theraineysisters knitting and so much more

When I made the Modular Tote, I read the directions for the bottom and could not make heads or tails out of them.  It made no sense to me!  But I forged ahead and figured it out.  Lisa is now in the same predicament so I will share my findings with her and all of you as well.  If you never knit the tote, this will be of no use to you whatsoever!

The first half of the bottom is knit and forms a mitered rectangle.  You cast on 120 sts: 20 for each “side” and 80 along the bottom.  As the decreases are done, a rectangle emerges.  The short black bar at the top is the final 40 sts as they are bound off. 

To create the second half of the bottom, you start by casting on 20 sts — which will end up forming a straight line with the 20 sts from the first half.  Then you pick up 80 sts along the 80 sts in the center of Rectangle #1; the last 20 sts are cast on and form the second half of the line on the other side.  As you knit back and forth like Rectangle #1, Rectangle #2 forms a mirror image of the first and is attached invisibly along the center of the bottom.  Because I used a provisional cast on, my 80 sts were “live” — I did not pick up, but rather released the provisional cast on and knitted the 80 sts.  

My diagram is not to scale but hopefully it shows the construction:

Here we see the bottom joined in real life.  You can also see the provisional cast on of the two “20-stitch” sections of Rectangles 1 & 2 on the righthand side of the knitting.

Here we see the 40 sts I picked up along the lefthand side of the bottom as they are knit to form the sides of the mitered bag. 

After the square is knitted, you work a tringular shaped piece that tapers to the top of the bag.

Here you see how the bottom and sides are joined to the front of the bag.

There are not really “flaps” at the top, but insets to form the sides of the bag.  I hope this is helpful. 

And, Lisa, please forgive Sally’s attempt to “help” – I don’t think she’s had any modular training. 😉

Some of you asked about where to get the Mitered Tote pattern:
if you are interested in making your own Modular Felted Tote Bag (which I kept calling the Mitered Tote by accident!), you can get the pattern from The Yarnery in St. Paul: 651-222-5793.  Theresa Gaffey works there and has created many nice designs.

Why don’t cameras do these things justice!  I really tried to get a GOOD picture of the felted Mitered Tote — to no avail! I wish you could see it in person. 

Here’s a close up of the felting:

It is felted to a nice degree: nicely dense and not stretchy.  And it has the boucle finish that I wanted.  Even Hubby commented on how great it looked felted (and he usually just does the ‘uh, looks good’ without looking up thing).  Here you can at least see the difference in size after felting:

And Lettie asked, why does Mommy keep making felted bags in the same colors…..???

Lettie, dear, we have a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy around here and you better get used to it ;)!  The above picture (showing one of my many Market Squares bags) is much truer to the color. 

I am extremely pleased with the strap I ended up doing.  I used a provisional cast on for 160 sts; then I worked stripes in the green and red, and did an i-cord bind off all around.  It is the exact width and length I wanted and it felted very nicely, too!! 

So, all in all I am very pleased with the bag.  I do need to ask myself how many is too many, but Sally keeps knitting shawls, right?  Can there be too much of a good thing?

PS — in response to questions — a couple of you wondered about the felting and the fact that knitting usually felts more in one direction than the other.  I’m no expert, but it could be that it felted evenly because the knitting goes in all directions:

Arrows show direction of knitting

This is not the case with the bottom of the bag, but …

Finally I am at the point on the Mitered Tote where it all comes together. When I last left you, I was finishing up the “scarf” section. It wrapped up quickly (as garter stitch scarves tend to do ;)) and then it was on to the construction phase. I chronicled this phase in photos so you could see how nicely the bag comes together (and because it is too hard to describe in words alone).

First, pick up 240 sts around three sides of one of the large squares:

The “crinkled” edge is due to the fact that I am using Denise needles for some of the pick ups — I didn’t have enough Size 8 needles, and it takes a lot for this project.

Then pick up 240 sts along one edge of the “scarf”:

Join the pieces together using a 3-needle bind off (I used a Size 9 needle to do the bind off):

It gets a very nice-looking edge — similar to piping. Here’s the bottom, where the true miter is hiding:

Repeat for the other side and voila:

You’ve got one honkin’ big bag!!!!! Whoa! That’s a stash-keeper if I ever saw one.

The next step: the top edge. The pattern says to pick up and bind off, but I chose to do an i-cord bind off to give it a clean and bit heftier appearance:

Now it’s time to knit the strap. A fellow knitter who made this bag suggested that I make the strap wider to be more in scale with the bag’s girth — and I agree tote-ally. I have been playing around with different ways to make it wider and finally came up with a plan that I hope works — we’ll see in the next installment of the “Mitered Tote Turns” ;)! I’ll knit like Seabiscuit between loads of laundry today…

I hope to be able to felt this puppy this week. Woo Hoo!