Yarn and Apples

Bag sewing tutorial

2009-06-29T20:12:00.001-07:00

Here's how to make one of my drawstring bags! Some of my methods are a little unconventional, because I make a lot of it up as I go along.

PLEASE READ THE TERMS OF USE AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST!

Start by making your pattern. It can be any size you want it to be - the square piece is the flat bottom, and the flaps fold up to make the sides.

Pin the pattern onto two layers of fabric - the lining and the outside.

Because the pattern doesn't have a seam allowance, you need to make sure to add that in when you cut the fabric. I use a rotary cutter and cut 1/2" away from the pattern.

When the fabric is cut, take scissors and snip at the four corners of the center square, from the edge of the fabric to the paper pattern. This is very important, because there are no line markings, so it tells you where to sew.

You also need to cut a piece that is 4" by 25" from the lining fabric, to make the drawstring holder.

Now take one piece of cut out fabric, and fold it like so, right sides together.

Starting at the edge of the slit, sew along one side, keeping an even distance from the edge. Then do the same to the other side...

So it looks like this when you reopen it:

Then put the open edges together and sew them in the same manner, so you have four side seams. Repeat with the other piece of cut out fabric. You should now have two things that look like this:

Turn your iron on now.

Turn the outer fabric piece inside out, like so...

And place the inner fabric piece (without turning inside out) inside of it, so it looks like this:

Now fold along one of the seam lines, making sure that you are folding the outer fabric and the lining, and iron along it.

Repeat this with all four seam lines.

Set the bag on the ironing board, sitting on its flat bottom. Push the flat side facing you away from you, so it lies flat against the inside bottom of the bag...

And iron along that fold line. Repeat on all four sides.

Take your 4" by 24" piece of lining fabric, and fold both sides in to meet in the middle. Iron.

Fold this in half, and iron again.

Fold one end over and iron:

Unplug the iron, and return to your sewing machine.

Put the two sides of the folded fabric onto both sides of the unfinished edge of the bag, and put the presser foot down:

Sew around the bag, keeping both sides of the folded fabric on both sides of the bag, until you reach about two inches before the place where you started. Then cut the fabric strip, with about an inch to spare, and fold the left over underneath the part of the strip you are about to sew, so it overlaps slightly with the beginning.

Sew until you hit the place where you started, backstitch, and cut the threads.

All that's left to do now is put the drawstring in!

If you have any questions about this tutorial, feel free to pm me on Ravelry (cinnamoon) or leave a comment.

I would ask that you do not use this tutorial to create bags to sell or trade. Please use it for personal use only. If you wish to make bags to sell or trade, contact me, and maybe we can work something out. Thank you!

Look! A kitty!

2009-05-16T12:02:00.000-07:00

I have a kitty! Well, she's my Dad's, really. Here's some photos:

Isn't she adorable? She's 3 months old, and we got her from the animal shelter at an adoption fair today. Her name is Leah, and she's settling in really well. :D

Some photos, perhaps? (AKA - what the heck have I been doing?)

2009-05-10T21:00:00.000-07:00

So, what have I been doing for the past few days? Well, this week I knit mainly on my dad's birthday present, and a little bit on my sister's birthday present too. This weekend, however, I threw them to the wind, and took a break. What did I make? First of all I made my Mom some Owlets for mothers day.

Then I started on a cat blanket for the humane society.

It's done now, I'm just working around the edge in single crochet to hopefully flatten it out a little. So far, it isn't working. Two times may be necessary.

A trial layout of the blanket I'm seaming for the KYS charity auction:

And some yummy mmmmal:

I may make a Foliage out of it.

Some KoolAid dyed yarn:

And new sock yarn:

Projects & knitting

2009-05-04T21:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Sunday, was awesome. When my Mom asked what I planned to do all day my answer was, simply, "knit". And knit I did. I made a bird for my swappee in the envelope swap. I made a turtle for my friend. I swatched for the honeymoon cami, which is my next project. And I developed a project organization system. It is awesome, in my opinion. Here's how it works:

I'm trying to have no more than three projects going at once. (Not including those in hibernation). Right now I have my Dad's monk, a pair of socks, and a dishcloth. These three projects reside in their own seperate project bags on a shelf of my bookshelf. I'm trying to keep one with me at all times. The project bags contain everything I need for that project.

