Overall, I'm fairly pleased with it though it has a few composition problems. It's too long for one thing, and something about the color transitions bugs me. It looks better in photographs than in person. Possibly the problem is just that I had the wrong shade of green. Whatever, it's not that bad and I don't think it will annoy anyone other than me. I've already started another bag in wool, just to use up some of the wool I already have, and get a little more complex colorwork practice in before I jump into the silk or cotton. Since the fine silks the original relic bags were knit with is so expensive, I'm thinking I may do one or two with pearl cotton first, or maybe bamboo, as practice, before I invest in lots of expensive silk. We'll see, I have other things to get done before I get to that.
The bag looks lovely! I'm guessing it will be at the NC 12th Night? I'd love to see it in person.
ReplyDeleteIt was actually for our local 12th Night here in Virginia Beach and went to Her Highness, so it won't be in NC unless she takes it with her. I may (big if on that one) have the second one done or mostly done at KASF though. Probably that's what I'll be working on while I sit with my display since my other handwork project will be part of the display.
DeleteWhat are the final dimensions and gauge for this bag? I am in the process of designing a heraldic bag (to be presented to my Kingdom's princess at her coronation) and am having a heck of a time figuring out what size pearl cotton thread to use. I've found lace-weight silk in the right colors, but at over $40/100g skein ... um, no!
ReplyDeleteThat was my feeling about the silk too! I used Knitpicks Palette, it comes in all kinds of colors and is very affordable. I think I ended up getting about 6 stitches to the inch on this bag, the one I am working on now is on slightly smaller needles and I am getting a little over 7, which I like better. I don't remember exactly how big the bag is but it's somewhere around 4 inches wide, maybe 5, and 6 or so high. Not exactly right to reproduce the Sion bags but way more affordable. I would think a size 8 pearl cotton would get the right gauge, around here it's hard to find in anything other than 25m hanks though.
DeleteI realize that you knitted this bag a number of years ago, but I want to tell you how much I admire your work. I am going to enter my version of the Chur Sion Relic Bag from Richard Rutt's book, 'A History of Hand Knitting' into the kingdom A&S competition this year. I am doing research on the chronology of knitting, especially the casting on style and binding off of knitting. Do you have any information that I might be able to use on that subject? I would appreciate any help you can supply. Thanks. Cheryl Straub
ReplyDeleteYou can contact me at luckinbillstraubc@yahoo.com
Thanks again