Two Different Net Doilies

I have been slowly working on one of the beautiful patterns I received from Herman Mangels. It has taken a bit of time since there are about 9,200 knots. But I finished it on Saturday and starched it yesterday. This one was designed by Martha Kupfermann. She called it Large Aster (well, that's an English translation of the German). It measures about 23 inches in diameter; the instructions said about 67 cm. It is hard to measure precisely since the edge is scalloped.




On a much smaller note (10.25 inch diameter) is the doily I made just before starting Large Aster. I was planning on re-making one called Ice Crystal. I thought I had followed the directions carefully for each round, so I was puzzled when, on round nine, I noticed that I had more loops than I was supposed to have -- twice as many.

Looking at the doily in one hand and the instructions in the other, I soon discovered my problem. On round four I was supposed to net 2 knots in a loop and then skip a loop around the doily. I had forgotten to skip the loops. No wonder I had more loops than I was supposed to have.

When faced with the decision of either undoing all the knots from round five to round nine, cutting off rounds five through nine, or creating a new doily pattern, I chose to create a new pattern.

It looked like a sunflower to me, but I already have a doily pattern named Sunflower. I decided to call it Helianthus.



In the process of designing this doily, I ended up with a new decorative stitch which I called Flame.
Oh, I forgot to add one other thing that made me decide to create a new doily. I only had a limited amount of thread. I had chosen Ice Crystal because it used only a small amount of thread. The amount of thread also influenced my decision to try a new stitch, which eventually became Flame, instead of keeping all the extra loops and doing a different edge. I ended the doily with about a yard of thread left.

Where did the last month go?

This past month has been fun and very busy. I was able to attend a two-day workshop with Cat Bordhi and picked up some great knitting tips. I was also able to knit a pair of socks for my husband. I made the Dove sock found in her book New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One. Most importantly, they fit him.



The knitting workshop reminded me of Cat's Magical Knitting books with moebius bags that I had worked with a few years ago. I still wanted to see if I could net a moebius bag. And then it happened. I was traveling along Interstate 90 heading toward Worcester, MA. Suddenly, into my mind sprang the way to create a net bag with a moebius handle.



The most frustrating part of the whole situation was that I was driving and could not write down any reminders as to how to create the moebius handle.

The second most frustrating part was that I could not try out my idea until I had completed my trip to Worcester and returned home.

The funnest part was when the bag was finished. I placed my hand on the handle and without lifting my hand went up around the handle, down into the bag, up the "other side" of the handle, around the "outside" of the bag and back to the where I started, thereby proving that the entire bag had only one surface and one edge.








It seems that having done it once I could think of several different ways to create such bags.



I was invited to a bridal shower and moebius net bags would not leave my mind. So I gave in and made another one.

This moebius bag was created from the top down with a hole in the side.


The same bag is pictured with the shower gifts in it on the left and with onions in it on the right.
















The hole is present so the bag can be filled with something like onions and people can reach in from the side instead of the top or bottom of the bag to get the contents of the bag.











I also finished netting 5 doilies for my youngest son's teachers (as a thank-you for working with him this past year) . . .

Waltz

Lacy (large)

Virtue

Mystic

Midnight Sky

. . . and 4 doilies (one not yet starched) for wedding presents.

Prism

Celebration

Clusters (small)

Time Flies ...

"Time flies on wings of lightening" and "time flies when you're having fun" apply to the past month. The time has been filled with vacation, knitting, netting, reading, mundane house and family related chores, and work, even though I have not been blogging. Sorry.

So now for a quick look at some of what has been done the past month.



These socks from Cat Bordhi's book, New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One, can be worn with the rings scrunched down (left) or pulled up (right) .

Either way my 4-year-old grand-daughter loves the socks. She should since she chose both the yarn (Softee Baby in Bongo Blue - a sport D.K. Bernat yarn) and the pattern.

The visit / vacation was just long enough to finish them.





Of course her year-old brother deserves a pair of his own, but for grandma's sanity, a different pattern from Cat's book.



