What I have been crafting this month

I finished the green Amulet bag as you can seen by the size difference I have a more confident hand on the small size 6 hook and crochet thread so my stitches are tighter than when I made the blue bag.

All the stitching on the Greenman piece is complete it was a real labor of love and I look forward to

my next one right now thought I am working on the last of the 4 Celtic Knots in the corners.

I started reading another Elizabeth Lynn Casey book this week its a nice break when my fingers are too sore to hold a hook or needle.

What I have been stitching this week.

I am putting the final stitches in the Greenman #2 piece then I'm on to the four Celtic knots in the corners, I am loving this project but can't wait to be done I need a break from all the green.

While posting this photo I noticed I didn't crayon tint the corner knots, I wasn't sure how I wanted to finish them.

 I said I wanted a break from green and here I have another green project started this one is another small amulet bag.

I have another Goddess piece to start and a few new hand embroidery projects to put on the light box so I can have a few different pieces to work.

Yesterday I placed an order with Crabapple Hill and Bird Brain Designs for a few patterns, floss and size 8 perle cotton thread, I like one stop shopping so I don't have to wander all over the state looking for this thread or that one.  Many of the Crabapple Hill patterns use Cosmo floss, there isn't a shop nearby that sells this brand, except for the quilt shop which only carries colors to a specific pattern available for a class or pattern and the conversion charts are not always dependable either you need to use 4 colors to 1 or there is no conversion for a particular color.  I don't want to work that hard to stitch a project.  Sure I could use my own color choices but lately I like the overall piece when I use the floss called for on the pattern supply list.

These are the books I am reading this week, both were mentioned to my by a friend and I thought I

would give them a read, both are y authors I have never read so they will count on my new authors to read goal. New, as in authors I have never read.

Little blue amulet bag completed

A few weeks ago I began to crochet the purple amulet bag in the bottom corner using blue crochet thread

purple bag with button pattern

It has been a few years since I worked with cotton crochet cotton and steel hook size 6, my eyes struggled to see the loops and my fingers stiffened as I held the hook, it was a slow start just making the first row on the chain stitches, but I managed 4 rows and it only took me about an hour, I won't say how many times I had to unravel it all.

I brought it along to a Thread Therapy group meeting and managed to put in quite a few stitches in a few hours.

I would be getting ready to begin the flap piece when I put it aside to work on a few other projects. It was a challenge to see and my eyes would tear up after about 20 minutes.  Then one day a few weeks ago I was sorting my yarn and fabric bins and mistakenly packed it in one of the bins and for the life of me I could not recall what I did with it.

Then yesterday while climing up the 232 steps of the Devils Millhopper Sinkhole I remembered where it was.

going down was easy

Well I just put in the final stitches and sewed on the button and I can confidently say it looks very much like the photo in the pattern book.

The bag measures a scant 2x3 inches

I think next time I will string beads on the thread and make it a beaded bag and I plan to change the flap just a bit.

I plan to do a light blocking on the bag, there are several other amulet bag patterns in the booklet I would like to make using these threads, the silver metallic thread has sequins which may give it an interesting look.

green, light purple, silver sequins

Blue Amulet Bag

the climb out not so easy.

Happy May Day