Pattern: based on the Knitty French Market Bag
Yarn: Jo Sharp DK in Orient (MC) and Khaki (CC)
Needles: 7mm Addi Turbos (60 and 80 cm)

After much attention with a hairdryer, my last christmas gift made it into a box just in time for mum to arrive and take it back out again. This bag was based on the French Market Bag from Knitty with some modifications to make it more like the shopping baskets my mother bought in Vietnam 10 years ago and still uses to do her shopping every week. 10 years ago they were wonderfully unique, today you can get them everywhere, you know the ones - brightly coloured plastic baskets woven from packing tape (the stuff they use to bind palettes). Mum loves this shape of bag so I based the ratios of the sides on her 10 year old shopping baskets, consulted Montse Standley’s The Knitters Handbook for how to knit a rectangle from the centre out, cast on and prayed. I cannot tell you how relieved I am that it worked. For the record:

Cast on 2 stitches, pm, cst on 42 stitches, pm, cast on 2 stitches, pm, cast on 42 stitches.
Work as for the base knitted in the round in the original pattern.
When you have enough stitches to be able to flatten the base, seam the cast on edge together (the two 42 stitch sides should meet up nicely creating a rectangular base once sewn together).
Place the handles centered on the long sides with 4 stitches between the two sides of each handle.

The Jo Sharp DK was lovely to work with but really didn’t feel like wool at all. Not long after starting the first ball I felt compelled to go check that I hadn’t somehow made an awful mistake and bought DK cotton. The yarn was stretchy and easy on the hands like wool but not at all scratchy, it really did feel more like cotton sliding through my fingers. Unfortunately the colours bled a bit during the felting process and the blue that I was so in love with is no longer quite as vibrant but Mum is happy and that was, after all, the point…

Pattern: Booga Bag
Yarn: Brown Sheep Company Lamb’s Pride Worsted. MC: Rasberry, Contrast: Victorian Pink
Needles: 6.5mm/60cm Crystal Palace bamboo circular, 6.5mm Tulip bamboo DPNs

After much assistance from Robyn and a hairdryer my second Booga Bag is done. I really like this pattern, so quick and easy and such a lovely result. I was planning to finally make one for myself out of the remaining Lambs Pride, but now I am thinking I will wait until I can get my hands on some Kureyon and use my Lambs Pride to make a Market Bag for my knitting.

Here’s one more photo for good measure.

Progress on all fronts - my first French Market Bag is done and there are now gifts wrapped and under my tree. If only the tree was actually decorated - that will have to wait for tomorrow, when Robyn arrives with our decorations, which are currently in a box in Adelaide.

Pattern: French Market Bag
Yarn: Cold Harbour Mill Aran in Devon Green (MC) and Tartan Green (CC)
Needles: 7mm DPNs, 7mm Addi Turbos

That is today’s photo and I can now say I am happy with the result. Below is a photo I took yesterday straight after removing it from my makeshift blocking device. I was not happy with the result, the sides puckered dramatically under the handles, my blocking object had been a bit too tall and left slight dents in the handles and I was worried I should have blocked it to have a slightly narrower base and taller sides. The light yesterday really accentuated all of these problems.

What happened between today and yesterday? Well I left it out in the sun to ensure it was well and truly dry and went to the beach. Then a thunder storm happened. And rain. And hail. The storm was of the dramatic, but short and sweet summer variety, so the bag was left damp but not sodden. I set it to dry over a slightly smaller and softer shaped blocking device and today the bag was basically the same and yet much improved.

I was worried about the bag loosing it’s shape and going all saggy so the finishing touch was to cut a square of plastic (aka Ikea flexible chopping board) and cover it in matching fabric. The base will definitely help the bag hold it’s shape but it is flexible enough to move with the bag and not damage the felt by cutting in at the edges.

And finally one last perspective shot - this is Isabelle’s interpretation of “stand by the fence and face me”.

Pattern: Octagonal Swirl
Yarn: Heirloom Cotton in a pale lilac
Needles: 4mm Addi Bamboo DPNs, 4mm Tulip Bamboo circular

Picture me agonising over how best to get needles past airport security and then picture me working incredibly hard not to look both smug and guilty as I stood in front of them on the other side trying to shove my laptop back into my over stuffed bag. Hiding a pack of bamboo DPNs into a pocket already overflowing with pens and pencils works a treat. I guess future plane flights will be a good time to work on socks!

This is my last christmas wash cloth and I knit well over half of it on the flight to Adelaide. I finished the rest driving around to see people when we arrived and then cast off after dinner the same day. I seem to have knit the two stitches on the second or third needle in the wrong order in the first row causing a twist at the center. I choose to think of this as a feature not a bug.

Pattern: Booga Bag
Yarn: Brown Sheep Company Lamb’s Pride Worsted. MC: Khaki, Contrast: Rasberry
Needles: 6.5mm/60cm Crystal Palace bamboo circular, 6.5mm Tulip bamboo DPNs

The upside of a heat wave is speedy drying of the felted object! I put this one through the washer yesterday morning and it was nearly dry by late afternoon - just in time for Jesse to point out that I had blocked it with the fabric twisted to one side. So I wet it again and it dried for a second time by late this afternoon.

It’s cooler today, but the fear of tomorrow’s weather had us off to the shops to buy a wading pool. As it happens we already had a wading pool but it was so enormous that after 20 mins pumping with the foot pump the first ridge was less than half full. I spent that 20 mins considering whether it was morally acceptable to waste enough water to fill such a large area even 4 inches deep and what a hassel such a big pool would be in our tiny yard. So off to the shops we went to get a pool that could be fully inflated in 10-15 mins and use FAR less water to cool and entertain my little fish.

