The good sewing project

Even though the perfect pants pattern still eludes me there was a different sewing project that turned out alright. The beans can be spilled now that my loopy swap partner Mapleweave has gotten her box. A road trip seemed like a fun spring theme, so most of her goodies had to do with travel knitting. Since there was a go knit bag to hold her yarn it seemed like there should be something to hold all the other stuff we knitters drag along. And that is how a little idea for a knitting tool kit was born.

I took all the stuff that floats around in my loopy tote and threw it on the floor. What we had was a calculator, pen, paper, measuring tape, scissors, Chibi needles, and beat up Kitchener instructions. I shuffled these things around on a piece of copy paper looking for the best configuration. After much trail and error, prototype 1 was made with three zipper sides and the pockets you see here. The problem was that the zipper kept getting stuck in the lining every time it was closed and reopened and the outside pocket for the tape measure really wasn’t going to work. Later that week prototype 2 was made as a regular zipper pouch that did not zip open. It looked fine but having one that zipped open flat was much nicer. Prototype 2 was dismantled and used for parts of prototype 3. (By this time my husband was wondering if I was ever going to remove the sewing machine from the kitchen table) Prototype 3 got extra pockets and some elastic to hold that the tape measure which is just big enough to be a problem. Maybe a more elegant way of dealing with that tape measure will come to me, but for now this works pretty well. The lining was sewn down further away from the zipper and now opening and closing was smooth as silk.

Thankfully number 3 was finished up right on the final day before Mapleweave’s box had to go out. Her pouch was filled with, scissors (they have a felt sheath that doesn’t want to come out of the pocket), calculator, pad of paper and pen, laminated Kitchener instructions (I got one to!), stitch markers, chibi needles, measuring tape, and this little crochet hook to pick up your dropped stitches (Sheri carries them).

While we’re on the swap here are the blue, blue, blue socks I knitted for her. Pattern – Whistle Bait, Yarn – Sanguine Gryphon Tangled up in blue.