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.