Out on the Town!

Vintage Clutch

I'm ready for a night "out on the town"!

I've been easing my way back into knitting with felting projects.

For some reason,

I think that knitting with two strands of yarn on bigger needles is easier on my fingers and hand as I recover from hand surgery.  

It's been challenging knitting since I still have swelling and numbness (on my long finger) 

even now 8 weeks post surgery.  

Physical therapy is helping and selecting fun "felted" projects seems to inspire me 

to pick up the needles every few days. 

I decided that my felted tea party hat needed a matching purse 

so this week I knit and felted a darling clutch purse called

 Vintage Clutch. 

The pattern is very easy to knit and a well written pattern.  

My version is knit in Cascade 220, color 9419/Vermeer Blue.  

The purse takes less than two skeins and is knit with the yarn doubled.  It's finished size is 6" x 12".

Here are a few before and after photos of my purse.

 Pre-felting

Here's how the purse looks pre-felting.

 Felted

Here's how the purse looks after a few cycles in the washing machine with hot water, 

a little soap and a little magic!

G.G.'s brooch

The most fun part of this project is the finishing work 

and determining what brooch or pin 

you will embellish your handbag with.

Since the designer named it Vintage Clutch...

I think it's perfect to use a vintage pin on it. 

I used a vintage brooch from my jewelry box that belonged to my great-grandmother. 

 I called my great-grandmother G.G. and she is the one 

who taught me to knit and crochet when I was a little girl.  

G.G.'s brooch is a vintage Weiss rhinestone pin 

and very special to me.  

I know my G.G. would love that her pin and love of knitting 

live on through me.  

My Mermaid Purse

Mermaid Purse

My Mermaid purse made it's beach debut yesterday here on vacation in Newport, Oregon. It is finished...well except for a few more finishing touches of sea shell embellishments.

I love this pattern by Louisa Harding. It is from one of her earlier books Beachcomber Bay, The Accessories Collection. The purse is called Mermaid and is not listed on Ravelry yet.

The Beachcomber Bay book was inspired by Louisa's own childhood memories of beach combing. As a California girl, I grew up beach combing,too. My husband and I went beach combing yesterday to find some shells and bits for my purse. I found out...I still love beach combing!

Beach Combing!

My Mermaid purse is knit in Louisa's Flotsam yarn. I lucked out and found color #2 which reminds me of the ocean. I enjoyed knitting with this slubby, lofty yarn. Websters in Ashland told me the yarn is being discontinued.

Louisa used a neat fish buckle for the ties on her purse that weave through the eyelet row. I lucked out and found a large shell at a bead store in Ashland, Oregon for my ties. I plan on putting more shells on my purse. I have even seen some purses lately that embellish the entire bag with sea shells sewn on. I am not sure yet if I will go that far.

Anyway, this was a really fun and easy pattern. I found the natural cane handles at my local Joann's store. I used a 6" diameter and not the 7.5" the pattern specified. Danielle my knitting teacher at Knitique taught me the mattress stitch to sew up the sides. This was my first project requiring seams. I also did twisted cord for the bag's ties. This was my first time doing that, too.

You certainly don't need a beach get-a-way to make this purse. The wonderful pattern lends itself to many custom style variations. That's Louisa Harding for you...wonderful designer patterns with boutique style results! My kind of knitting!

That's all for now...I am off to the beach for more beach combing!

Cha Cha Cha With Louisa Harding!

Cha Cha Cha Bag by Louisa Harding

A girl can never have, too, many purses!

I adore this "snazzy" new flapper-inspired bag by Louisa Harding. She named it Cha Cha Cha . I can't wait to knit it!

Last month when I met Louisa, I was very lucky to see the mock-ups of her new Spring/Summer 2009 books called Nouveau and Deco. The Cha Cha Cha bag is from her Deco book. I hope my local yarn store gets it in soon!

Cha Cha Cha Bag

The Cha Cha Cha bag is knit in Louisa's Cinnabar and Nautical Cotton yarns. I love her color combination for this bag! (Yes, my favorite colors are Turquoise and Lime Green.) I can't wait to shop for some colorful ribbon and a "glitzy" vintage broach for it, too.

Deco Book

Louisa's new Deco book is filled with fabulous "flirty" patterns influenced by her Grandmother's era.

When Louisa spoke about her inspiration for her new books she told a cute story about her Grandmother. She said "it was quite shocking the day her Grandmother chopped off her long hair into a "bob". Back in the 1920's, my Grandma Margaret wore an adorable "bob", too. The "bob" hair style caused quite a stir in it's day. I love our free-spirited Grandmother's stories and how they helped us become the women we are today!

The Deco book should be hitting the stores anytime now. When you see it...you just may want to chop your hair off into a "bob", too!

As in all her books, the models, styling and photographs are gorgeous! All the photography is done by Louisa's husband, photograhper Stephen Jessup. What a talented duo!

All photographs shown here are by Stephen Jessup from the Deco Book at Knitting Fever.