Cross Body Squares Bag

I've never been fond of granny squares because I thought they looked old-fashioned, but I've recently learned that there's more to a square than the granny pattern.  I decided to make bag using cotton yarn and squares, and this is the result.

I lined it with cotton fabric with a light rose print and made the strap with grit stitch so that it won't stress.  It has a zipper closure.  I really like how it turned out.

This one is for sale.

My New Handbag

Unlike most women, I am not infatuated with accessories such as bags, shoes, jewelry, and so on.  When my four-year-old inexpensive handbag began to fall apart, I decided that rather than buying one, I would crochet one.

Then I hurt my elbow and shoulder when I picked up my dog (He only weighs 20 pounds.) to remove him from the path of a car, and I haven't been able to crochet.

So, I decided to knit a bag.  I would use less yarn doing that, anyway.

I knew which colors I wanted, but I didn't know exactly how I would make it.  I bought hot green, hot yellow, hot blue, robin's egg, and white Lily Sugar 'n Cream yarn, experimented with a few stitch patterns, and decided on double strands of yarn in seed stitch.  I decided on the striping as I knitted.

At first I was going to make it flat, but then decided to add sides and a bottom and attach the strap to the sides.

I found a pattern for making starfish when I was almost finished and decided they would make a cool appliqué and then adapted the pattern to make palm trees for the other side.

Keeping with the palm tree them, I lined it with palm tree fabric and used a magnetic sew-on snap as a closure.

I've always followed patterns rather than designing my own, so I'm kind of psyched about my first ever original.

Spa Set

I'm going to try to catch up with some of the things I've made in the past few months.  I made a lot for Christmas, including the spa set pictured her for my niece.  She loves pink. It includes two Pampering Massage Soap Savers, a Pampering Massage Back Scrubber,  and a Pampering Picots Bath Mitt, all from mooglyblog.

The bowls are a pattern from JoAnn Fabrics.  I created the wash cloths myself, just knitting a simple square in stockinette stitch and then adding a crochet border.

I purchased soap for the soap savers from Bean Tree, and got a couple of bars for myself while I was there.

My niece really loved the gift, and that made me very happy!