African Flower bag pattern

I have been meaning to do this for so long. I got started on it over two weeks ago, and had done half of it. Saved it (so I thought) to finish it the next day. And realized that only two pictures were saved, everything I had written was gone! Got a little upset and have feared to make another try... I have to warn you though, I'm not a very talented pattern writer, just an amateur who wants to share the how-to... But here we go

OBS! Vill du ha mönstret på svenska, så finns det här! (Link to Swedish pattern.)

Achtung!Jetzt gibt es auch ein Anleitung auf Deutsch! (Link to German pattern.)

 This bag is known on Flickr and Ravelry as my Pink and Purple African Flower Bag. It's been quite popular, so I thought someone might be interested in the pattern. I made a new one in purple and gray a while ago, and took some pictures of the process. Wish I had taken more, but I hope this will be enough.

I use a chunky cotton yarn for this bag. With a 4,5 mm hook, the hexagons measure approximately 12 cm (4,5 inches) across. If you need the pattern for the African Flower hexagon, you can find it here. 

I start by picking out one base color for the bag, and three or four flower colors. One of the flower colors are chosen to be more dominant than the others. Then I make 12 hexagons. I chose to make them in only three different variants and so I get four flowers of each.

When I have all the hexagons I need, I sew them together. Two of each color variant in each row. I like to make a symmetric pattern and put them in the same place in the rows. Like A, B, C, A, B, C, and then sew the last C and the first A together to form a circle of hexagons. I do not use the base color for the seams, I like to make them visible and use one of the flower colors for each row.

When I put the two rows together, I make sure that flower C comes directly underneath flowers A and B, so that flowers with the same colors are separated from each other. I use a third flower color for the seam between the rows.

When all the hexagons are attached into one cylinder, I start with the lower part of the bag:

Round 1: Use the dominant flower color.1 sc in every st, and 1 sc in the seam between the flowers.

Round 2: In the base color. 1 sc in each st.

Round 3: Now I start to make an even edge. In the dominant flower color, start on top of one of the hexagons and crochet [4 sc, 3 hdc, 2 dc, 3 dc tog, 2 dc, 3 hdc, 4 sc] and repeat this with every flower. (Depending on how you've sewn the hexagons together, you might have a different number of stitches than this, but don't worry! Just adjust the number of sc or any other stitch you'd prefer to change.) The middle dc in the group of 3 should be in the lowest stitch between the flowers.

Round 4: This round will probably start elsewhere, but it is so much easier for me to describe how you crochet from the top of the hexagon, just like the last round: [5 sc, 3 hdc, 3 dc, 3hdc, 5 sc] Repeat for every flower. Now the edge should be rather straight.

Round 5: 1 dc in each st

Round 6: In base color. 1 sc in each st.

Round 7: In dominant flower color. 1 sc in each st.

Round 8: In base color. 1 sc in each st. Cut the yarn and weave in the end.

Now we are ready to start with the upper part of the bag. This part is done exactly like the lower part to start with. I just use a different color scheme: 

 

Round 1: Dominant flower color.

Round 2-5: Base color.

Round 6: Dominant flower color.

Round 7: Base color.

So far we just repeated the bottom part pattern. But now we will start to make the part where we can weave in a string to close the bag with. Choose one of your flower colors, other than the dominant one.

Round 8: Flower color of choice. 1 sc in each st.

Round 9: [2 dc, ch 2, skip 2 st] repeat the entire round.

Round 10: [1 sc in each dc, 2 sc around chains.] Repeat.

Round 11: Base color. 1 sc in each st.

Round 12: Dominant flower color. 1 sc in each st.

Round 13: Base color. 1 sc in each st. Cut yarn and weave in.

Now we have made most of the bag. I like to get done with the big parts first, so let's make the bottom:

 Use the base color. Start with chaining 4, and join them to a circle.

Round 1: 9 hdc around the circle.

Round 2: 2 dc in each st.

Round 3: 2 dc in the same st, 1 dc. Repeat.

Round 4: 2 dc in the same st, 2 dc. Repeat.

Round 5: 2 dc in the same st, 3 dc. Repeat.

Keep increasing every round with 1 more dc between the increases every row, until you make the last row: 

Round 11: 2 dc in the same st, 9 dc. Repeat. Cut yarn and weave in.

On the first bag I made, the bottom was all in the base color. On this one I was running out of yarn and made one row in the dominant flower color.

