Wednesday, January 30, 2008

New Year

Hi! I've had a slack start to the year haven't I? I wanted to wait to post until I had my new year's resolution figured out and then time just got away from me I guess. Anyway, here I am. So what is my new year's resolution - well it's a bit lame ... the short answer is "keep house better". The long answer is
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- keep the house tidy (mostly do ok on this already)
- keep the house clean (this is the main prob)
- make ongoing effort to make house look nice, ie new cushions, pics for the walls, etc
- do something about the jungle garden (it looks very bad, our neighbour said he was going to pour weedkiller on it!!! (how rude to say that to me!) It's not THAT bad but it's not good.)
- try new recipes regularly and eat healthily


you get the picture.


My second resolution is to get fit and trim. I got that started this morning by going for a 40 min walk with the doggy. I plan to do this every morning, we'll see what difference that makes.


On to new business now. This is supposed to be a craft blog yet somehow I haven't posted many of the things I've made so I'm going to redress that now.


Over Christmas I made the French Market Bag. I've been meaning to make this since I first saw it on Knitty two years ago. It was pretty easy to knit, good for knitting while watching TV. I'm pleased with how it turned out though it's floppier than I expected. Perhaps it just needs more felting.


French Market Bag


If you are a Ravelry user you can see it here.


Right now I'm making a string bag. I started out making Elisa Nest Tote and got up to doing the handles but I didn't like the way the icord was attaching, it was kind of lumpy and the seams on the sides were a bit wobbly too. So I ripped it out and made up my own pattern. I decided to make a solid garter stitch base (like the one on the Everlasting Bagstopper) so that the corners of things like books wouldn't poke out the holes. I also wanted to knit it in the round to eliminate messy seams and so that I could attach the icord to live stitches rather than to cast-on and cast-off edges. The most challenging part so far has been converting the Star Rib Mesh lace pattern (from A Treasury of Knitting Patterns) for circular knitting. It's embarrassing to admit but it took me about 5 hours to figure it out (I was watching TV at the time too, that's my excuse). My husband asked why I didn't just give up but there was no way I was going to let it defeat me, I'll never advance at knitting if I do that will I?


So here it is in the flat and in-the-round versions.


Flat knitting:

Multiple of 4 sts plus 1.


Rows 1 and 3 (wrong side) - Purl

Row 2 - K1, * yo, sl 2 knitwise-k1-p2sso, yo, k1; rep from *

Row 4 - Ssk, yo, k1, * sl 2 knitwise-k1-p2sso, yo, k1; rep from *, end yo k2 tog


Circular knitting:

Multiple of 4 sts


Rows 1 and 3 - Knit

Row 2 - * yo, sl 2 knitwise-k1-p2sso, yo, k1; rep from *

Row 4 - Remove beginning of round marker, k1, replace marker, * yo, k1, yo, sl 2 knitwise-k1-p2sso; rep from *


Here's a pic of the bag so far, you can't see the stitch pattern well in this photo so I'll take a better one soon.


String Bag


I'm off to do some sewing now. Promise I'll post more regularly in future :D

11 comments:

Dawn Anderson said...

Glad to see you back! I'm following your journey to try and get up the nerve to do the same myself (leave the corporate world). Nice work on the market bag.

MildlyCrafty said...

Thanks Dawn! Kind of scary knowing that there are people actually reading what I write. I'll do my best to be an inspiration to you! :D

SadieandLance said...

I've been meaning to have a go at the FMB too! Yours looks great.

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much! I've been needing to convert the star rib mesh pattern into circular knitting for a while now, and just haven't had the time to wrap my head around it...

Anonymous said...

I was going to try the Everlasting Bagstopper, but I love the star mesh look! I'm going to try to do one. When you get to the top of the bag, then what do you do?

MildlyCrafty said...

Hi BlueEyesIA, umm, I must confess that I haven't done any more on this bag. The plan was to do the handles in icord, similar to the Eliza Nest Tote.

Anonymous said...

Hi again :-)

I've started working on this bag and gotten to row 4 of the mesh. I've done it several times...and obviously frogged it several times. If I do the first k1, then yo, k1, etc. then I don't come out right at the end of the row. Is that first k1 an error perhaps?

I'm so anxious to do this bag and I appreciate very much that you put it into circular knitting because I don't like to purl. Converting a pattern is not a talent I have, that's for sure.

So, I'm not trying to be difficult, I'm just seeking comprehension :-)

Thanks so much!

Janet

MildlyCrafty said...

Hi Janet, You're not being difficult at all! I hope I can help you figure out what's wrong.

It's been so long since I last did this stitch I had to get out the needles and try it again to see how it worked.

So row 4 says:
Row 4 - Remove beginning of round marker, k1, replace marker, * yo, k1, yo, sl 2 knitwise-k1-p2sso; rep from *

Are you moving the marker to after the first k1? The reason you need to do this is that you need that stitch when you come to the end of the row, it will be the last k1 that you pass the 2 slipped stitches over. So you're kind of pretending that the first stitch of row 4 is the last stitch of row 3.

If you're doing this on DPNs and you have a multiple of 4 sts on each needle, when you get to row 4 you will find that the pattern repeat does not fit on one needle, you will need to "steal" one stitch from the next needle to do the last k1 that you pass the two slipped stitches over.

Does that help at all?

Amy

Anonymous said...

Oh, that helps immensely! When you said remove marker, K1 and replace marker, I put it back in the same stitch.

If I move the marker, that makes perfect sense!

Thank you so much, now I won't have to frog those rows again :-)

It's a great talent to be able to convert patterns and I don't have it - not yet anyway.

Thank you again!
Janet

Anonymous said...

Me again - before I even try it - when you begin round 2 again, does the marker go back? Or does it stay moved?

I'm using circular needles - that's why I love that you converted the pattern. My purl isn't as consistent as my knit, but I love this pattern.

As I've looked, I've seen all sorts of things made in this Star Rib Mesh, but they've never been circularly written, as far as I can tell. So I'm thrilled to find it in a circular.

Janet

MildlyCrafty said...

Hi Janet, I'm so glad that helped you. On row 2 you don't need to do anything with the marker, just leave it where it is. Have fun!!