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The two color handbag is finished and I think it turned out to be kind of cool.  Overall this is a fairly easy pattern. The bag is done in two sections; an outer layer in one color and an inner bag in a contrasting color. The outer layer has an open pattern so you can see the color of the inner layer. They're attached at the top but I stitched it down in some other places too. The pattern wanted me to use four ounces each of brown and orange worsted weight yarn and a size F hook. I wanted to use brown and orange since they’re such classic 70s colors but I didn’t have enough orange yarn. I had already started the inner layer when I realized this and had to decide if I wanted to take it out or make something that had multiple colors. I went with rainbow stripes.  It's wet and rainy out so it was really hard to get a good indoor photo of the dark yarn. To give the bag a little more structure they tell you to cut a piece of cardboard the fits into the base of the bag and then glue a piece of crocheted fabric on to that. I had some cork that I could cut to size and used that instead. I didn’t glue crochet on top of the cork because I wanted it to be washable.
This bag is little heavier than I’d like but I still love it. Next week I'll have August voting ready. We'll still be in the 70s!
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The purse isn't quite done. It still needs some assembly and it will be ready for next week. It's not done because I've spent the last few days unpacking and admiring the beautiful vintage china and glassware my mother-in-law handed down to me. Here's the china:  The china is Rosenthal Elegance Platinum that she purchased in Germany. This pattern was made from 1955-1959. And here's the lovely glassware:
The glassware is Rosenthal pattern no 2000-8 criss-cross. It's hard to see how adorably cute the one on the front right is. It's tiny!  Hopefully you forgive me for not having the purse/bag done yet! I'll have it done by next weekend.
It wasn't even a close race this month. The handbag is the winner with all but two votes.  I know some people wanted to see this done in modern colors but I had brown and orange yarn so I thought I'd go with the classic colors.  The bag is done in two layers. The outside layer is done in brown and the inside in orange. Then, they're joined together, handles are added along with another bottom part and cardboard is glued inside the bottom to give it structure. That part should be interesting...
Next week there won't be a post but I'll be back on the 19th with the finished bag.  For July we’re going back to 1974. The Top 40 Songs included:
Best seller list top 15 Fiction included
Non-Fiction
The July 1974 issue of Workbasket Magazine has five patterns. The cover above was one. The American Flag pattern is still available courtesy of Annie’s Attic and the Craft Yarn Council here. Also in this issue is a Barbecue Mitt, a Two Color Handbag, a Yellow Vest and an Afghan in Two Colors. The afghan photo is unmistakably 1970s. Check out the stereo and the curtains!
For July, you can choose between the Barbecue Mitt and the Two Color Handbag. I know I’ve done both a barbecue mitt and purses before but the flag and the afghan were way too big and I don’t think I’d wear the yellow vest. If anyone decides to make the flag I’d love to see it!
The Barbecue Mitt uses heavy rug yarn in two colors. The black and white photo doesn’t really show how the two colors work but I think that the contrasting color is just for the edging. The Two Color Handbag uses worsted weight yarn and true to 1974, they suggest brown and orange for your color choices. What's your vote for the July pattern? The Barbecue Mitt or the Two Color Handbag. The unfinished pieces of this dress are waiting to be rewound into balls. I got pretty far before I discovered that I made a pretty big mistake in the pattern. I’ll start from the beginning. The dress is done by making the front and back with armhole shaping. Then you sew the front and back together and crochet the sleeves into the openings. The back starts out with a row of 71 chains and then double crochets back the other way. I did 69 foundation double crochets to match their row one where they give you the stitch count. Row 2 is single crochets in each stitch across. Row 3 is double crochet in each stitch across for 69 double crochets. Then the instructions say, “Repeat last 2 rows for pattern, dec 1 st each end of row on second row and every 3 rows thereafter until 45 sts remain.” So off I went, decreasing 1 stitch in every third row. Checked my gauge which was 4 rows = 1.25 inches and that was perfect. Do you see what the problem is yet? In the picture below the dress with the gray portion is now 20 inches and I still had more than 45 stitches across.  Part of the directions tell you to work until the piece measures 12 inches so I knew something was seriously wrong but hadn’t figured out where I went wrong yet. I started by counting the rows in the photo. There are somewhere around 60 rows for the whole dress so I knew that either I read the decreases wrong or the pattern had it wrong. Next, I pulled out a spreadsheet (because of course I would) to figure out how many reductions I’d need to get to 45 stitches from 69 and realized that I should have hit that number by the time I hit row 39. I was at 57 stitches in row 39. Time to pull the pattern out again and read it over carefully.  And there it is. User error.
