Knitting Bags for Fresita
Originally uploaded by Geraldine Curtis.

Today's start was very promising. A cheque in the post for a knitting commission I did a few weeks back. The story began with an email I received through the website, asking if I knew of anyone who could knit a bag for a wine bottle. Not your average email...Usually I hear from people looking for knitters. This, I thought, was more 'up my street' and took on the challenge myself. The request came from a wine merchant in London who wanted to promote a certain type of wine with a knitted bag. If the design was accepted then it might be displayed at Selfridges. (sorry, bit of name dropping here) I used to write for Crafts Beautiful, Popular Crafts and other craft magazines (more name dropping), so I thought I was well qualified for the task. The wine in question was called Fresita
and they sent me a free bottle while I worked on the design (no, it is still intact). It comes in a beautiful red bottle and if you hold it up to the light you can see real strawberries floating about in it! I soon discovered it's very difficult to buy red yarns at the moment, but as luck would have it, I did have a gorgeous chenille in my 'stash' and a trip to see my parents (and a yarn shop nearby) yielded a couple of balls of just the right shade. I wasn't quite sure what was meant by 'knitted bag' and having seen the bottle I wanted to design something that was a bit more classy than an oversized willy warmer (apologies if shocked). I did three samples in the end, one using organza fabric to show the beauty of the bottle, one in chenille, and one in the fur yarn. The two knitted ones were very tactile and shaped to accentuate the shape of the bottle. It was great using my knitting machine again and all the old excitement returned of starting with nothing and ending with something. I haven't found out yet whether the design will be taken further, but in the meantime the cheque is safely in the bank...