A Monday FO Post

I've never been a fast knitter, and this year - especially this summer - I've gotten even less knitting done. Partly because of the weather, partly because on the days that I work at the yarn store, I knit for part of the day there, and depending on what I'm knitting there or what I'm knitting at home, too much knitting can cause my hands to hurt. 

But nonetheless, I have my projects going, and I can finally announce an FO!

You may remember that in June, I showed you the beginnings of a market bag I was making:

(The bottom with a bit of the sides going)

(A little bit more of the sides knit)

Project: Splashy Ilene

Pattern: Ilene, by Hannah Mason (free on Ravelry)

Yarn: Berocco Splash, in the Key West colorway (I used 2 full skeins and a small amount of a third)

Needles: US sizes 4 and 6

Notes: This is a very straightforward, easy pattern. It's also very forgiving - as in, if you mess up the count on one round, you can fudge/fix it in the next round and there is no real way to tell as you continue.

The hardest part of all of it is the picking up the stitches once you have knit the bottom. But to a certain extent, that can be fudged as well to get the right count after one or two rows.

I decided to make this because I wanted to try the yarn. But the skeins don't have a lot of yardage, so making a top or something would have been prohibitively expensive for me, even considering that I get an employee discount. So I thought I'd try this, since I knew it would be something I could still use.

Modifications: The pattern calls for you to do the pattern repeat until you have 50 rows of the mesh; I kept going until I had 72 rows. And the pattern is written for a certain yarn, so when you are doing the handle, it says to knit until you have approximately 36 inches of yarn left, and then do the three-needle bind off. I just knit the handle until I had 17 inches, and then did the bindoff, and it rests comfortably on my shoulder without being right up into my armpit.

You can cram a lot into this bag - the mesh makes it very stretchy! 

If you have some cotton, linen, whatever kind of plant-based yarn and am wondering what to do with it, this is a good project. At least here in Philadelphia, plastic bags are longer allowed to be given out in stores, and most places charge a fee for a paper bag. So you need to remember to bring your own bag along with you. This bag is very lightweight, and could easily be balled up and put into your pocket or into a purse. Win-win!

*****

Don't forget - to enter the giveaway for Week 2 of Christmas in July, leave a comment on this post by midnight tomorrow! And read the comments even if you don't comment yourself or enter the giveaway - so many interesting foods and dishes. Plus a taste of the New Zealand-Australia rivalry as a bonus! 😊

I hope this week is a good one for you. Sounds like our area is staying in the horrible heat, though I know other areas of the country are suffering even more. So take care, everyone and keep safe!

P.S. We might all need to start buying these shirts!