I saw the Monteagle Bag on Mason-Dixon two weeks ago and immediately downloaded the free pattern PDF. Then I filed it away in my brain and forgot about it. Last weekend, when I was supposed to be tidying up the house but really was procrastinating by digging around in my knitting wool, I found a single skein of Louet Euroflax linen. (I won it in the Knitty Calendar Contest a couple years back.) “Now why does that yarn ring a bell suddenly…?” Oh right! It’s the one they used for the bag! I got to work.
My linen is actually the worsted weight, which is twice as thick as the one in the pattern. No matter, it works just fine. It’s just a lot sturdier. I used 6mm needles and managed to get one bag out of the 100g skein with a few meters to spare. The pattern is really ingenious, and I enjoyed figuring out how to do the new stitches. My bag didn’t turn out quite as tall as theirs, so I added a few additional rows at the top to lengthen it. I made the strap long so it could be slung diagonally across the body. I “blocked” it by hanging it up overnight with a dictionary inside to stretch it out. It’s a great little project! (More details are on Ravelry.)
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