Being Disciplined

Having flitted around with my various knitting and crochet projects over the last few months, I found that I was getting a bit irritated with all of them as, picking up something one day and something else the next, etc, was resulting in very little visible progress.  So, action was required and I decided to be more methodical and concentrate on one or two projects and Get On With Them.  Last night, I cast off the second of the red/pink pair I cast on at the end of June and this is the result:

They're a plain pair (the yarn's too variegated to warrant a pattern), made to my usual toe-up pattern and I'm pleased with them.

Next up is finishing off this bundle of soft cotton, which is a crocheted wash-cloth that I started ages and ages ago and then put in a bag and forgot (I found it a couple of days ago).  This shouldn't take long to finish:

The fabric it's on was ironed yesterday and is destined to become part of this.....

.... which is a crocheted bag.  My plan is to cut strips from the various fabrics and then sew them together until I've got a piece the circumference of the bag, strengthen it with some iron-in vilene interlining, make a base from some card (the base of the bag is a rectangle - more about the construction when I show off the finished bag), cover that in fabric and then attach the body of the lining to it.  I'll be honest and admit I haven't made a decision regarding the top of the bag where the handles are (they're the type where you skip a number of stitches, chaining over them instead and then work the same number of stitches over the chain on the next round).  I might attach a fabric strip to the top of the lining -- or I might not.

To make the lining, I'll be using my sewing machine.  My sewing machine hasn't been used in so long that I had to dust fluff off the cover, so wish me luck!  I've got out my cutting board and my rotary cutter and, with the help of hubby's spirit level I'm hoping cutting the strips (which will be various widths) will go smoothly.

Once I've finished the cloth and the bag, I'll be concentrating on my stripey scarf (which I started before Christmas!) and bringing down my black Puffin sweater as that's been languishing in a cupboard upstairs and hasn't seen any action for, well, let's just say it's been a while.