Thanks for your patience with my sometime mention of my top secret knitting project. It's big reveal time as I am finally giving it to my friend Jen, for her wedding.A little history . . . Jen's my girl. We met in VA at the restaurant where I also met my husband. Ironically, though we seemed to know all of the same people, we never met. We've been friends now for 14 years or so and I was blessed to have her in my own wedding. And now, I am blessed to be celebrating her joyous event with her and her fiancee next month.
I thought of making a wedding shawl, like the lovely Donna had made for Robin, but September in DC is more like Indian Summer so the chances of needing a shawl were slim and none. So, I moved on to accessories and decided on a lovely beaded bag. Two things: I had never beaded before and I didn't have a pattern for a bag.
But, the talented Cindy Grosch had a pattern AND showed me how to put them on the stitch without having to pre-string the 1800+ beads that I needed to use for the project. I definitely altered the pattern, once on purpose by making it a wee bit larger and once by accident in that I had the beads placed differently than she said to. Not sure what part of the pattern I screwed up there :)
I had to make tubular handles and was supposed to put a wooden dowel in each but didn't like how the dowels stretched the yarn and beads. Enter the Magic Wands. No, I haven't gone off on an acid trip. Someone had given my daughters these two rather inexpensive magic wands (I don't want to imply they were cheap, just less expensive than the highway-robbery ones we usually get from Disney) and one had already fallen apart leaving a clear plastic solid tubing behind. Well, the second wand had a happy little accident, right after I figured out how perfect the first magic wand was for the space.
My lovely friend Patty, who has sewing skills that I do not posses, was kind enough to sew in a lining for me and voila! It is finally an FO. I will post more photos of Jen with the purse as I think that it needs to be seen in situ to be appreciated. These photos do it absolutely no justice as is evidenced by the ooo-ing and ahhhh-ing that happens when people see it in person.
4 comments:
Darling, the beaded purse is just gorgeous! What a great gift for a special friend. Cindy is very talented!
Very cool gift! Have a great time @ the wedding :)
Yeah! Its made its debut and its as lovely on screen as it was in person. I can not imagine doing the beading but I can honestly say that you have made an heirloom. I can picture Jen and future brides using that for their hanky and lipstick.
Yes, its me. The receipient of this amazingly beautiful bag created out of love and friendship by my girl. I am still utterly amazed not at her talent, but the time she put in to creating this masterpiece. It will be an heirloom for years to come...if I can part with it even only temporarily! As soon as I can find my darn camera dohickey to download pics, I promise pictures of it "pre" and "at" the big event! I am truly blessed to have this knitter in my life!
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