Do you want to hear a story of some slight craziness? It is about knitting and crochet, honest. Yes? Well settle your good self on the sofa there, (oops, mind that Lego) and I’ll tell you. Green tea, anyone?
So, to stretch a short story long, yesterday was Mumsnet Blogfest in London, a rather fabulous annual celebration of blogging, with plenty of feisty independent thinkers/writers, plus an abundance of laughter, swearing, cake, and unlimited free gin. People I tell you, it’s like coming home. I was signed up to go, and to meet up with my lovely friend from the Telly And Travels blog.
All was calm until three days before the event. It was a chilly autumn afternoon, and I was lazily browsing in a craft shop with the Toddler Twinnage. And there, suddenly, was a large ball of yarn. It was grey and tweedy and unremarkable, but without warning it screamed at me, YOU-NEED-TO-BUY-ME-RIGHT-NOW-AND-SCAMPER,-NAY,-SPRINT,-HOME-TO-KNIT/CROCHET-A-CUSTOMISED-THETWISTEDYARN-BAG-WITH-A-LITTLE-POCKET-ON-THE-FRONT-FOR-THE-‘YARN’S-BUSINESS-CARDS,-ALL-READY-FOR-BLOGFEST.
Well, I was mightily taken aback by this outburst, I have to admit. I’m not used to being screamed at, except by toddlers. I glanced around to see whether anybody else had overheard these woolly words, but everyone in the shop was behaving normally (except for the Toddler Twinnage, who were pushing the boundaries of comedy by calling each other ‘Poo-head’ repeatedly then laughing hysterically). So, frowning, I turned back to look at the ball of grey yarn. It lay there, looking almost innocent, the beastly fiend. But it was too late, and the yarn knew it.
Readers, I bought that yarn.
Sigh.
That was the easy bit, the buying and the sighing. The hard part was having only three days in which to design and make and decorate the bag, three days during which I was also inconveniently encumbered by, y’know, real life. It wasn’t going to happen, was it? 🙁
Well probably not, but that’s never stopped me before. Let’s just gloss over the ensuing few days, let’s speed past the caffeine-fuelled nocturnal hours of frenzied stitchery, the woeful neglect of building dens for the Toddler Twinnage, the failure to hold much of a conversation with the Stoic Spouse, and the frankly fairly hasty driving home from work to pick up my needles/hook.
What I envisioned was a shoulder bag with a stockinette knitted body (ie nice smooth surface on which to embroider the blog name), topped by a band of single crochet (US crochet terms), and wide single crochet shoulder straps. I’m quite excited by the design, because it combines both crafts, and because it looks OK and a bit different. I swatched carefully to do the maths of a smooth transition from crochet to knitting… which was all very well, but that didn’t solve the problem of how to make this beast in half a week.
I’m not a fast knitter and I’m definitely not a fast crocheter, but my fingers were such a frenzy of stitchery that I swear they’ve eroded to an inch shorter than their length this time last week.
I worked the chain-stitch embroidery with rather more speed than quality, I’m ashamed to say, although I did sew quick guidelines to ensure I wrote in a straight line. The probably not weird thing is, my handwriting in embroidery is completely different from my handwriting with a pen.
So did I finish the bag? Well, the night before Blogfest, I realized it was completely unrealistic… and then picked up my hook and started work on the first handle. Morning came too soon, and I sat waiting for the train towards Blogfest with crochet hook in hand.
By the very outskirts of London I’d finished the second handle and tidied up the embroidery. As we trundled through outer London, I made a crude pocket from a piece of felt and some gold embroidery thread that I found in the deepest depths of my handbag.
And by the time I was squidged into a London Underground carriage, I was improvising a small yellow flower. (This photo doesn’t do the train justice, as eight thousand people crowded in, the moment after I snapped this pic.)
