The one where the linen bag and I butt heads

Hello hello. The week has gone by fast for the slug who is your blogger. My hours at work were all messed up this week because one of my co-workers is on vacation, so I worked two 10-hour days Thursday and Friday. I did finish my socks on Monday. TA-DA.... I present to you my new crazy mixed-up socks. Everyone says they are autumn colors. The yarn is 100% merino and very soft.
At knitting group on Tuesday I started my new project, which is a mesh market bag. I belong to the Range Fiberart Guild ( http://www.cpinternet.com/~lynx/ ) and in October we are hosting the Minnesota Weaver's Guild annual Federation meeting. The theme is "Ode to Linen." Several guild members decided to band together and everyone knit a linen bag and they would display them at the Federation meeting. They chose this particular pattern, the Carry-It-Home Bag, which is available from Patternworks.I never could make the get-togethers for that because they met when I was working, so at first I didn't participate. But after getting together with everyone at Land of the Loon I decided to jump on the bandwagon and knit one too. Since then, I have developed a sense that I am just not a linen-bag-knitter. I have had so much trouble with this bag. Started out great. I cast on the right number of stitches, knit the requisite number of rows to get to the point where you fold over and bind off 25 stitches to the cast-on stitches to make a handle on each side. I did that, but not very successfully. When I was knitting the next row I realized that I had gotten off-kilter on one handle and it was all crooked, AND of course I no longer had the right number of stitches since I used more than necessary for the bind-off dealie thingie. SO, I ripped it all out and started over. This time I got the handles bound off correctly, still had the right number of stitches. Knit down to the point where you fold the knitting over and knit the bind-off stitch in with the live stitch to make a folded over double top with the two handles before you start the mesh. Now in theory, this is not difficult. But leave it to me to MAKE it difficult. Instead of knitting the stitches together, I did the same thing I did for the handles. Knit the live stitch together with the cast-on stitch and then bound them off. I can't believe I am admitting this for all the world to see, but I did it ALL THE WAY AROUND the 151 stitches. Got done, had one stitch. I totally couldn't believe I had been so stupid. SO, I un-bound all the stitches one at a time, didn't rip it out again because at that point, I was determined this bag is NOT getting the best of ME. I unbound all the stitches. Since linen doesn't have much of a memory (kind of like me) the stitches were a bit stretched out, but since I was going to be folding it over and knitting them together with the cast-on stitches I figured it would be okay. So I continued on, folded it over and knit the live stitch together with the cast-on-stitch and still had 151 stitches...woo hoo, she did it!!!! At that point I was really happy and loved my little linen bag despite the fact that all the stitches weren't perfect.

Then I started the mesh. You do that top part on size 4 needles and the mesh in size 13. The pattern tells you to do the first row of mesh LOOSELY with the size 4 needles and then switch to size 13 needles. I did that. But this mesh thing is just not fun. It seems like it should go really quickly but it is slow and I am not enjoying doing it. I must be going something wrong, but it looks correct. It took me forever to do 2 rows. Maybe I'll dash over to Knitting Knight today and see what Amber thinks and see if I AM doing something wrong. It wouldn't surprise me in the least. Nevertheless, here is the bag so far. I quite like the color of the linen yarn and was formerly enthralled with the idea of knitting my own linen bag. Now I'm not so sure....



Oh, and by the way, Amber started her bag at knitting group on Tuesday and she finished hers on Wednesday. So obviously one CAN successfully knit this bag. Just not ME.

Well, that is it for today. I am going to get ready and go to Ironworld (http://www.ironworld.com/ ) to check it out. Tomorrow I am going to be doing a spinning demonstration there, but I've never even been there and I don't know what to expect. So I thought I'd go today and see what it's like. I have done spinning demonstrations at Arts & Crafts shows, and sheep & wood festivals, and fairs, but never at a museum. I am a little nervous about the whole thing, but I am also excited about it. I love to spin and doing demonstrations is always so much fun. It's amazing the things people say and the questions they ask. Some people are utterly shocked that there is anyone who still spins - which is one reason I think it's important to do these spinning demonstrations. I feel it's vital that we preserve these traditional crafts and not let the skills die out. Spinning is such a relaxing and meditative activity. When I first learned to spin I thought it was magic. And I still feel that way.

So, keep spinning!!! Here are my "perfection marigolds" before the sun was up this morning.