Crocheting with hemp yarn

My friend Yumiko has a huge collection of Japanese craft books of all sorts, and she brought a few of her crochet ones to our stitch group a couple months ago to show me. I fell in love with two of the flower ones so I searched them up on Yes Asia and bought them, along with this book on hemp bags (ISBN978-4-7778-1482-4). I had no idea what was in it really, I managed to find a few photos online, but it was a bit of a gamble! When they arrived I was pleased I'd taken the chance and am looking forward to doing several of them.

Hemp isn't the most common yarn but luckily the Hemp Store on K'Road here in Auckland carries twine, which is the same thing I think, and there are sources online. I don't often go down to K'Road so it was a nice outing and the Hemp Store was pretty much as I'd expected - incense, reggae, bongs and a really good assortment of different weights of hemp twine, along with rope and some webbing. I did feel like I should have a big sign with me that said "I'M ONLY HERE FOR THE TWINE" though. That's probably hopelessly middle-class of me! Actually I probably looked hopelessly middle-class with Hazel in tow and no-one had any illusions about me at all, but I'll pretend I'm hip enough for there to be doubts ;) I was hoping Yumiko would be at group this morning to help me get started but she wasn't, so I puzzled through the pattern instructions with the help of Christina. Yumiko did tell me that Japanese patterns aren't nearly as prescriptive as western ones, so there's no gauge or hook size, and as usual, very little in terms of instructions just good illustrations. It's not like a bag is hard though, do a rectangle (this one is just back and forth) and then start up the sides by going around and around. Oh boy though, it's hard work doing the actual crocheting because the twine's so stiff! The others were laughing at me making little noises of effort at the end as my hands tired, and I'm pretty sure they will be sore tomorrow! It's clearly not a project I'll be done in a hurry, an hour here or there will be the only way I can survive. The twine itself is nice to touch as it's waxed so it has a smooth texture and a pleasing stiffness when crocheted. It does twist and curl though, so depending on whether the sides push the bottom flat, or if they twist themselves, I may need to investigate how to block hemp.

Second zippy pouch

This one is for Hazel's lovely teacher Ms. Nicholson



It's essentially a pencil case to put the Smiggle pens in, but I decided to put a bit of effort in because she really has been rather fabulous this year and anyone who can deal with that many kids on a daily basis needs all the affirmation I can give! Even if the fact she loves Smiggle (purple is her colour) drives the Smiggle-frenzy to fever pitch in the class at times! Her favourite colour is red, and hey it's mine too! (we share a similar taste in shoes) so I made up this bag using the 'Perfect Zip Bags' pattern by Elizabeth Hartman - I just checked for the link and the pdf pattern is out of stock... The pattern itself is super-easy to follow and this time the zip insertion worked nicely:



I'm not a 100% sure about the dart placement though, it seems a bit strange - the bag isn't hugely rounded, nor will it sit flat on a surface (it's propped up in the photo above) so it's a bit of 'neither one thing nor another'. I'd love to make one of the bags for me though, either the flat ones or the boxed bottom ones I think next time. However, there's no denying that it's a cutie, darts or not!

A mousie pouch

The other night at the AMQG challenge unveiling Helen asked me if I had any other Christmas sewing on and I said no, just a couple little zippy pouches. I suppose that wasn't quite honest because this is a bit more than a plain old zippy pouch in the end - and I'm very pleased with it even if zipper was a bit of a disaster because I tried to get all fancy with it.

 

It's for Hazel's bestie Brooke and I'll put in a chocolate Santa and a couple chocolate coins to round it off. The pattern is from Scandinavian Stitches.

Felt bag with embroidered bird

It's done! Man, this took a lot longer to do than I expected, thick felt is tough to embroider through! But it was totally worth the sore fingers. The design is from Scandinavian Needlecraft by Clare Youngs.

The design itself isn't hard, and the stitches are simple.  I've never done a whipped stitch before and while it seemed like double-handling, it gives a lovely three-dimensional effect. I like how the design almost looks like yarn just sitting on the surface.

