My New Bag

Time flies apparently, even when you are NOT having fun. Well, it's been hot and I don't know WHAT I've been doing - the time has been flying, but I haven't been very productive. Job Hunting, obviously. And not successfully yet (so far). But I'm plugging away. Sure hope I find something soon. I'm kind of getting bummed about it, but trying to hold onto a positive attitude.

When I'm working full-time, as I usually do, I always insist that I need more hours in a day and that my work is the reason I don't accomplish all that I want to on the home and knitting front. However, I must say, I've been off a couple of weeks now, and don't have a lot to show for it. Sorry to say, my house isn't even shining with cleanliness yet. What's up with that? I've become a lazy slug. I'll blame it on the heat, but there's more to it than that. Evidently, I manage my time less efficiently when I feel I have "all the time in the world."

One thing I did finish last weekend was this cute little Buttonhole bag from Mason Dixon knitting. You can get the pattern here: I did, however, find that there was an error. It's on the row where you are starting the handles. The pattern instructs to, "K8, BO 10, K8, Sl marker, K11, BO 10, K11" (the impt thing is to keep it centered between the markers.

Instead that line should say, "K10, BO12, K10, Sl marker, K10, BO 12, K 10."

I realize this Buttonhole bag has been making the blogosphere for quite a while, a couple of years, maybe? While I DO consider myself a "trendy" knitter, I'm behind about two years or so on the trends. It takes me that long to decide if it's a trend worth following. Two years allows time for the pattern to be debugged and sometimes even modified - for the better! By then, I figure most of the errata has already been worked out, and I've gotten inspirational ideas from everyone on the net.

One such continuing source of inspiration (and envy) is Leslie and her "Whimsy" (Whatastitch) blog. (Scroll down to the bottom of her June entries to see the green and brown bag I'm referring to.

Leslie constantly inspires me with her creative ideas, elegant taste and eye for selecting projects that, I too, want to work on. So pardon me, Leslie, for playing "copy cat" by whipping up my version of your Green and Brown Buttonhole Bag. I loved it! Mine isn't exactly the same, but as close as I could get it! I simply LOVE green and brown together, two of my favorite all-time colors.

And this bag reminded me of Ande's Mints at a time I can't EAT Ande's Mints (on my low-carb diet doncha know). But I can satisfy my chocolate mint urges by knitting on this bag. And now it's done. I'm happy with the results.

The flower and ribbon were not part of the original pattern, but were done on Leslie's bag. I did it by just casting on 20 stitches, then knitting into the front and back of each stitch on the 1st row, doing the same on the second, then binding off. I shaped that "curly cue" into a flower and sewed it together with just a stitch or two, then felted the flower, along with the bag. Then I pinned the flower on the bag and tacked it down with a few stitches, again, just so it wouldn't be loose. That's it. A funny, easy bag you can knit quickly.

Really a quick fun project. (And pretty cheap, too, it uses 2 strands of Lamb's Pride Bulky Weight yarn - and I used 2 skeins of green and 1 skein of brown (using both ends of the brown).

All right, I still can't get this darn blog photo to post, but when I do, I will post it. Arggh!!!