The Chronicles of The Bag, part I
(Also known as Kit Crazy part I)
This is my very first swap. Ever. Having said that, as soon as I started thinking about a bag I wanted to try to design and sew one myself. I’ve been sewing for MUCH longer than I’ve been knitting, especially considering I’ve been knitting for just over a month now, and crocheting for about two months longer than that.
Knowing I wanted to sew the bag, I had to start thinking about a design. I know that Penelope is not very stationary, so the bag needed to be able to travel well. Having a background in some aspects of her current life, I know she’s probably around a lot of dust and dirt on occasion. That ruled out fabrics of a nonwashable nature (as if I’d even consider dry clean fabrics for a kit bag, but still!!!) and required, in my mind, some major sturdiness. Imagine my surprise (and glee) when I came across silver corduroy fabric in the Red Tag section of the local big box fabric store!!! Silver, not so much gray. Fabric for main body of bag? Check.
The next step was designing the actual bag. I had seen a really interesting chart of the Slytherin snake and decided to do it in filet crochet to cover one side of the bag. I had some leftover Lion Brand Wool-ease in Forest Green Heather from making a Slytherin scarf for Malcolm, and set to work. Within rows, however, I realized that I would be INSANE to make a bag as big as the snake was turning out to be. Oops. Back to the drawing board. I knew I wanted a snake on one side of the bag, so I allowed myself to mull over that and went back to overall bag design.
The dimensions of the bag itself ended up being somewhere around 8x10x3″, which is just about the size of a small canvas tote bag. As I designed it, I started thinking that I really wanted it to be able to open up for quick access to small pockets. A quick look in my huge stash of random sewing stuff that will be “useful someday” I find to my relief a strip of snaps on cotton webbing stuff. Score! The pockets get designed so that on one side, they’ll hold all the yarn for a sock project. The other side has a series of shorter pockets that can hold stitch markers, scissors, etc. Two of the shorter pockets are narrow enough to hold a set of short DPNs without easily offering them to the gods of lost needles. The inside has to be as pretty as the outside since it’ll be able to open. Okay! Let’s get to work!
to be continued…
House Quiz
I’ve been so worried about Penelope’s kit and so preoccupied with homework, a wizardling’s second birthday, and Singles Awareness Day I almost FORGOT to do the house quiz!!!
So without further adieu (or procrastination) here are my answers:
1. What is Professor McGonnagall’s first name?
Minerva
2. Who is the librarian of Hogwarts?
Madam Irma Pince
3. What is Madam Rosmerta’s job?
She’s the hottest Three Broomsticks barwench around… AND she owns the bar too!
4. What is Rita Skeeter’s secret?
She’s an unregistered beetle Animagus.
5. Madam Hooch is instructor of what subject?
FLYING. WHEEEEE!
6. Who is Parvati Patil’s best friend?
Lavender Brown
7. What Quidditch position does Cho Chang play?
She’s a Seeker, just like Harry.
8. What is the name of Fleur Delacour’s little sister?
Gabrielle Delacour
9. Who is professor of Divination?
Sybill Trelawney
10. Who wrote “A History of Magic”?
Bathilda Bagshot
OKAY! Good! I’ve done that! PHEW!
SHE GOT IT!!!!!!!!!
She got it, she got it, she got it!!!
*sigh of relief* According to my calculations, Penelope’s package should have arrived on her doorstep on Monday, Tuesday at the latest. Imagine my nerves when it didn’t arrive and didn’t arrive… I was worried someone had accosted and stolen the owl I borrowed at school to send the package – apparently it just got lost or ran into some inclement weather. I’m not going to worry about that now, since it did manage to arrive. If I’d had to wait through this weekend, I might have pulled all my hair out!
Stay tuned for The Chronicles of The Bag. I wanted to wait until she saw her bag before sharing this journey, since a lot of it would have given away EXACTLY what I was doing. I can post pictures of the process, too!!! Hooray!!!
Cecilia's Diary 