OMG - it's done!

I am stuck at home today. No car. It's in the shop for its regular tune-up. But they called me mid-morning to inform me that I need new rear brakes and that funky smell in the car is due to oil leaking into the engine. Add it all up and I might actually need to get a real job to pay for the repairs! The good news - the bit of window trim sticking out from the windshield on the passenger side is harmless. Phew!

Since I couldn't go to my weekly quilting meet-up, I bit the bullet and finished my crochet entrelac bag. I present my first ever designed-by-me crochet FO:


Pattern: Entrelac Tote Bag designed by me
Blocked size: 9.5" wide x 11.5" tall x 3.5" deep
Yarn: Noro Yuzen; 3 skeins of colourway #3; had very little leftover
Hook: 5mm/US H


Notes: I have pages and pages of notes... Yuzen is a PITA to crochet. Some bits are super thin and others are so chunky that I can't even get the hook around the yarn. It made the whole thing lumpy bumpy. Thank goodness it all blocked out. I managed to pick the stitch/hook/gauge combo so that the coloured squares started stacking. See the first 2-3 rows at the bottom of the bag. You can see that the green is on top of the green, the purple sits on top of the purple, etc. I actually had to break the yarn almost every row and rejoin somewhere else so that the colours appeared random. I had so many ends to weave in!

The handles are a little tricky to sew on. I did the front ones by hand and the back ones with the machine using my darning foot (I couldn't make the stitch length long enough so I had to hand crank).


Notions: Lacis Leatherette 16" purse handle in black (scroll all the way down, it's the second picture from the bottom); large green acrylic flower button (from the dollar store); 26" x 13" fabric for the lining (I used Kaffe Fassett's Striped Vase in Red - from my stash)


Overall, I'm very happy with the end result. With any luck, I'll be teaching this class in the fall.

My tulips in the backyard are in full bloom. It's so cheery to see the yellow and red flowers.