I have been working on string bags - net with net handles - including one used as a baby shower gift bag for my middle daughter's youngest. This gift bag was made bottom up, with a pentagon increase for the base and two handles. Before you ask again, a pentagon increase base is where I start with 5 loops and increase to 10 in the second round. After that I add 5 loops to each round by increasing in each of the "closed" loops. That continues until I have the number of loops I wanted for the mouth of the bag. This time it was 40 loops. I finished it with just minutes to spare and so did not take a picture. I'll have to borrow it back to get a proper photo, unless she beats me to it and displays it on her blog.

I have also been busy decoding the doily sent me my Nancy Day. I used much larger mesh sticks, but I think I have figured out the center.

Nancy's is on the left and mine is on the right.

Her doily uses at least a 0000 knitting needle for the mesh stick, mine used a 3 knitting needle for the mesh stick.

I used size 10 crochet thread. I suspect her doily used 70 tatting thread.


Her doily center was about an inch in diameter, while mine had a diameter of several inches.

I would have continued onto the next portion of Nancy's doily, but there was a wedding on Saturday . . .



. . . and this was the present, so I needed to put an edge on quickly. I created the edge using some of the information gained in making the earlier portion of the doily.

One other project I have been working on is a sweater for my 19-year old son. The entire sweater is done in knit 4, purl 2 ribbing. I changed the pattern to work down from the neck instead of up from the ribbing. I have done down to about 6 inches under the arm and am taking a "break" and starting the sleeves, yes both at the same time, picking up stitches from around the armhole. When I have the sleeves at least 6 inches long I will try to take a picture. And ... since this sweater and another one need to be done soon (maybe next month), I better leave this blog and get back to knitting his sweater.

I love top-down sweaters, I think. I definitely love net bags

I was just reminded why I like to knit top-down sweaters. I finished the brown one I have been slowly working on for the past 6 months. It was made in pieces, from the bottom up. It's great except for a few small things like ...the sleeves hang down to my finger tips and the cuffs are not tight at all (which would compensate for the long sleeves, maybe, by holding the end of the sleeve to my wrist). So, now I have to decide whether to leave the cuffs loose and just frog the sleeves to where I can eliminate a couple to three inches, or just frog the sleeves completely and see if I can get the cuff to fit (maybe even making it circular instead of flat).

At any rate that sweater will have to be set aside for a few months. One of my sons is turning in his mission papers next week and if his list of things to bring on his two-year church mission is anything like those of his older brothers, he will need two long sleeve, single color, v-neck sweaters. Since clothing stores here in Massachusetts have already taken such things off the shelves in preparation for warmer weather (here's hoping that weather makes an appearance soon), I plan to knit them for him (just like his older brothers).

Naturally I don't want to make it easy on myself and do exactly the same sweater patterns as before (actually I can't, as I would have to tweak those since he is a size or two smaller than the other boys were). So yesterday I pulled out my patterns, bought some yarn, and began.

Of course I want top-down. Need you ask, after my opening rant? And of course the one pattern I really wanted to make for him is bottom up, with separate front and back sections. Thank goodness for Barbara Walker's Knitting From the Top and a wonderful daughter who gifted me that book several years ago. With the initial try-on, it looks like this sweater is going to work and fit him.

Maybe a picture later.

I have not been idle on the netting scene though. People have been asking me for a simple net bag and so my mind got busy and I came up with a net bag that is just diamond mesh netting along with increases and decreases. This one used size 10 crochet thread and a 1/4" mesh stick.



The shaping of the bag is done after all the netting is completed. It could make a small gift bag. In my case, I'm using it to hold my crochet thread snoods.


I have finished a shopping-bag-size one, in addition to one with two handles as opposed to the tied handle above. If you're interested in the instructions for this rectangular bag with tied handle, click here and go to the bottom of the page to order an e-pattern.

Water Bottle Bag for use with a Walker

I had fun today. I delivered a net water bottle bag to a friend who is currently using a walker and wheelchair while recovering from foot surgery.

