There were many possible contenders as title for this post. for example all of the following crossed my mind:

“Perhaps I was a little too enthusiastic”
“Perhaps I should felt a swatch next time”
“oh my god it SHRANK!!!!!”

But they all convey a certain sense of distress or panic that I am not actually feeling. This was not what I was expecting, in more ways than one. This is not what I expected the end result to be and I most certainly would not have expected to be so happy about it, should I have had even the faintest inkling of what was to come. Life, it seems, is full of little surprises. In short I finished and felted the French Market Bag and it is now blocking.

And I could leave this post at that. But the thing is that I think everyone really needs to get a bit of perspective here. First of all the felted bag is pretty much 9 inches cubed, if you need to then get out your measuring tape. Have you got a good sense of how big it is now? If so, then you are ready to see this:

….and this….

When wool shrinks that much it makes really STRONG fabric. It’s now half the size it started off and about 3/4 of the size I expected it to be, but my fears of it not being strong enough to support a load of goodies appropriate to it’s size have been well and truly alleviated.

I am so excited I just had to tell someone. The body of the first French Market Bag is done, I just have to decide where to place my handles and well, place my handles…I will be using the excellent Knitty article on grafting again. I have yet to do enough grafting to remember the setup part off the top of my head.

I have just started the last skein of yarn on my first French Market Bag, I am hoping to be done tomorrow night but that may be a little hopeful as I didn’t make much progress today…

The second bag has grown it’s first stripe…. My big issue with this bag is the handles. I know I want short handles but I don’t know whether to stick with the original FMB pattern or whether to go for icord handles. I am nto sure which option would be stronger. Any advice here would be most welcome.

Lately I have been feeling anxious about whether I am up to knitting adult sized sweaters. While holding these bags up against my body the other day I realised I have all ready knit a sweaters worth of stocking stitch on these bags and they aren’t done yet!

Part of the reason I didn’t make as much progress as I hoped for today is that Isabelle and I visited not one, but two, bead shops today and couldn’t help but play…

p.s. those last two photos were taken on the same table about 3 minutes apart (ie same light conditions). I have NO idea how I ended up with such differnet colour results. I really must read the camera’s manual one day…

Just hours before our vacation came to an end Jesse looked out the kitchen window and called for the camera. Stark naked, Isabelle had clipped a lead onto the freshly washed dog and headed off for a walk. She was most of the way to the beach when Jesse saw her, by the time he got the camera out she had reached her destination.

We got home last night and I have spent most of the day unpacking, grocery shopping, washing, all that post holiday fun. I did also manage to catch up on my blog reading. Can I just say how much I love my ADSL? Life on a modem was miserable.

I am a few days behind with my photos so for now here are some picks of the last day we spent at Black Point. The weather finally cleared as we were leaving so we got to have a walk

…and even to swim (our sedond swim for the whole trip)….

As you can see Isabelle’s idea of fun in the water involves attempting to drown her father.

On the knitting front I am very pleased with my holiday effort, I am three quarters of the way through the first market bag, which is as far as I could get while away as the last skein had not yet arrived when we left. It was here waiting for me last night so I need to go knit… Oh and I am also about a third of the way through the second rectangular shaped market bag.

The French Market Bag is ready for a second ball of the main colour, for the second time. It may have to wait a while…

My second market bag is not going to be a French Market bag after all but rather a hybrid somewhere between a FMB and one of those shopping baskets made out of woven packing tape. Making a rectangular base is much easier than a square as you can bypass the DPNs and go straight to a circular needle. Seaming the centre line takes a bit of time but I still feel like the rectangle has been easier. I am thinking that this bag may end up a more practical shape for a larger felted bag, more likely to hold its shape when loaded up with stuff.

And finally the last of the little things I have been trying to find a moment to show off - I have been making stitch markers again. I was quite dubious about the new rings I found ( I thought they might be a bit to chunky) so I tried some of them out on the FMB.

