Try, Try Again

Aaah, this family of 7 has just arrived home from more than a week of traveling up to Minnesota and back.
Yes, that would be 24 hours up and 24 hours back . . . driving in a van . . . 7 people . . . all together . . . small space.
So, you are asking, what did you find to do for those 48 hours? So glad you asked, because I need to tell you that instead of giving up on my plan of having a cotton market bag, I instead am trying, trying again. This time in yellow; this time with needles instead of a hook.
You can find the pattern here.

For the yarn, I chose Cotton Twist by Berroco in a warm, golden yellow and spent the entire trip silently cursing it. It is terribly split-y and then it has a single, slender strand of rayon twisted into it that gives it a lovely occasional touch of a shimmer but is horrible to knit with---splitting, fraying, and catching all over the place.

::Sigh:: Sorry to be negative, but those are the sad facts of this yarn.

Other than my yarn angst, the bag is really fun to knit but for me would be best knitted in total quiet and solitude. Of course, this was a total impossibility in a van . . . with 7 people . . . for 48 hours.

I would just be getting a "slip, slip, knit, yarn over" accomplished, avoiding a split, avoiding a catch of the rayon, avoiding the needle sliding backwards out of my hand, when a voice would call from the back:

"Youngest Daughter just dumped an entire box of crayons out by mistake and they are now melting in the back window,"

or

"Oldest Son has fallen asleep and his 6'3" frame is invading the entire length of the backseat, causing the two of us sitting back here to have difficulty in sitting upright . . . staying strapped . . . breathing.

And the "slip, slip, knit, yarn over" would have to be abandoned to right wrongs in the rear of the van. And who knows exactly where my mind would be when again taking up the knitting.

So it is with great delight that I can report that this pattern is quite forgiving with the occasional mistakes, mess-ups, and misadventures that may occur in its creation.

(Please note the splits, fuzzes, and catches in this picture.
Don't ever knit with a shimmery strand of rayon
twisted into your cotton yarn.)

Hopefully I will shortly be able to show you a completed knit cotton market bag. And when it is filled with organic lettuce or library books or balls of yarn, you'll never notice all its imperfections.