Isabelle had a ball and I got to assemble the Booga Bag during daylight hours - daylight knitting is a novelty round here. Making holes big enough to get the strap through was nigh on impossible and involved forcing two 7mm DPNs through each hole at the same time (not easy) and then attaching the strap to a stitch holder and using that to pull it through the holes. I think I will actually knit some holes into the fabric next time…

I hope the intended recipient likes it, if they don’t Isabelle is hoping they will give it to her.

Pattern: Bella Bag
Yarn: Hawthorn Cottage 5 Ply in colour #15
Needles: 6.5mm/40cm Crystal Palace bamboo circular

Bella (and swatch) consumed 65g of my 100g hank. I think I am going to try to squeeze another, smaller, bag out of what is left. I am really very happy with how Bella turned out, although I wish I had twisted the handles a lot more. I was going to give her to Isabelle as soon as she was done, but now I am thinking my own little belle may need to wait until Christmas to see her Bella.

Pattern: Reverse Bloom Wash Cloth - Interweave Knits Winter 2003
Yarn: Jo Sharp Soho Cotton, colour #220 “Poppy”
Needles: 4mm/60cm Tulip bamboo circular, 4mm/40cm Addi Natura circular, 4mm Addi Bamboo DPNs

The christmas “to do” list is shrinking!

There is so much going on today I don’t know where to start.

Pattern: Sophie Bag
Yarn: Cascade 220, colour #9407 (green)
Needles: 6.5mm/40cm Crystal Palace Bamboo Circular, 6.5mm Tulip Bamboo DPNs

Sophie is done and I have reorganised my gallery a little so that she will actually appear at the top of my FO list instead of the bottom. Following on from changing format of the FO page, I have also decided to fiddle about so that recurring projects like wash cloths could appear in both the “Finished Objects” and “On the Needles” lists. Speaking of wash cloths:

The Reverse Bloom Wash Cloth is progressing and I really do hope tonight will be my last night working on it. I think it will be pretty and I will be pleased to give it as a gift to someone but I don’t know if I will be in a rush to make another one soon. I think the thing that is bothering me about the Reverse bloom Washcloth is that the knitting is very simple but the project is rather fiddly. It seems to me that 12 ends to weave into a wash cloth is about 10 too many. I have actually woven the ends already because on such a small project it was a real pain having them tangling up all the time.

The ColdHarbour Mill Aran yarn I ordered has arrived and I am very happy with it. The colours are not what I expected, having far less blue in them than I anticipated but I am very happy none the less. The yarn is lovely and I am really looking forward to knitting it up!

ColdHarbour also sent the colour card I requested. In keeping with their website which claims to be an internet store but has only the names of their yarn colours with no pictures (and requires that you call them to order but doesn’t provide a phone number on the shop page), their colour card doesn’t have names attached to the colours. So now I know there are lots of colours I like, but not what they are called. I can guess of course but what if I am wrong? I am not one of those people who is good at describing colours so I am quite worried about calling up and actually trying to sort out which colour is which over the phone…

Pattern: Yvonne’s Double Flower Cloth
Yarn: Cotton Fredom, colour #11 (green)
Needles: 4mm Addi Bamboo DPNs, 4mm Addi Naturas

Umm, the green is not quite so GREEN in person, green yarn seems to photograph particularly badly. The 40cm 4mm Addi Natura’s and I are developing a love/hate relationship. They are the perfect size for this sort of project and quite nice to use - apart from the part where my hands ache for hours afterwards because they are just too short for my hand. Ouch. No more cotton knitting for a few days I think.

Pattern: Octagonal Swirl
Yarn: Cotton Fredom, colour #5 (pale blue)
Needles: 4mm Addi Bamboo DPNs, 4mm Tulip Bamboo circular

We were having a very bad day today, Isabelle and I. So bad in fact that I gave her a dose of homeopathic Chamomilla and went off to the doctor’s to get my thyroid checked. The doctor’s main advice was get back into the exercise and make sure you make time for activities you enjoy. I took her advice immediately to heart and went off to a yarn store to buy some more needles - a longer 4mm circular to finish off the above wash cloth and some 6.5mm DPNs to do the icord for my Booga Bag. And while I was at it I bought a couple of balls of cotton yarn, destined to become yet more wash cloths. I also had a look at some Heirloom Cashmino. I wasn’t very impressed with the Heirloom 8 ply I used for the Phildar Baby Hoody but the Cashmino looked nice, it seemed like a decent substitute for Debbie Bliss Cashmerino, with the added bonus of more and better colours.

I had made it all the way to the garter stitch border on the wash cloth using DPNs but the combination of reaching 36 stitches per needle and my purl stitches being slightly looser on the needle was just bound to result in dropped stitches. The circular I bought was “Tulip” brand. It was cheap, which is just as well because it isn’t very good - the needles were fine but the join was very snaggy. As it turned out the new 6.5mm DPNs came in very handy today as I used one of them to cast off the washcloth. Aren’t I good, actually following the advice of my knitting teacher to always cast off with a bigger needle, usually a MUCH bigger needle to get a nice elastic edge. If I had been able to choose a slightly smaller needle I probably would have but the DPNS were the only larger needles I had with me at the time and it worked a treat. The washcloth has a few lumpy stitches but i think it will block out nicely.