Christmas is coming

In case you didn't know.  I didn't knit many Christmas presents this year.  I knit a pair of socks and some fingerless gloves for my grandma and aunt, but those were mailed off weeks ago and I wouldn't really call them "Christmas gifts" so much as just "gifts."  My brother is getting a pair of Triforce gloves sometime soon, but they're not his Christmas gift and I don't feel pressured to have them finished.

The one gift that I really felt pressured to get done for Christmas was my mom's and it's done.  I made my mom a set of BYOBs because she generally uses the grocery store-brand reusable bags and they fall appart pretty quickly.  These are much more sturdy.

I may have used them on my last shopping trip... Just to make sure they worked they way they were supposed to...

These were knit with the newest 100% cotton yarn in the Knit Picks line Dishie.  The colors are Swan (white), Azure (light blue), and Jay (dark blue).  The Jay color is sadly being discontinued so if you like it, you'd better snap some up.  I used almost 3 full balls of each of the main colors and less than one ball of the Swan.

My opinion of the yarn is that it is perfect for market bags, would make great exfoliating bath accessories--wash cloths, bath puffs, shower glove, etc.--but that it's probably not ideal for anything else.  The yarn is very tightly spun.  This makes it incredibly sturdy--I think the light blue bag has about 10 pounds of groceries in it in that picture.  At the same time it makes the yarn very rough.  I found my hands aching after working with it for too long because it had no give and had a stiff rigid feel.  I would never use it to make a garment or toys with, but sturdy bags, and bath things are right up this yarn's ally.



In this picture, the light blue bag has been through the washing machine and dryer but the dark blue bag has not.  You can see that after washing the bags shrunk in height but got wider.  Definitely something to take into account if you are knitting something where gauge is important.

As for the pattern, knitting it once was a bit tedious.  Knitting it a second time in quick succession was painful.  The pattern is basically a sea of seed stitch.  You knit a base in seed stitch.  Then pick up stitches around the base and work in seed stitch.  Add stripes in seed stitch.  Then you get a blissful 32-row break where you do a simple lace pattern.  Then it's back to more seed stitch.  Seed stitch stripes. Seed stitch handles.  You get the point.



All of the posts online say that these bags come out very big and they are not wrong.  I think these are still OK grocery bags, but they are certainly on the side.  I would probably size them down a bit--maybe take out 20 stitches or so.  They stretch quite a bit when anything heavy is put in them.  Anyway, I hope mom likes them.