I had to be a bit creative in netting this particular water bottle bag. The problem was that there was no place on her walker to hang a water bottle bag using one of the net handles I made before. All of those handles worked on the idea that there would be a hook, peg, knob, or something on which to hang the bottle in its bag.

The walker had none of the above-mentioned items. It only had metal bars that were permanently attached to each other.








To solve the problem I decided to start the bag at the bottom using 12 loops over a 1" mesh stick.

Once the bag was deep enough I made one long strip of netting, 33 rows worth of plain diamond mesh netting over a 1/2" mesh stick using half the loops.

Once that strip of netting was finished I went back and did the same thing to the other half of the loops.








Once the bag was made and the bottle placed inside, all my friend had to do was tie the long strips of netting around one of the metal bars on the walker and her water bottle could travel wherever she went.

She also found that if she were in her wheelchair, she could tie the netting strips together to form a handle that could then be placed over one of the handles at the back of the wheelchair.




The past few weeks have been very busy, but I was gifted with an hour each day to do crafts while I substituted for a co-worker out on medical leave. Of course it was at 6 in the morning while my daughter was attending early morning seminary, but, thanks to that daily hour during the month of March, I have almost finished the wonderful brown sweater I started last fall. The early morning gift is now gone as I am out of the Facilities Management office and back to cleaning the meetinghouse during that time.




I love the cable stitch on the front and sleeve. The cables were the reason I asked a friend for the pattern.











Just after I lost my early morning craft time I was able to block the sweater and sew the front and back to the sleeves. I needed to do that before I could finish the band. The pattern told me how to make the band but neglected to say how many inches to make it. I needed to measure from the bottom of one front; across the top of one sleeve, the back, and the other sleeve; and finallly down to the bottom of the other front. I figured it out, and the band is almost done. Maybe this week-end I will be able to finish the sweater.

I was also able to finish a pair of baby socks found in Cat Brodhi's book New Pathways for Sock Knitters. Now to decide which grandchild they will fit. Probably one of the grandsons. I know, to be fair I should make a pair for each of them. Then the granddaughters will want a pair also ... some people wonder how I get so many projects started.

Beautiful heirloom net doily

Yesterday I open a package and found a simply gorgeous net doily. Nancy Day had sent it to me to see if I could reproduce it. It has about a 9" diameter and so won't fit completely on my scanner, but I had to try to let you see it.



The 8-sided figure in the center is only 1.25 inches in diameter.



Each of the 38 small circles that go around the edge are only 3/4" in diameter.



I am still trying to figure out how the person who netted the doily did some of the things that were done.



Like these small details which occur in the middle of the doily. These two diamonds only join at the bottom, but show no sign of a knot at the end of the diamond shape.






Too bad all the knowledge and skills did not get handed down. I know my great-grandmother had some netting techniques that her daughters could not remember how to do and so my grandmother could only say that her mother had joined circles together (maybe like the edge of this doily) but she did not know how to do it, so I do not know how either.


Looks like I am going to have to invest in a good magnifying glass so I can see what was done and maybe figure out how to do it again. Actually, I am kind of excited to try this. It will certainly not be completed quickly.

Shrugs and tiny mesh net bag

I've decided it's easier to find time to knit and net than to blog. Time having been at a premium this past couple of weeks, it got filled with knitting and netting and no blogging. So to make amends . . .

I saw a picture of a shrug recently in Lace Style called Retro Redux Shrug designed by Mercedes Tarasovich-Clark. I liked the look of it and wondered if it would keep my arms and shoulders warm. So, I found some unlabeled worsted weight wool I had been given and gave it a try.
















I was pleasantly surprised at how warm it did keep my shoulders and upper arms.


My next thought was, "Can I create a net shrug?"

So I dived into my left-over-from-other-projects yarn and grabbed some fluffy type of yarn. Using just a plain net stitch, I came up with a pattern that will serve as a springboard for other shrugs.














