Bond Buzz, Issue #35
April 6, 2007
Free from Bond America

Welcome to another issue of Bond Buzz!

The daffys are trying to poke their heads through the mud, here in Vermont’s second-most famous season: Mud Season!  And our heavy sweaters are becoming lonely in our closets again while we switch back and forth from short sleeves to rain coats.  But purses and wraps never go out of style regardless of the weather or season! 

Since we want to continue to provide you with the patterns and projects you want to make, I’m asking you for one more survey.  All this information is so important to all of us.  It’s something we compiled with the old Bond registration cards, but now with the web, it’s both easy and immediate.  Thanks so much for taking the time to let us know what makes you want to knit! Click over to the poll here.

Felting for purses goes on year-round and is so much fun for Sweater Machine owners who can whip up a length of knitted fabric in minutes, throw it in the washer to felt and spend the rest of your time figuring out which great purse to make by cutting and sewing together the pieces.

Sewing??  Definitely!  Thanks to all of you who responded to our last survey about sewing which showed us that over 87% of you sew with over 60% of you sewing regularly.  So I decided to combine the art of sewing with the popularity of purse-making.

Choose whatever color of Caron International's Felt-It! you like.  I like Adobe, so knitted up a length of Felt-It (see pattern below), threw it in the wash (I use a net bag, hot water, old jeans for agitation and a tub about 1/3 full) for 6-8 minutes, let it rinse and spin, then laid it out to dry.  The final dimensions should be around 11” wide x 24” long for the purse.

So here’s the pattern:

FELTED FRINGED PURSE

Dimensions: 8” high x 11” wide (excluding fringe)

Materials:  Felt-It! (100% wool), Adobe #0001; set of 2 purse handles with 7-8” opening; sewing thread to match yarn

Additional tools:  Sewing machine with zipper foot; long pins; sewing scissors

Pre-felted gauge:  In st st using #4 keyplate:  16 sts & 23 rows = 4”

After felting gauge:  18 sts & 27 rows = 4”

PURSE

1. Using closed-edge, CO 50 sts. 

2. Knit 174 rows.  BO loosely across.

FELTING
Press the piece then felt according to the above instructions and let dry.

SEWING

Mark the piece at 3½” at each end.  Fold the top of the piece over the handle and pin. 

Using the zipper foot on your machine, stitch as closely as possible to the purse handle, through both thicknesses of the Felt-It fabric.  Repeat for opposite end, making sure to fold the end over going in the opposite direction.  Measure down 3½” from the top of the fold and pin the sides together.  Sew a ¼”-1/2” seam along the sides of the purse from the pin to the bottom of the purse.  Repeat for opposite side.  Cut ¼” wide fringe along both folded-over edges.

A book that’s ideal for Sweater Machine owners is the book, “Heartfelt: 24 Projects for Stitched and Felted Accessories” by Teresa Searle, published by St. Martin’s Press.  Nearly all the projects are made from knitting a length of fabric, felting it, then cutting our shapes and sewing them together to create everything from flowers to mittens.

As mentioned above, like purses, one can never have enough wraps.  So this month’s pattern is a cabled wrap designed by Kathy Perry.  If you’re new to making cables on your Sweater Machine, this is the ideal pattern for practicing them.  The yarn to use is Caron’s Simply Soft Shadows, as while the pattern stitch is pretty straight-forward, the subtle striping effect you’ll get with the yarn makes this wrap really special.

It’s been a very busy couple weeks at Rwanda Knits too.  This Friday, April 6 at 7:00 Pacific time (10 p.m. DST), Pacifica Radio KPFA (an NPR affiliate station) in Berkeley, CA will be broadcasting an 11-minute segment about the Rwanda Knits project on their show, Full Circle.  The show host will be interviewing me about the project as well as interviewing Rwanda Knits' project manager, Geofrey Katushabe and two of the Rwanda Knits' teachers, Esperance Nyirarusimbe and Furaha Mukamusoni, who joined us from Kigali, Rwanda.

This segment is especially relevant airing in April, the 13th anniversary of the 1994 Genocide.

If you cannot catch the show live (it is broadcast streaming at www.pacifica.org), you can listen to it by clicking on their archived shows at: http://www.kpfa.org/archives/index.php?type=all

Have you ever wondered what happens to the fabulous garments you see in the pages of your favorite knit and crochet magazines? Would you like to own an original Nicky Epstein design? A Gayle Bunn or a Doris Chan?  A Kathy Perrry or a Heidi Stepp?  Now, through the Rwanda Knits Project online auction, you can own one of those “star” garments and help knitting cooperatives in Rwanda at the same time!  What a perfect Mother’s Day gift!  (Note that the auction URL will not be live until the start of the auction but you can visit www.rwandaknits.org any time.  The site is being updated this week, so if you can’t get through, please re-visit soon.)

Rwanda Knits Auction
www.rwandaknitsauction.org 
April 20, 11pm (eastern)
through
April 29, 11pm (eastern)

Happy Knitting!

Cari Clement
Bond America

P.S. As a subscriber to Bond-Buzz, I'd like to invite you to subscribe to the FREE e-mail newsletter—Caron Connections from Caron® International. Just visit the Caron site (http://www.caron.com) and enter your email address. It's that easy. As a subscriber to Caron Connections, you'll receive monthly emails filled with the latest inside scoop on Caron's new fashion yarns and free patterns.