Market bag

I like using the eco-friendly market bag I made a while back and wanted to make another, so I found a new pattern on Knitty, and starting going. The pattern called for hemp yarn, but I didn't want to spend the extra money, so I went with cotton again this time. Wal-mart stopped carrying the Lily n' Cream cotton yarn, so I went with "Peaches n' Cream" (why is there always the abbreviation of "n" in cotton yarn names?). I thought the most appropriate color would be "earthtone." Because the cotton yarn was a bit different in gauge than the hemp, I changed the needle sizes around a bit. I started the cast-on and knitted the bottom using size 8's, and upped it to size 9's to do the netting. The initial cast on was 44 sts, picked up 14 on the sides and ended up with a total of 118.

When I finished, I used a piece of ribbon, just like the pattern told me to and started to use the bag. I started to make one for my friend, Louann. For her bag, I used Lily n' Cream in Taupe Twist, just like she requesteI decided that I wouldn't use the ribbon because of the way it pulled on the bag and the tenuous way you have to sew it on, so I knitted into the side of each and created two straps. Hopefully this will work better, we'll see when Louann gets the bag in the mail!