Sara + h

"i don't need a bag, thanks"

I am a long time cloth bag user.  About a dozen or so years ago I asked for and received a set of six canvas shopping bags that have been well used in the intervening years and have substantially reduced our use of paper bags.  They have the stains, holes, and frayed handles to prove it.  Even so, we've still got a fair number of paper bags (and a few plastic) stashed under the kitchen sink and rattling around our house.  The bags are canvas, after all, and while they can hold a lot of groceries or whatever else we toss in them, they're also quite bulky.  The only time I've ever carried a bag large enough to accommodate them was when Lola and Astrid were in diapers and since that bag was full of [cloth] diapers, not even then.  And so, on sojourns to the grocery store we've often gotten to the check out only to find that our trusty bags have been left on their hook by the basement stairs or on the doorknob to the back door or even on the front passenger seat of the car.

No more!  Behold my new shopping bag of choice!

Several weeks ago I read about Envirosax on Not Martha.  Using the "NotMartha" 10% off coupon code, I pre ordered a set of five from delight.com (they now appear to be sold out but if you're interested in buying some you can do so on Envirosax's USA store site or from one of these retailers) and received them a few weeks later.

It's hard for me to express just how happy these bags make me.  Not only are they pretty to look at but they're small, oh, so small.  The entire set fits easily in my purse (I carry a Timbuk2 Metro bag whose dimensions you can see here).  The case that the bags come folded in now lives permanently in the door of my car.  When I go shopping, grocery or otherwise, I throw one or two or all of the bags in my purse before heading into the store.  When I come home I unload whatever I've purchased, roll up the bags, and throw them into my purse with the intention of putting them back in their case stowed in my car door.  They rarely make it there but that's okay.  It simply means I always have a shopping bag in my purse.  Handy when I walk rather than drive to a store.

Even though they're quite small when folded, the bags unfold to a generous 19.5" x 16.5" or big enough for a gallon of milk and several boxes of cereal.   The  strap on the bag is also long enough to comfortably fit over your shoulder but not so long that the bag drags on the ground when carried in your hand.

Can you tell that I really, really love these bags?  I envision our paper bag consumption being reduced to nearly nil because of them.  And in such a fashionable way.  World peace these are not but they are good for the world.

craft in america

I've been seeing  Craft in America advertised on my local PBS station(s) for weeks and was excited when one of the ads finally included an air date.  For those of you in and around the Twin Cities, the three part series will be broadcast this evening, Wednesday 5/30, at 7:00, 8:00, & 9:00pm on tpt channel 2 and again on channel 17 tomorrow night.  For those of you elsewhere in the United States and abroad, check your local listings or the Craft In America website for information on the program series DVD.

monica(s)

pattern :: Monica from the Spring 2007 issue of Knitty
yarn ::   Shine Sport by Knit Picks in Apricot & Butter and Aquamarine & Green Apple

The knitting preferences of designers usually become apparent the more familiar you become with their patterns.  Debbie Bliss, for example, prefers to knit flat and piece garments together.  How else can you account for putting a seam up the back of every (or very nearly every) hat she's designed?  I suspect the same might be true of Christine Schwender, the designer of Monica, but having never seen or knit any other of her patterns, I can't say for sure.  Knitting things flat, however, is not my preference.  I vastly prefer knitting in the round and have what some might consider a phobia about seaming knitted pieces.  I'm slowly working through that issue but even so, after reading through Monica once I saw no really compelling reason not to knit it in the round.  So, that's what I did.

I knit Monica in both a size 4 (for Astrid) and a size 6 (for Lola) and simply began by casting on twice the number of stitches that the pattern called for.  The only other modification I made to the body of each sweater was to increase the length which I found to be on the short side, especially for my lanky five year old.

For the ruffle, I again cast on double the number of stitches called for.  I'll admit that knitting the ruffle this way did make for some long and rather boring rows, but I don't think it would have been much less boring to knit it in two pieces.

