I see red!

Hi, Y'all!

A friend of mine once told me: When I think of you I see red." But in my defense I have to mention that we talked about clothing and shoes! In my childhood I was all into pink and violet and later I really liked green (well I still do, but more politically). But somehow I always turn to red if it's regarding shoes or handbags. Or think of that beautiful evening gown worn by Julia Roberts in "Pretty Woman"!

And therefore, I'll show you what I made lately. (OK, forget Julia Roberts for the time being, I am not even remotely like her!) I already told you that I bought some fabric at the Netherlands fabric market - and among other things there were some pieces of faux leather. Usually I like classic rectangular bags, but thinking out of the box (literally) I tried a round one: 

I wasn't satisfied with my first attempt because the softness of the material. It was all very wobbly and didn't look professional at all. So I tried to support and spread the round parts with cardboard, but that didn't work. I was tempted to tear it apart completely but ended up topstitching the seam allowance into the direction of the zipper and then also made a lining which I handstitched to the zipper. Et voilà - it keeps its shape!

It's approximately 20 cm in diameter, thus my most important utensils like purse, keys, mobile and mask fit perfectly, and because I tailored it to me personally, I don't need any sliders for the bag strap. Clean, plain and minimal. 

From the leftover fabric I made a really small crossbody bag which can contain keys, mobile and poop bags, only. And exactly that is it's purpose: When I have to walk the dogs but don't have pockets in my clothes. 

Here a closer look. And as I have to reach the little black bags rather quickly on walkies I didn't use any closure for the handbag, only a tassel as decoration. 

A colleague told me lately, that she always knits socks during team calls or webcasts when she only has to listen, my bestie regularly takes part in a competition called "sock madness", and another friend of mine has been knitting socks since forever (when it was still uncool, that means). And therefore I thought, I might try that myself. Said and done, here's the first work in progress:

And here comes the finished pair - knitted from the top down to the toes. The cabled rhombus is only on the outside of each sock, but the single cable runs on both sides into the toe area. 

Then I started a pair toe-up with a crocheted chain as base. You knit from that crochet chain to the very tip of the toes and then back again to the beginning of your toes first in shortened and then elongated rows, and then you can eliminate the chain and have all the stitches for a complete round on your needles. And yes, I still use five needles to knit in rounds, although I have some sets made of bamboo. Advantage: You can use them on the plane whereas the metal ones are forbidden by most airlines.

Interesting features: purled gusset and the heart shaped heel instead of a normal one. 

Well and then I had the plan to mix several patterns into a frankensock, if you will say so. Shaft and heel were already done...

...and then came Else...

But she had so much joy with the skein of yarn and I wasn't sure if the yarn was enough anyway, I let her play with it. She took the whole skein apart and the sock went over the rainbow bridge but that's perfectly fine. 

A nice weekend to Y'all!