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.

Autumn Cape Bag 2022 Part 6

 Autumn Cape Bag 2022 Part 6

I have Picked Up as many Stitches as I could. 

Holes in Bag

 

Hmm. Things haven’t gone too well. I have created Holes in the Bag. I am going to have to sort those later. I want to crack on. 

Mark End of Row

 

Right the first thing is to make sure that I know where the End of the Row is. I have tied a piece of Wool around. Not sure where my Stitch Markers are.

Hunt the Needle

 

Then next part is tricky. I am going to have to find my other Needles, Stitch Markers and Stitch Holders.

This should have been easy but of course it wasn’t. My Needles had decided to slip out of their Covers. In the end I had to use a Needle Gauge on every single Needle to sort it.

First Stitch Holder

 

What I want to do is Pick Up 30 Stitches so I can carry on Knitting the Strap. Easier said than done. This is because I have to Pick Up 15 Stitches either side of the Marker.

I decided to do the most difficult Pick Up first. I therefore took a Stitch Holder and began to Slide it through the Stitches. I had to start at the 15^th Stitch and work back towards the Marker.

Too Tight

 

Have hit a Snag. It is Too Tight to get all the Stitches on the Stitch Holder with the other Needle still inside. 

So I have had to add a Second Stitch Holder to try and easy the pull from the back.

Autumn Cape Bag 2022 Part 5

Autumn Cape Bag 2022 Part 5

It just gets worse!

Sew up Sides

 

I had to think how I was going to Sew up the Sides. This is because the Edges did not match Colour-wise. In the end I decided to Sew up using Brown all the way. I Sewed the Tails in that were near the edges on the way.

Gap at Top

 

When I got near the Top I finished Sewing leaving a Gap. This is because I had reached the point where I had got it Twisted when joining together. I decided that I would just have to Bite the Bullet and Sew.

When I got to the Twisted Part I Sewed as Tightly as I could and created a slight Overlap. It made it a little Bulky but apart from that it wasn’t very disenable to the eye.

Pick up Stitches

I hate Picking Up Stitches at the best of times however to my Horror I realised that when I came to do so I had made a fundamental error. I frantically read through all my blogs.

It was no use. It must have been due to being so poorly but I had neglected to put down how many Stitches I had Cast On. Therefore I didn’t know how many to Pick Up.

I am going to have to Improvise.

Autumn Cape Bag 2022 Part 4

Autumn Cape Bag 2022 Part 4

I am not having a good time.

Unpicked Sigh

 

If there is one thing that I hate doing it is Unpicking. I always Drop Stitches and the ones I don’t Drop I end up Twisting. On this occasion it took me two whole days to sort out. It wasn’t helped by my constant coughing.

Cast Off

 

I eventually managed to carry on Knitting. This time I didn’t decrease at all. Therefore it too me much longer. You cannot see it very well in the above photograph as it has Rolled.

I have Knitted a few Inches before Casting Off. It isn’t quite as long as before but that is due to loss of Wool from the Unpicking Process.

Blanket Stitch

 

I left an unusually long Tail upon Casting Off. This is so I could Sew up the Bottom. I have used Blanket Stitch. This isn’t really the correct Stitch for the job.

There is a Stitch used in Knitting called the Mattress Stitch used for joining two pieces together. However I haven’t ever really got the hang of it. I am certainly in no fit state to try it now.

Around the Corner

 

I Blanket Stitched to the End. Then since this will have a great deal of weight on it I turned and Sewed back along the Piece. Since the Bottom was Brown I carried on around the Corner. Now I need to consider what to do next.

Autumn Cape Bag 2022 Part 3

 Autumn Cape Bag 2022 Part 3

I have managed to do some more Knitting but with being ill it is slow process.

Bag 14 Inches

 

I have got the Bag to 14 Inches in Length. I think this should be long enough as I will be adding to the Top and the Bottom.

Brown Edge

 

Now I am Changing from Coloured Pattern to Plain Brown. This is for two reasons. Firstly I am going to Decrease and it will make it simpler with one Colour.

The second reason is more prosaic. This going to be the Bottom of the Bag and often be placed upon the floor. Therefore Plain Brown is less likely to show the Dirt.

90 Stitches

 

I have been slowly Decreasing the Stiches over a handful of Rows. I have now only 90 Stitches on the Needle. This means the Knitting will now go a lot faster.

Wrong Shape

 

I am a COMPLETE IDIOT! I was having a sneaking suspicion that something was wrong but couldn’t work it out. I therefore kept on Knitting in the hope that it would reveal itself.

Well it has. It was only when I had nearly got to the end of the Wool and Folded that it struck me. I had completely forgotten that I was making the Bag out of one piece NOT TWO.

This means it is entirely the Wrong Shape and will have to be Unpicked.

Autumn Cape Bag 2022 Part 2

 Autumn Cape Bag 2022 Part 2

This project started badly and my luck hasn’t got any better!

Colour Problem

 

I have to be honest I have dropped a right Clanger. What I intended to do was Knit Plain Stitch around and around. For those that do not know this would give the same effect as Stocking Stitch.

The plan was great apart from one tiny detail. I had forgotten that I would be Changing Colours constantly. By Knitting in a Circle all the Tails would be at the wrong end.

Twisted Stitches

 

I therefore changed to Stocking Stitch. When I got to the end I noticed yet another Clanger. At one point I had dropped the Knitting and got it all Tangled.

I hadn’t noticed that when I started Knitting again that I had Twisted the Wool. Therefore I had created another Problem. After already Restarted once I was reluctant to do so again especially as this time I would have to undo all the Colours.

Time to Grow

Having Bit the Bullet I decided to deal with that particular Problem later with a bit of ingenious Sewing. I carried on Knitting until it got a bit longer. Then I needed to have a break before anything else went wrong.