Momma's Got a Brand New Bag

There's been very little activity on this blog because there's been very little knitting activity in general. That's been changing lately. The knitting is picking up a little steam, and I'm getting ready to do some sewing, too. And while I have kept my ravelry project page updated, it recently occurred to me that websites go down, servers crash, accounts vanish, and, you know, shit happens. So maybe I should start using this blog for some record-keeping again, such as it is.

I officially finished this bag last night, except for weaving the ends, which happened today. So it took about a month from start to finish, which isn't bad for one skein of Euroflax sport weight when a person's wrist will only tolerate knitting linen for so long before the cramps set in.

I started with a free pattern, the Ilene bag by Hannah Ingalls, from ravelry. (ravlink) However, being the headstrong domiknitrix that I can be, I changed the pattern. Basically, my gauge through the mesh was much denser than the pattern called for, and so the recommended number of pattern repeats gave me a 6" bag (unstretched) instead of the 8" bag the pattern indicated. I didn't want a shallow string bag, so I changed things. I continued knitting in pattern until it was about 7.5" unstretched. That was the first modification.

Second, see the ribbing along the opening of the bag? The pattern recommends sticking to the same stitch count but dropping down two needle sizes to make that ribbing a little tighter than the lace mesh body of the bag. By this time, I was worried about the amount of yarn I had remaining, so I stuck with the same size needles but cut the stitch count.

I did this by identifying and marking the four "corners" of the bag. (The bottom of the bag was knit as a square, so I used that as my base.) I placed a stitch marker at each corner, and on alternating rounds, I decreased two stitches on either side of the stitch marker. I knit 8 rounds of ribbing (four of which were decrease rounds) and the resulting shape seems to work pretty well. My only regret is that I didn't use a stretchy cast-off, because that linen is rather unforgiving.

I also narrowed the shoulder strap (from 25 stitches on small needles to 10 stitches on bigger needles) and knit it longer than the pattern recommended.

The bag is roomy but not huge. If you look closely at the picture, you can see four large summer tomatoes (each about the size of a small grapefruit) in the bottom of the bag. It's the perfect size for the farmer's market. And the pattern is so nice and easy that I'm already contemplating making it again. (Hence my desire to preserve the pattern mods so I won't forget them later.)