collaboration – Knit-Spin-Quilt

Bag-making & sewing setup

It’s been a while since I’ve done a process post, so here goes.

First of all, a look at my current (extremely cluttered) workspace.

(I intentionally did not tidy up before taking these photos because I’m not an influencer trying to sell you a perfect lie. I’m human.)

Sewing table with thread racks on the wall behind it

My thread all lives on the thread racks on the wall, out of direct sunlight. The main surface of the table is covered in a 36”x24” self-healing cutting mat, and my main shop sewing machine, a brother nouvelle 1500s lives here 90% of the time.

To the right of the photo is a 4×2 ikea kallax unit, which holds bins of fabric, and my Eversewn Sparrow usually lives on top of it, close at hand for when I need a zig-zag stitch or a buttonhole.

To the left of the main sewing area is a small table topped with layers of cotton and heat-proof batting sewn in a cotton casing to make a small ironing board, and under that table are clear plastic bins of more fabric. Are we starting to see a theme, here?

I sit in the middle on an early 20th-century round (hardwood) piano stool, which allows me to spin in place and raise or lower the seat depending on what I’m doing.

Today, let’s talk about sewing a drawstring project bag, something I do a lot of!

Lining fabric laid out flat to be cut with a quilting ruler and a rotary cutter

Bag outside and lining, cut and ready to be sewn

Once I have the fabric cut to my specifications, I start the sewing process. This goes a lot faster these days than it did when I was first starting, but that’s largely because I’ve figured out how to assembly line cut and piece: sewing a single bag from start to finish takes nearly as long as it ever has.

Here are some process photos:

One part I particularly enjoy is top stitching the drawstring channel. It allows me to coordinate thread colors to bag top colors (in this case: black) but also rewards precision and accuracy, which I find soothing.

Video of the process of topstitching a drawstring bag, done slowly.

In the end, after adding drawstrings, I end up with a bag for the Halloween collaboration kit with the Periwinkle Sheep!

A purple mushroom print bag next to my brother sewing machine

As a reminder, these bags are available for a limited time only and come with a matching skein of custom yarn that looks like this:

Periwinkle Sheep yarn for the Halloween collaboration kit

You can get the kit on The Periwinkle Sheep’s website until August 20th. Kits will ship on or before October 10.

And remember: we will be donating 10% of kit sales to World Central Kitchen for their efforts to combat starvation and famine in Gaza.

Halloween Collaboration Kit

A Halloween-themed collaboration kit with the Periwinkle Sheep, featuring purple spooky mushroom print drawstring project bags and fingering weight yarn dyed to match!

I’m so excited to announce a collaborative kit with The Periwinkle Sheep!

Karin and I met at the Massachusetts Sheep and Wool festival several years ago. Karin is a knitter since childhood, a former yarn shop owner, and indie dyer of yarn for nearly 18 years. She holds a MA in English in feminist critical theory. As owner of The Periwinkle Sheep, she has brought us a wide array of colorways that want to jump onto your needles!

This year we decided to work together to bring you a Halloween-themed kit!

I picked out a few fabric choices and we settled together on a spooky purple mushroom print, for which Karin dyed up a custom colorway that matches perfectly!

The designer of the fabric (dotpatterns) was kind enough to re-scale it for smaller bags, so the print scales with bag size.

Each bag is made of 100% quilting cotton and lined with a black and white bats-and-cats print. The ties are 3/8” grosgrain ribbon.

The sock (medium) bag will hold 2 skeins of yarn easily; the shawl (large) bag will hold 4+ skeins of yarn; the sweater (xl) bag will hold 10+ skeins of yarn.

The yarn for the kit is a 100% superwash merino fingering weight (4-ply) yarn that is usually only made available to wholesale sellers! You can see how it works up in both knitted and crocheted swatches below:

In addition to the kit colorway, Karin has selected two other colors of yarn that coordinate (the black and yellow-green skeins above) and made them available as add-ons to the kit.

Pre-orders for the kit are open only until August 20th!

Order your Halloween collaborative kit here!

Once orders are closed, I will get down to work sewing up your bags, and the kit will ship on (or before) October 10th.

One last note:

We know the world is a scary place right now. That’s why we are donating 10% of the sales of the kit to World Central Kitchen, earmarked specifically for their efforts to fight starvation and famine in Gaza.

Both Karin and I feel strongly that we need not only to speak out against the horrors happening in Gaza but also to take action: we will post at the end of the preorder period about our donation total.

Collaborative Kit Goes Live!

KnitSpinQuilt is branching out into collaborations with yarn dyers!

This very first kit is a project bag, yarn, and pattern collaboration with Yarn Over New York and Gannet Designs. Customize it and make it exactly what you want: you get a project bag, one or two skeins of yarn, a shawl pattern designed for this yarn, and a stitch marker.

The project bag – a medium drawstring project bag sewn by Alisa of KnitSpinQuilt – is made from a fabric whose pattern was designed by Naomi of Gannet Designs. The lovely, lovely yarn is dyed by Jessie of Yarn Over New York.

You get to customize the kit in several ways. We’re offering it in three different colors (green, blue, and purple) and two different yarns: Times Square Sock (merino/nylon) or Astoria (alpaca/merino). Choose your color, choose your yarn base. Finally, choose whether you want one skein of yarn, or two skeins of yarn.

The kit comes with a pattern for a brand new shawl: the Semiramis Semicircular Shawl, designed by Alisa of KnitSpinQuilt using Gannet Designs lace patterns. You can make a shawlette with one skein of yarn, or a large shawl with two skeins. You’ll also get a custom matching stitch marker as a little bonus.

ShawlGreenOpen
You can pre-order the kit at Yarn Over New York’s new website. Orders will only be open for two weeks, and the kits will ship by August 20. You’ll receive a Ravelry download code for the pattern as part of your purchase — don’t have Ravelry? We’ll print it and mail a physical copy of the pattern to you with the yarn — just make a note in your order.