sunflower (mini) deck bag (and reading mat)
. . .mini deck, which (perhaps unfortunately) does not mean mini bag, not when it's designed to open out entirely flat to use as a reading mat.
The deck is 45mm x 40mm and the bag opens up to 10.75" across (flat sides) or 11.25" (point to point).
I chose to go with the sunflower theme because of the cardback design on this deck, of course.
I also chose not to stagger the increases for that hexagonal shape. I did the first round of yellow with some spike stitches, and I like the look of it (though I could use some more practise on joining rounds smoothly; some of the not-smooth I think is due to just how it works and some due to my not having done it much yet, as I mostly do spirals).
I got a fair bit of work done on day 1 (way back in April). . .
. . .but it had to get quite big, as I kept testing it wrapping the sides around the deck in its box to ensure there would be space for it in the finished bag.
That one was taken after I did a round with spaces for a drawstring . . . and then frogged it because it looked wonky and the counts were off. I took a bit to make argly noises, did some more math, then did another round and set it aside for another day.
(Early last month.)
Then this week I picked it up again to finish off! I'd intended to add picot stitches around the outermost edge, but I tried five different types of picot and pointed patterns and none of them looked halfway decent. As I've pulled off a number of them in other projects, I'm blaming this yarn, which is . . . kind of frustrating and resistant to a lot of details, to be honest.
The drawstring worked out as I'd planned, though! Green with a leaf detail~
(I mentioned after experimenting on leaf bookmarks that I might make my own? I freehanded this one. ^.^)
Front and back after it was finished, complete with the long chain for the drawstring and working the ends of the chain together with the leaf. And the bag suits quite nicely!
I think it's cute when closed up as well, myself!
And trade out the colours and it could be a different kind of flower feel! Use a more tractable yarn and I could actually try picot or scallop edging to give a fuller suggestion of petals.
. . .I don't know if I'll do the same (flower themed or otherwise) for any of my larger, let alone full size decks, though; it had to get quite big for a tiny deck.
(And this yarn is nooot my favourite to work with; it's 100% cotton but it's tough as well as frustratingly resistant to work with, and it rubs my index finger raw. So perhaps it would be slightly less argly with my favourite cotton yarn . . . though it would take a lot of rounds.)
(Project on Ravelry)
