After I created my snowman phone carrier a few weeks ago, I couldn’t help but think about what I could make for the interim period between the warm, summer days that we’ve left behind here in MT and the Christmas season that–aside from me–no one wants to be reminded of quite yet. 😉 I browsed through Pinterest for autumn ideas, and when I found some fun pumpkin faces, the lightbulb went on in my brain. Jack-o-lantern! I couldn’t start knitting right away, however, as I didn’t have any orange wool yarn, and none of the craft stores nearby offer that color, so I went to my go-to online store for most of my knitting needs, KnitPicks, then waited for my order to arrive.
Finished product.
I was going to make this carrier with a pocket, like the snowman, but I knit the body of the carrier before I realized I was supposed to knit the black eyes and nose at the same time, so it ended up having a zippered compartment instead (I knit the body first, top to bottom, then work back up just over halfway for a pocket, or all the way back to the top for the zippered compartment). His spiraled “hair,” if you will, is actually crocheted, a bit of a leap for me, considering I previously only knew how to do a chain stitch. I found this amazing video on YouTube, however, that made creating the spirals easy-peasy–even for me, who’s not adept at holding the hook and yarn properly (yes, it’s that different from knitting!). But after such a well-done tutorial, I’m tempted to dip more than my toe into the waters of crochet… 😉
I hope your October is going well. We’ve already had snow here in MT, although this week the temps are supposed to be a little warmer, a little more seasonal. Just a quick reminder that my giveaway is going on for a couple more days over at StoryTellerSquad, so if you want a chance to win a signed, paperback book of Tinsel in a Tangle, simply head over there and leave a comment below my post. I’ll announce the winner on that site on Oct 19th. 🙂 Blessings!
I had mentioned a few months ago I wanted to try a smaller version of the Ravenna Satchel by Marta McCall. But this time, rather than using her flower pattern, I transferred this picture I found on Pinterest to graph paper and used it as a template. Knitting the template into reality, however, became quite the frustrating mess at times, as I had to deal with so many different colors and make sure not to tangle all the strands at the back. Several rows found me switching between colors as many as fifteen times, which sloooows down the knitting process. I also changed how the handles would connect to the bag. In a sense, they don’t connect, except as an anchor point in four places near the top. Instead, they travel around, behind, and under the bag, to give it support without pulling on the felted yarn itself. (Going under would have been so helpful on my original bag, considering how much I load it up when traveling. :)) The one thing I wish I’d done differently on this second bag was to cover the straps with fabric, as I’d done on the original one. But I plan to felt some flowers (a first for me) and attach them over the few anchor stitches, so maybe that will offset the lackluster look of the straps.
Two years ago, I had knit a Tinsel carrier for my iPhone 5. Since then, my phone went kaput thanks to a software update, and I now have an iPhone 6. Which is too big for Tinsel. 😦 In making a new carrier last year, I had used fabric for the skirt instead of felting the whole thing, thinking it might look better.
So this summer, I knit another one, but instead of a reindeer, the girl is holding a wreath. These patterns are found in Sue Stratford’s 
So, here’s my snowman carrier. 🙂 By far the quickest one I’ve knit & felted to date. I was going to sew a string of tiny Christmas lights between his hands, but it looked too cluttered against his buttons, so I decided less was more in his case (er, pun not intended).