The instructions say to use "thick felt" but don't elaborate so I really wasn't sure what to use. I went looking and found Jenny Hislop's gorgeous version, and it sounded like just putting together two layers of thin felt wasn't going to really do the trick.  In the end I bought the most beautiful 3mm white felt from FilzFelt on Etsy and it was perfect. I got the 1/2 yard and it's not cheap, but I discovered that there's enough in that to do 2 bags plus have some left over for other small projects. It's really just amazing after dealing with the much thinner felts, the body it has is unique - plus it still smells like wool a little bit which makes it nice to work with.

In general, although the instructions are perfectly adequate, I did rather want a bit more detail in terms of stitch spacing and construction techniques. So I thought I'd just pop down my thoughts in case anyone was casting about for guidance.

• Cut it with a rotary cutter, even the cut-outs, it gives a beautiful edge. I just used a box cutter to trim into the points of the cut-outs and to get into the corners of the handle. I used a small cutter for the inside of the handle.
• Cut out the front and embroider it before cutting out the back to match it, the front changed in shape and size a bit and then I had to trim the back down which was a pain.
• You will probably need to tuck in the raw edges of the fabric behind the cut-outs and stitch it down to avoid fraying and to keep it tidier inside.
• I did the cross-stitching down the side spaced 10mm and 5mm in from the edge. More tightly spaced at maybe 8mm might have been good too, although more work! I marked the lines out with water-soluble marker to keep things even.
• You can do a lot of the embroidery without having to come through to the back of the felt which not only makes it much easier to work, but keeps the inside looking tidier.

So now I just have to work up the courage to actually use it - I have a really bad feeling it will get dirty around the handles fairly quickly and I'm not sure how well it will wash. I did briefly consider trying to put some sort of lining in it that would wrap around the inside of the handle but I actually think the thickness of the felt is particularly obvious around the handles and part of the appeal of the bag for me.

I pondered faithfully copying the original after seeing Jenny's interpretation, but in the end I decided that I'd seen the pattern and wanted THAT bag, not anything else, so it's not really a cop-out in terms of creativity. What do you feel about that kind of thing - do you always change things up a bit or do you tend to copy the original as closely as you can?

The Mee a Bee puppy bag

Here in New Zealand kids start school the day after they turn 5 so not only were were getting ready for Hazel's birthday but we also had to start thinking about school stuff!  Because she's been going to créche for several years it wasn't such a big shock and we had lunch boxes and all that, but we needed a good school bag.  One of my first thoughts was a bag from Mee a Bee. Hazel and I had a good browse around but as it turned out the bags were too small to fit her lunchbox in so they weren't an option for school - but Hazel had fallen in love with one made from fabric with dogs on it.  I got in touch with Jacqui and it turned out that she had a larger dog one partially made so I bought it for Hazel's birthday.  It came with a little extra in the form of some super-cute Japanese stickers and a writing set, which I neglected to take a photo of before they were used!  Despite having two boys Jacqui obviously knows the way to a little girl's heart :) But here's the bag (it has a lovely pale grey striped lining)

I saw another Mee a Bee bag at a children's play last month and they're very distinctive, I spotted it right away! It's funny how that works, I look at the website and then literally the next day there one is across the room.  They're just so small and cute! Perfect for littlies - and this one being a bit larger is perfect for a 5 year old because you can fit in a Barbie or two (if only that was all she had!)

The swing tag is still there not because I'm trying to garner favour with Jacqui but because Hazel won't let me take it off. I tried, I was there with the scissors and she was all "NO! Leave it!" and when I asked why she said "because it's cute" which is pretty much her raison d'être these days and I don't dare argue with it.

