I am making some progress with my third market bag. The base is done, I am about 8 inches into the body and I have used up all the Raspberry yarn. I got to this point on Thursday.

Since then I have been trying to figure out exactly how to arrange the colours for the rest of the bag. I have 1.8 skeins of pink and a bit over half a skein of Khaki and until about 10 minutes ago (when I got out my measuring tape so I could tell you how much I had done) I was pretty sure I needed to use all of that. Now I am not so sure. My original plan was to knit the Raspberry until it ran out, then all of the Khaki and then all of the Pink, “keep it simple stupid” and all of that. Jesse didn’t like this idea. Jesse thought that the Khaki was beautiful with either of the other yarns but problematic with both and that the bag should have a Raspberry lip around the edge and Raspberry on the handles. I had to draw him a picture in order for him to even being to understand how complicated a lip of colour would be on a bag with handles like this. But it’s a good idea and I couldn’t let it go once he had suggested it. A day or two after I had given in and decided to do it intarsia and all I realised that I could just crochet the lip on later. So I gave it a go, and I think it will work.

Because I am slack I did my test on live stitches, I think the Raspberry stitches extending up into the pink trim looks quite interesting but I am pretty sure I will cast off before adding the trim. Then again, maybe I won’t. What do you think?

But before I get to crocheting on an edge I have to knit the rest of the bag, and that requires deciding whether to use the Khaki or not, and if so how. One stripe between the Raspberry and the Pink, or two smaller stripes inside the Pink? Please tell me what you think, I need help here… I have to finish knitting the Raspberry parts of the handles (which I am doing by slowly ripping yarn from the bag body) and then rip back a couple of rows more to put aside for the trim before I can start on the next colour so I have a day or two left to continue obsessing over this. Another idea is that I could try goign with just the Pink and if it isn’t tall enough when I run out then I can move onto the khaki and put the rasberry trim onto that… Hmm, that could look good too. Arrrgghhh…

Oh and that sleep schedule I mentioned? Went out the window when Isabelle had a TWO AND A HALF HOUR nap this afternoon. She was still up at 10:30 tonight. Ugh. There will be no more naps. Not ever.

Contrary to what you may think from the lack of posting I have actually been knitting this week. But there is only so much you can say about market bags in one two month period. I think I have said most of it already and the pictures would be so not thrilling that they aren’t even worth taking… Also I have been somewhat preoccupied with endless appointments for ultrasounds, specialist opinions and precision timed jabs in the butt…

The most note worthy thing that has happened this week is that we finally seem to have found a new sleep schedule for Isabelle and it is WONDERFUL. She is currently sleeping (roughly speaking) from 6:40pm to 6:10am and subsequently not napping. I don’t think she has ever gone to bed this early or slept this long. It adds a lot of flexibility to our days to dispense with the nap, and removes all that angst about timing the nap just right to ensure a reasonable bedtime (reasonable used to be 8:30 - still SO late!). Knowing she will go to sleep easily, on time and sleep well makes some crabbiness in the afternoon absolutely tolerable, though mostly she has actually been in a better mood than usual, just tired. Keep your fingers crossed for us that lasts…

Yesterday I cast on for a third market bag. This one is actually for me! I am using the left over yarn from the Booga Bags I made as christmas gifts. I am doing this one with the same alterations as the blue and brown bag I made for mum, i.e. with a rectangular base. Tonight I seamed up hole in the base. I forgot to photograph the seaming of the first rectangular base I made, and did a rather clumsy job of explaining it as I recall, so here are some pics.

Isabelle and I went to one of our favourite parks today. She was very patient while I had a good long walk and I was very patient while she climbed trees.

I wore Kate.

Pattern: Kate - Phildar #406 / Printemps 2004 Familie
Yarn: Rowan All Seasons Cotton in “Dim”
Needles: 5mm Addi Turbos

The blocking went well and provided just enough extra length that I will leave it as is. I am very happy with how this turned out given that it is the first piece of clothing I have knit for myself and I will definitely wear it, but probably not that much for reasons pertaining to sunblock and bras. I knew it wasn’t practical when I decided to go ahead and make it. Denial is what gets us through the day, an old friend of mine often said.

Kate is blocking. Kate is a bit short (as suspected) so there is a lot riding on the blocking… Though really she is only a tiny bit short and my biggest concern right now is whether I will (or will not) be able to come to some sort of bra arrangement acceptable enough to wear her often anyway.

This is what is left of the four balls I used. Seems like a shame to start into the last ball to add just one more inch. Not that I have anything else to do with one ball of All Season Cotton in Dim, I really don’t know what my problem is but apparently I have one.

See that twisted stitch, and the loop from the end of my short row that it isn’t hiding? I saw it just as I was carefully examining the tension of my grafting a few rows further up. That twisted stitch was pretty much dead center of the front piece, about half an inch below the neck band. Unpicking grafting is not my idea of fun.

