Half-felted airport encounter

       This past fall as Johnny and I headed out on the road with Camfel Productions. We were in and out of knitting stores as we drove all over the country. I kept seeing a book called Boutique Knits by Laura Irwin. It is a wonderful pattern book full of adorable accessories! Eventually one of my friends bought the book and let me borrow it (thanks Minda!). I am picky with the patterns I like and Boutique Knits was the first book I had found which I wanted to make almost everything in it. I have since bought the book for myself and love it!

       I checked out my ever growing yarn collection to see what I could make from the book and ended up deciding on a uniquely shaped, half-felted bag. I knit it up lime green and made a couple simple changes along the way (I didn't have the hardware called for in the pattern and it didn't felt as well as could be hoped).  Because I couldn't find the correct hardware at fabric stores and craft stores I ended up searching through a thrift shop. Well actually multiple thrift shops. In the second thrift shop I found a lovely old necklace to use for the handle and some antique looking buttons to detail the bag.

      The bag was a hit! I got so many nice comments from people wherever I went. This leads to the part of the story pertaining to the title of this post.  On the morning of Christmas eve we were waiting for the shuttle at our hotel to take us to the airport. A lovely woman commented on my bag and was very impressed that I had made it myself. After I got in the shuttle she offered Johnny a hefty sum of money if she could buy it off my shoulder (I didn't find this out until afterward). Because she seemed so interested I asked for her email and offered to make her one in whatever color she wanted. She chose magenta and at that point I officially had a project for the Christmas break.

     I worked hard on her purse and even made a few improvements over the last one finishing it in record time! I included a vintage leaf pin detail and added a small pocket inside. When I had a moment I created a selling profile on Etsy and posted it as my first item. That evening I emailed the nice women to tell her I had finished it and it was online for her to buy. I never heard from her. Bummer.

     As disappointing  as that was, the good thing is that you can now get you hands on it! Check it out here.

  

The moral of the story is this, if someone offers to buy your purse off your arm, sell it.

Giving it another go

If anyone has been privy to any of my previous attempts at blogging you will have noticed that they generally last about three posts. However, I am determined this time. My husband does a video blog at www.newstitchaday.com and manages to post a new knit/crochet video and blog five days a week. So if he can do that then I can manage to post a blog at least once a week. The first real post will be up tomorrow at noon. Wish me luck!