Totoro felt bag

I'm still in the process of trying to figure out which projects in the Martha Stewart book to show you, but one that I will are some cute little felt bags. Nothing stunningly innovative, but they're really quite adorable and of course the second Hazel sighted them it was the standard "can you make that for me mummy?" I love little projects like that because they're so quick and creatively satisfying so I said yes. Then Totoro came into her life and I had the clever idea I could just whip up a Totoro bag for her - you know, slap on a few bits of felt and voila! there would be a Totoro. Two days later...

Hazel told me tonight that she really likes my sewing, which was a huge compliment and I have to say I'm more than a little pleased with how it turned out! You know when you do something that you just like looking at because every time you do it gives you a wee rush of pleasure? I don't get it with everything but I do with this.

All I did was find an image from the rainy bus-stop scene (You Tube clip in the post here) and print it off, cut the various bits out and use them as patterns. I cut the brown felt out first, then cut out the tummy, eyes and nose pieces from the picture. I cut the various shapes very carefully and used the empty spaces left behind to position the felt elements on the brown background, and then stitched them down. After I had the tummy, nose and eyes done I cut the arm shape out and attached that. If I were to do this again I'd make the tummy round and put the arm over the top instead of the fiddly way I did this one with the shaped edge. I had planned on doing the little chevrons and claws out of felt but that proved insanely fiddly and essentially impossible so they're embroidered instead. The umbrella gave me no end of grief and there were many versions trying to replicate the inner and outer you can see in the picture. In the end I just made the outside and skipped the angled look to it. I'd love to try and make her a larger backpack with fuzzier fabrics though, that would be freaking amazing!

Other Totoro crafts I've found and bookmarked:

Blue crocheted Totoro from Heaven's Hellcat
Tiny Totoro doll's hat from Netherwood Creations
Knitted Totoro Hat by Hello Yarn
Totoro Norwegian-style mittens by Andrea (free Ravelry download)
Paper Totoro by Cubeecraft
Totoro bag pattern on DeviantArt

And here is Hazel "My destiny. It is out there. I face it with my Totoro bag."

And look at those lemons! They'll be ripe in a couple of weeks and then it'll be lemons, lemons and more lemons. I'll have to make some lemon curd and some tarts and... They're not lemony lemons if you know what I mean, I think it must be some sort of Meyer cross, so they're fat, sweet and juicy but not very acidic. And they come all at once! So if you visit me in the near future I will probably offer you lemons to take home, which is never very successful in Auckland because most people are having similar problems!

Beach bags and Valentines

Now I must admit I'm not the beachiest kind of girl, it's just not the first place I think to go on a summer's day, but now that Hazel's older and loves it so much we do go more often. I usually end up with two bags full of stuff, or one bag stuffed to the gills and oveflowing and I finally got sick of it. I searched through all my craft books and my bookmarked online tutorials, I even googled, but I couldn't find a bag that matched what I had in my mind so I was forced to make up a pattern myself! And yeah, I was kind of pleased I had to because it made me feel all clever and stuff. ;) So this is what I came up with for my first attempt.

It's 55cm (21") across the top and 14cm (5 1/2") deep and I think it'll be able to hold a LOT of stuff! Mission accomplished. Or is it? Well to be honest I was aiming for something with a bit more angle to the sides, just for style, so the top would be much wider than the base. I'm not sure if I should continue experimenting (what does one do with the unwanted bags?) or just be happy with this one. My bag-making knowledge doesn't really extend far, I suspect I'd need some sort of stiff interfacing to get it to sit nicely with an angle like that, instead of the soft fusible fleece that I used. The fabric is a piece of cotton I aquired from my MIL's small stash. It was very stiff and shiny, but when washed came out lovely and soft and cuddly. The red ran like crazy, so the stripes that are now a light pink were white, but I quite like the old, faded look it has now.

I thought I'd also show you what I ended up doing for Mat and Hazel for Valentine's. I did use the lovely tutorial for decorated matchboxes over at Inchmark, although I had to make up the matchboxes because I couldn't quite face putting candies into boxes that had once held matches! Perhaps it's possible to buy empty boxes, I don't know, but making them wasn't too hard. I used a template available as a .pdf from here.

