My Crochet Travel Pouch

This is my current Crochet pouch which I made for an article which I was commissioned for by the ill fated Sew Hip magazine.  Produced three projects all of which were published but I was not paid the agreed fee but that is another story.

This pouch is kept on the fabric box next to my chair but also doubles up as a travel pouch should I decide to take a crochet project with me.

It is one of my favourite fabric designs and try as I might I can not find any more of it.

Above are the basics which I keep in the kit.  A tape measure which to be honest is not used much but you take it out and then you need it so it stays there.......just in case. Then the smallest pencil I could find, some scrap paper which needs replacing regularly, some safety pins and scissors.  Now, these scissors get swapped around regularly and these ones are a little large but when you are away you do not want to lose your best ones, do you?

At the moment I have a stow-away in the form of a pom pom maker.  This is a very tiny one which I am using to make some pom poms to decorate mini hats that my Mum has made for The Big Knit linked to innocent drinks in aid of Age Concern.  More on that another time.

I must confess that I made the pouch to fit these little needles.  They are an old size 9 (?) and I learnt how to knit on these very needles so they have a lot of sentimental value and I was delighted when my Mum gave them to me years ago.  I use them to make the little hats but also other items such as HOOT the owl as an example for Textiles Club.  

Wool sewing needles are a must and this John James "Pebble" is ideal for a travel pouch and I use it a lot.

Finally, the main guys.  Apart from one I have collected all of the above via kits and the front of magazines.  I tend to like the metal hooks so far and the few wooden ones that I have had do not slide very well.  the one shown in the picture is much better and I shall hang on to that for a while.

they range from 1.75 - 8.00mm.

The two above hooks have special stories.  The purple 5.5mm is the one that I use the most, it is a good size and fits well in my hand and I have had this one for the longest.  So if the tension is not an issue then this is my hook of choice.

The little silver one I bought to repair a friends crochet top some years ago and I use this one to crochet with fine Perle threads to make little flowers for cards and embellishments.

So that is my current crochet pouch and the size of it means that it fits in my handbag easily or can disappear in my suitcase.

Now for my recent sample.

I really do like a shawl that I saw on Google images last year but it requires a grid like design and my main problem has been trying to maintain an even grid which is fairly straight on the edges.

So yesterday I went on to good old You tube and found a tutorial which I manged to follow and made this....

It is not very big because I was using up an old bit of wool but it is fairly even.

The weave is not lose enough and I wanted the grid to be more open, but it is a start and from here I can move on to trying other versions.  I think I may have photographed it up side down too, sorry but I am not very well at the moment so I shall put it down to not being myself!

If anyone has any suggestions then please leave a comment as this shawl with a flower edging says make me for December ( which has a certain big day as well as my own birthday and I like the idea of snuggling up in it whilst opening my cards).

Take care and thanks for visiting.

xx