When my dear friend Eleanor’s daughter had a baby girl in 2007, it seemed appropriate to make a gift that used both American and New Zealand fibers.

The American fiber is white Tunis wool from Gary and Sandy Sojka’s Bend-in-the-Creek Farm in Middleburg, Pennsylvania.  The New Zealand fiber is random-dyed Romney sliver in the “Pastels” colorway from Elspeth and David Wilkinson’s Chilko Fibres in Ashburton, New Zealand.

The bag is the “Large Travel Tote”  in Pursenalities by Eva Wiechmann (Martingale & Co., pp. 58-60).  I used a double strand of yarn throughout, so the bag turned out to be pretty much small suitcase-size.  The end pockets have antique melamine buttons, and there are touches of embroidery at the corners of the pockets.