Two shelves down, the shelf is filled with ziplock bags. These contain a pattern, and the yarn I want to make it with, arranged in order of importance. This allows me to pick out needles, yarn, print the pattern, maybe knit a row or two - in short, my favorite part about my projects - and then put it in a gallon sized ziplock and leave it until another project is finished. When another one is finished, all I have to do is dump the contents of the ziplock into a project bag. My next two projects are going to be a hat for my sister, and the honeymoon cami for me. Then a bag, then some more socks, then some mittens. Works great! :) See ya later!
Annie

Various things

2009-04-29T21:11:00.000-07:00

Wow! There's been an overwhelming response to this offer, so I'm going to have to close it for the time being. I might reopen it when school gets out! Thank you all!

I am back. Who knows how many times I've said that? No matter how many times I commit to doing this, I always forget. This time, I'm here to do a little self - promotion. After all, isn't that what a blog is, really? So, here's the deal. I make project bags that look like this:

Needle rolls that look like this when rolled up:

(But with better ribbon placement)
And notions purses like this one:

I love making them, but I can't keep them all! I have been swapping them, but there's one main problem - yarn doesn't buy fabric to make them with. So, let us say you would like a bag/needle roll/notions purse. This is my idea, although it is certainly not original:

1) You go to your local fabric store, Joanns, Walmart, etc, and pick out two fabrics - a lining and an outside - and buy 1 yard of each. This can cost as little as $4 dollars total depending on where you go and what sales there are. The upper price range averages about $20 dollars total, but for a project bag, high end fabric really isn't needed. (If you see a cute ribbon you like, you might want to get that too - but I have plenty of ribbon, so it isn't necessary)

2) You send this fabric to me.

3) Within a month, usually less, I send the finished project bag/needle roll/notions purse to you. In return, I get to keep the extra fabric for my own purposes, whatever they may be. The "price" is 2 yards (1 of each fabric) per project bag/needle roll, and the same for the notions purse - but for the notions purse I will include a set of matching stitch markers too.

What do you think? In my opinion, it's a win-win situation. You get a project bag a lot cheaper than it would normally cost (around $12), and I get to do something I love, and fabric for other projects. You also get to pick the exact fabric you want, and with the wide range of fabrics out there, you're bound to find something you like! If you want to take me up on this offer, give me a PM on Ravelry (Cinnamoon) or leave me a comment here if you don't have a Ravelry account. (If you don't - you should get one!)

Thanks so much for reading my self-promotion. Now back to your regular programming!

F.... is for fear, fun, fotos, fiber, and finally.

2009-03-15T09:35:00.000-07:00

Well, Beverooni has struck fear into my heart over taking a blog break (plus reassured me that somebody actually reads this thing), so I suppose I'd better keep going! F is also for fun, so I thought maybe I'd talk about the envelope swap. I started the envelope swap (on ravelry) over a five day weekend, and at the moment we have over 200 member. I recently received my envelope from the first round from pookieandrom. It looked like this when I opened it....

Some stickers, more stickers, an awesome pattern, a little bag of buttons and a postcard! What an awesome envelope! I'm very pleased.

I've also been dying some yarn. This is a fairly lousy photo of the sock yarn I dyed.

And then, of course, I've been knitting. Mittens!

The pattern is gifted mittens, but I think there may be a bit of an errata in the woman's size. A couple of times the stitch numbers didn't match up. At the end, I had to overlap about two inches on either side for seaming to make them fit me...

That could be my fault though, seeing as my gauge was about half an inch off. :D

I have also been collecting Paton's Pooch to make a blanket for me. Because I cleverly decided to start AFTER it had been discontinued, I've been mostly getting it from Karma Yarn Swap, and from RAKs. This is my current collection:

I just LOVE the purple. The red was a Christmas present from my sister, I swapped for one ball of the blue/brown, the blue/white, and the blue/pink, but the purple and one ball of the blue/brown were RAKs from Stillhisangel. Thanks so much! I now have 7 cakes... I'm getting there. :D

E... is for exsisting.

2009-03-01T18:46:00.000-08:00

I am here. Do not fear. :-) Not that anyone is reading this, but you know? Nice thought. Perhaps at some point I shall once again return to my long forgotten blog. As of now, though, I am taking a short break. Have fun without me! *Waves to dust bunnies*

D... is for dyeing.

2009-01-24T18:08:00.000-08:00

Or misspelled dying. Not that any of that is happening tonight. Hopefully dyeing will come around tomorrow, so I'll see you then!

C... is for cleaning and celebration.

2009-01-23T15:30:00.000-08:00

Three guess as to what I'm doing right now! No, not celebrating. Cleaning. :D

Actually, I am kind of celebrating. What, you may ask? The end of finals! There we go. I made it through my first American finals, and it only partially ruined my life. :D Kidding.