Just to ensure that I looked like a complete freak, I then stood in a quiet corner of King’s Cross station working away with an embroidery needle and sharp scissors to attach the flower to the bag. I fully expected to be arrested. And then at last, I put away my sewing gear, and popped some business cards in the pocket of the bag. With minutes to spare before Blogfest opened, the job was DONE!
So, do you want to know how to make a bag like this? (Obviously, you don’t have to embroider TheTwistedYarn.com on yours. 😉 ) It’s quite a flexible design, which would work well with different colours used for the knitted and crochet sections, and maybe some more elaborate decoration on the knitted section.
HOW TO MAKE THE CROCHET-MEETS-KNITTING BAG
I used an aran-weight yarn, Hayfield Bonus Aran Tweed.
Gauge: 24 rows x 18st = 10x10cm in stockinette. But hey, it’s a bag: you don’t need to be too precise. The finished bag measures 42cm wide by 37cm high, excluding handles.
Needle: 5mm (USA: 8). I used a circular needle (80cm length).
Hook: 5mm (USA: H/8).
Using long-tail cast-on, cast on 144 stitches. Join in the round, placing a stitch marker at the start of the round.
Work 70 rounds in knit stitch, to create stockinette.
Purl 1 round. (This makes a nice transition from knitting to crochet.)
You will now crochet the stitches, removing them one by one from the knitting needle to crochet them. Weird, I know, but it works. Take the first knit stitch and CH2. Then single-crochet (US crochet terms used here, so that would be double-crochet in UK terminology) 4 stitches. Work a decrease single-crochet from the next two stitches. *SC 5 stitches. Then work a decrease SC to combine the next 2 stitches. Repeat from * until the end of the round. In other words, for every set of 7 knit stitches, you SC 5, then SC the last 2 together. You should now have 124 stitches in your finished round of crochet.
Work another 10 rounds in SC (or UK DC). (No decreases.) Begin each round with a CH2 into the first stitch.
Pull through and break the yarn.
If you want to embroider a design on the knit part of the bag, do so now. 🙂
Turn the tube of fabric that you’ve created inside-out and sew or crochet the bottom edge closed. Turn the bag the right way round again.
To make the handles: Lay the bag out flat. Measure 6cm in from the left edge of the top on the front. Join yarn here. Ch2. Then work one SC into each of the next 9 stitches, ie you’re working towards the centre of the bag. (10st.)
*Turn your work. Ch2. SC9. Repeat from * 60 times.
You have now reached the end of the first handle. Use slip stitches to attach this end to the bag, so that it is symmetrical with the first end, ie its right hand side is 6cm from the right hand edge of the bag.
Turn the bag over and make another handle for the back.
You have finished. 🙂 Now go find some stuff to put in your lovely bag.
I think the combination of knitting and crochet here is brilliant! Thank you so much for sharing your pattern.
Thank you. 🙂 And you’re welcome.
Twitsted Yarn! Thank you for liking my one blog post on my journey how to crochet! I looked at your blog and love all of the work you have done! I love to crochet and hope I can become faster at it. It takes me forever to finish projects
So pleased to have found your blog. Sat next to you in Google Plus and admiring your skirt and ipad cover. Meant to ask for your card but didn’t. Like the above article and will follow your blog.
Oh, hello again! Yes, it was lovely to chat, albeit briefly. You were thinking of starting a knitting blog? And what I didn’t get a chance to ask amidst the noisy crush leaving the room was whether you’re currently blogging about anything else?
Hi, I am also interested in shoe making but again this is in the creative stage. I will let you know when things are up and running.
Ooh you get business cards too! Glad to hear that. Am so impressed by the bag idea it is genius. Jealous I didn’t think of it. Don’t think of it as crazy at all. We shoot from the sane hip, you just do it in such a unique and ‘twisted’ way. Love it x
Thank you. 🙂 You realize you wrote that we ‘shoot from the SANE hip’, which is true in your case, but definitely not in mine. 😉 See you soon. 🙂
Frantic last minute projects that are completely impossible to finish in the given time frame are what crafts are all about! It often takes a sleep deprived caffeine frenzy to make me finish anything on time. I love your bag btw. Am already planning a striped BAM Crafts one! 🙂
You must make one, you must! The important thing to remember is that – unless my relative gauge is weird – 6 single crochets (US terminology, so DC in UK terms) = 7 knit stitches. I think you’ll do a rather beautiful job of it. 🙂
What a story! Glad you finished in the nick of time.\
Just…. only just….
