Saga of the Pink Purse (Part I)

Here’s the problem when I don’t write for a few days. My mind quickly fills up with all of my thoughts and activities, and I have no idea where I should begin. As the song goes “Let’s start at the very beginning / A very good place to start . . . ” (Lyrics from “Do Re Mi” from Sound of Music). So here goes.

I owe my current project to a suggestion from grapesonthevine. After my most recent sock fiasco, she suggested that I work on a garter stitch drawstring bag (pattern by Janet D. Russell) that she had recently completed for her daughter. Once I saw a picture of the bag, I knew that it would be a great project. My 4 yo niece is supposed to visit us from Scotland this summer, and she would love a little girl purse. A quick garter stitch project would also lift my spirits and confidence. By some miracle (and contrary to my list of truisms), I even had the perfect pink yarn in my stash – Patons Classic Wool 100% new wool in Woodrose Heather. With this wool, I could felt the purse, which could be really fun. Talk about karma! I could not wait to cast on.

From a time perspective, unfortunately, getting any knitting done over the last two weeks has been difficult. My 6 month old baby (DS3) and almost 5 yo (DS2) have been sick non-stop, and each have required multiple doctor visits. I even had to miss the monthly Atlanta Knitting Guild meeting because the baby refused to let me put him down.

Once DS2 and DS3 started to feel better, I had to turn my attention to getting the family ready for Wednesday, April 8 – the start of Passover and the day we traveled to my parents’ house for Passover. I had 48 hours to prepare for both. You can imagine the quantity of laundry and preparation I had to do to get a family of five ready for a 5-day trip. Adding Passover preparation to this task is a new level of crazy.

For those of you not familiar with Passover preparation, let me digress. For Passover, you are supposed to clean all traces of bread and things that can be made into grain for bread out of your house. People spend weeks preparing for Passover. They go from room to room sweeping crumbs out of every corner and wiping dust off of the walls and ceilings. I knew the extensive house cleaning wasn’t going to happen in 48 hours, so my goal was to clean my kitchen. Every drawer was opened, every pot and pan pulled out, the entire cabinet or drawer was wiped down, and then all items were put away. I wasn’t able to clean the entire kitchen, but I did do the lower cabinets and refrigerator. The lower half of the kitchen looks amazing, if I do say so myself. For the 48 hours before we left, I was a domestic cleaning goddess. That did not leave much time for knitting.

You can imagine my joy when we finally piled into the car for a 4-hour trip to my parent’s house in Tennessee. DS1 (age 7) played his Gameboy until his eyeballs fell out; DS2 watched a movie, and DS3 slept. I pulled out the few completed rows of the simple garter stitch purse and started to knit. Peace at last.

My knitting joy was short lived. For some reason, I kept dropping the same stitch on the corner of the purse. The first time I dropped the stitch, I tinked the project back to the dropped stitch and started again. The second time I dropped the stitch, I decided to pick up the stitch in stockinette even though the pattern is garter stitch. I thought that maybe the difference in pattern wouldn’t matter since I plan to felt the bag. Then the perfectionist in me took over. I deliberately dropped the stitch and tried to pick it up following the pattern. After several unsuccessful attempts, I asked my mother for help. When she threw up her hands in frustration, I tinked the project intending to pick up the dropped stitch. Well, I over-tinked the project and had to cast on for a third or fourth time.

At that point, my knitting needles and I had a serious conversation.

Knitting went much smoother when I cast on again. My purse is far from perfect. I think there is an extra row on one side of the bottom of the purse. Also, when I picked up stitches from the bottom of the purse, I was off by two or three stitches. Honestly, my 4 yo niece won’t care. I do feel fairly confident that all my circular knitting went in the same direction, which is quite an accomplishment for me.

I finished the main part of the purse last night, and I hope to finish the I-cord draw string over the next couple of days. I’m not sure yet whether I’m going to make a backpack like grapesonthevine or whether I’m going to add handles to make a purse. Once the I-cords are finished, I plan to bravely go where I have never gone before (insert Twilight Zone music) – to the world of felting. It should be quite a journey.