B... is for blank, blankets, and baking.

2009-01-22T16:30:00.000-08:00

When I was thinking about this post, the first thing I came up was blank. At school, we have to write journals for English, and one of the tips is to write "I'm blank, I'm blank, I'm blank" if you can't think of anything to write, until you can. I couldn't, so "I'm blank" seemed like a good option. Then I thought about the other meanings of blank - for example, yarn blanks ready to be dyed. This seemed appropriate. This weekend I'm planning on doing a little KoolAid dying with the white baby yarn of uselessness, to see if I can make something nice from it.

Regarding the white baby yarn, I've actually found a use for it - swapping! In the Karma Yarn swap group on Ravelry, there's a ton of beautiful yarn. Sadly, my Mom doesn't really want me swapping anything that I've bought, so, naturally, I turned to the yarn that I have no use for that I won in a competition, and hey presto! Swapping!

Then the word "blanket" popped into my head. Right now I'm crocheting an afghan/blanket, with the craziest colors I've ever seen. I love it. :D So that's the blanket part - now onto baking. I spent over an hour this afternoon baking cookies, getting the hang of our oven. I think I got it, but I ate way too much cookie dough! Chocolate chip oatmeal... irresistable. Mmm....

And will you look at that! The post that I couldn't be bothered to write turned out pretty well! Back tomorrow with C...

Annie

A... is for advertisments.

2009-01-21T12:18:00.000-08:00

Since I got a subscription to a knitting magazine, I've started getting knitting junk mail. For example, a flyer advertising a free trial, together with a free gift. I'm seriously considering it. :D

Oh dear oh dear, I'm bad at this.

2009-01-20T16:07:00.000-08:00

Oh dear oh dear, I'm bad at this. I need something to keep me writing... I'll try the abc thingy that I saw on someone else's blog. A letter each day. Maybe somebody will actually read this...

Hello again!

2008-12-14T11:12:00.000-08:00

Hi! I haven't posted for a while, but life's been crazy. New school, new house, all in one week - what can you do? Anyway, I'm back again. I've been spinning a bit on my spinning wheel, and I've made one skein of yarn, but that's it. Right now it's somewhere else than where I am, so I can't use it. Anyway, bye!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

2008-11-29T08:45:00.000-08:00

So, the first snow of the year (well, we passed through some snow in the swiss alps, but the first snow of the year here) fell two days ago, on November 27th, which happens to be Thanksgiving, which also happens to be my birthday. So, there was a dusting of snow then. Yesterday, though, it snowed maybe three inches or so, and I started a snowman, got tired of it, and moved onto a snow fort. Which didn't get finished either. Ah well. The snow's melting right now, but maybe it will snow again later.

The Christmas tree has been up since Tuesday, and we're all ready for Christmas to come. Most of my presents for people are going to be knitted or crocheted this year, but some are store bought. Next weekend we're going down to Oregon for my Grandpa's seventieth birthday, which means that I really really need to finish his birthday scarf. Oh well, it's an eight hour drive, so I'll have plenty of time. The scarf is knitted in Red Heart Soft Yarn, in a wine red colorway. About five inches from the end there's a one inch black stripe, and there will be the same on the other end. The stitch pattern is pretty basic - just k2 p1. Its called "squishy scarf", I think? I don't know.

Oh dear

2008-11-26T16:13:00.000-08:00

Oh dear, I've got a hamster. I just clicked on the link from the fish, and I found everything else... So now there's a hamster too. To feed him, click, and click in the wheel center to make him go back on it.

Fish

2008-11-26T15:37:00.000-08:00

I can't think of anything of any interest to say today, except that I have begun making a pig, so I thought I'd take this post to draw your attention towards the fish. I've noticed that people seem to enjoy the fish, and so I've changed them a bit. Those of you who saw the previous fish might have noticed that there were five, maybe six - well, now there's ten, in all the colors of the rainbow. The food is also a different color. Thanks for feeding the fish!

As well as the fish, I'd like to point out the guestbook, underneath the blog archive. If you pop by, please sign your name - I love to know who's been visiting. (Yes, by the way, I have been searching for gadgets recently.)

I haven't done much knitting today, but I was going to go and look at a spinning wheel. Sadly, I couldn't go today, so I'm going to go and look at it this weekend. It's a Ashford Traditional, and comes with a niddy noddy, lazy kate, and a bulky head (I think that's the word.) Have you ever used this wheel? What do you think of it?

To purchase a sheep

2008-11-25T18:03:00.000-08:00

I'm back again for the second time today, interrupting my regularly scheduled novelling to bring you this. Produced by my Grandpa (an avid tracer of our family tree) and written on a typewriter, I personally find it incredibly amusing.

