Country Garden Bag & a Trip to London

The Country Garden Bag above is what I have been working on for about a week now. It started off as a simple clutch bag in some of the white cotton tape yarn I bought at that car boot sale in order to utilise a metal clasp I wanted to try out. Knitting up the main piece was the easy part, as was sewing in the lining. Then came the ordeal of sewing it to the metal frame - I don't know if you have ever tried to sew around corners through holes in metal with a straight needle, while at the same time making sure two layers of fabric are tucked neatly away inside - not easy. In fact, about a million miles from easy....easy is a dot on the horizon! I skewered myself so many times with the needle, always somewhere especially painful, like down the side of a fingernail or the back of my hand (don't ask!) and then while dealing with the agony, trying not to let my blood get on the pristine white bag!

Then it seemed a nice idea to use the other colours in this yarn (Papua by Adriafil - gorgeous!) to create a flowery design...so I crocheted strips down the lines of the knitting stitches to represent grass, leaving a few inches dangling at the bottom of the bag - two evenings' work. Then I set about making crochet flowers & knitted leaves and sewing them in place, some on the bag, some on the dangling blades of 'grass' - another 3 evenings' work. I finally finished it last night by sewing a little glass ladybird bead on one of the flowers and breathed a heartfelt sigh of relief! I'm debating on whether or not it needs a fine chain shoulder strap...

This will be on sale at the Goodwood Organic Farm fair, Chichester, on Sunday 1st June, but if you'd like to get to it first, it is £25 + P&P.

Talking of the above fair, I shall not only be selling the crafts you see on this blog, but also touting for business with regard to pet portraits. If you fancy immortalising your beloved companion (humans too!!) here's your chance! I shall bring along my portfolio and plenty of business cards - better get in quick because if the project possibly in the pipeline (still don't want to jinx anything) comes off, I shall be a very busy lady for quite a while.

Yesterday I had a brilliant day out in London where I met up with three bloggers who I 'chat' with on a regular basis on-line - Penny & Toby from Natural Attrill and Sybille from Magpie Magic. We had arranged to meet up at the World Cafe in Covent Garden, but where did we all run into each other? Yes, the bead shop opposite! Had a lovely lunch, comparing and swapping beads, getting to know each other, and then had a wander round the shops before a final coffee at Covent Garden Market. Great fun and I hope something we will do again in the future - I promise next time not to be such an airhead and make sure my mobile phone actually has some credit on it........