Attach the bottom to the lower part of the bag with one of the flower colors. I didn't get exactly the same number of stitches on the bottom and the lower part, but if you count them you can figure out where to skip a stitch in the seam to attach the bottom evenly to the bag.

Now, we do need a string to close the bag with. This is absolutely the easiest part of the bag. Pick a flower color and make a long chain. It should be at least twice the width of the bag to be long enough, but I make mine three times the width. It will "shrink" some before it's done, and you want some length on it. Then I simply make sl st all the way back. Weave in both ends and weave the string back and forth between the groups of dc's on the bag. Make a knot in each end to prevent it from slipping through.

And finally the handle. It is a matter of taste, I guess, how long you want it to be. I made mine roughly twice as long as the bag is long from bottom to top. Maybe 90 cm (35 inches) or so. Hang it over your shoulder as you make it, and try to feel how long you want it.

Start by making a chain, as long as you like the handle to be. Use the base color. Make a sc in the third ch from the needle and start making sc all the way back. 

Round 1: Make 1 sc in each ch on each side, but make 4 sc in the first and the last ch, to make a rounded increase.

Round 2: 1 sc in each st on each side, but increase in each end like this: 2 sc in the same st, 1 sc, 2 sc in the same st, 2 sc in the same st, 1 sc, 2 sc in the same st.

Round 3: 1 sc in each st on each side, increase like this in each end: 2 sc in the same st four times.

To make a more comfortable handle, I sew it together on the sides to form a rounded handle. I start a bit up the handle, and save approx. 4-5 cm (1,5-2 inches) on each side. Make the seam with one of the flower colors. If you want to, you can put a piece of fabric, a rope or something else to add sturdiness and volume to the handle. I cut out a piece of fabric the same length as the handle. I then folded in the edges and made a so called "straight" seam (as you can see it's not very straight, but no-one will know!) all the way along the fold. I put it on the wrong side of the crocheted handle and started sewing it together around the fabric. 

Now, attach the handle to the sides of the bag. I turn the seam down, and sew around the rounded edges with the dominant flower color. I also sew with the base color to make sure it is firmly attached to the bag. I actually let the seams go through the fabric between the handle and the bag. This way the handle won't stretch as you fill your bag up, like crochet might do. If you make the flower color seam go through only the handle itself and the bag, you hide the fabric efficiently.

Now the bag is done! If you want to, you can make a lining for it. My friend who I made this bag for specifically asked for me to line it, so I did. I'm not the best of friends with my sewing machine, but I think we made a decent job with it. I placed the bag on the selected fabric and draw out the size. Make sure the fabric is folded double in one side where you place the bag. Then draw a piece with the same height as the bag, but a little bit wider (for the seam). BUT exclude the rounded bottom from this piece! Draw accordingly to the edge at the bottom part. Sew the sides together, right side to right side.

Then draw a circle on the fabric for the bottom, a little bit wider all around. Sew in on to the first part, right side to right side.

You now have a fabric bag. Keep it with the wrong side out. Fold down the raw upper edge as much as needed to make the fabric bag fit into the crocheted bag, from the bottom up to the sc rounds just beneath the string. Make a straight seam.

Since this is a pretty big bag, I thought it would be nice to make a pocket for the mobile phone, or whatever you want to put there, and also a snap hook to hang your keys in. The pocket is just a rectangle with a seam on top, and raw edges folded in before I attached it to the bag. The piece of fabric used to attach the hook is a strip where I folded in all raw ends and sew them down from the right side, folded it double around the hook and attached it. As simple as possible!

The final step now, pin the fabric to the bag, and attach it. You can sew by hand if you want to. I prefer that, but in this case I didn't manage to make a straight seam, got tired of it and used the machine... Tadah, the bag is all done!

Anything I want to add? Well, I think this is a very easy bag to make. Using a chunky yarn also makes it very quick to work up. I've made similar bags with thinner yarn which meant more hexagons, and they take forever. Yes, I know I'm lazy...

If you want to make a big bag with thinner yarn, you could still use this pattern. Just increase the number of flowers, make some more rounds on the bottom and maybe also on the handle. 

And of course, if you find any mistakes or have any questions, please let me know! And it would be amazing to see your bag, if you make one!

Good luck!

A purse for the purse?