My biggest problem was that I used up all the yarn I had in that color and type of yarn. The shrug will work, but in the future I will want to add more length to the sleeves, and more of an edging to the rest of the shrug. I also have some ideas for fancy stitches and shrugs.

I was delighted with the way it kept my arms and shoulders warm, while at the same time it didn't get into things while I was cooking or cleaning like a cape or shawl would.




I finally got the heel turned on the second sock and now I can work both socks at the same time and not need to worry about one being longer than the other.


I guess at this point in time knitting socks is not exactly on the top of my list of things to do, since the heel of the first sock was turned back in October. I do hope to finish these sooner rather than later, since I really want to get into Cat Bordhi's new sock book and I am insisting that I will finish this pair before starting one from her book (which I got for my birthday).









Oh, yes. One other project that has been gradually making progress. The very tiny mesh net bag.

I finished the circle going from the center to the edges.


It looks like an oval because it is not stretched out evenly.




A bit of pinning took care of that problem.














Then I needed to create a foundation loop in the middle of a circle. I took some crochet thread and formed a square in the center of the circle (seen here from one side, and then the other).



(No I didn't change the color, the computer / camera did. The bag is still a lovely shade of light purple.)










The white doubled crochet thread becomes the new foundation loop. The orange stitch marker indicates where the first circular netting round began.



Now it is just a matter of netting around and around until the bag is as tall as I want to make it. Then I will net some handles.

The mesh is small enough that size 2 knitting needles will not go through the mesh, although size 1 will barely. The mesh stick is a 0000. I am hoping to make it large enough that it will hold a ball of sock yarn and the needles as well as the socks being made.

Tiny mesh net bag started

I like variety and, while I can and have made a pattern over and over if there was a good reason, I decided there were many techniques I had not yet tried with net bag making. So this bag is different from the others I have made recently.

I decided to make a circular base, but since I am using such a small mesh stick -- 0000 size knitting needle, I decided to make it using decreases only. To accomplish this I need to start in the middle of the circle, with the maximum number of loops, and work toward one end gradually decreasing the number of loops and forming a half circle. Then I will go back and, starting again at the middle of the circle, work the opposite direction toward the other end decreasing the number of loops to create the full circle.

I started by netting a chain of 72 knots. That gave me two rows of 36 loops. I then ran a crochet thread through the 36 loops on one side to create my foundation cord.

I attached each end of the foundation cord to an old pillow using safety pins . . .

. . . then I net 1 row across the 36 loops not in the foundation cord, creating row 3.

Here is the 3rd row with the mesh stick still through the loops.




and the same without the mesh stick.



I gradually decreased the number of loops to create a half circle. When I had only 7 loops in the row, I cut the thread and joined the thread in the netting needle to the thread left hanging from the starting chain.

Here is the half circle attached to the pillow, with the needle joined to the thread from the starting chain.

Here is a close-up of the netting. The reason it looks more like a half oval than a half circle is because it is not stretched out. That will happen when it is blocked as a circle.

To start netting the other direction, I removed the foundation cord from the 36 loops of row 1 and replaced it in the 7 loops in row 36.




With the thread in the netting needle joined to the wide middle of the circle it is time to create the other half of the circle by repeating the process used in creating the first half of the circle.



The 0000 knitting needle mesh stick is at the bottom of this photo and the foundation cord is in the 7 loops at the top. The second half of the circle has begun.

Net Shawl -- Finished!

It's done! And I like the way it turned out.

Actually the netting part has been done for a few weeks, but the blocking has been on hold while I created a blocking board . But once that was made I actually blocked the netting on Friday and wore it to church on Sunday.

The shawl will open out to a full circle, but when I tried to block it that way, I pulled too hard and snapped the double strand of yarn that held the center loops together. After I re-threaded them onto a doubled, double strand of yarn, I decided to fold it in half and block it that way, thereby putting less strain on the center.

If I were to try it again, and I probably will, I think I will use yarn that is heavier than the lace-weight I used this time and see how it works up with a thicker yarn.

Baby Gift Bag

Last week I was busily preparing to attend a baby shower this past weekend.