Goodnoe Hills, Washington
May 11 1933

Mr. William Kennedy,
Portland, Oregon.

Dear Mr. Kennedy:

I have your literature concerning your sheep company, and I am quite interested inasmuch as I am thinking I would like to get a sheep and go into the sheep business this summer.

I wonder if you have and sample sheep you give away. Even a small one would be all right, as I will have to keep it in my office until I can get some pasture for it, where I can put it out and have it pasturized.

I would like a nice medium-weight, all-wool sheep in stripes, if you have them - one I can skin and make a Pendleton jacket out of later on.

When you skin a sheep once is that the end of it, or can they be skinned regularly like a human being?

I have an old sheepskin in my office I have been living off for twenty-seven years, and I thought that if I had a whole sheep I might do better.

I see by the papers that there is a lot of trouble these days about the tariff on wool; so, if you can pick out a sheep that hasn't any tariff on the wool, it might save me cleaning it when it comes here. Does this tariff come back after you have once got rid of it?

And another thing, don't send me a U sheep because they have signs on the street here that say that you can't make a U turn and I couldn't get one to the office very well if I couldn't make it turn.

Write further particulars.

Very respectfully,

Wooden U. Liketono (sgd)

This is exactly as I got it - maybe the 1933 version of a trick email?
Annie

A little doggy and friends

2008-11-25T09:06:00.000-08:00

Ok, today I'll post pictures of some of the other little toys. I started them in Malta, and have been going ever since! Some of them have Christmas gear, some don't. Here's the little dalmation

as in the title, sorry about the picture quality.

Next, there's a tiny tiger, swinging from a white piece of yarn, because I couldn't think of a better way, and the light is dreadful.

Again, not a very good picture at all, but you get the idea. Here's the very first one that I made, posing on a white ball of yarn.

A little dolphin, far away from the sea. There's more, though... of course there's more. Only one of the acrylic little critters is left within easy reach though - three have gone to new homes, and one is somewhere. But here's this one, which is actually the only one shown so far that is mine, although the elephant may become so. But anyway, here's Albert.

He's huddled up in a corner, trying to hide from the unfamiliar light which is blowing out his beak and nose - really, they're much more orange.

Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed seeing these pictures - there's more on the way tommorow!

Oh, and one more thing - see my fish, over on the sidebar? If you come by, please feed them by clicking. They'll like it.

Hey, I'm back!

2008-11-24T21:14:00.000-08:00

Greetings to the world out there who probably isn't even reading this. I'm back. I've been gone for over three months travelling Europe with my family, and it's been a blast. I returned to the blog today, and I noticed it covered with cobwebs and mothballs. Ah well, at least I haven't got any moths in my yarn! So, here I am, and I'm going to do my best to post more frequently. I'll post lots of pictures of everything that I've been doing (at the same time as updating my ravelry profile) soon, probably tommorow. In the meantime, here's a lousy picture of a little kitty I made, with a christmas hat and scarf. I took the picture with my webcam, so it's pretty rubbish, but it's better than nothing.

See, isn't he cute? The kitty is actually one of my least favourites, but more pictures tommorow. All right, one more...

Well, there we go. I'll show more pictures tommorow, hopefully, and then I'll be caught up. Anyway, if anyone reads this, then thank you very much. Please come back.
Annie

Oops, I forgot to add this little thingy ma bob from the nano wrimo site . Yes, I'm doing nano again, for the second year. I'm doing pretty well, and unless something major comes up, I should be good! Anyway, sorry to have to add this on. Here it is!

Annie

Ravelympics!

2008-07-27T02:17:00.000-07:00

FO

2008-07-03T12:22:00.001-07:00

I finished my first socks!
They're made in Opal Zwerger Garn ( I think)

They're a bit itchy...

Some pretty pictures

2008-06-28T08:30:00.001-07:00

Ok.... Here is a picture. It is of some hand dyed yarn that I did at spinning class.

This is the start of the bunny for Sara. It's a goodbye present. Now I just need to make another arm and two legs. I love how it's turning out! The pattern can be found here: http://www.jesshutch.com/bunny.html
I changed a few things, like the mouth and the postitioning of the ears.

New sock yarns.

This is a beautiful RAK from jojackson.

Magical self fixing post thingy

2008-06-21T07:01:00.000-07:00

My "new post" thingy has fixed itself! I'm back!

Well, we finally found out that we're definately moving. I'm upset, but quite excited. I'm making goodbye presents now!

