Luxury Knitting with a machine assist

What can I make on my machine

I was trying to think of something I could create on my circular sock knitting machine (more about that machine another time) ... that is other than socks. I needed an idea that would be reasonably quick, reasonably able to accomplish without errors and fun to make and also fun to sell.

So I stumbled on (did not invent) making small bags with a drawstring to hold a bar of soap. The bar could be replaced after it was used up and the user would use the bags with soap enclosed to exfoliate the skin during shower or bath. I could make them from sock yarn in wool or cotton. Lots of colors and bonus, use up leftover sock yarn. I call them Soap Socks but it isn't catching on -- people call then soap bags.

More Ideas!

The first thing that happened when I showed them to people was they gave me other ideas! First one said " I would use it for my cell phone", next came the idea of filling it with sachet material and hang it in the closet, fill it with wrapped candy to give as a gift or favor, well you get the idea.

Next I stumbled on what I called wine bags. An open ended bag on both ends, fits over a wine bottle with a drawstring around the neck. A nice touch for giving a bottle of wine. And then, I figure you can use it to hold those plastic grocery bags after you drink the wine! I am an excellent recycler. But again my name isn't sticking. My first customer is asking for a wine cozy, so that is what I will call them from now on.

For the knitters: 

For the Soap Bags:  I cranked out a tube with left over sock yarn on my Antique Circular Sock Knitting Machine (Legare) using a 54 needle cylinder until I ran out of yarn then put in a divider color and cranked some more until I had a pretty long tube. One end of the tube I put on just 2 size #2 or 3 dpns and did a 3 needle bind off to close one end of the bag. Then I cut to the length I wanted and put those stitches on needles (except I unraveled enough to knit a row of eyelet (K2tog, YO) repeated all the way around, then knit 2 rows plain, then a standard bind off.  I used some bulky yarn for the drawstring through the eyelet row and tied a bow. (Or I did a single chain to the length for the drawstring. I did an I-cord once, that was too  time consuming).

If you want to see the other items I have knit by hand or with a machine assist, I have an ETSY shop called, JoanLivesToKnit. You guessed it, that name isn't catching on either. But try to Live with it.