My standard gift for such events are three tea-towel bibs with ribbing at the neck. I received one years ago and loved it so much that I copied the bib to create my own pattern.

As you can probably tell, they are expecting a boy.









I also zig-zag around the edges of the small circle that is cut out. That creates small wash cloths the baby can hold.






This time also I decided to knit a small sweater and hat to accompany the bibs.








While I was finishing the hat I thought, "It's too bad that I don't have a gift bag to hold all of these items." About that time a light bulb went off in my mind and I knew what I would do -- NET a gift bag!

Of course it was impossible to use one of the bags I had already designed. My brain was already creating a new pattern.



I took the concept Alwen had used for the base of one of her net bags. However, I reversed what she did.

I started from the top of the bag with the handle and ended by decreasing to form the circular (well, actually a pentagon) base for the bag.










What really thrilled me was that the idea actually worked!

The only thing I would change would be to make the handle a couple of inches longer.








The ladies at the baby shower were impressed. One commented that the bag would be great for holding bath toys and another was heard to say, "... and she made everything, including the bag!"

Net Bags for Knitting

A couple of weeks ago, while I was working on my sweater, I got very frustrated. Because the cable pattern is simple and appears once on each sleeve and once on each front and not at all on the back, I decided to try knitting all five sections at one time, from five different balls of yarn on one long circular needle. It was simple until the balls of yarn got tangled. I tried hard to keep the threads straight, but it was not working well.

As I was sitting working on the sweater, I found myself wishing I could run the knitting needle through each ball of yarn to keep it close to the section of the sweater it belonged to, even though I knew that would not work since the needle would interfere with the way the yarn was pulling from the skein.

Then it hit me. A net bag could hold the yarn and slide along the knitting needle right next to the section of the sweater that needed that skein of yarn.




So I took some brown waxed 1 mm cord I had been trying to find a use for and made a plain mesh bag.

When I saw that the idea seemed to work I made a second bag to check my pattern. I placed the yarn for the left front in one bag and the yarn for the right front in the other bag.














I decided that I wanted to try something a bit different for the sleeves.

So I chose some green 1 mm hemp cord I had recently purchased and made another bag. This time I used the eyelet or rose stitch.

Again I made a second bag to check out my pattern. Then I put the yarn for each sleeve into a bag and put the two bags on the circular knitting needle.








Now that I had a bag for the sleeves and the fronts, I thought I needed one to hold the yarn for the back.

For this bag I decided to use some #3 crochet thread. I thought I would try out a new stitch and chose ivy.

When the bag was finished, I placed the yarn for the back into the new bag. Since there is no need for a second bag I guess checking the pattern will have to wait.








So now I have all five skeins of yarn hanging onto my needle.


It may look strange, but it works just fine. No more tangled yarn!


Oh, yes. I have almost net the shawl back to the place where I had to cut off nine rows. I am currently three rows from the end.

Socks and Quilt

Some might think that no blog = nothing done on any projects. They would be wrong.

No blog = no time to take pictures or make blog entry.



My middle daughter has been helping me knit my first sock in years. I think I made two many years ago with worsted-weight. They were okay, but not great, so I did not start any more. Anyway, she has convinced me to try again. And earlier this month we were both at the same conference, so I brought my sock so she could talk me through the heel.



It was a great Time Out for Women, and I got the heel finished.







Progress has also been made on my 3rd son's high school graduation quilt. I know I'm slow, but progress is progress.

I have taken the 240 squares and made 120 sandwiches out of them.



I put a bluish print, a smaller batting square in the middle, and a red print in a pile, with the right sides facing out, and fastened them together with a pin. Now I get to sew an X (from corner to corner twice) on each square. That will fasten the batting to the top and bottom fabric.





Here are the squares with the bluish side up













and now the same squares with the red side up.









I have also worked on the net shawl (including cutting off 9 rows when I was 2 rows from the end -- stupid mistake that did not show up until then), and the sweater. Now I need to go watch the Red Sox in the World Series. I still hope to get something finished before the series is done.