My socks are getting there... Slowly....

I'll post some photos of the gifts-in-progress soon.

I really am meant to be doing homework now, so bye!

I won!

2008-06-07T03:13:00.000-07:00

Today in the mail, a package arrived. I had no clue what it was, but when I opened it, I got a big surprise! A pack of 10 50g balls of Wendy Peter Pan yarn, in pure white. I'd won a contest in Simply Knitting! I was so happy! But now... What do I use them for?

Yay! Spinning!

2008-05-01T08:52:00.000-07:00

Alas, I did not win the Knitty contest. What? How does that work? The prizes were too cool for me NOT to win! Ah well. Well done to the person who did win! (Yes, I've forgotten the name already. Apologies)

Anyway, I'm going to learn to spin! I'm going on a course, five weeks, once a week for two hours. It covers spindle spinning, and various types of wheel spinning. I am happy!

Blog meme

2008-04-19T02:20:00.000-07:00

I was just tagged with a blog meme by Monica Silvia in this post on her blog: http://1knitscarf.com/2008/04/04/tagged-with-a-blog-meme-6-things-you-like-to-do-and-tag-6-other-knitting-bloggers.aspx

This is the first time I've done this, so I'll give it a go. The way I've understood it, I have to write six things I like to do, and then tag six other bloggers with a comment on their blog. Six things I like to do, besides knit, are:
~Read. When I find time away from knitting, I like to find a chair, curl up, and get away from the world in general.

~Play piano. I can't stand new songs, but I love playing complex ones that I've got down pat.

~High jumping. I don't get to do it very often, but when I do, I love the thrill that I get when I clear the bar.

~Singing. Especially singing songs that I like.

~Listening to worship music. It really helps me get my priorities back in line.

~Eating chocolate. What more can I say?

Now I have to find six other bloggers. I'm onto it. I'll update as I find them.

Ok - Number 1) Kim at http://kbshee.blogspot.com/

More projects done!

2008-03-23T07:22:00.000-07:00

I've finished lots of things this week. Firstly, there was the bag - my mom kindly did the sewing up for me. Above you can see the outside and the lining - very lovely (It's the white
speckly one with the red velvet inside, if you were wondering) It fits a small knitting project very nicely.

Above there is also a small egg case - I put a creme egg inside for my sister Gracie's easter present. From a pattern in Simply knitting, as was the bag.

Another Simply Knitting pattern is the fingerless gloves, which worked really well. My first project on DPNs. I'm wearing them now, and discovering that typing isn't so easy. Ah well, such is life.

My current project is cell phone covers, and socks. Yup, I'm knitting my very first socks. I was going to try them in the Fall, but I got a sock knitting kit for Easter - beautiful yarn (a little scratchy, but I'm sure that will work out with wearing. So far I've just started the ribbing on the first one.

Experimenting!

2008-03-16T09:04:00.000-07:00

I've decided that I like this layout better. I don't like scribe so much.

In knitting news, my fingerless mittens are flying along. I'd better abandon the computer in a few minutes to keep working. I might be able to finish one of these today, it depends. I also have two more cell phone covers to sew up - one brown, like below, and one a candy kind of fluffy pink. If I finish the mitten, and get those two covers sewn up (and maybe a third, if I finish
the knitting), then I'll probably make another pink one, because I think those will go down well at school.

It was palm Sunday at church today, which was fun. I've just got my braces tightened on Friday, and had elastics put between my teeth, which is no fun.

There's not much going on this week at school. We've got Friday off, for Good Friday, and then Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. It was only going to be till Tuesday, which was an inset, but then the clever authorities finally realised that because of Leap Day, we would be one day over the set amount. So, Tuesday is an official holiday, and Wednesday is the inset. I'm
hoping to get my mittens finished, and I'm going to see if I can get some cotton yarn to take to Italy, because I'm making dishclothes for my Grandma while I'm there. Knitting mainly, but I'll probably do one or two crochet, so I can put them in my carry on and work on them while waiting for flights. I can't think of any way that I won't be allowed to carry on a stubby wooden crochet hook.

Cell phone covers

2008-03-14T10:36:00.000-07:00

Recently I've been knitting cell phone covers. Some were gifts, but most were for sale. It went very well. Here's some of the ones I've made. I've made many others as well. It was really fun. I'm getting kind of bored with these, so I'm just going to
finish the ones ordered and some pink ones to sell next week, and then I'll move onto another project.

Hi!

2008-03-14T10:29:00.000-07:00

Well, that sure took long enough, but here I am, blogging. Welcome to my blog!