a while. There are a few places where I used Intasia (the yellow, for example) and but I enjoyed the challenge. There are errors, but I figured felting would cover them.

When I began the plain back, it occurred to me if I created a steek I could knit it in the round, without purling, I seem to have come a long way since my nervous first steek in 2022! It worked a treat. It used the same number of stitches as the front but because the tension was much looser without the multiple colours, it was wide enough to cover the sides as well. The 200gm ball of dark blue ran out a few rows short, so I added a green edge.

I stitched between two stitch lines on the machine and cut the steek. I also used the machine to join the front to the back and form sides.

For the base, I picked up stitches along the lower front and worked across, binding each row into the sides of the base at either end as I went. I found a very close match  to the dark blue left over from  Alice Starmore's St Brigid Aran. It served for the handles as well.

I closed the last seam with knitting, after pinning it to make sure I got it even. 

The result pleased me. It was a decent size but a bit loose and floppy. Since it was meant to be felted, I wasn't concerned.

It's a while since I felted an item in a washing machine. I'd forgotten that when I last did it, I had a top-loading machine. I prepared the bag, but couldn't raise the temperature of the machine on anything but a 140 minute cycle, longer than recommended in felting instructions. I took a punt and tried the  shortest cycle which only heated to 30C. It didn't work, so I tried hand-felting. That barely worked.

I then took a risk, and added it to my washing machine along with my sheets, and washed it on the bed linen cycle, with temperature raised to 60C. Two and a half hours later, it emerged - felted. There are places where you can make out the lines of stitches, but it is well felted.

 It was also damp, but not saturated, after  the spin. I placed a cotton cushion inside it to give shape as it dries.

This, I think, will be a useful and sturdy bag. It looks quite good and has used up about 300 gms of stashed wool.

That's a win on several fronts (and backs)!

A Sashiko Tablecloth Finish.

For my birthday in 2023 a friend worked this table runner, which I loved. It was part of a suite of Sashiko designs, called Galaxy Dreaming, from Indigo Niche in Queensland. There were two square panels in addition to the runner and I thought it would be good to work the square panels as placemats. 

My friend got on board and made me two for my 2024 birthday, and I bought another six panels to make a full set. 

The designs are beautiful and a joy to work. It became obvious the squares were too large for placemats so I decided to join them into a tablecloth, and bought another runner. 

I have been working these over the last two years between other projects. They are ideal ”grab and go” projects. All you need is a panel, one hank of thread, a Sashiko needle and scissors, ready in a pouch. Once I got to the second last panel I made an effort to push on and finish.

Until then, I had assumed I could arrange the panels either side of the two runners. When I did so, it wasn’t straightforward.

I tried several configurations on my extended table, deciding in the end to go with a variation of my original idea.

To make it work, I needed to buy some matching indigo fabric to add a border - and to fill the gap in the centre.It took a while to purchase the fabric.

There is only one shop in Adelaide with a range of indigo fabrics for Sashiko and I had to wait for their latest shipment to arrive to get a close match. The colour variations in indigo are astounding. The shop owner tells me she has 1000 bolts of blue - all different.  Only one bolt worked. It is a linen/cotton mix and the panels are cotton. The mix will, I hope, stand the test of time.

My quilting friends would be unimpressed with my construction techniques, but I did measure carefully, and use a chalk marker to get straight lines. I had hand- hemmed each panel to the marked border, but they were not identical in size; nearly, but not quite.  I accommodated the difference in the overlap as I stitched it together by machine.

I considered taking it to a laundry for pressing, but settled for spreading beach towels on the table and pressing in situ. That worked. I then tried the tablecloth out for a family dinner. It worked very well, generating discussion.

Time then to wash it. I put in into the washing machine on a short, cool cycle on a day with no rain forecast and a lot of wind. It came off the line bright, clean, crisp and robust, the fabric plump and consistent. 

I decided ironing would achieve little, folded it into eighths and rolled it for storage. 

In spite of the simplicity of Sashiko, this has proved complex. In the final stages I began to think about how design traditions are melded. These designs were inspired by Aboriginal stories and translated into a Japanese stitching tradition. Embroidery, like other crafts and art forms, has evolved in this way for millennia. I have spent a lot of time exploring such transitions in Viking, Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Mexican, Ukrainian, Indian - and several other cultures. This tablecloth confronted me with a contemporary cultural transition. 

I got in touch with Sue Howie, the designer of the panels. She has been generous with information about her design processes. There is also  a lot of useful information on the Sashiko Australia website.

I am planning to offer the tablecloth as a trigger for discussion in one of our World Embroidery Study Group meetings next year. 

In the meantime, I have a tablecloth to enjoy.

Dathan Hap- an accidental keeper.