The top three were for Mat, the bottom three for Hazel. I stacked the matchboxes together with the 'portrait' ones on top and tied them with a ribbon. I picked out the pink and red smarties from a big bag, same with the jellybeans and the jelly dinosaurs. And yes, the rest of the bags have largely been eaten now! Oh the shame...

*Don't forget to enter the giveaway a few posts below - closing in a couple days!*

The little girl's puppy purse

While the shirt may have had a bit of a setback (drafted new sleeve and armhole this afternoon though) my other project came off beautifully! One of the books I got with my Christmas Fishpond book voucher was Kata Golda's Hand-Stitched Felt. I'd had it on my wishlist for ages, after reading a great review of it on Heather Ross' blog. There was also this very cute little video for it



The book arrived on Thursday and since I was doing some babysitting for a friend that night I cut out the felt to do the Little Girl's Puppy Purse and sewed it up while I was out. I even managed to forget the book and it still came together without instructions and I had plenty of time to watch lots of really bad tv. Seriously easy project! And very cute



Hazel loves it, mostly for the puppy I think. She's fascinated by the fact that one of its ears flops



The only thing I regret about not having the book with me while making it was the puppy placement, mine is all square and centred, the book's is on an angle and looks a bit more playful. That's so me though, everything all lined up and squared away ;)

Most of the other projects in the book look like they'd be as quick and easy as this one - it's all hand-sewing and simple stitches. Nothing fancy here! Several of the projects are guaranteed to send small (and larger) girls into transports of cute, but there are lots of home decor and personal items like glasses cases, mug cosies etc. for the grownups :) My only quibble with this, and I'm not even sure if it's a legit one, is that part of the reason the projects look so gorgeous is her lovely felt, which the books says is available from her website, but in reality it's only as kitsets for the projects and they're fairly pricey. Found out that her felt comes from OhMa Felt and you can buy by the piece. You can get nice felt pieces from other sources, but it's not cheap even in that form and some of these projects call for a fair amount, making them potentially very expensive. I think that if you were going to get serious about having a set of large felt buckets then either you learn to felt your own wool, or you go with cheaper non-handmade versions. This purse was made from a thin blended felt and I doubt it will last for long as the handles will eventually stretch out. Still, it's perfect for carrying around little things, which is what Hazel's all about these days :)

Bag for Hazel

In order to get Hazel to come willingly with me to a couple of fabric shops last month, I bribed her with the promise of a fat quarter of any fabric she wanted. Bad mummy! But hey, I sort of see it as starting off the fabric fetish young ;) She ended up with predictably little girl fabrics - one in purple and one in a peachy pink. What to do with them? Make a bag of course! I had the "Kid Flick" bag over at The Object Project bookmarked for awhile and it looked like an easy one. We even had The Little Mermaid DVD to use as the template! Hazel sat on my lap and with many dire warnings about fingers being sewn we sewed it up together. The only thing I did differently than the tutorial was zigzag all the raw edges before we started. It turned out beautifully! I especially liked that I could use up a couple of old bracelets that were hanging around the house. As a teenager in the 80s I had an armful and Hazel's inherited them, so there's plenty more to make future bags! But even if you are younger than me and missed out on that particularly fabulous fashion trend, suitable bracelets would be very cheap at a $2 store or similar. I think the bag would also look great with boxed corners and it would be easy to make a little larger too as it doesn't take up a whole fat quarter by any means.



I was really keen to make one of the teacup flowers from the same site to go on it, but the peach fabric defied a match with anything in my stash (really not a colour I would normally go for) so today I made a quick felt flower for it from this tutorial here. It was supposed to look a bit like a white camellia but...well it looks flower-like anyways! :D Hazel was quite thrilled with it.



Oddly enough it turns out the bag matches the skirt Hazel chose to wear this morning, not that I realised it until I looked at the photos!