The Miss Lavish work bag

Miss Lavish is my workbag.  Now I don’t usually name my possessions.  The cat spent several months without a name and even now I’m not sure he’s a Perkins but it’s sort of stuck. My workbag, however, was named instantly, it just clicked.

I’d made it from some waxed cotton that I had and lined it with cotton that had been sitting in the cupboard for years.  Happy with my bag I’d taken it out into the garden for coffee and knitting.
The weather was sunny but the bench was damp.
I emptied out my knitting and sat on it, the bag not the knitting.  I’d like to think that I had the foresight of Miss Lavish in  A Room with a View, but it wasn’t until that moment that I realised I had made something that I’d always wanted.  A mackintosh square.

“Then sit you down,” said Miss Lavish. “Observe my foresight.”

With many a smile she produced two of those mackintosh squares that protect the frame of the tourist from damp grass or cold marble steps. She sat on one; who was to sit on the other?

I’d always wondered why you couldn’t still buy mackintosh squares.  Ok, there’s not much cold marble in the UK but we have damp grass.   They seemed an excellent idea.  Bird watching and knitting on a cold beach in January is no longer a problem.

I’m not as self-sacrificing as Charlotte.  The bag is mine and I don’t share nicely but I have made some for the shop and it was the perfect excuse to buy fabric.  The linings are organic cotton from Charley Harper; Octoberama for the brown and Upside Downside Bird for the black.  To show it off, the top of the bag can be folded down to corral your yarn  and stop it skipping across the grass, if you’re not already sitting on it that is.

Each bag is fastened with a bone button from the lovely Maggie at Textile Garden.  She has patiently put up with a lot of dithering in the button decision department.  It’s her fault she has too many beautiful buttons but these are perfect and they make me so happy.