Summer Bag

Something about going on vacation always makes me want to sew a new bag.  I seem to do it every time.  Usually, we take our vacations in the fall.  But this year, we're actually heading to Florida in July.  I can hardly believe we're going to the beach in July...but we are.  Jimmy's parents are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary, and this is what they wanted.

So a summery bag is in order.  And I'm using a pattern I picked up last year, but haven't had a chance to sew up yet.  The Pinafore Bag by Me and My Sister Designs.  So far, I'm loving it.  Cute?  Check.  Roomy?  Check.  Modifiable (is that a word)?  Double-check.

I'm adding several details to this one, but I'm just getting started.

On an unrelated note, I picked up this magazine the other day.  I haven't bought a crochet magazine in a few years.  I think maybe this is a new season of crochet love for me.

Crochet Hexagons

They grow!

Crocheted Hexagons

The dark color is a chocolate brown (of course).  It looks darker in the picture than it actually is in real life.  They needed that pop of contrast.  And these are rather large hexagons, about 7" across.

I'm up to 8 at this point.  I believe, unlike in the past, I will go ahead and start sewing them together now.  This will hopefully avoid the "I've got 50 hexagons to sew together and I don't want to do it" syndrome.  Then, I can just add a few at a time as I go along.  Yes, good plan....now I shall actually implement it, instead of just saying it on the blog.

Crochet = Summer

For some strange reason, I always think of crochet as a summer thing.  Or at least, a warm weather thing.  Maybe it's because I usually make cotton dishcloths and washcloths in crochet.  And it seems fast...really fast compared to knitting.  Boom, bam...a few yarn overs and pull the yarn through...and you've got a potholder at the very least.  Zoom!  Perfect for a quick summer project.

My knitting mojo has left me now that hot weather is here.  This usually happens every year, but it happened earlier than usual this year.  (Maybe because we had no real winter, and spring was just a "blink" and onto H.O.T.)

So, I've dug out the crochet hooks and I'm playing with the cotton yarn.  I like cotton yarn.  I know a lot of people don't like knitting with it, but I don't mind.  Again, that could be because handling wool in June in Arkansas is not.fun.

I playing with a hexagon shape...I'd like to make a small throw to coordinate with this quilt:

I made this quilt several years ago...and it's still one of my favorites.  It's a small lap size and we use it all the time.  I hand quilted the circles in the middle of each square, but then I machine quilted in the ditch around all the large squares and diamonds.  Then I used perle cotton to quilt a line around the border.  It was fun to do!  This was one of those times when I had a vision in my head of what I wanted the quilt to look like and it came out exactly like my vision.  Exactly.

I love it when that happens.