What a Life!

The French Market Bag is done. {See results below} I made a facing along the top edge so that the edge wouldn’t roll. Well, the edge didn’t roll, but the facing made it to thick to felt as much as I wanted it to so the bag is more of a bowl shape than a box (sloped sides vs straight).

What you see in the picture above (which is much prettier than the one below which is why it is at the top of this post rather than the bottom even though it is discussed last) is the yarn for my next project. Another French Market Bag. Heavily modified. The base and edges will be done in black a la Ayla. The color pattern on the sides will be like the Kauni cardigan made famous by the Yarn Harlot. The dimensions of the bag and style of the handles will be like the French Market Bag which I love so much.

I love the picture above – I’ve found it virtually impossible to take a picture of that yarn and get the colors to come out right. This time I wasn’t even trying – I just wanted to snap a shot so I would know what order I had decided to use the colors in…and the colors in the photo came out perfect.

I just picked those colors at random one day when I was at the yarn store because I thought they looked so pretty together. I wanted to do some fair isle work (working two colors at a time) since I have not tried that technique yet. I also wanted my first fair isle project to be felted so it wouldn’t matter if I didn’t quite get the tension right (the challenging part of working two colors at once…or so I m told). I’ve searched high and low for the right pattern, the right project. I think I’ve finally found it [or invented it]. We shall see…

And regarding the picture of the French Market Bag below…yes, I used bottles of beer to block it. Initially I thought I would block it upside down, and those particular bottles were taller than all the others so that’s why I chose them. Then it turned out that four bottles of beer were not stable enough to hold the bag like I wanted so I went to plan B and blocked it as shown. There is a fifth bottle of beer in the center holding up the handles. It’s called using what you have.

Where is it being blocked? On top of the beer fridge. Of course.