Progress on Projects

I have been busy these past few days on a number of different projects. I just did not have the time (take the time) to document what was happening until tonight.

I have made progress on two quilts. I cut 240 nine inch squares for one quilt (back and front).





One of these groups will be the back and the other will be the front.

The squares will be paired with a back and a front with the batting in the middle.


The next step is to cut the batting into seven inch squares -- 120 squares to be precise.


The other quilt will be a map of middle earth. I am having the map blown up to 54" by 45" and then plan to transfer it to the quilt using iron-on transfers. Now I need to get the blank transfer paper.


I have progressed on the sweater. I have done the the ribbing and about 2 inches up from the ribbing. I am knitting all the parts at the same time.






When I am not knitting on the sweater, it is hanging in one of the net bags I finished recently.















Of course I worked on the net shawl. I decided to add eight additional rows before the border. At this point I have finished one and a half of those eight.


And finally, I wanted to do something quick, so I took a few minutes to check the directions of the crisscross bookmark.


I wonder, by the end of the World Series, which of these projects will be completed. Anyone care to make a guess?

Progress on the net shawl

I worked on the shawl a bit longer than the baseball game and finished round 13. By the time I got to the middle of round 14 I decided it was too late to finish it, so I quit and went to bed.

Starting a new sweater and a net shawl

I really want to make a net antimacassar to go with my newly re-upholstered couch. The problem is that the yarn I want to use was originally purchased to make a sweater. There should be plenty of yarn for both, but I need to make the sweater first. I had requested the instructions from a knitting friend and want to show her I can follow through and complete the sweater. So this week I began.

I spent much of a two hour meeting I needed to attend with my daughter getting started. This is what it looked like at the end of the meeting.

I started at the very beginning with a gauge swatch using size 8 needles (size called for in the pattern). That swatch was way too big.

So I tried size 6. Still too large.

I thought surely size 5 needles would bring the swatch to the proper size, but no. It was not to be.

Eventually I was able to get the correct gauge on size 4 needles.

And that is why I hate trying to figure out my gauge for knitting. Of course I have to do it. Can you imagine how the sweater would have fit if I had not gone through all that. I don't even want to think about it.

I decided to knit all the sections (back, fronts, and sleeves) at the same time. I just finished the ribbing today and began the first few rows of the cable pattern.

I also began working on the circular net shawl. I'm in the middle of round 10 and hope to finish that round and maybe two more during the last of the Red Sox ballgame. Maybe I will have a picture of that tomorrow.

New Net Shawl

I think I have decided which doily pattern I will use to try to make a shawl. I called the doily Luminescence.


We'll see where this experiment goes. My thought is to at least double the size of each mesh stick and see how it looks. That should bring the diameter of of the shawl from 20 inches to about 40 inches. I may have to add a few more rows. I think I'll use the yarn I had left over from Mystery Stole 3. Hope I have enough.

Two more bags - top down

I came down with my annual fall cold the end of last week. Unfortunately it affected my thought processes as I started the handles for my new bag. I wanted to try to work a bag from handles down. I'm sure I thought hard about it - 2 handles with 12 loops in each handle should equal 24 loops around the bag - right?



I did not notice my mistake until I had both handles done and connected, and had done 3 rounds.


It suddenly dawned on me that I was going around on more than 24 loops.







I blame it on my cold. What I had was 2 handles with 12 loops (on each end of the handle) equal to 48 loops. What I had wanted was 6 loops on each handle.



Oh, well, I didn't want to waste the time I had already put into the bag (not to mention the time I would take to undo all the knots and make the bag the way I thought I was), so I just figured I'd make a large string bag.


It is nice and roomy. I decided though that 12 loops for handles is too many. It is hard to find the handles from the rest of the bag.


Since I had 48 loops instead of the 24 I had wanted, I decreased the number of loops to 24 in the next to last round.






