Market Bag

Yay! I finally had a chance to try out the market bags I made from the pattern Cherizac sent me.  They work wonderfully despite my bad knitting. I'm not much of a knitter. These are the most open things I've ever knit, and keeping up with the stitches from the K2 tog, YO and vice versa (knit 2 together, yarn over) drove me absolutely nuts. I dropped stitches right and left.

The second was easier to make than the first.  The darned first one ended up with jut one handle the first time around.  I've got a third one on the needles, and I'm still having trouble keeping the right amount of stitches on the needles.  For the life of me, I can't figure out where I keep dropping stitches.

Still and all, like I've said, they're done, they hold stuff, they're holding together, and they don't look too bad. They're washable and very usable. I can pile a bunch of them in one, and they won't fall off the shelf when I open the closet door. So I'm a happy camper.

The one on the left is holding two large bunches of bananas. The one on the right is holding a box of ice cream bars, a huge bag of crisped rice cereal and something I've forgotten what it was.

Fiber Talk

I have a new pair of favorite socks - a creamy orange pair I knit two weeks ago.  Man, it's been years since I knitted socks. My last pair wore out, and I've never replaced them. Obviously, I need to get going on this again.

These socks really are the same size. I've not photographed a lot of socks, so experience beats me here. Laid out side by side, I could NOT make them look the same size. I swear they're equal, even if the photo on the right doesn't look like.

These socks were knitted from the S.O.C.K.S. pattern by Claudia Krisniski of Countrywool. Claudia did this pattern in 2000, and it's still the only sock pattern I've ever knitted.  Goes to show you I'm not much of a knitter.

The yarn was some I spun. It is a two-ply; one ply being a natural white and the other from fiber I dyed using, I think, Kool-aid. It was dyed so long ago I can't remember.

Last night I started a market bag from a pattern sent to me by Cherizac at http://madhyatmika.wordpress.com/ . I had to rip it because I don't have large enough needles, but I wanted to see how it works. I've never done knitting before that produces a net like effect. Once I get back to Memphis, I'll pop over to the yarn store and get some size 13s and be off to do some market bags.

I'm really tired of the pile of market bags in the closet. They're on a shelf; they're different sizes; they slip, slide, and fall off. I hate to take the Kroger bags into Aldi and vice versa. Guess I'm just silly that way. I found some cotton houseware string at the local Chinese Market in Memphis for $1.25 for 2 balls. I'm thinking it will take about 3 balls to make a bag. I'll update once I find out.

With these I can stuff a bunch of them into one and have a smaller footprint for storage. It's said they hold a ton of stuff, so that's nice.