Autumn Cape Bag 2022 Part 15

 Autumn Cape Bag 2022 Part 15

I have had fun (not) trying to sort out the photographs for this blog as taken quite a few in one go.

Pin Strap

 

I Pinned Strap to Material again.

Trim Strap

 

I now Trimmed the Material around the Strap. I make sure that I have left enough room for a Hem.

Pin Template

 

Before I go any further I am going to use what I have cut out as a Template. I placed and Pinned the Material on top of the Offcut and then Cut out. I have put aside for later.

Pin Middle

 

I take the Template and I Pin from the Curve to roughly the Middle of the Material.

Blue Hem

 

I now Hem what I have Pinned. I am using Blue Thread for this. Normally I would match the Thread to the Material. However the is not going to be seen so going to use something easily spotted and use up some spare Thread I have left over.

Pin Beginning

 

Now I have the Middle Sewn I am now Pinning the Beginning of the Strap and Folding over. I need to match the Ends to make this work.

Mark End

 

At the Folded End I take a Pencil and Mark it. Again I have to remember it will need Hemming.

All Hemmed

This Template is now fully Hemmed. I will now be able to use it for more accurate copies.

Autumn Cape Bag 2022 Part 14

Autumn Cape Bag 2022 Part 14

Time to try something new.

New Toy

 

Knowing that I Hand Sew everything my friend kindly gave me a Magic Stitch machine

Read Instructions

 

For once I am going to Read the Instructions. Also I thought if I lose the Instructions in hardcopy at least I will have some on the Laptop.

 Fold Hem

 

Before I start trying to use the Machine I am going to make a Hem by Folding over the Material

 Not going Well

 

This is Not going Well! I appear to be going in every direction but Straight. I am going to have to Undo

More Holes than Hem

 

I have Undone the Stitching. I now have More Holes than Hem. If you look at the Photograph above you can see my Kamikazi Stitching path.

Workman’s Tools

 

I know the old saying a ‘Bad Workman Blames His Tools’ but I think in this case I can be forgiven. I was just about beginning to get it straight well straighter when the Thread ran out.

Now I am going to have to go back to the Instructions and try to see how to Rethread the Machine.

Redo in Red

 

Naturally I am doing this late at night and I am not going to go hunting for Bobbins. There are some Pre-Thread colours in the Box. I am going to Redo in Red.

Conclusion. I am really far from trying to use this on a Project. I will have to practice. In the meantime back to the Hand Sewing.

Autumn Cape Bag 2022 Part 13

Autumn Cape Bag 2022 Part 13 

A short and snappy blog this week whilst waiting for the material to dry.

Got to Unpick

 

Before I can do any Sewing of Material I need to finish the Strap. This means changing the Shape. Since I do not want it really long I need to Unpick the Wool. Though looking at the Pile that I ended up with I would say this is more in the region of Unravelling.

Increase Stitches

 

Having taken several inches of Wool off I then had to put the Stitches back on to the Needle. At least this time I knew how many to put on. I slowly Increased the amount of Stitches thus Mimicking the Pattern at the Bottom of the Strap.

Final Cast off

 

Finally got to the End. Well of this particular Strap anyway.

Autumn Cape Bag 2022 Part 12

 Autumn Cape Bag 2022 Part 12

In order to stop the Bag from Stretching when things are put into it I am going to have to Line it.

Pin Strap Material

 

I had some Green Material left over from a previous project. My first problem is that I have not yet finished Knitting the Strap. This is because I decided to add the Buckle. So I am going to have to only measure part of it.

Pinning the Strap was a nightmare. I had to do it several times before it was right. I needed to get the Bottom of the Strap correct as that would be the Template for the top.

Cut out Strap

 

I finally managed to Pin it reasonably straight. I have let enough Material at the side to form a Hem. I am not bothered too much about the Length as I will be doing the Strap in more than one piece.

Measure Material

 

Time to measure the Material for the Bag. I have Folded the Material in half so I will only need to Sew up the Sides. I don’t need to Pin it as it is reasonably flat and stays in shape.

Pin and Cut Bag

 

I haven’t Pinned the Bag but I decided to Pin the Material so it doesn’t move around too much when Cutting. I have moved in a little when Cutting the Top Layer of the Material.

This is so I get as much Excess as possible for the Second Strap. Careful as I was I still managed to slip a little when Cutting.

Offcut for Strap

 

The Offcut with a little luck should cover a majority of the Second Strap. Now I need to wash and Press the Material.

Autumn Cape Bag 2022 Part 11

 Autumn Cape Bag 2022 Part 11

I am having problems keeping the Straps even. I need a plan.

Clip Straps Together

 

I have found out some Stitch Markers and Clipped the Straps together. This way they won’t move. It might not be great as some of the Markers are coming out but it is the best that I can think of at the moment.

