Mesh Bag by Veronique Avery FO

Mr. Chandelier standing in for my usual photo assistant.

Pattern: Mesh Bag by Veronique Avery

Source: Knitting 24/7

Yarn: Giza Mercerized Cotton

Colour: Apple Green

Needles: 3.75mm Addi Circular

Start: June 4, 2010 Finish: September 9, 2011

Modifications: None

Not unlike the "Waving Lace" socks I posted about the other day, I took a while to put yarn and pattern together for this one. Unlike those socks, however, the colour of this did not disappoint - except in these photos where its looking much less vibrant than in real life.

I grabbed the yarn at a DKC meeting in the autumn of '09 at which a presenter invited everyone in the audience to take one ball or skein home with them from a big box of singles and samples. When I spied the shiny bright green of this yarn I instantly grabbed it (to do otherwise beside a single box of free yarn in a room of 150 knitters would have been to loose it for sure!), but I immediately imagined a great spring time shopping bag all squishy and cool in its cord-like texture.

It was a year later before I saw the pattern in Knitting 24/7.  In fact it was the first project I cast on last year after getting the book at the DKC Frolic, taking a course from Veronique and asking her to autograph it.
Once the roughly solid bottom is done the mesh portion of the bag is a simple 2 round pattern (the second round being straight knitting!)

With the pattern established, the start of the round moves one stitch to the left every other round yielding the diagonal effect. But it was too simple to keep me engaged so I'd day dream and miss moving the marker or forget a yarn over, everything would get misaligned. Rip. Rip. Rip.

After several frustrating episodes over the course of the next year I finally managed to focus enough to get the job done and I'm loving the functionality of this knit.

Unlike other mesh bags I've made/use, once fully loaded this one is designed to be looooong rather than round with the handles intended to be worn over the shoulder rather than carried in your hand. The above photo (again taken without the aid of assistance - or chandelier! - shows, as best I can, how the bag extends down the side under the arm hanging right alongside the leg leaving both hands and stride free to go about whatever else is necessary after the shopping is done. Brilliant!

The thing is also easy to fill with a large, flexible opening at the top.

The yarn didn't disappoint either. Utterly un-woolly, cool, strong and ready for a bath in the washer whenever the need arises.

Another skein leaves the stash and an FO starts its useful life!

Thanks for dropping by!