Saturday, February 27, 2016

DK Market Bag

I really didn't intend to make another market bag for a while.  I really hope you aren't bored with me talking about these crochet grocery bags.  (This is a free pattern. You will have to check out to download the pattern, but no payment is due since the cost is $0.00) I really love the design, it is fast and mindless and really helping me get through my stash.

There is one difference from the previous market bags, this one I'm making with Sirdar Crofter DK in an unknown colorway.  I last used this yarn for some two at a time toe up socks way back in 2009.  (Side note, it is crazy to see how the blog has evolved over the years.  I spend WAY more time blabbering on about stuff now than I did back then!)  The socks are nice, and fit my foot size perfectly because I made them toe up, but there is no memory in the yarn so they don't stay up on my foot very well.  I think it will be perfect for a market bag because it won't matter if the yarn can spring back. This yarn is also going to be represented in my hexipuff quilt.  With a desired 1000+ hexipuffs I think I'm about 3% done.  It is time for me to use up the rest of this yarn in my stash and give it a new home.


This particular bag is a little more bittersweet.  I started crocheting last summer when I was waiting for some medical results to come back and I really needed something to distract me.  I wanted to spin but I wasn't allowed to lift my wheel and I forgot to have Keith move it for me when he left to pick up dinner.  What could I do to distract myself?  Pick up a hook and start making another cute market bag.  (Thankfully I'm totally fine, everything was benign but it was a stressful time for us.)


I haven't made this pattern with DK weight yarn, only fingering weight.  we'll see how it comes together using a larger hook and thicker yarn.  I'm also curious what will happen when I switch balls of yarn, the color changes might be a bit abrupt.


After 10 rounds in the section before decreases, 23 g remain.  I was expecting that the yardage here wouldn't take me as far but I guess it is going well.  I can knit some more rounds to make this bag even bigger before decreasing and doing the handles.  After 15 rounds, 16 g remain.  After 17 rounds, 13 g remain and I started the decreases.


This bag is bigger than the other Sidar bags, and I used all but 6 g of the yarn.  Now this is REALLY a successful stashbusting project!  162 yards (44 g) were used for this bag.


It is really wonderful to have such a simple and effortless stashing busting project in my library.  When things are stressful I can turn to this pattern for a distraction. It is simple enough that it doesn't take a lot of attention to work on, but at the same time it has enough of a pattern to be interesting (especially when you're using a variegated yarn!)  I'm sure I'm not done with these crochet market bags.