The Lady & The Unicorn Coat

Before I show you the Lady & the Unicorn Tapestry Coat I made back in the 90s I have to brag just a wee bit. Last year I posted a pattern I came up with for a crocheted market bag. I used some old Rust colored Sugar N Cream so I called the bag the "Rust Goes Green" market bag. It wasn't that big of a deal so I posted it as a free pattern on my blog and on Ravelry. That was last June (2008). Since then it has been downloaded every day. I still get hits daily from crochet pattern websites. It's truly amazing.

For the heck of it I checked out my latest Ravelry popularity lists to see where it was at after a year. In the crocheted bag list Rust Goes Green is #10 out of over 1500 bags. WOW! In all the bags available (knit & crochet) on Ravelry It is #49 out of over 5000 bag patterns. To me this is unbelievable. I get emails weekly from people saying they like this pattern. Thanks everyone. I will try to get my act together and get some new patterns out there for you.

So - The "Unicorn Coat"

Back in the late 80s and early 90s when I was designing machine knitting items I came across a pattern by Pat Cook. It was truly amazing. This pattern was pages and pages of graphs for a full length coat - 4 colors per row. It was written for the Passap DM 80. For those of you who have NO idea what this machine is like. I has 180 needles across the bed and is a double bed. That means it can knit and purl or create a double knit fabric.

It also has little metal "pegs" on the bottom of the bed that you move up if you want the needle to knit and leave down if you want the yarn to skip the needle.

To make this beautiful coat on this machine meant setting up the little pegs 4 times for each row of knitting (each color has to be knit separately - 4 colors= 4 passes per row.) That's a lot of work. At the same time the Passap E6000 came out. It is an electronic version of the DM80. Also about this time the DesignaKnit software program came out so you can design on the computer and download to the knitting machine. Definitely better but still - lots of paper graphs and they had to be put on the computer program somehow.

I spend 6 months entering the graph stitch by stitch to the computer. After that was done The knitting was about one month.

I convinced Dad to make buttons for it because he enjoyed working with wood and I wanted big wood buttons. He used and old broom handle and they are perfect.

The yarn for the squirrel on the sleeve is a boucle so it is "furry". The other sleeve has white birds on it.

The yarn is a bit bright by today's standards but you have to remember - this was made in the early 90s - we loved these colors back then.

I have never worn the coat to a real event but this coat has been on many runways. The coat is a bit worn, there's a few spots where I discovered I need to repair yarn pulls and one spot where a hole is beginning. Guess that's what comes from all the miles this coat has traveled. All I can say is for back in its day Pat Cook created an amazing coat design and its still an amazing design.

Rust Goes Green keeps on going

I have a stat counter on my blog. I think most of us do. Tell me who's been here to visit, how many have been here, where you come from. Just a lot of fun facts. Today's fun fact is- I had over 1,800 visitors already today. I thought the day I hit 600 was huge. This is monumental! What caused it? I check where people came from and most came from the same spot. http://www.dailycrocheter.com/day.php

Heading over to that site turns out I was the crochet pattern of the day today. Rust Goes Green has had an interesting journey this past couple weeks. As a result I submitted a crochet pattern to a magazine. It's time to get back to designing and enjoying that part of my life again. I have a few ideas for knitting and this is why I've been pretty light in the knitting photo part of the blog.

In other news. I've had some family trauma the past couple days. Mom ended up having to go to the hospital with swallowing problems and slurred speech. So far with all the tests they've done they can't find a reason. More tests tomorrow. This and a few other family things have limited my blogging time and knitting time other than the sock I keep in the car - just in case. It got a lot of action yesterday between waiting for doctors and tests.

I'll get back to stories about the Yarn Shop I worked in back in the early 80s soon but, sorry, not today. When I do, you'll hear about my notes I have from Elizabeth Zimmerman, my first tries at designing, what kinds of yarns we used to knit with and probably the best shop owner and best mentor a young girl could hang around with - Vivian Skoog.

Take care -

Ready, Set, meet new friends

It's amazing what you can get done when work doesn't get in the way of what you want to do. I'm on vacation this week and have no where to go until Friday when I head out to Chicago for a family wedding.



Today I woke up when my body wanted to, cuddled with the boys while eating a bagel for breakfast. Sauntered into the den to knit a bit where I finished one of the sleeves on the grey lace shrug. I've got less than half the other sleeve to finish. Then I headed out to my traditional pig out at Famous Dave's for lunch. Once a year for vacation I treat myself to brisket at Dave's- YUM.

Then in the next couple hours I got a pair of dressy pant to go with the grey lace top and shrug; a wedding present for my cousin's daughter, my favorite imported candy (Aero from England) and gt home before I would have if I was working working. I love days like this and -
I'm Ready to Go for the Wedding!

In other news I got in contact with several Ravelry friends today. I spoke to MarciaViola from Germany via Skype. She just signed up so I had to give her a first time call. I found out Meghan (StitchIt! podcast) is available to get together with a few of us Thursday night. She's in the Twin Cities on work this week. I spoke to SageRiver from New York tonight via Skype. What an incredible world we live in where knitters all over the world can get together without having to leave their living rooms.

I also plan to get together with Sharon (She-Knits podcast) this weekend in Chicago. The wedding is very close to where she lives and we hope to find a little time to get together.

I have to thank everyone for their interest in my market bag - Rust Goes Green. There has been incredible interest on Ravelry, several people have downloaded it, my stats for the blog were through the roof the last couple days. It makes me very happy! I'll be working on more patterns very shortly. I may have found the design mojo again thanks to this little bag.

Rust Goes Green directions

I've finished writing up the directions for Rust Goes Green. Please feel free to download them and give it a try. If you find any errors in the directions, please let me know.

UPDATE (7/15/08): Since the PDF download works so well, I'm removing the pattern from this post. Please use the link to download the PDF version of this pattern

http://www.ravelry.com/dl/jill-chatelain-designs/6541?filename=Rust_Goes_Green.pdf

Rust Goes Green
Reusable Cotton Market Bag

By Jill Chatelain

Size: 14” wide – 15” tall

Materials:
Sugar ‘n Cream worsted weight cotton – 3 balls (375 yds total)
H (5.0mm) Crochet Hook
Tapestry Needle
Large Button

Directions are on the PDF download.


NOTE: Please send any comments to jillsknit@comcast.net or Jillsknit on Ravelry.

THANKS for trying it out and ENJOY

Rust Goes Green

Every once in a while I dig into the 20 year stash and pull out a half knit items or some yarn and figure out how to get this thing out of my life! This last week I dug into it and found 3 balls of rust colored Sugar 'n Cream cotton yarn. I thought it would make a fairly nice reusable market bag. I wanted a bag with a solid bottom for strength and somewhat open sides (to save on yarn). It should have handles that are sturdy and comfortable to carry. Finally, knowing that the top would like to stretch open, I decided it should have a closure that wouldn't be in the way when not needed.

Here's what I came up with -

I made a couple solid bands on the top for extra strength. It still needs a button for the loop closure on the top but, I'm pleased with it.

I also kept crocheting rounds until I was done with 2 balls then stopped to make the handles. After that I just kept going on the bag until I was out of yarn. I ended up with about 8 inches when all was done. That should be about enough to sew in a button.

I'll be working on writing up the pattern over the next couple weeks. I have a few people testing the basic pattern before I rewrite a final version.

So, now I have a reusable market bag that used up 20 year old yarn and in the process I found out that Rust can indeed go green.