The language can be so confusing sometimes, especially when it's not your mother tongue. All the nuances and different meanings of the words... I try my best to find the right words for things, so feel free to correct me when I'm wrong or not making any sense! They didn't talk much about knitting and crochet in my English classes in school...

I want to show you this little thing today, it's a little purse. Not for money (I think) but for those little things you keep in your handbag and never seem to find when you need them. A purse for the purse, so to say... (What would you call that??)

This is the one I crocheted after trying to felt a knitted one to the size I wanted. I only felted this by hand, to have more control over the process. That's why you can still see the stitches. 

The lady who ordered this one from me really liked the cerise flowers on the gray background on the one I have, so I pulled out my ribbons to try to create the same feeling on this one. I hope she will like the result, I am quite pleased with it if I may say so. Some trouble in paradise though, the ribbon embroidery created a mess on the inside, so I realized I would have to line it to stop the future content of the purse to get tangled up in the ribbons.

I can honestly say I feel more at home with my hooks and knitting needles now, than I do with my sewing needles. And she wanted a zipper too. There is no other time then now when I have inspiration for something, so I dug through my fabrics and actually found something suitable in the right color. It used to be the body lining on a girl's dress and I managed to cut out a piece that was (almost) big enough. One inch more would have been lovely, but it was close enough for me. I used my sewing machine to attach the zipper to the lining, and then I hand stitched it to the purse. I liked that method, and it gave a neater result than I had hoped for. So now I will present this purse for my lady friend and hope she likes it!

Happy pan holders

I am still working on some custom orders, but I sneak in some crocheting for me between them. Just to lift my spirit and go with the inspiration a little.

We have some old pans, molded in one piece. They are great, and we use them a lot. But since they are in one piece, their handles tend to get very hot. Especially when we make a lot of pancakes and the pan stands in the heat for a longer period of time.

Ordinary potholders tend to slip around some on the handles, and since these pan are really heavy I prefer to get a good, firm grip on them. We once found an old pan holder, just like these, and I have used it a lot. I even made a new one, but it wasn't soft enough to give a good grip.

I have made these in double yarn, one "ordinary" soft cotton and one chunkier soft cotton. I crochet quite loosely to make them soft and flexible. It also gives an extra dimension to them that the colors are not exactly the same, just almost.

Maybe not the colors you expect to see in November, but I like happy colors when I cook. Anything to make it more fun!

Anyone can make these, just chain three, make enough sc's in the first chain to make a circle, increase until it's wide enough for your handle and then work in the round until you are happy with the length. You can add a contrasting color in the ends if you like, make a hanger if you want one, or just make it as simple as possible. Or really complicated too, I guess. But I like simple and fast...

Hope to be back soon with some embroidery on that little bag (made a new one and felted it today) or the tutorial about the African Flower bag I've been talking about. Wrote half of it the other day, but somehow Blogger didn't save it although I pushed the button. Didn't like that at all! Hope you get some happy colors in gray November too!

What a waste!

 I've heard about a married couple here in Sweden who doesn't want a garbage can. Simply because they rarely throw something away. As I remember it, their total waste during an entire year was easily fitted into one little plastic bag. What they did with the rest of their stuff`? Well, they composted and recycled what they could, and fixed what was broken. I wish I was more like that. We would have a much cleaner and prettier environment if we all did like them!

Well, at least I have made a small contribution. Can you see what this is? It's the broken upper part of a shoehorn. The part that has a hole that makes it possible to hang it somewhere, and thus keep track of it. But ours is broken. And hard to find, since we have nowhere to put it! Besides, it has some really sharp edges up there too. I was just about ready to throw it away to get a new one, but then the crochet-part of my brain started ticking. Maybe it could be fixed...

And of course it could! Maybe not the most stylish crochet you ever saw, but it's certainly doing its job! I had to glue it to the shoehorn to keep it from sliding off, but you see no sharp edges and now I can hang it. Yay! And it is prettier now than when it was unbroken. At least I think so. And it works as a soft handle too. Perfect!

See! Now we will always find it. And my husband will hopefully stop putting it in my wellington boot 'cause that's where he found it... We played that game for a while. Someone thought my boot was the perfect place for it, I slightly disagreed since I used my boots almost every day and it got a bit annoying to always find the shoehorn there. So I put it leaning on the shoe rack, then someone used it and put it back in my boot "where it should be". Annoying! 

Well, maybe not a huge contribution to the environment, but we take one step at a time, don't we? And it got me thinking twice about throwing things away that actually can be fixed.