What an incredible story, amazing that you managed to finish the bag in time! I guess that grey yarn knew you could do it, and that’s why it was screaming at you.
Ha, I hadn’t thought of it like that. I’d just been resenting the yarn for its bossiness.
It may have been a bit obsessive but my god it works! Lovely bag, great idea ……. those screaming yarn things do get annoying …… I even hear them over the internet …..
Yeah, they’re a real pain, aren’t they? Especially the expensive ones. Sigh.
Great story telling and an equally awesome bag! 🙂
Thank you, and thank you. 🙂
That’s a lovely bag, but I must admit to being more curious about the skirt (dress?) you’re wearing that can be seen in the pic of you crocheting on the tube. Is there an old blog post about it, or maybe a ravelry link?
Thank you. 🙂
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/Occles/jenna
That was my exact question…great bag, but even lovelier skirt!
Your gray ball of yarn turned out fabulous. Love the pattern idea.
Thank you. 🙂 (Not that I’ll ever create anything as beautiful as your pictures.)
Brilliant! Demented and brilliant. Love your bag and your style 🙂
Thank you. 🙂 🙂 🙂
You truly know how to tell a story! This whole thing is wonderful and wild and pretty nutty–I am so glad (but not surprised!) that you finished in time.
Thank you. (But I really REALLY didn’t think I’d finish in time.)
Love it! The bag is great and so is the story. Only a true craft people would be able to find gold thread lurking in the bottom of their bags.
I know. I dread to think what else is lurking in the depths. Lego, probably.
I love it! Well done in going from inspiration to finished article in such a short time. I hope some of your fellow train/tube travellers were inspired to do something crafty after seeing you. 🙂
I fear they might’ve been inspired to back away slowly…. But the overcrowding of the carriage prevented them. Oh well.
Laughter, swearing, cake AND unlimited free gin? I think you just swayed my phobia of long haul flying and the ball might be back in the “travel with GREAT haste immediately to that blogfest” court methinks… who could resist aran (No I do NOT want to change “aran” to “Sarah” spell checker!) tweed? Although it has a price tag that would make that single ball a $25 spend here in Australia…EEK! I am in utter and complete awe at your dedication…your knitting/crocheting/felting AND flower creation frenzy on the train with 40 000 other commuters cram packed to the eyeballs in other people’s elbows and knees and your sewing standing up whilst hooking at the station. What a GAL! Would I like to make a gorgeous crochet meets knitting bag like that? HELL YEAH! I might bypass the embroidery lettering though as my embroidery is even more illegible than my handwriting (which comes with it’s own code book for the reader to decipher…) and I might give that felting pocket a miss as alas…I have NO business cards BUT those handles…that gorgeous neat blank canvas of a bag exterior all soon to be MION! Note…I won’t be spending $25 on a ball of this sheer gorgeousness of a yarn. I will be buying a few $2 balls from “The Reject Shop” a most stellar establishment that offers quality wools at bargain basement prices (I can tell fibs here right?) Again…I bow to your amazingness Ms Twisty. You are a most determined girl indeed. Remind me NEVER to cross you or make you twitch. I fear the repercussions may last for a very LONG time 😉
Thank you for your most mightily lovely comment. 🙂 (By the way, the ball of yarn was 400g, enough to make a whole jumper, so the £12.50 price tag wasn’t crazy. I know it looks like a smaller ball in the picture – that’s partly because I took the shot after I’d made the bag, because I was in too much of a rush to photograph it beforehand.) So a modest 50g ball would have been £1.56, which isn’t quite so bonkers.
