market bag

Since I'm slow to blog these days, this bag has already made her maiden voyage to the public market! I was able to lug home 2 cucumbers, 6 tomatoes, 1 head of broccoli, 1.5 pounds of coffee beans, and 2 pints of raspberries (which actually weren't all that good and but still served their purpose...as a vehicle for Cool Whip). It held up just fine, and I still had room to spare! In this photo, the bag is stuffed with a bath towel. And not one of those skimpy bath towels, either.

I used this free pattern, and made a few minor modifications. I went down several needle sizes, after reading about how much this bag stretches. I used size 8’s for the bottom of the bag, 11’s for the lace body, then I switched to 9’s and then 8’s for the garter stitch border, although I probably could have gone right back to the 8's. I was afraid of making the opening too small, but it seems to be fine. The top of the bag measures 12" across when you lay it flat.

I wound up knitting 14.5” from garter stitch base of the bag to the bag opening, although I had planned on making it a bit shorter. But when I'm holding the bag by the handles down at my side, the bag doesn't quite reach the ground, although it might if I really loaded it up with coffee beans. So maybe the bamboo handles aren't ideal (digging into your forearms when you're laden with produce), but I really do like the way they look. The bamboo handles have a diameter of 6" (on the inside) and I didn't do anything fancy to attach them, just went round and round and round with scrap yarn after I had bound off the bag.

I used some leftover Rowan Cotton Rope (maybe 3 balls or so?) and this yarn is much happier being a market bag than a lumpy dumpy surplice cardigan. Yes, we're all much happier now that this yarn is a market bag.

More photos on Flickr.