Knitting All Day

I woke up today and felt a little under the weather. Not so much that I would have had to stay home from work, if I was still working. But just enough that I needed to take it a little easy and so it became a day of knitting. A sick day from retirement?

I had been delaying starting a couple of projects and today was the day. One of them was a do it today or never thing. Valentine’s day comes once a year and I had seen this pattern some time ago and was intending to make it for the Compadre ever since. I’ve been married for over 32 years to my best friend. That reminds me of the time I bought a magnet for the refrigerator that said “I’m married to my best friend” at the store I where I was working then. The other women that I worked with were absolutely amazed that I was buying it. They obviously didn’t have the kind of marriage that the Compadre and I have. We’ll be celebrating V-day on Monday because he has the day off from work. Tonight he’s teaching. I won’t see him till late so I’ve placed the “olives” on our bed as my valentine to him. Yup, olive him.

The olives were so much fun to knit. They take only a few yards of yarn each and a little bit for the pimiento. I liked the start of the olive – basically like an i-cord for the first row. So clever and it worked great. I’m going to use this again. When you start with just a few stitches usually the needles are flopping and falling all over. This way they stay put. It’s an easy way to start with only a few stitches.

Kelly is having a string bag sale at Double Ewe in few weeks. And yes as a matter of fact she got the idea from me and I got it from the knitting night I went to in Delaware with Amy. So, this is scary. I’m making a string bag for the DE(Double Ewe) sale and then I’ll be in DE(Delaware) in time for the string bag sale there at Stitches with Style . The rules say that you have to buy the yarn at the shop in both cases and I’m prepared. I got yarn for a string bag when I was at the shop with Amy in January. So two string bags? We’ll see if I get them both done. I’ve got a good start on the one for Double Ewe. And the other really good question – do I really need any more yarn? Don't answer that, Compadre!

The bag is the Sunshine String Bag. Looks kind of like a very risqué top doesn’t it. I’m making it from a cotton/linen yarn. I chose a yarn with linen in it because I wanted my bag to be strong and it is. I tested the strength of the yarn by trying with all my might to break it and I couldn’t. That’s not to say I’m strong or anything, but I think the bag should hold up under all the yarn I can put in it.