Anyway, YES, you have a fraction under one year to overcome your flying aversion just in time to come to next year’s Blogfest. It really is a wonderful celebration of female wit and originality and, well, swearing and gin. 🙂
Oh, and thank you for the last part of your comment but I’m really not remotely scary in real life.
(that’s what serial killers say…)
Everything about this story screams ‘Twisted!’ I would know it was you even if I stumbled upon it on page six of the local rag! Love that skirt youare wearing and glad someone else asked first. The bag is INSPIRED! I am teaching myself Tunisian crochet at the moment and think that could also be used in such an inspirational event. I love the felt pocket, the flower and the gold thread – perfect finishing touches! I’m not going to announce that I also want to make one of these as the list of things I want to make has out-grown the potential years remaining of even my longest possible life span!
Hope you had a great blogging event!
Oh! Oh! Tunisian crochet?! Wow! Is it as impossibly tricky as I’ve always assumed it must be? It looks so amazing – I’d love to see yours, because I know you’ll bring a twist of beauty and originality to it. *scurries off to check I haven’t missed a blog post from you*
Meanwhile, thank you for your comment. And yes, Blogfest was a lot of fun.
I have just bought a supply of TC needles and am practising stitches in between finishing a Bavarian Crochet blanket which has to be finished before I start the TC project – the subject of which I haven’t yet chosen. So in short no, you haven’t missed out on anything – yet 😉 And no, it’s pretty straight forward when you get the hang of it, think knitting with one needle 😀
You are a real force of nature,dear Phil!! A real tornado of ideas and wonderfully crafted items!! I love so much your strong will!
Haha, thank you. (Actually, I’m just insane.) 🙂
Oh,I know what you mean 🙂 😉
I admire your dedication in getting that lovely bag finished 🙂
Love the idea of hooking on the tube *grin*
I love it!! Well done you 🙂 xx
Wow! I’m really impressed!
Oh my god, you are a genius! I didn’t see you but if I had seen your bag I would have stood and admired! Anyone who can make something like that is a wonder! Fabulous blog post and fabulous bag! Well done x
Such fun to read and a great idea for a bag. Do crocheted handles stretch a lot?
Lovely!
I was breathless reading this, feeling like I was right there with you on the train and all! Twins? Spouse? Twisted Yarn w/business cards? and you still have time to blog about it all… amazing! I for one, am so very glad that you do… and am in good company at that.
That is a lovely last moment bag. I am thoroughly impressed.
Love the bag and the idea of a pocket for business cards on the outside is just genius!
HELLO, WHAT A WONDERFUL SENSE OF HUMOR YOU HAVE! I TRULY ENJOYED YOUR BAG CREATION ADVENTURE. I WAS RIGHT THERE WITH YOU, YOU WROTE IT SO WELL. I WISH I COULD HAVE SEEN THE PICTURE OF YOUR BAG, BUT I AM BLIND SO THAT WAS NOT POSSIBLE. HOWEVER, I LOVE THE IDEA OF CONBINING CROCHETING AND KNITTING IN A SINGLE PROJECT. WHAT A CREATIVE THOUGHT. ONE OF THESE DAYS MAYBE I WILL TRY YOUR PATTERN. THANKS FOR SHARING YOUR STORY AND YOUR PATTERN.oops sorry I didn’t mean to shout, I just realized the caps lock was on.
Thank you so much for your warm-hearted comment. I fear that the photographs of the bag didn’t do the verbal build-up justice! It’s fun to combine both crafts in one project, though.
Thank goodness you were travelling by train. If your transport arrangements had involved flying you certainly would have been arrested, for possession of lethal weapons, plus one handbag, unfinished. 😉 Glad it all turned out well.
well, i am going to give this bag a try! I am sooo new to knitting, this probably would be the first ever knit project i ever have done. will give this a try after i finish my crochet sweater and scarf. 🙂 thanks for the inspiration.