When I read the instructions I misread “dec 1 st each end of row” as “dec 1 st each row”. Written crochet patterns are like another language and each era, parts of the world, and even individual designers have their own grammar and punctuation that they use. Every word, comma and asterisk are important in crochet patterns. My mistake was thinking this was a super simple pattern and just skimming it. If it was a mosaic crochet pattern or overlay crochet where stitch placement is complex I would have read it much more carefully. This shows you that even simple patterns should be read carefully. Lesson learned. I hope. Next week is the July vote. Get out your ABBA and BTO albums, we're only moving ahead one year to 1974. I wanted to do another recipe review since the last one was so good. The June issue had a lot of recipes to choose from. We’re trying to eat a little healthier so I had to rule out some recipes. With the Cooks section This section is recipes that readers have sent in and it’s all cookies for June. There were Ginger Cookies, Frosty Fruit Balls, White Sugar Cookies, Butterscotch Jumbles, Date or Raisin Jumbles, Poppy Seed Cookies and Confetti Squares. So much sugar! Let’s move on to the magazine recipe section. Enter the Entrée
 I have no idea what makes this Mardi Gras but it seemed pretty simple. I ordered Cod from Costco because it was half the price of Halibut and I didn’t want to use an expensive ingredient in this recipe. Joel found a lovely tomato at the co-op though. I didn't have any paprika so I used Aleppo Pepper.  This was pretty simple to put together and I used my classic covered baking dish:
Even with a lemon and the Aleppo it was pretty bland. We didn’t garnish with the sour cream but maybe we should have. It was also dry and chewy. I think it was probably over cooked. 35 minutes at 400 degrees seems like a long time at a fairly high temp. As I was trying to troubleshoot the recipe for "next time" Joel suggested that it wasn't really worth trying again. He's right. We have plenty of ways to cook fish that are delicious.
Next week – I’m hoping to have the dress with butterfly sleeves done but I’m not even half done with it so it might be another week before I can share that with you. The Multi-Shaded bag didn’t make it to the vote because I didn’t have the yarn but my sister-in-law tracked down the Spinnerin Mardi Gras yarn so I could give it a try. I’m glad she did because this pattern had so many problems. I kind of enjoy the Workbasket patterns that leave things out and make you think things through to figure out how to get the end result. (To be clear, I would not enjoy this in a paid pattern.)  The pattern gives a list of supplies as; four colors of the yarn, 1/3 yd lining fabric, crochet hook sizes H and I. The instructions say, “Pattern is worked on an even number of stitches.” And then goes on to give an eight row pattern that you repeat once for each color. The directions start out with a row of chains, then a row of single crochets into the chains and keeps going with rows that end with chain one and turn. This gives you a flat piece of fabric. There are instructions for the handle that’s the same pattern as the bag plus a row of single crochet around the outside of the handle. Here are the finishing instructions: “Block.” I’m not sure how you block polypropelene but aside from that, shouldn’t there be something more? Did they run out of room on the page and edit the rest out? Nowhere in the pattern does it say make two and sew sides up. It doesn’t even tell you to attach the handle. The photo shows a button but there is no mention of a button in the materials or in the pattern. The materials mention lining fabric but it doesn’t ever mention it again. So now what? Sometimes I can use the photo to figure out what they meant. In this case, the photo doesn’t look like it was sewn up the sides. It looks like it was crocheted in the round. And the base looks flat and not what I would expect if it was just two pieces sewn together. So I decided that’s what I would do. I'd make a base from single crochet and then use their stitch pattern in the round. First I need to run through the stitch pattern because the turning seems a little odd. This is what I got when I tried the stitch pattern:  Huh… Good thing I’m going to do this in the round and I don’t have to deal with their weird turning that added extra stitches. The yarn itself took a little getting used to. Because it’s plastic, it doesn’t slide on the hook well and that extra drag made my hands tired after eight rows or so. Eventually I ended up with this:  By the time I got to the handle I was kind of tired of their stitch pattern and just did single crochet instead. I hoped I could get through it without opening another skein and made the handle shorter than the pattern wanted. I ended up having to open another skein anyway and the handle really does need to be longer. I’ll probably take it off and make a longer handle.