Lost a Needle

 

Ok this is a new one on me. I often Multi-task whilst Knitting this time I was watching a programme. Somehow I have managed to Knit both Straps with the same Needle.

I think it is because one Needle is much longer than the other one. It is a simple fix. I just start Knitting with the other Needle on one of the Straps.

Buckle

 

Stop everything. I had an idea last night. I was going to Sew the Straps together. Now I have decided to add a Buckle. Obtained from my friend Laura.

Cast Off

 

This means that I need to Cast Off one of the Straps. I decide to do the one with the least Wool left to Knit with.

Swap Needle

 

Since I have been left with the Stitches on the Long Needle I am going to Swap it with the Baby one so I can use it elsewhere.

Autumn Cape Bag 2022 Part 10

 Autumn Cape Bag 2022 Part 10

Finally on to the Decreasing of the Strap Stitches

Decrease to 28 Stitches

 

I Decreased the Stitches by 1 either end on the Knit Row.  I then Knitted 28 Purls Stitches. I turned the Bag around and did the same on the other Strap.

End of Decreasing

 

I changed Straps again then did another Row of Stocking Stitch. I repeated this until I had 20 Stitches left on both Straps

Straps coming along

 

Once I had 20 Stitches I carried on Knitting. I would Knit a Plain Row on one Strap then swap. I Knitted a Plain Row on the other Strap then Knitted a Purl Row on Both Straps.

The idea was by doing it this way I would keep the Straps even. Needless to say I got engrossed watching a programme and found that I had forgotten to swap. Therefore I had to put both Straps together back to back in order to measure the difference.

I had to add a couple of Rows until they were even again. The use of Stocking Stitch was causing the Straps to Curl. This will be sorted when I add the Backing.

Autumn Cape Bag 2022 Part 9

Autumn Cape Bag 2022 Part 9

Time to tackle the other side.

Using a Needle

 

Instead of mucking about with Stitch Holders I am going to try using another Needle to take the Stitches Off.

Five at a Time

 

To make things easier on myself I decided to Knit Five Stitches at a Time. It might be slow going but at least I am not going to Stab myself with a bunch of Stitch Holders.

Three Needles

 

That being said I now had 3 different Needles in the Bag. One in the big loop. One with the 30 Stitches on and One I am currently Knitting with.

Another 30 Stitches

 

Finally another 30 Stitches. Next I shall do the Purl Row so it matches the other side. I also need to remove all the Stitch Markers as I don’t need them now.

Autumn Cape Bag 2022 Part 8

 

Autumn Cape Bag 2022 Part 8

Apologies for the slow going but unfortunately I am still ill. So it is going to be another short blog. I guess it makes it easy to follow though.

Knit off Stitch Holder

 

I am finally at the point where I can Knit off the Stitch Holder. To match the rest of the Bag I am using Plain Stitch

2 Rows

 

After the Plain Row I add a Purl one. Now I have 2 Rows with 30 Stitches on it. The fun part will be tackling the other side. If it was anything like this side it is going to take some doing. I may have to come up with another way of doing it.

10 Stitch Interval

 

Before I can do anymore Knitting I have to find the correct spot to start from. I decided that the best way to find this is to use Stitch Markers. If you remember I had left a long Tail in the middle of my 30 Stitches. I was going to use this as my starting point.

I counted 10 Stitches to the Right and put a Stitch Marker in. I did the same with the Left. I continued counting and Marking until I got to the other side.  I found that I was one Stitch out. I would have to put up with that.

Autumn Cape Bag 2022 Part 7

Autumn Cape Bag 2022 Part 7

It should be simple but it is getting rather complicated.

Third Stitch Holder

 

Unbelievably I still cannot get the Stitches off and have to add a Third Stitch Holder. This is towards the Front End of the Stitches that I need to remove.

I slide the Forward Stitches onto the Third (Gold) Stitch Holder. Then I can pull the Needle and First (Grey) Stitch Holder back and leave half the Stitches on the Second (Blue) Holder. Finally I can slip the Stitches from the Third Holder to the Second.

15 Stitches

 

If you could follow all that I now have 15 Stitches on the Blue Stitch Holder. That is half the battle done. At this point I Cut the Wool leaving a long Tail.

Lift off Stitches

 

I now move onto the second part of Stitches at the other side of the Wool Marker. This is going to be much easier. This is because the Stitches will be the right way for Knitting.

I push the Stitch Holder through the 15 Stitches. I then lift them off with a Needle.

30 Stitches

 

I have now put the Stitches back on to the Blue Stitch Holder. You can see the End of the Tail in between the two lots of 15 Stitches. This makes 30 Stitches in Total.

After doing all that I need a break before I move onto the next part.