Tuesday, August 21, 2007

bean bag

August finds me spending a great deal of time in the kitchen with string beans. The yields this summer are amazing. We planted gourmet nickel (green) and french wax, both of the bush variety. Alas, no bean stalks for me this season.

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After spending so much time handling the beans, picking- washing- chopping-packing, I was beginning to see beans in my sleep. It came as no surprise to me that I found myself making a bean bag.

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It started out as doodles on my tablet, created in spare moments whilst waiting for the pressure canner to reach temperature, and then waiting for it to cool down. Beans are a vegetable that need to be pressure canned, and that chore is time consuming. I found something to do while I was waiting....Soon I was weaving, needlefelting and fingerweaving the bag in the kitchen, surrounded by beans. Somewhere along the way, I discovered that I had a piece of yellow heart wood-that matched the wool perfectly, it will become a button. I smile.

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36 pints later, the bag is finished...

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Wool- processed by the drafting zone. Purchased at Misty Mountain in Gettysburg.
Spun- singles (20wpi) on the Great Wheel, ply on the Ashford Traditional wpi (12)
Woven- 4 times basic tabby on 32inch triloom, matress stitched, fulled, finished 8x9.
Details- Fingerloop straps, needlefelted beans, hand fashioned yellow heartwood button.

11 comments:

Marcy said...

Great bag! I love the needle-felted beans!

Anonymous said...

Very cool! I love your old-fashioned scissors, too.

Sue said...

Beautiful bag! And lucky you- all those beans put up.....

Judy said...

When you told me you were making a bean bag, I thought you were making a tossing bean bag! I thought you were going to use the hard beans from the overgrown beans to fill it with. What is that saying?....never assume! Great bag.

Dawn said...

What a creative lady you are! Love your bean bag and button! The beans look delicious!

Sunflower Farm and Petit Creek Lavender said...

I just love your purse you made very, very, nice.

Anonymous said...

That's beyond brilliant!

Who wouldn't love to carry their things in a bean bag just like yours?

Leigh said...

Excellent inspiration. The needlefellted beans are a very clever touch. You need to do an entire garden series!

Cathy said...

Lovely and imaginative bag. it's always a treat to see what you are up too.

And I love the photos of the cicadas in your previous post, too.

finnsheep said...

Delightfully amusing - - dangling beans!

cindy said...

Felted beans.....................how delightful!

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