Frosty morning

It's cold today, coldest day so far. The frost has been glistening in the grass in the warming sun. I started this morning sneezing and freezing, but I just had to get out there and try to catch this beautiful late autumn day! Didn't catch the sparkles, but you can see the frost, right?

The sky has been blue, so blue and the trees are all naked now. 

The cows in the pen have been taking it easier lately, but you could see they really enjoyed the warming sun today.

I saw them from my kitchen window, saw their breaths forming steaming clouds and wanted to catch that on picture if I could. I couldn't, but I got many pretty cow pictures! 

As I've told you before, they are pretty shy. But I tried to make myself as small as possible, and some of them seemed curious enough. And if one comes - they all come! More or less...

They look different now compared to this summer. Their fur is thicker, probably from staying outdoors, and they have grown quite a lot. "Our" farmer has milk-cows, so that's what they are. Only these are the youngsters. Don't dare to guess if their going to be mums or dads. Or should I say, mums or meat. They don't need that many dads...

But hey, look there! To the left of the brown cow, I can actually see some hot cow breath! Mission accomplished!

When the kids were smaller, we used to visit the "real" farm, where they keep the milk-cows. The farmer's boys would take my boy on a ride on the tractor, my girl never dared to do that. And we would watch when the farmer milked the cows. All automatic of course. And they all knew their places! Twice a day he brings them in to milk them. But the milk-cows only get to go out from May to October, too cold for them now. 

After a lot of patience, calling them cowards just to let them prove the opposite, this pretty brunette came up close. Actually so close I could touch her (?) face. And when I finally had a lot of cows up really close and watching me with their pretty eyes, my camera memory card got full... Frustration!

So I had to bid them goodbye and hope that they will let me close again. I just love getting close to animals, especially the shy ones! And I don't know what you think, but I think they have very pretty eyes!

Taking shortcuts don't pay off

 I'm a lazy person. It's really just a fact. I am. I always try to find the easy way around, and don't do more than I have to. Sometimes that works just fine, sometimes it doesn't. This post should really be about felting samples. Or more correctly the lack of felting samples. It's a good thing, you know, to make a sample to see how much your knitting will shrink when you felt it. But of course it takes time and effort, something a lazy person would avoid....

I'm making a little bag for a friend. A bag to keep small things in, to make them easier to find in her purse. She liked my knitting money purse, so I was making her something like that. Knitted and felted in the washer. I bought yarn made for felting, and the lady in the yarn shop told me it would shrink something about 40 %. I trusted her, neglected making a sample but did my math (I've always been good at math) and calculated how I should knit to get the size I wanted. Only, it wouldn't shrink! The first time in the washer (in 60 degrees C) it shrunk 2 cm. Less than 10 %. Ok, I had another try, put more stuff in the washer to get more friction and waited. Well it was smaller, but still only 25 % shrinkage. I even tried to felt it by hand but it didn't help.

It's not huge, but a little to big for it's purpose. At least I think so. So now I'm making a new one. But this time I crochet. I always feel more in control when I crochet than when I knit. Hopefully I will get it right this time. I will probably run out of yarn though, so I hope my husband can take me to town tomorrow. The too big bag will be something else. I have some thoughts...

This mobile phone cozy was felted together with the too big bag. It's for a woman at my husbands work, she wanted a cozy with a wolf. Interesting enough to see what that will look like in the end... This one felted better, maybe because I had hand felted it a bit before putting it in the washer. (It has some light fibers all over, since it caught some yellow from the tennis balls I use for friction when I felt.)

But still, it's a bit too big. It's very spacious even for my phone, and the phone she is using is smaller. Sigh! So I guess I'll crochet a new one when I'm done with the gray bag. At least I'll have something to do.

Done!

Some time ago it felt like I couldn't get anything out of my hands. Lots of projects going on, and not one was even close to being finished. Now it's the other way around. I finish what was started long ago, and if I start something new, I don't stop until it is done.

This might look familiar to you, I have made a bag just like this before only different colors. It's for a dear friend who loved the other bag but didn't love pink too much I guess. She asked if I could make her a purple one, and here it is. I have even lined it (on request, but anyway)! The other bag, which I call the Pink and Purple African Flower Bag has been very popular on Flickr, so I'm planning on sharing how I make these bags. I plan to do it this week, but I don't promise to. Anyway, then you'll get a closer look.

