Mousy Brown's House-Creating, crafting and collecting. Enjoying Life.

String-a-long Monday - Week four.

As String-a-long 2010 comes to an end, I have one more bag to show you.  For the first time this one actually looks like a shopping bag and is a size that could be considered useful.

It was crocheted in the same cotton as my previous bags, using a 6mm hook.  The pattern can be found at www.squidoo.com/string-bag but don't ask me how I discovered it.  I think I must have been just looking about and came across it but if one of you suggested it to me and I have forgotten please accept a humble apology and tell me straight away!

I loved this pattern, it was super easy (even for my quite amateur crochet skills) and it grew very quickly.  As you can see in the photo above it expands to an enormous degree and would fit a serious amount of shopping.  The handles are nice and wide and a good length for comfortable carrying and it folds up nice and small to fit in a bag.  Ticks all the boxes for me and I would definitely recommend this version to anybody wanting to give a string bag a try.  

There are many reasons why I have really enjoyed the experience of joint organising and taking part in String-a-long.

Getting to make a new friend in Dawn - who has been endlessly patient with my technical dopiness and has come up with some great solutions along the way.  I think she shares my willingness to join up again in a joint challenge in the future - So a big thank you for Dawn! (and watch this space....)

Trying new patterns and coming to love crochet - facing a few fears and pushing my comfort zone - somehow so much easier with all of you along for the ride! 

Discovering a whole new group of friends and a wonderful new list of blogs to read - connections I hope will continue way past the end of the challenge.

Three beautiful new hand made string bags - each completely different but all made by me.

So thank you to each and every one of you who took part or supported us along the way - I hope the experience has been fun for all of you too!  As a finale Dawn and I would like to make a special photo mosaic of all the bags that were completed.  The Flickr group will stay open and it would be great if you could all post your finished bags there but please don't feel left out if you don't fancy Flickr - just send a photo to Dawn or I and we will add it to the mosaic.  We would like all the photos by April 7th and we plan to have a grand unveiling of the mosaic on April 12th.  I look forward to proudly showing them off and reckon that between us we have saved a truck load of plastic bags from being used - Congratulations all of you!

String-a-long Monday - Week three.

My second bag is completed and packed with gifts for a friend (more of that in a moment).  My rather hesitant start at this crochet bag turned into real pleasure as I found my rhythm and the bag grew and grew very quickly.

I knew I was going to end up with a rather small version of this bag as I only own one crochet hook and I was too impatient to wait until I could buy the right size - so my finished bag is more of a handbag size. As before I couldn't resist embellishing it and when I saw this post on Attic 24 I found the perfect simple crochet flower to use.

The end result was very pretty and as one of my best friends was celebrating a special birthday this weekend I decided it would make a lovely re-usable gift bag to hold her gifts.

 
 Ripping Things to Do: The Best Games and Ideas from Children's Books

and Hummingbird Bakery tinned notecards (Paperstyle Notecards in Tins). (Both items that I have myself and love - hope she will too!)

With one week left until String-a-long is finished I already have my third bag started (crochet again, I am well and truly hooked - ha ha!)  The photo's of your bags on flickr are fantastic, I hope you are all very proud of what you have made this month and of all those plastic bags that won't get used.  Keep knitting / crocheting lets see how many we can manage before the end!

String-a-long Monday - Week two.

I have really struggled to choose a pattern to make my second string bag this week.  My first choice - the turkish string bag pattern totally confused me and ended up frogged (4 times!)  I then decided to have a go at just using parts of the pattern and forgetting the bits that weren't working.  An even worse idea  that ended up with a jumbled mess of yarn and loads of frustration.

Then I read this post from Dawn and was totally inspired to get over my crochet fear and have a go.  I spent friday with Emma W (no blog but joining in with string-a-long) and together with the book Dawn had recommended Crochet Unravelled: A Clear and Concise Guide to Learning Crochet we started to tackle this pattern along with some coffee and a piece of carrot cake.

This time I knew I was in for a small version as I only own one size of crochet hook and it wasn't the one I should have used.  I was too excited to get started though and felt that making do was probably very fitting considering it was no spend month, so it was no surprise that I ended up with the makings of a very dinky bag.

I am extremely pleased with the progress though and I am managing to decipher a crochet pattern without tears so the size doesn't bother me at all.   Maybe crochet was the way to go all along!

