FO - Everlasting Bag II

My friend Tawah bought this fun green cotton yarn a while back, but she was having a heck of a time trying to make it into a bag. She told me that she tried several patterns and none of them were working out correctly. She asked if she could send me the yarn so that I could take a stab at it. Naturally, I thought that sounded like a fine plan. So, she sent me the yarn and I decided that I would make a modified Everlasting Bagstopper. The yarn is DK weight though, so I couldn't use the numbers from the pattern, even if I had wanted to. But, I do love the construction of the bag, so that's what I went with.

I cast on for this bag and went to work. Everything I tried seemed to go wrong. The bag was either too loose, too tight, too big, too ugly, or some combination of these. It was a bit of a nightmare really. The problem? Tawah only had 1 skein of this yarn for me to use. That meant, it had to be just right or I would run out of yarn. I ripped the bag out at least 4 times that I can count because of the yardage issue. I tried at least 3 needle sizes, trying to get a good looking product. Finally, after several months of playing around, I figured it out.

I used size 7s for the bottom and then 10.5s for the body. I did decreases in the stockinette portion of the bag before starting the pattern. After much debate, I went with a simple stitch pattern because it worked. I also worked a few decreases at the top in the seed stitch portion of the bag. I wanted it to be just a little tighter at the top because it is likely to stretch with use. After all was said and done, I really liked the finished object. It's useful and that really is what matters for me. I met Tawah in Indiana just before Easter and gave it to her. She seemed to love it! Hooray! We loaded it up with snacks for her car trip and it worked beautifully. Next time she wants me to make a bag for her though, she's going to have to send me more yarn! That's all there is to it. :)

In case you are curious, that's a laptop inside the bag. I wanted to try and show how big the bag could actually become. :) You can see the fun pooling effect of the yarn in this picture. I'm not sure why, but it is much more apparent in the pictures than in person. Go figure!

Break

So, for some reason, I took a few weeks off from knitting. I know I went at least 10 days without knitting a stitch. It was weird. It wasn't an intentional break, but I guess I needed it. Luckily, I was able to get back into it recently. Yesterday I did a heel flap and today I completed the turn and finished about half of the gusset decreases on my Crest of the Wave sock. I'm glad I ripped it out previously because the pattern really does look very nice on the size 1 needles. I also cast on for a new project a while back, but I haven't made much progress on it either. A friend of mine sent me some possibly DK weight cotton yarn and requested that I magically transform it into a bag. It's based off the Everlasting Bagstopper, but with a ton of modifications. Basically, I love the construction of the Everlasting Bagstopper, so that's what I use from it. I finished the bottom and started the body of it already. It's dyeing my needles a fabulous shade of green that makes me think they're sick. Luckily, I have a set of needles that were turned into a lovely shade of red, so when Christmas rolls around, my needle collection will look a bit festive. Good times. :) Well, I'm glad to be knitting again for now and I really want to finish all the socks I've got going. I'd love to wear my Resurrection socks this fall! Must finish this Crest of the Wave sock so that I can get to that second Resurrection sock. :)

2 Projects at once

I've been making progress on both of my most recent projects. I'm just a little shy of the half-way mark for my Chapeau Marnier. The flash washed the color out a bit, but I think it still shows how far I've come with it. I just discovered that I may have been a stitch off on part of the pattern, but I'm not going to fix it. It's really not a big deal and when I run the ribbon through it, I'm almost certain it won't be noticeable. Plus, it's a design feature. Yeah, that's it. :)


I've also made progress on the Everlasting Bag. The picture doesn't show too much at first glance. But if you were to look closely, and really use your imagination, you might be able to see that I've finished the base of it and have picked up the stitches to complete the base. After another inch or 2, I'll be switching to size 11 needles and moving on to the body of the bag. Once I do that, it will be a lot quicker and easier. I feel like I'm struggling to keep all these stitches on size 7 16" circs, and well, I am! It's a lot of stitches for those needles, trust me. I didn't have any 24" length circs in a good size, so I made do with what I had. That means stuffing a lot of stitches on a smaller needle. Oh well. They are my Addi Turbos so I imagine they are up for the challenge.

So far, I'm quite pleased with my progress on both projects. I wonder which one I'll finish first. Normally, I'd say the hat would win, but there are a lot of rows when you're making a hat on size 2s. It's a tough call for sure!

Marnier Update

I'm on the super tricksy row 11 of this pattern and I'm doing okay. I had to take a moment to figure out where I was and what I needed to do, but after only 1 small mistake that was easy to fix, I've not had too many problems with it. It looks like it's going to be a big hat! This is a good thing for me because I have a big head. :) I'd love to just bust the rest of this hat out in a day, but I have to pay attention during the beginning and I just haven't had the attention span yet. Honestly, once I'm finished with the super cute brim, the hat will be a breeze.

In the meantime, however, don't be surprised if I cast on for an Everlasting Bag for a friend. She's been hinting, not too subtly, that she wants a bag she can take to the farmer's market. I pointed out this new pattern and said I could be convinced to make it for her. She seemed to really like it, so it's now in my queue. I need to print it out so that I can have it on hand when I'm ready to start.