At 03:54 PM 11/22/05 -0800, Bev Walker wrote: >Does anyone own the ideal knitting bag? I'm excluding the fancy one made >by the backpack people - that's too over the top.
Mine is exceedingly simple -- I carry my socks-in-progress wrapped in two 22" furoshikis. (Think of a furoshiki as a large handkerchief or small cover cloth.) Size isn't critical -- 22" was as large as I could get two of from 45" fabric. When I want to carry more than will fit into my purse, I use a black denim tote originally meant as a grocery bag. The wire panniers on my bike were sized to fit a paper grocery bag; I thought that if I had a denim tote the size and shape of a grocery bag, I could fill it in the store, then set it down in the pannier without re-packing anything. Alas, when packed, the bag bulges and is no longer the same size and shape as the inside of the pannier! And if I set it down in the pannier and then pack it, intending to be able to pull everything out at once, some items poke out between the wires. A paper bag inside a plastic bag worked very well -- the paper bag was stiff, and the plastic bag provided handles -- until paper bags went out of style and plastic bags got smaller. But the denim tote is great as a work bag. The handles go all the way to the bottom, the better to support heavy canned goods, and that makes four re-inforced places where I can hang scissors etc. on safety pins. (Knitters' coil-less safety pins, or split rings threaded into the coils of ordinary pins.) I usually attach one part of a quick-release key ring to the pin, and the other part to the tool. A feature that you might consider is a detachable shoulder strap, so that it can be converted to a handbag instead of having to transfer everything. My shoulder-bag purse recently wore out, and I've been carrying a handbag with no virtues beyond "I can get everything (i.e., a sock-in-progress) into it." It's fine for shopping, but I've been taking the dumb thing to meetings because it's more trouble to move everything into a fanny pack than to walk a mile carrying a handbag. I'm plotting a new bag based on my clothespin bag, which hangs over a shoulder Sam Browne style, so that I can wear it instead of carrying it. I've really *got* to get around to finding a suitable fabric. Pity I didn't choose black instead of red when I bought two yards of ramie just because I hadn't seen any for sale before. (And I haven't seen any since.) -- Joy Beeson http://home.earthlink.net/~joybeeson/ http://home.earthlink.net/~dbeeson594/ROUGHSEW/ROUGH.HTM http://home.earthlink.net/~beeson_n3f/ west of Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S.A. where we are getting our second snowfall and our first significant accumulation. To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