I chose to join the ruffle and body together using the main color partly for aesthetics and partly to cope with a shortage of yarn.  Because the pattern called for one skein of each color for sizes 2-6 , it was a bit of a guessing game substituting a yarn with a different yardage.  The operative question was how much of the Cotton Fleece was left over after finishing each size.  I guessed right for the size 4 but not for the size 6.  If you're smarter than me, you'll buy more yarn than you think you'll need and return what you don't use.

On Lola's sweater, the second of the two I knit, I altered the ruffle by casting on 3x the number of stitches specified for the body and decreased by knitting *k2tog, k1* across rather than *k2tog* across.  My primary reason for doing this wasn't because I was worried about running out of yarn (although I should have been) but rather because I wanted to decrease the weight of the sweater.  Even though I shortened the straps by an inch on Astrid's sweater, the bulk of it stretched them out to the degree that the top of the sweater dropped below her nipples, a rather risque look for a two year old (or anyone, really).  Since the ruffle accounted for nearly a third of the sweater's weight and was a chore to knit, I decided to fiddle with it.  I should've just shortened the straps more since upon comparison, I prefer the look of the fuller, heavier ruffle.  Still, it looks pretty sweet on.

the solution

More on the whole sweater in the next day or so.

one yard shy of a sweater

Maybe two, but definitely no more than two.

This is what happens when the first three sizes of a pattern call for one skein of the main color and one skein of the contrasting color, each skein being 190 yards, and you're substituting a yarn that comes in 110 yard balls and once you start knitting (after, of course, you've already purchased your yarn...from an online store) you decide to modify the pattern in such a way that you're using more of the main color than the pattern originally calls for.

There was much swearing going on in my house at midnight last night.  Under my breath so as not wake anyone but still, a lot of swearing.  The air in the living room had a blue tinge to it.

Now I have to decide whether to

a. suck it up and order another ball of yarn, hoping that the dye lot isn't too different
b. embrace my idiocy and go with the quirky solution of finishing the two remaining inches of shoulder strap with the contrasting color
c.  finish the sweater with something in my stash or from one of my local yarns stores that's a close match

-OR-

d.  come up with a better solution than the three I've already thought of (I'm open to suggestions if anyone has any).

The good news in all of this?  I knit a gauge swatch.  I've apparently learned that lesson.  I'm hoping I learn to buy enough yarn sometime soon.

quiet

There I go again taking another impromptu blogging break.  It's all just a lesson in, among other things, going with the flow and in not making promises I likely wont keep.  And in cutting myself some slack when I break those promises that I've made unnecessarily.  I like having this place and the opportunity if affords me to connect with other people, but is it really crucial that I post everyday or respond to every single comment?  (I will say that I want to be better than I have been recently about responding to people's comments.  No promises though.)  I've decided it's not and I've realized that placing those kind of arbitrary demands on myself wrings nearly every ounce of joy I get from blogging out of the process.

So, here I am now.  We'll see about tomorrow tomorrow.

Things have been quiet in my non internet existence as well.  Precious little knitting or other craft has been taking place.  I was telling friends this morning that when I have things I actually need to make (like, for example, a present for my father whose birthday was February 23rd, or a present for my mother whose birthday is June 1st) all motivation on my part seems to vanish.  The need to do those things, however, doesn't.  Kind of a bitch, that.

The girls and I have been sharing a cold with one another too (I've taken to calling Astrid "Ms. Snotalot" due to her constantly glistening upper lip.  Where does all that mucous come from?  And is it just me or do Spring colds seem particularly unjust?) and today is the first day in almost a week that I haven't awoken and felt as though I've had to wrestle sound from my vocal cords.  Most days by evening my voice has returned but for the first half of the day it's been easier to say as little as possible.

About the only place there's been a lot of noise lately is inside my head.  Lots of thinking about purpose and other large issues that are difficult to write about.  Not difficult in an emotional sense.  Rather, in the "where do I begin" sense (no mid-life crisis here, but certainly plenty of mid-life questions).  It's much easier to let them continue to percolate .  Quietly.