I have had so much fun checking out your photo's on Flickr this week - it's great to see how many combinations of patterns and yarn have been used and the diverse results that those combinations result in.  I am very taken with the Elisa's Nest Tote from the Purl Bee,  now I have seen your versions and have printed off the pattern to have a go, once my crochet bag is finished.  Finally I had an email from Jennifer who has found another lovely free pattern here  - I have added it to the sidebar if any of you want to give it a go.  Sorry I haven't had a chance to check out everyones blog posts this weekend - I have a very poorly little boy again (horrible cough, high temperature and no sleep) so my time has been taken up with sympathy and cuddles instead - I will try and catch up over the next few days as I love to know what you are all up to!
 

My first string-a-long bag (and a brooch!)

As I mentioned on monday my string-a-long bag ended up a lot smaller than I had first of all expected.  This is something that a lot of you have noticed, about a lot of different patterns and there seem to be two main ways of dealing with it.  One - add a few more rows/stitches and make it the size you want.  Two - stick with the size and adjust your expectations.

I chose to go with option two and once I had adjusted my thinking, I sort of fell in love with my dinky string bag and in a spirit of gilding the lily decided to add a brooch made with some of my favourite vintage fabrics.

Now I have the most gorgeous and glamorous string bag ever knitted!  I think it may be upgraded to become my library tote or I may take to just wearing it so I can show off!

 

String-a-long Monday - Week one.

One week of String-a-long completed and my bag so far looks like this:

 

I have found the pattern (the Saturday market bag) fairly simple so far and can knit the lace pattern from memory with no problem.  My bag seems a lot smaller than I was expecting and I am not really sure why - I have used the right needles and yarn weight and have tried to knit with loose tension but it is approximately 10 cm too small anyway. 

I have decided not to care and to carry on at this size for this bag - it should look quite cute and as I have plenty of large string bags that I use regularly a smaller one could come in quite handy.  It has knitted up very quickly and I am looking at other patterns to try next - I am swinging towards one of the crochet versions as that will be quite a challenge to my new crochet skills!

 

I have enjoyed checking out the blogs of all of you joining in and the photo's that some have uploaded to Flickr.  Dawn has sped through her bag(s) as has Lesley at Chapter iii, Dolly features has started her lovely coral bag and despite claims of mistakes the bag at Erasmus our Alaskan cat's blog looks great to me!   Valarie posted a lovely quote along with pictures of the start of her bag and I am hoping that Jennifer and her Family get well soon so she can wow us with her planned collection of many bags (hope you are better soon for lots of other reasons too!)  It is so much fun looking in on all this creativity and I am amazed at how different all our bags are turning out.  Do check out the links if you have a few moments, you may find you are inspired to join in!

Are you sitting comfortably?......

 
.....Then I'll begin!

I spent ages wondering how to illustrate the beginning of String-a-long today.  My first stitches on the needles?  That felt like cheating, starting too soon.  My wool and needles? You have seen it all before and they are no more exciting now than the last time you looked.  An abstract arty shot? What would I choose - too many ideas made my head hurt.  A knitting paper-cut! A perfect idea but unfortunately I thought about it too late so no time now.  So this instead is how it will start with a reference to a 40 year old radio program and a picture of my comfy crafting chair.

The time has come fellow string baggers to pick up your needles or hooks and start that project.  Find your comfiest place and settle yourself in.  The radio or TV tuned to your favourite channel and a sustaining snack and drink close at hand. Cast on your stitches or start hooking that chain and here we go together with String-a-long 2010.

I will be seated in the chair above, close to our open fire, one of the boy's Christmas quilts on my lap, Radio Four in the background and a big mug of tea  by my side. You are welcome to join me in your imagination I am sure we will enjoy a good natter as we work.  Good luck to you all and please all meet back here next monday for a roundup of how everything is going!

String-a-long 2010.

Very exciting news today for anybody who has ever fancied knitting their own string bag!  Dawn at Rattling on and I have decided to host a knit a long together and we are hoping that you will want to join us.  We have created a list of links to some fantastic free patterns (see the side bar) please feel free to let us know of any others and we'll add those too!

If you would like to have a go just email either of us with:

• Your name,
• Your blog name (this is so we can list participants on the side bar - if you don't have a blog but would like to go on the list just let us know and we will just list your name with no link!)
• The pattern you will be trying and whether you are happy or not to help other people who are struggling (are you happy for us to pass on emails to you?)

The sign up lasts until Feb 28th and knitting commences on March 1st.  We will be having weekly String-a-long Mondays where we will show our progress and answer any questions that we have received, everyone needs to try to complete their bag by 29th March 2010.

 
We have set up a flickr group (click on String-a-long badge to go there) and we would love you all to post photo's of your work in progress and on completion.  Lets see if we can create a wonderful rainbow of gorgeous hand-knitted reusable bags!