sock porn for knitting voyeurs.

Friday, July 27, 2007

etsy friday

Usually my posts on etsy friday consist of a picture (maybe two) and a little bit of my impression of an item I've bought on etsy. Today'll be a little more picture intense, but you'll see why I couldn't just stop at one.

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Small project pouch set from piddleee.etsy.com

Next time you see me, just tell me I'm not a tomboy anymore :) I just absolutely love using handmade bags to house my current knitting projects, and the bags from piddleloop are just awesome and feed that need in me. Bags keep everything together (yarn, needles, patterns, notions), help keep center pull balls from falling apart, and just look better stacked on my desk than 4 wips with needles and patterns everywhere.

I've known of Jen and Wendy's store for a long time-- piddleloop attaches stitchmarkers from "local" (etsy) stores on their bags' zippers, including stitch markers from my store, zeromarkers. It isn't to say I give them to the piddleloop team, or that I even sell them at a discount-- Jen quietly buys markers from my shop like everyone else, and sends them along with her bag orders without really advertising (before you buy a bag) that she does-- one of the little surprises from the piddleloop sewing team. You can check out the post about stitch marker and etsy love on the piddleloop blog (yes, I'm biased... you can see some of mine there :))

Their blog was the thing that had me all crazy about this particular bag-- Jen had posted a cryptic shot of a finished bag and I near on lost my mind with want (story of my recent life). Jen had no more of the loteria fabric, but went on some crazy manhunt and found fellow etsyhead azaleaSTUDIO with a single yard for sale, snapped it up and made this bag set custom for crazy me.

The end.*

Well, aside from the set! :) Let's just sift on thru the pics I've taken of the bag, eh?

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You can order your bag with a grommet at no extra charge. I have to admit I bothered Jen via email no less than five times "reminding" her I'd really, really like a grommet... the idea with it is you can knit without unzipping the bag if you like by threading the start of your work thru the hole. You can't remove it (and say, put another project inside) by "tying" it to the bag, but it's just a really interesting idea. For as much as I begged for it, I haven't used the grommet yet :)

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Piddleloop hooked me up with this sweet ribbon handle, knitting hands silkscreened on the light blue satin. I haven't seen this ribbon on their bags for sale (yes Virginia, I subscribe to their rss feed)... but in any case its a little hint as to what's inside.

Speaking of inside, let's go!

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It's hard to capture, but the amount the bag can hold is surprisingly large. (That's my unfinished Everlasting Bagstopper inside-- a 100gm skein's worth of Euroflax Linen knit into a loose fabric and not even taking up half the space inside). The bag is lined with a coordinating fabric and has interfacing between the layers, same with the 4x6 pouch.

Deeper down the rabbit hole...

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Pocket on one side, and...

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...elastic needle/hook holder on the other. The little extra details inside make me think this would work well not just as a project bag, but say a notions or a knitting accessory bag as well. I have more than one set of needles for the elastic holder, but the few crochet hooks I have would slip in nicely there while my needle box and roll could hang out in the main body of the bag... my notions box in the pocket. Just thinking out loud, no bad ideas here ;)

edit, 7/27: Sherry W let me know in the comments that her double pointed holders work well in conjunction with the elastic needle holder-- slip needles in and pop the holders over. Really good idea, since I have several of her dpn protectors and just the other day was wishing I'd carried a spare set of needles with me, losing one needle forever on transit and not having enough to keep knitting. (The horror!) Thanks Sherry :)

Since we're already inside and you know you like the up the skirt shots...

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...pictures of finishing and grommet from the inside. I don't sew but with anything handmade (like, 99% of what I buy on etsy!) I always am super critical looking at the finishing touches on an item. I don't know what's right, but I can see if it's wrong. The attention to detail and finishing is awesome to my eye.

For those of you curious about the size, a size comparison shot of the piddleloop bag next to the JapaneseHandmadeEtc bag (my son really wanted me to take a pic of *his*)...

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They're both great. I can't wait to sew the (bad choice of) ribbon onto my everlasting bagstopper so Hanami can sit in my new loteria bag instead of being shoved unceremoniously on the side of my desk. :)

Besides the super great stitch markers attached to the bags, piddleloop also includes really sweet little surprises with each bag they sell. Also, notice the adorable sheep and horse (?) buttons above from my inside pics? Jen sent me a bunch of these as promos for her store on top of the ones that adorn the inside, so I'll be sending them along with new orders from my store til they run out. (They're all handmade as well, buttons and handstamped promos).

I really love connecting with people who appreciate and "practice" handmade-- piddleloop sources many things from other etsy sellers, writes about etsy and handmade on their blog, and practice it in their products and even their promos. I dig it a lot, and it makes me love my bag even more.

They will do custom work, so you can contact them thru etsy for more info on their sold items or if you have an idea in mind. Very easy to work with-- I appreciate how up front they were about the custom process and how it all came together, just as I'd hoped. Yay :)

You know, I didn't mean for this to be a one-item etsy friday, but it feels this is a good place to wind down. So there you go, have a good weekend! :)



* edit, 7/30: jen let me know that she's scored 4 more yards of the loteria fabric from etsy and can take custom orders for bags in it, and will have some for sale in their shop eventually. woo!

11 comments:

Stacey said...

I have one of their bags as well - I saw the fabric somewhere else and they volunteered to make a bag for me! I can't believe how much it holds for such a little thing! the handiwork is impeccable....now I need to find more stuff to put in bags so I can get some more!!!!

Nad said...

Okok, I give in..... I was thinking about a custom set in the goldfish prints and after seeing more detail shots of your bag...... I placed my order. :) Squee! I love your etsy fridays btw!

Eve said...

lol upskirt :)

Chris said...

Those are seriously cool!

The Gadabout Knitter said...

I purchased a bag from them (and happened to get one of your stitchmarkers as well). I love, love, love the bag and all the goodies that came with. Plus they were more than helpful in answering my questions.

suttonhoo said...

hey aija -- wanted to thank you belatedly for turning me on to the gorgeous baby slings -- I brought your rec and another one to new parents of twins in brooklyn and they loved loved loved them. thanks for making me a rock star. ;)

p.s. her bibs rock too -- super soft backing, and great patterns.

Sherry W said...

I am in mad love with my Goldfishy set and second everything you have said!

BTW, since I know you have some of my stuff too :), my DPN protectors work really well with the ribbon needle holder in the Piddleloop bags. I put my crochet hook or extra DPN set through the ribbon then pop on my endcaps. They don't go anywhere and don't float to the bottom of the bag!

April said...

Oh well, the Piddleloop goldfish notions bag and a sock pattern are now mine. How convenient that you have etsy Fridays and I get paid every Friday.

note to self: avoid sockpr0n on Fridays.

Sally Comes Unraveled said...

weeee!!!! I want one! Or 5...

Zonda said...

Those are nice bags!! They aren't easy to make either (ask me how I know LOL!) I really like their extra inside details too! BTW, I enjoy your Etsy Fridays! :)

lexa said...

That is a really great bag! I am awaiting the arrival of my four (yes, four!) bags from Japanese Handmade. Two are for Christmas gifts, though. The other two are mine! (Well, my mother's birthday is Sept 11, so she may get hers then instead of Christmas.)

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