So Monday I tried Becky’s method for the neckband on Kate and it was terrible. First I agonised over how many stitches to cast on. The front piece had 34 stitches to be picked up, the back had 26. The pattern calls for 40 stitches of neckband to be matched to those 34 stitches of front 34 stitches of neck band to 26 stitches of back with 16 stitches of neckband for each shoulder. I just could not figure out whether I should I cast only the 16 stitches called for in the pattern for the shoulder and thus end up with a neckband 14 stitches smaller than the pattern, or should I cast on some more - giving bigger shoulder straps and the right size neckband? I cast on a few more at the shoulder than the pattern called for, but less than enough to give a full sized neckband. I used the button loop cast on, which was excruciating to do, every stitch needed to be oh so carefully straightened and tightened and shaped just so, the yarn just didn’t want to slide though once the loop that was round my thumb was moved to the needle. I knit about half the neck band using two 5mm circs as I didn’t have a short enough circular for the job. My knitting was suddenly loose and sloppy and there were clearly too many stitches on the shoulder.

So yesterday I ripped it out. New approach. I knit the neckband separately from the top down (as called for in the pattern, but with only enough stitches to have 16 per shoulder and exactly the right number to graft the live stitches of the front and back pieces to the band. I also went down to a 4.5mm needle. I didn’t have a short enough 4.5mm either, so I tried the magic loop technique for the first time - which worked just fine, though my neckband was a bit big to magic loop easily on an 80cm circ, so I had to be very careful about how I managed my loops….

When the band was done I cast off the shoulders as called for in the pattern and I have grafted the back piece to the neckband. So far so good. Tonight I will graft on the front and (hopefully) do the side seams.

Yesterday was a particularly productive day, not only did I spend four hours knitting/finishing as described above (how DID it come to take FOUR hours to knit one neckband and graft 26 stitches?) I also waded though a whole bunch of “first day back to normal life” jobs and bought myself a convertible bra so that I can actually wear this thing, when it’s done. Assuming it fits. Which may be a big assumption. I have fears I may need to chop the bottom off and add a few inches to the middle.

And for those of you who are more interested in Isabelle than my knitting (you know who you are) I just have to tell you that she is in developmental overdrive right now. Not only has she started drawing recognisable shapes, learned to pedal her bike, improved her swimming (she started DIVING, I kid you not) but she has also figured out how to make tunnels with blocks over her train tracks. I built the big “houses” in the foreground but all those little ones grouped tightly together she built herself, unassisted. Wow.

Would you look at that, I finally got past the end of the third ball of yarn. As I happily knit away after ripping it out for the second time I made a decision. There would be no checking of 10cm blocks of stitches this time. When I was back to the point I had decided there was a problem first time around I got out my calculator instead of my pins. When I was done with the measuring tape I did the math and found that the entire section of stocking stitch was exactly the size it should have been. I suspect that if I had done this the first time I may never have ripped it out, then again I had decided to check my gauge at that point because the stitches looked visibly different to the back. I have lofty goals of having Kate done by tomorrow night, that may be overly hopeful. It’s nice not to feel worried about whether I will get something done “on time” after all that christmas knitting.

I am planning to finish the neck band as described by the ever amazing Becky, assuming I can figure out one of the recommended cast on methods.

Kate’s front is back to where we last saw it. My gauge has gone from 18st/10cm to 16st/10cm. Where oh where is the 17st/10cm I was looking for? How many times can I knit the front of one tank? I am now fairly certain that the excess tightness of Wednesday morning’s car knitting was to do with sticky fingers. With that in mind I really didn’t need to think loose thoughts tonight, just clean my hands. I am off to bed, all the better to rip Kate back to the rib again tomorrow. Tomorrow I shall have clean hands and think no thoughts about gauge at all. I shall not think loose, I shall not think tight, I shall simply knit. And pray.

Happy new year everyone. I saw the year in by having a glass of champagne, eating a mountain of berries covered in cream and shaved chocolate and ripping out the second half of my progress on the front of Kate. Actually that was all at about 10pm, before Jesse went out to an actual party with actual friends (which is not say that I have no friends but only that the idea of seeing them at night, at a party, is positively novel). Since then I have been watching a DVD while re knitting what I so gleefully ripped and waiting to see the year in for real. And checking my gauge. A lot. The sound of the fire works prompted me to come write this post.

My goals for the year, in no particular order:

to teach Isabelle to ride her bike so that I can start walking again
to start doing pushups again
to loose the 3 or so kilos I have gained since weaning Isabelle
to get pregnant or start the adoption process before the year is out
to join a Steiner playgroup for Isabelle
to decide whether we are going to send Isabelle to school or homeschool
to make further progress on sorting out our finances
to go away at least for the weekend at least every 2 months
and to go bush walking at least once a month
to make Isabelle a quilt for her Birthday (the first I will ever have actually finished)
to knit socks, something for Jesse, a poncho, scarf, hat and cardi for Isabelle, a knitting bag and hand bag for myself, and the rest…

I have a gauge problem. This could be the real reason I have made no progress since getting out of the car yesterday. I have spent pretty much all the time since finishing my last post with some pins and a measuring tape. My gauge was perfect for the first half of the back, by the end it was about half a stitch tighter than it should have been. The front ribbing is find but the stocking stitch is 16, maybe even 18.5 stitches to 10cm rather than the 17 I was aiming for and I have one extra row plus some extra excess from my first ball of yarn. Should I rip back to the ribbing or just think loose thoughts from now on?