27 July: String Bag Mk 2, plus a hat

First, here is the completed hat made from the Yarn Yard's organic merino roving, looking a little paler here than in reality -


It's an almost-tam, but the pattern I used for a starting point was a beanie hat in Sandi Rosner's book "Not just more socks". (You may read Harry Potter.....)

And I just had to try an improved string bag. This is crocheted, and I have great difficulty with following or writing crochet instructions, though it is easy to do. Here it is, hanging on the back of the door, and full of balls of wool -


And here it is empty and lying down -


It is all made very simply of chains of crochet, touching down to the row below, with a row of double crochet to reinforce the top, and the drawstrings are made from a long chain with single crochet into each chain, and joined into a circle, threaded through the top loops. The drawstrings had to be in a different colour, as I'd used up all the grey.

(For other string bags, click on the "string bag" label at the bottom of the post, or in the sidebar. Let me know about your string bags.)

I'm sure I wouldn't have been knitting all summer if the weather had been better. Everything in the garden has benefited from the rain, though, and several shrubs have grown hugely this year. There is scarcely room to walk round the path behind the borders, as the birch, rowan, and 2 buddleias all overhang.

And now I have a large heap of Blue Faced Leicester fibre blended with Tencel, all dyed orange, just crying out to be spun into sock yarn.