There it is - The Multi-Shaded bag done in 1970's polypropelene yarn. I think it will be a pretty durable bag and I have some extra yarn for the next time we need to use a straw-like plastic. The Jiffy Lace Baby Set started out strong but the dress ended up having double the votes as the baby set. The winning June pattern last year was also a dress! This pattern calls for 6 ounces of sport weight yarn, a Susan Bates crochet hook size G, a 3/8 inch button and a tapestry needle.  I’ll be using Knit Picks Brava Sport in red. I think I have about 5 ounces of this so I may shorten the dress or make the sleeves a different color. I have the exact hook (Bates hooks aka in-line hooks are some of my favorites) they suggest so I’ll definitely use it. The dress is made in pieces. The front and the back are sewn together and then the sleeves are added so it looks pretty easy. Hopefully it is because I'm going to try to get another project done by next weekend. The bonus project! Last week I mentioned that I didn’t have the “yarn” to do the bag and my lovely sister-in-law sent me the yarn! The Multi-Shaded Bag will be a bonus project this month.  I’ve started the bag and the polypropylene yarn is really interesting to use. And the pattern for the bag? That is also “interesting” but I’ll save the details for next week.
 Richard Nixon was the President and the Watergate scandal was heating up though it would be another year before he resigned. Secretariat won the Belmont Stakes and the Triple Crown. The Top 40 Songs included:
Best seller list top 15 Fiction included
Some popular movies in June 1973
The June 1973 issue of Workbasket Magazine has five patterns; Dress with Butterfly Sleeves (cover photo), Multi-Shaded Bag, Lacy Shawl, Shell and Jiffy Lace Baby Set..
You’ll choose between the Dress with Butterfly Sleeves and the Jiffy Lace Baby Set.
Both the baby set and the dress are done with six ounces of sport weight yarn. I have plenty of sport weight yarn but I don’t have six ounces of any one color so which ever one you choose will be done in at least two colors.
The baby set is done with a technique called jiffy lace (also known as broomstick lace). I learned how to do this at one of our last in-person crochet guild meetings. The catch with this pattern is that it calls for size 50 knitting needle and I have a size 35. If I do this one it will probably end up being a doll size instead of a 6 month baby size. I kind of wanted to make the bag but I don’t have any yarn that would really hold its shape and not stretch like the Spinnerin Yarn Company’s Mardi Gras yarn that’s suggested. They describe it as straw like and it’s made out of polypropylene. I could search for it but I’m to do patterns with the yarn I have on hand. So, your June choices this month are the little girl’s dress or the baby/doll set. Which one should I make? The carnation was done a little differently than I expected and I kind of liked it. I used blue and green pearl cotton thread in a size 5 and a B hook like I planned. Starting off with round 1 is where the interesting bit happened. This is a variation on a foundation row that I've never done: “Rnd 1: Ch 3, dc in third ch from hook, * 2 more dc into same st, 1 dc into base of last dc, repeat from * until there are 45 stitches; join with a sl st.” This version of a foundation stitch makes it into a stepped circle. Here are what the first six double crochets look like. I circled the part where you're double crocheting into the base of the previous double crochet  Round 2 puts two triple crochets in each double crochet to get the hyperbolic look and round 3 is picot stitches to make a “lacy edge” The base is a green crocheted tube with loops of chains at the top that get pulled through the center and sewn in. The most difficult part was getting the floral wire in it. The directions say, “fastening wire in center of flower”. If I’d used smaller wire it would have been easier to hide it but the floral wire made it a little sturdier. I used some jewelry pliers to get it in and kind of sewed around it to hide it. The stem wire is covered by wrapping the thread around it and I secured it with some hot glue. (See the big bump at the bottom of the stem? That's clumsy gluing.)
The flower was pretty easy and fast to make so I thought I’d try making the pin cushion. In retrospect, I’m kind of glad the carnation won. I would have had to the pin cushion in a much bigger thread weight than the pattern suggested and it would have been more like a pin throw pillow than a pin cushion. The pattern asks for “a medium weight crochet thread about like size 30”. I have a small amount of thread that is definitely smaller than size 10 but I’m not sure what size it really is. It was wrapped around a size 10 spool that I think I got from my mother-in-law (hi Alma!) but could be from somewhere else. I didn’t have enough to finish the final round and that’s ok because I didn’t really understand the edging row. This isn’t blocked and it’s missing a row but it’s already 5 inches long. I used the hook size that was suggested which is about 1.30 mm.  Next week we start voting on June. It’s 1973 and there are some adorable options for kids. |