This green and brown beanie is my son's. He wanted me to make him one when I needed something to try my knit pro needles on. It was a success, since he loves the beanie and I love the needles! He won't even take it off indoors, yesterday he was complaining about it since he had to take it off because it was too warm... Asked me if I could make a cooler one too! I'm so happy when my kids like what I make them, so I'll make him as many as he wants!

Of course his sister wanted a hat too. We looked up a hat she had fallen for last winter with the lovely name Daisy Chapeau, and she chose the colors. Pink and purple, I'm not very surprised!

This hat has a very simple pattern and is quickly done. The little flowers made of i-cords turned out better than I thought they would. I'm very pleased with it. And both children look really good in their hats too!

I'm hoping to be back soon with the tutorial for the bags, if nothing gets in the way. I have my girl home from school today, so she's bossing me around a bit!

From shirt to lamp shade

Hello there!  I'm finally sitting down again, giving you some glimpses of what I've been up to lately. Last week the kids were free from school, and we also had my sister and her three boys staying here for a few days, so there haven't been so much creating going on here. But last night I finished this lamp shade. Do you like it? I do. I don't know how well you know me, but I really, really love making things from old "junk". We visited my father-in-law the other day, and I found the remains of an old lamp, that is I found the metal skeleton of an old lamp. Had to have it, and he loves when we bring his old things home and it comes to use.

 I had some thinking about what to do with this lamp skeleton, but I didn't have to think long. I wanted to make a lamp for my boy's bedroom window. But how do you make a lamp like this cool enough for a ten-year old? Think, think, think... Then I remembered one of his old shirts that I found while sorting out outgrown clothes a little while ago. We gave most of it away, but I kept some for future crafting. And I loved this flannel shirt. So I got my scissors and got to it!

As I was still planning the lamp I had other treasures lying on my table that I brought home from my father-in-law. Or actually from my mother-in-law's old stuff. She died seven years ago and had been ill for as long as I knew her, but she used to be a really crafty lady. She sewed, knitted and crocheted, and tried all kinds of other creative things. Oh how much fun we could have had together! But as it is, I bring home the things she left behind and use it. I think she would have liked that. In this particular case, I had ribbons, and a wide, brown ribbon was just perfect for what I had in mind.

I simply cut the shirt to fit on the hight, and took it in a little in one side to fit around the metal. I attached the ribbon around top and bottom, but only on one side so I could use the machine. That way I got a more even and straighter seam than I could ever sew by hand. This was all done in a few minutes.

Then the more time consuming part begun. To fold the ribbon around the metal wire and sew it into place. The top was okay and not much trouble, but the bottom... Well, I kind of act without giving it too much thought when I create and there's a price to pay for that! This time, I had completely forgot about the feet on the shade. It doesn't show on the pictures, but in each corner the wire frame bend to make feet. So I couldn't just fold the ribbon over the frame! I hate redoing things so I found a way, only not the neatest. But no-one will ever see that, unless they turn the lamp upside-down. Hope nobody will! 

And by the way, I see some bloggers sometimes talk about the mess on their working space or any other table. I tell you - you have seen nothing! Consider me the queen of mess. I bring everything to the table when I'm trying out new ideas, and I truly don't put it back at once. This is actually almost as tidy as my table gets. Sometimes I get enough and tidy things up, but it never lasts long. So what? Really? It works for me. But it's hard to take a clean picture, I can tell you that! Hehe!

Aren't these booklets just lovely? Enlarge it if you can't see it properly. I found these too in my in-laws house. Old booklets filled with alphabets, names, tags, flowers and such to use for embroidery. Lovely! I think some of them belonged to my husband's grandmother, I found some small papers with her initials on.

Oh, and meet my new best friend, Evermat! At least I hope he is. This is a food dryer, the cylinders on top of the heater are six drying boxes on top of each other. This will save me so much time and space when I'm drying things! I got this on my birthday from my parents, grandmother, sister and brother. Thank you!

Oh, and this is me trying to take a picture of the lamp shade. Someone here is dying for attention right now, so I had to push her away to get the shot. Something, probably another cat, bit her on her jaw and the wound was infected so we had to take her to the vet. She has to stay inside for ten days, and oh my how she hates that! The wound seems to be healing well, although I keep smearing half her face when I try to give her the medicine... So I let the man in the house be in charge of that when he's at home. Well now, I seam to have a cranky girl to cheer up, see you soon again!