A Tale of 2 Lightbulbs and 4 Warnings...

Once upon a time one of the girls in our craft group fell in love with my little fulled green purse that I made. She went home after I showed it at craft night and told her husband how much she liked it. I used to work with her husband, so he called me up and asked me to make her one for her birthday on the 23rd. How sweet is that ... maybe I am just unlucky but I have never had a boyfriend do something so thoughtful for me. So I said absolutely of course I would.



Warning #1: Beware of experimenting on something you are making that someone else is giving as a gift, mostly definately don't do it if you are freakishly picky about things you make for other people.

Personally, if I make something for myself I will take it flaws and all if it can't be fixed easily or is not too noticable. When it comes to making something for someone else though watchout. It drives me insane to give something that doesn't fit with my version of acceptable. Which according to Vicki and any number of other people is nuts and have been placed on ripp alerts because one minute I will be happily kntting along one of my friends will turn their back for a second and I will have ripped out rows and rows of something because it looked at me funny.

Lightbulb #1:In my infinate wisdom I decided that I could knit an inner divider into the purse and sew the strap down the insides of the purse. Hayoo! I wouldn't have to sew the divider in it would just be incorporated into the purse as it was knit, what could be better then that!


Warning #2: When performing an experiment, stop and think, do not just do.

The experiment went really well I thought, I had knit the inner divider by casting on an extra half minus 2 of the total number of the original stitches on to a circular needle, i.e. there were 58 stitches and I cast on an additional 27 stitches for the divider. I joined the sides and knit the first 29 stitches. The next 56 stitches were knit also but every second one went onto a straight needle. Once the first round was done I knit 35 rows on the straight needle to make the inner divider. Then it was back to knitting on the circular needles and the body of the purse. I knit the first 29 stiches picked up one off the side of the inner divider and knit it onto the circular needle, knit to the end of the round and picked up a stitch from the other side of the inner divider and knit it onto the circs.

Warning #3: If something seems is working out for you on the first experimental try, the old saying "If it seems too good to be true, it usually is" will most likely apply.

I knit up the main body of the purse lickysplit all 40 rows. About 5 rows from the top I notice it, one side of the inner divider is about an inch taller then the other side. NOOOO!!!! Hoping that I messed up only a little way down I begin ripping it back. I stop count the side stitches ... nope keep going, check again ... nope. Finally about 4 rows from the bottom the stitches match up. How am I going to make sure the same thing doesn't happen all over once I start kniting up the body again?

Lighbulb #2: Take all those safety pins you have and slip one into each stitch on the inner divider that you are going to stitch into the main body of the purse.

Success! The safety pin idea worked (although took a bit more time becasue of taking out the saftey pins). Now I turned the purse inside out and started sewing in the srtap.

Warning #4: Make sure when sewing a strap into your purse with a divider you do it in the right place and that the strap is thinner then you made it for the one with out the divider.

I didn't realize that the strap should have been sewn into the front divider where there was more room on the sides for it to fit. Oops! This, I believe was the fatal flaw (well at least one of them) that lead to its downfall. I never noticed the problem until after the fulling and drying of the purse were done. I try out all the bags I make by putting stuff in them to see how they look/react with stuff in them. The purse was too fat on the sides and the back of the purse where the strap was attached on the inside of the divider was making bulges that, although I could live with for using it myself, were absolutely unacceptable for me to give to someone else to give as a present!

The "experiment" is hanging in my hallway. I look at it when I come home, when I leave the aprtment, when I go to the kitchen, or even chasing the cat to get my stuff back that she steals. I wonder what to do with it. I will probaly use it myself at some point or I may decide to cut it up and use its parts for some other new experiment. The only problem is ... that it looks so pretty hanging there .... humm I have heard about people framing knitted stuff... Anyway in the end I made my friend a purse in the same lovely pinks as the experiment and the same as my little green purse minus the experimentation.

The End of the secret project tail: She loves it:)

See the pictures...