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.

Net Bags with Netted Handles

The kids are all back in school. That should mean more time to do what I want to do. Well . . . I did find some time to make a couple of new net bags. I saw some examples of net bags with net handles, and decided to try it myself. Thanks to suggestions from Lily, Barry, and Tony, I succeeded. I think I have a new favorite bag.






You might say I started backward since the first bag I tried had two handles. It had a grommet at the base of the bag and was worked from the base of the bag up. The handles were done last. I used a 1" mesh stick.











After I got the two handles bag finished, I decided to make a bag with a single handle. Here I also used a grommet at the base of the bag and worked upward. I did change the mesh stick to a 3/4" mesh stick.








This one can be used several ways, such as on the shoulder,

















across the back, or wrapped around one hand to keep it from dragging on the ground.

If I were going to wear it across my back, I would probably want to make the handle about 4 to 6 inches longer.









I was surprised at how easy the handle was on my hand. It did not cut into my hand and I could not feel the knots.

Now I can't stop thinking of different variations on these bags. I want to try one with a flat circle as the base and one with a square for the base. I also want to make one top down starting with the handles. I might also try using crochet thread instead of string.

finished stole and revised oval bookmark

I took a dive today and followed the general directions I had been given about how to block knitted lace. It worked! Now I have a beautiful stole to wear. Thanks to Melanie for the pattern and to the helpful fellow knitters at Creative Fibers for support and blocking instructions.




I had to take a few minutes and do some netting. I needed to check the directions for my Ballerina bookmark. It was good I did, since I found a few instructions that needed to be changed.



I really wanted to devote some time to making a couple of string bags with net handles. However, since I ran out of time today, I guess I will try to do it next week.

Mystery stole 3 and old books with netting

The past two weeks have been very busy what with getting two sons ready to college. During that same time I spent several days creating a picture type music book for the younger siblings of several of my piano students and my youngest daughter has been busy tearing apart the couch (and re-upholstering it under the directions of the mother of my piano students). So, though things have been busy my projects have not moved as quickly as I had hoped.

That being said,

I finished Mystery Stole today!!!


Now I have to learn a new skill and block it.

As for netting:

I found a site to look at -- Nets and Netmaking at the Pineapple Knot Forum

and the following old books that MIGHT have some fun netting patterns:

The Ladies Knitting and Netting Book by Miss Watts (1840)

The Illuminated Ladies' Book of Useful and Ornamental Needlework by Mrs. Henry Owen (1844)

The Ladies' Work-Table Book (1844)

The Practical Companion to the Work Table for Knitting Netting and Crochet work by Elizabeth Jackson (1845)

The Work-Table Magazine by Mrs. Mee and Miss Austin (1847)

Parlour Recreations for Ladies (1848)

Plain Needle-Work (1852)


Isn't the internet wonderful! And a special thanks to the wonderful people who digitized these and other books.

More examples of Gauge - Netting Style

I had fun today working on some oval netting. Several years ago I made a unique bookmark for each member of my family still at home. I wrote down the directions, or so I thought, and scanned each bookmark. When I went to make another bookmark using the Caterpillar instructions it came out larger than the one I had originally made. I eventually realized that I had used a larger mesh stick for rounds 1 and 2.

The pink background is the original Caterpillar bookmark. The brown one is the second one I made.








Yesterday I decided to make one like the original. I used the same type of thread (size 60 tatting thread) but a variegated color. It was then I discovered that I had goofed on more than just the mesh stick size. I had the wrong number of loops and the instructions were not working as I thought they should. The thread was so fine I had a hard time figuring out where I went wrong, so I started another one. Using a thicker size thread, #10 crochet thread, and two different blues, I finally figured out what the correct instructions should be. Then I went back, cut off the incorrect rows, and made it correctly. It finally worked just like it was supposed to.

Even though the brown bookmark had some problems with the instructions, the size of the bookmark was not affected. The last three bookmarks are all made with the approximately the same instructions; however because of using different sizes of thread or mesh sticks, all three are not only different sizes but present three different looks.

Mystery Stole continued

I have been trying to keep up with Mystery Stole 3, but life keeps getting in the way. So, I have not quite finished the 5th clue. I've completed row 87 of clue 5 (which leaves about a dozen rows until I can start clue 6).



I took the stole with me today (oops, today has become yesterday) to the Family History Center where I was to help the people who came in with the genealogical questions. Last month when I went in no one came during the entire 4 hours I was there, so I had hopes of getting most if not all of clue 5 finished. This month though there were a number of people who came in needing help. I was glad to help, and it is exciting when they find a family member or documentation on their family, but I only progressed about 10 rows on the stole.

I think the next shawl I make will be netted. I've alomost decided to take a pattern from one of my doilies and change the size of the mesh sticks to make it big enough for a shawl. Anyone have any suggestions as to which one?

Net Garden Trellis

Earlier this spring our family decided to try a new garden idea - a Square Foot Garden. Part of the Square Foot Garden concept was a 6 foot by 4 foot trellis to let plants grow upward instead of along the ground. Since I had some extra bonded cord, I decided to make my own net instead of buying it at the local gardening store. This week the plants had actually grown big enough to start using the netting.























It was rather exciting to see the beans, cucumbers and tomatoes start to climb up. Tonight I made an additional net to go on a smaller 4 foot by 4 foot metal frame behind the beans and cucumbers. There are a couple of tomato plants at that end of the box that could use some extra support.

I discovered I needed to change the directions slightly when making these square mesh rectangles from what I had on my website. These had an even number of meshes both across and down. The sample on my website had an even number across and an odd number of meshes going down.