I Did A Thing, Vol. 9

I finally feel like I’m hitting my stride with knitting, and I recently completed a few neat projects. A few things have helped. One, getting more comfortable with reading patterns so that I can make small adjustments to suit my purposes. Two, getting this “dictionary” of stitches – game changer! I keep looking for a book of interesting knitting projects, but haven’t found anything that features the kind of more offbeat projects I want. The internet is hit and miss in that regard; I find tons of cool inspo photos, but few free patterns. I totally get and respect why people would want to charge for their designs but, as a newbie, I cannot commit to buying something without seeing the instructions first and making sure the project is something I can feasibly complete. Sadly, most of the really neat-looking stuff is way beyond my current capabilities … or it involves crochet. I’m not ready to jump into that. Yet.

But, as I said, I have managed to finish a couple of projects that I quite like. One involves a free pattern I found online, and one is based on my own design. Want to have a look?

The Cacti Lover’s Dream

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I fell in love with cacti on my trip to Phoenix earlier this year. This is not hyperbole; cacti are now in the top 5 of my favourite ornamental plants list – and I love flowers, a LOT. Anyway, this project is perfect for cacti lovers who, like me, are afraid of killing their darlings. This free pattern comes in a handy PDF format, and the instructions are easy to follow. You do need to be comfortable with working on double pointed needles (DPNs). This was intimidating at first. I tried subbing in circular needles, but quickly gave up; the largest cactus is only 31 stitches, which I found impossible to knit even on my shortest circular needles. Luckily, working in the round on DPNs, while finicky (for a beginner) is not too difficult to learn. Once knitted, assembling the cacti was also fairly easy. I stuffed them with extra fluffy leftover yarn, which probably wasn’t the best choice but was the most readily available (and cheapest) option. [Side-note: I think I ended up over-stuffing them, which stretched the knit material a little more than ideal. Lesson learned.]

Sewing the bobbles of the larger cactus together was the trickiest part, and I wasn’t particular “clean” in my finishing work. With that said, unless you’re looking at it closely, the “mistakes” are not very visible. If I were to do this project over again, I would spend more time on this part of it, but on my first try, I was excited to finish and rushed a bit.

The original design called for crocheted flowers, which was a no-go for me. I poked around the internet and finally found a very simple knit pattern, which I proceeded to adjust for my own purposes and added some beads for extra pizzazz.

The Embroidered Cross-body

This little purse combined a few of my previous efforts, and was super fun (and easy) to make – so much so that I made it twice! The design is very basic – just a long rectangle, folded over to make a clutch with a flap. Rather than sew in a snap, I decided to “weigh” down the flap. The metal ring is actually a “build your own” charm bracelet I got at Michaels; it comes with a little loop meant for attaching a charm, which I used to attach my handmade tassel. [There are tons of how-to videos on YouTube for making tassels, and it’s very easy.] Also from Michaels, I got the metal rings that I attached on the sides for clipping in the detachable cross-body strap; the strap itself was thrifted for $2 at Value Village.

The floral patches were embroidered on felt, cut down to size, then sewn on (with beading) the knit material. Embroidering on felt is trickier than on muslin, but felt can be cut without having to worry about fraying edges – I learned this the hard way on another project.

I really love the results here; the purse is fairly sturdy for being knit, though of course it’s not intended to carry a ton of stuff. I can fit a small wallet, my keys, and a phone without problem. Once I figured out all of the design aspects, actually completing this project didn’t take very much time – maybe 3-4 hours in total.