For the final round I used a hard plastic ring as the mesh stick. I wrapped the string through the loop, then net 1 knot in the next loop and repeated the process around all 24 loops. This formed a grommet at the bottom of the bag.








I decided to try again for a 24 loop bag. This time I got the numbers of the handles correct -- 2 handles, 6 loops at each end of the handle equals 24 loops.














I tried to do a grommet without the plastic ring, but that did not work. So I decided to join the loops in the final round to each other without using a mesh stick. This actually formed two corners at the bottom of the bag. If you look carefully you can see the two points where the corners form.

Net Bag with circle of netting for the bottom

I've decided that netting bags can be addictive. I finish one and have the idea for more pop into my head.

After I had finished the two net bags with net handles I wondered about the bottom of the bag being a net circle instead of a grommet. I decided to make this bag also an experiment in mesh size.






So I used a #8 knitting needle (1/4" mesh stick) and size #10 crochet threat and created my circle.






After making the circle I began netting around the edges of the circle until I had the bag the size I wanted.
(This photo shows the bag after 3 rounds of netting.)

If you look very carefully you can see the tiny white thread that goes around the center of the circle. I used if for a foundation loop once I started going around the circle. It is removed after the bag is done.

I also decided to make this with spiral netting. Spiral netting is where you just net around and around as opposed to stopping at the end of each row and finishing it off completely.






After I had the bag the size I wanted, I net back and forth on half of the loops until I had a strip of netting twice as long as I wanted the handle to be.




Then I joined the last row of the handle to the loops that were still available on the last row of the bag and I had a bag to hold the stamps I use in teaching piano lessons.

One added advantage is that the handle will slip through a belt or waist-pack strap. That means I can wear the bag and not leave it when I travel from lesson to lesson (like I did last week).








Like I said at the beginning, string bags are addictive. I have already started the next bag -- top down with handles being done first.

More net circles

Well, actually one more circle. I had a few minutes this afternoon and decided to make the 440 knot circle. I used a 1/4" mesh (aka a dowel equivalent to a US #8 knitting needle) instead of a 3/8" mesh stick. This time the circle, well, more of a square with rounded edges, was small enough to fit on my scanner.

The diameter is about 6 inches. Amazing what will happen to the size when I change the mesh stick by 1/8". The diameter went from about 10 inches to 6 inches over the 31 rows.

Now I can get started on the small bag I want to make to hold the stamps I use when teaching piano lessons. I think I will use spiral netting this time. Spiral netting is where I go around and around and have no clue or need to know where each round ends. When the bag is long enough, I will start the handles. This is different from the usual circular netting I do where each round is finished with a CK (connecting or collecting knot) that brings each round to a definite end.

Circles with Diamond Mesh Netting

Another project gets completed!!! Today I finished 3 couch cushion covers and was able to stuff the cushions into the covers. They fit!! Under the supervision of the mother of one of my piano students, my youngest daughter has been re-upholstering our couch as a Young Women Personal Progress Project. I told my daughter that I would help her by doing the cushion covers. Now she needs to finish a bit of hand sewing and the couch will be done. It looks great and I am so proud of my daughter and the skills she has learned.

I have also been looking at net circles trying to decide which to use as the bottom of the next string bag I am planning to make.






This one has 1,228 knots with 64 loops around the edge of the circle.













This one has 634 knots with 48 loops around the edge of the circle.











This one has only 123 knots and has 24 loops around the edge of the circle. Because of the small number of knots this one looks the least like a circle, but put it at the bottom of a net bag, use a 1" instead of a 3/8" mesh, and no one will know what it looked like before the bag sides were added.







I also made a circle with 440 knots that had 46 loops around the edge of the circle. But, because I made it with a 3/8" mesh stick, it was too large to scan. Actually, I think that this is the circle I will probably make, although I will most likely use a #8 double pointed knitting needle as the mesh stick and some size 10 crochet thread. I need a small bag to hold the stamps I use when teaching piano lessons. However, due to the lateness of the hour and commitments already made, I will have to wait until Monday or Tuesday afternoon to try making the circle and the bag.