This was one of the projects I was working on before we went on our vacation. Once I'd made my new wallet I really needed a coin purse. I love these little old fashioned looking snap frames. They make me feel a little more proper and lady like (as though I was wearing gloves and the perfect hat).

This little frame travelled all the way from Goodness in Japan to reach me. The instructions were, not surprisingly, in Japanese but I had a little secret weapon. A while ago The Purl Bee made a tutorial for making a coin purse from a Japanese snap frame very similar to this one. I compared the pictures on my instructions with the ones in their tutorial and followed their instructions when there were gaps.


One thing that had me very confused was the shapes of the pattern pieces on my instruction sheet. The outside pattern was okay but I couldn't figure out how the lining was supposed to fit. In the end of used the outside pattern piece to draft new patterns based on the shapes in the Purl Bee tutorial; I liked their cubby little purse.

The only tricky part of making my purse was getting the top edges to stay in the frame long enough for me to squeeze it shut. The craft glue I've got works well once it is dry but while wet is not very tacky. I ended up doing little sections at a time and just accepting that my gathers would not be perfectly even. Now that it's finished and in use I don't even notice.

Now that I know this guy has been safely delivered I feel I can show him off on the blog.

This cute little pup was made from a pair of gloves according to the instructions in Sock and Glove. He was really easy and fun to make and when I was finished I had even more fun dressing him up.


Why a pirate? Because this pup was for Joyce and there was just no way he couldn't be a pirate!


Instructions for his pants are also in the book. Instead of hemming I trimmed the bottoms with my pinking shears to get a proper jagdedy edge. His sash is a rectangle of shot cotton; I pulled out threads on all four sides to get a more piraty, less voyageur, look. (Though a voyageur pup would be pretty cute too.) The eye patch is felt and bias tape.


And of course he needed a cutlass. What kind of pirate would go without?

We've actually been home since Saturday night but somehow I haven't been able to get complete sentences to come out of my head onto my screen. It might have something to do with the very excited critters that want so much of our attention - how could I deny them -I missed them too.

We had a nice vacation and there are some pictures from it below. The weather was wonderful; hot and sunny on days we were out and about and cool and smelling of rain* on days we weren't. We met up with some good friends but didn't plan quite well enough to see everyone. We gave ourselves plenty of lazy time because it was a short vacation and the only one we'll be taking this summer. We ate lots of good food; I bought three new pairs of shoes; we sat in coffee shops knitting and reading; and I discovered far too many fun things in the art store near our hotel (more on those later).
























It was good to get home. To see our house and our critters and sleep in our bed.

*Rain is one of my favourite smells after the winter. It is so fresh and a part of summer for me. It looks as though we will be having some rain here today. It will be good for our grass.