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Back by popular demand….knitting. Yes, despite my newest distraction,sewing, I do still knit. Here is proof…the Knit Two Together Doctor’s Bag! This bag was one of the major reasons for buying the book. I loved this bag and still like it a lot.

 

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Yarn: Valley Yarn Berkshire
Inspiration: Knit Two Together Doctor’s Bag
Needles: Size 11
Yardage: 8 skeins
Modifications: Used boning on at the side edges for stability
Enjoyment Factor:7

 

  • The Good:
    • The pattern: It was pretty easy all around and the herringbone stitch kept me entertained. I really like the idea that it is not felted. Everyone presumes that a bag this size must have been felted but alas no, this is all knitting and no felting.
    • I really love my handles that I bought from Wildfibers, which is/was owned by the author of Knit Two Together. I just had to have these handles as I think they make the bag and was so happy when I happened to find them there.
    • I bought the button in Santa Fe and although it does not match with the handles in color, I still like it 🙂
    • The size….I have mixed feelings about the size because I like the fact that it is a big bag, but I do not have enough knitting to fill it. This is a damn big bag people! I saw it in person and the size in the picture but still didn’t grasp the fact that it would be that big. But I still love it because it is BIG and I have never had that before. This will pretty much be my knitting group bag, because I normally like my knitting a little more portable than this bag allows.

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  • The Bad:
    • The pattern for the bottom panel was wrong. The pattern for this piece says to case on 78 sts but reading further in the pattern it tells me to pick up 60 stitches to attach it to the front. This led to the bottom panel being WAAAAYYYY too big. I had to rip and reknit which never makes me happy
    • Stupid crochet chains for the handles were a pain to me since I do not crochet. Then stupid me cut them right at the knot, not compensating for stretch and eventual slippage out of the knot. I had to redo all of the chains with double knots and weaving the ends into the knitting.
    • I bought a little too much yarn. I had one more side panel to knit for the bag and I panicked. I couldn’t imagine that I would have enough to finish the bag up. So I placed an order for two more skeins only to find that I have about 1.5 skeins left from my 9 skeins total. I probably would have been ok with 7 afterall.
  • The Ugly: I can’t say that I like this bag all floppy when it is not full of stuff. I mean,the reason I loved this bag was for the shape that you see in the picture. So I got some boning, like that which is used in corsets, and added that to the side panels. Although this did not make them perfectly straight, it did help to give the bag more structure which I like a lot.

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Knit Time: January 12 – March 6

  • I was knitting two projects at once and had to wait for the extra yarn and find the perfect button.