 

In September last year I went through my wool stash in an effort to use up leftover wool. I set aside three bags - one of alpaca, one of English Breeds, and the largest, one of Rowan Felted Tweed, matching each bag with a shawl pattern. I resolved not to start or buy a new project until I had made at least one of these shawls. I did break my commitment to knit the Justice beanies but otherwise stuck to my resolve.

The Rowan wool was left from two major projects, a large cardigan and a blanket.

There were several complete 100 gm balls and more than a dozen substantial partials in a range of colours. 

I found a pattern in Kate Davies's  Knitting Season book. It is also available on Ravelry. Named Dathan Hap, its four row pattern, designed for stripes, increases at the edges and the centre, so infinitely expandable and ideal for my purpose. 

I began in early October last year, playing with colour combinations as I went. I had (still have) 3 balls of black, which I had intended to disperse throughout, but quickly changed my mind.

The pattern increases both in the centre and edges, adding 10 stitches every 4 rows, creating a roughly triangular shape. I stopped when I had 615 stitches on the needle. I still have wool left, and could have kept going. I stopped because I didn't want it to reach the ground when on - and I was finding half an hour to knit one row was getting a bit tedious. 

I had not intended to keep this for myself, but tried it out on an early morning medical visit. It was comfortable, warm, and easy to put on and take off. Two people at the surgery exclaimed and asked where I got it. Later in the day a man in a park stopped me to ask about it, called his wife and friends over to look at it, and told me it had made their day. Reactions at my Pilates studio were similar.

After 10 and a half months I'm glad to have finished it and surprised at its reception and usefulness. It seems I have a keeper!

Mad woman mending

I have several pair of trousers which I bought from Ezibuy 4 and 5 years ago, made with a merino interlock fabric. 

They are my go-to trousers for winter, warm, comfortable and convenient, but unfortunately no longer available. They wear out along the seams and in a couple of cases, on the pocket where I keep my phone. I mend where I can, but am just about at the point of sacrificing one pair for patches. 

This week I saw a post about mending by needle felting, and thought it might be worth a try on a pocket. At the same time I came across a stray crocheted circle, awaiting its place in a baby blanket. Why not use that?

I found my tools and took the plunge. The circle didn’t quite cover the runs from the hole, so I added a circle from wool I had nearby. I used the same to cover another hole I found nearby.

I also left a couple of tails that got caught in my punching.

This is what it looked like on the inside. 

I tried it out on a supermarket visit. No one looked askance. It did, however, reveal a bit of a lift in the edge of the circle.

 

So this morning I stitched the edge down all around and, while about it, thought I'd add an eye and a beak.

I don't know how long this will last, but it's been worth trying. I don't think it will become my go-to mending method, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, and I've learnt a bit along the way.

The next test is washing!

Another veggie bag

I know I complained last November about the difficulty of stitching the vegetable bag from the RSN. It was tough stitching through the canvas.

I kept the bag for myself and it has proved to be great. I use it everytime I shop, especially, but not only, for vegetables. It is sturdy, capacious, and the outside pockets come in very handy for bottles and items that might get lost. 

So (you've guessed it!) I ordered a couple more, one the same as mine, with vegetables and one with flowers. I thought they would make great presents for family - all of whom are dedicated fruit and vegetable shoppers.

I've worked on one for an August birthday. I chose the flowers as a change from the vegetables.  The bag fitted a little awkwardly, but firmly, into a 12" hoop. I mostly kept my right hand inside the bag, below the hoop, and my left hand above. There are 12 flowers on the bag, and this arrangement allows three whole flowers and part of at least one more to be worked before moving the hoop. All in all, I think I moved it 5 times.

In general terms, I found it easier stitching this time. It was still a bit tough getting through the coating that marks the design but I didn't need a thimble this time. It is hardest where the lines are close together and the coating appears to be thicker, as where these stamen meet in the centre of the lily. Either there are fewer of these instances on the flower bag than the vegetable  bag, or I have improved my technique.I will find out when I tackle the second vegetable bag I bought along with this!

There is a nice range of flowers, none of them complicated to stitch. There are few stitch instructions, but illustrations suggest mostly stem or back stitch. I used a bit of feather stitch and open or detached chain.

Instructions, as before, are minimal, but that's not a problem. The thread provision is mostly generous. While I was missing a lighter shade of purple referred to, I had some in my stash, and I have ended up with a lot of spare thread in other colours.

I'm glad I relented and purchased another of these bags. Perhaps because I knew what to expect, this one was much easier to work and very satisfying.

One big advantage is that once the embroidery is done, there is no construction.  The bag is immediately usable

In this case, I did a bit of spot cleaning - the result of a small coffee spill while working on it.  The stain came out very easily.

I finished it a month ahead of the birthday for which it was intended. I hope it gets as much use as mine continues to do.