spring greens

after all my talk about browns, pinks, oranges, etc. being my version of 'earth,' i've turned around and made a bunch of green things for this month's installment of project spectrum. oh well. they can all be 'earth,' right?



anyway, a friend had a birthday coming up, and i thought that would be a good opportunity to make one of the string bags that were collecting in my ravelry queue. for this one, i chose the elisa's nest tote, from the purl bee. i knit this in the round, instead of dealing with a purl side and what looked to be pretty awful seaming. i'm glad i did that, but i wish i had split the front and back a few inches from the top - as it is, the opening of the bag is a little small, and i think this would have helped. something to remember next time! i also probably would make this a little wider and shorter - this bag stretches a LOT, and when there's stuff in the bag, it's really long and skinny. so a little width might improve it's in-use shape. but these are pretty small issues. overall, i think this bag turned out really well, and i would make it again. this was my first time using applied i-cord, and i'm happy with how professional it makes the bag look.

pattern: elisa's nest tote, purl bee
yarn: rowan 4-ply cotton, in fennel, almost exactly one ball
needles: size 9 for the bag itself, and size 3 for the i-cord handle

i've also been doing a little bit of sewing! a couple of weeks ago, carrie held a contest on her blog, with some vintage fabric and patterns as the prizes, and i won one of the prizes! this was all the inspiration i needed to break out my sewing machine, which had been collecting dust since christmas. look at all the pretties she sent me (plus some awesome vintage patterns):


i decided to use a couple of the fabrics to make another soft clutch from bend-the-rules sewing. i made a bunch of these as christmas gifts this year, but had yet to make myself one. time to remedy that!

front:


back:


and the cute umbrella fabric that i used as the lining:


thanks again carrie!

i'll be back soon with another green project that i'm really enjoying right now.