In short, I LOVE them! Big, it turns out, is better. Grandma Mary spotted these heart shaped markers the second I got my FMB out to show her so I have made up another set to give her with her wash cloth.

Isabelle has been finding more treasures on the beach…. speaking of the beach, this may be a beach holiday and summer may be officially upon us, but it’s pouring with rain and the howling of the wind is so loud it is hard to hear yourself think.

I went to see my gran the day we left for Black Point. She showed me the stunning Kaffe Fasset sweater she is working on and I kicked myself for not having my camera handy. Then she gave me this:

The drill really isn’t a great solution so you can imagine how thrilled I was. I immediately got out the second hank of the main colour for my French Market Bag and wound it up.

She also gave me some recycled 8 ply yarn that I plan to make into a basic sweater of my favourite style - being raglan, 3/4 sleeve, mock turtle neck.

I realise this yarn looks red, it is in fact more of a wine colour but I didn’t think to take a photo during daylight hours so the colours are a bit whacky in the photo…. Last but not least Mary also gave me some garter stitch squares for Isabelle to use as doll blankets:

This new connection with my Gran has really been one of the highlights of taking up knitting for me and I think she is always pleased when someone in the family discovers knitting.

That is the swatch for Kate. My tension is WAY off. I am two full stitches out. Do you think washing will change things that dramatically or shall I wait until I am closer to wash the swatch?

Note to self: when starting a new project on vacation pack more than just the needles suggested in the pattern.

The silver lining here is that I now know that the All Seasons Cotton is lovely and I am really happy with the colour. I can’t wait to get started on Kate and I will be trying some bigger needles the very second my christmas knitting is done.

Why yes, that is a lizard carcas on my coffee table. Do you like it?

And yes, that is a millipede in my childs hands. Are we noticing a pattern yet?

One guess who chose these items from the beach. Yes, that would be her father.

We seem to be having some trouble with traditional gender roles in our household at the moment. Perhaps we always have.

You will recall from my last post before I left Sydney that I had decided to rip out the last 8 rows of increases for my French Market Bag base and reknit straight. I wanted to maintain the visible rim of base colour on the sides of the bag and 200 stitches on larger needles seemed just a little too huge. I did indeed rip out those 8 rows and reknit them straight. I started the main colour and it was all going swimmingly.

It was only after I had knit through the entire first ball of the main colour that I began to wonder if 168 stitches really was enough. I realised that I had not actually measured the base after ripping out the extra increases, which was my last chance to lay it completely flat and get an accurate measurement. I tried to get it as flat as I could, and what I saw was very pretty.

Pretty, BUT…. Isn’t there always a ‘but’? Pretty, but I suspected, now too small. Jesse was horrified when I suggested ripping it out again, with many many more rows to be undone this time (the little gold safety pin you can see in the picture below marks the end of the base, the point to which I would have to rip back). After much agonising I decided to just keep on as I was going. I added the second ball of the main colour and I continued to kid myself that everything was ok for a few more rows.

The thing is that BUT just kept coming back to nag at me whenever I picked up the needles to work on it… But how are the handles going to work with only 168 stitches? But is it really going to be big enough to be useful? But what about that third skein of the main colour that I was sure I needed to make a big enough bag and which I can’t possibly use up at this rate? The buts kept on coming and the bag stopped growing. Then this happened:

This time I measured it. Fourteen and a half inches across. Not as small as I had feared, but not as big as I think it needs to be. New plan. Redo half of the base increases that I ripped out the first time and add 4 rounds of increasing 1 stitch per corner at even intervals through the bag body creating a total of 200 stitches at the top for nice handle placement and a more truly french market basket shape. I have reknit the rest of the base colour and the base is 16 or 17 inches across depending on how I measure it, I will knit the sides to be as tall as they are wide so I will place the increases at 3 inches, 7 inches, 11 inches and 15 inches. This plan still involves finishing in time for christmas, along with the other bag and a half that also need to be finished by the 25th.