Off the Needles: Linen Market Bag

Here's another project that I got to the almost-finished stage and then put aside for a few years. The only things left to do were to sew up the sides and add the strap. Since the body of the bag had a tendency to skew, I blocked it before doing up the sides. The yarn is 100% linen in magenta (2 strands used throughout), and it blocked very nicely (despite the uneven appearance in the photo). The pattern is from Folk Bags: 20 Knitting Patterns and Tales from around the World by Vicki Square.

The body is mostly knitted mesh stitch and the top edge is a basketweave stitch. In the pattern the strap was yet another pattern, but I found it a bit too fiddly for my patience and did the strap in the basketweave stitch as well. A nice thing about the basketweave stitch is that it doesn't stretch much on the vertical so the strap won't have a tendency to "grow" and lengthen.

Off the Needles: Summer Cardigan

 

I started this sweater earlier this year and just finished sewing it together this weekend. The pattern is Jill Vosburg's  "Drifting Dreams Jacket" from Just One More Row. The yarn from my really old stash. It's Bucilla Caprice, a 100% pima cotton that I bought years ago at the Belk in downtown Raleigh. It's probably over 20 years since there was a Belk there that sold yarn. The original price for a 50 gram ball was $3, but I bought it at the markdown price of $0.50/ball...so this sweater cost me less than $3 in materials. And I got the two shell buttons I used on sale for $0.25. Truly an almost free project!