Another Confession

I kind of inadvertently poached a bag this summer.  A very cool and not replaceable because it came from an event kind of bag.  Had I said, "This isn't mine," instead of  "Is this for me?" I wouldn't be in this fix.  Had the owner of said bag given me a lecture on avarice or offered it in such a way that I could have back-tracked, I wouldn't be in this fix.  She was so warm and gracious about it, though, that I felt I would be even more badly behaved if I refused to take it. As things stand, I've been feeling wildly guilty a little uneasy ever since.  She's coming into town next week and I think I have finally come up with the salve my conscience needs. 

I could knit her a bag.  It, like the original, would not be replaceable. It would be cool. It would offer back what I probably really shouldn't have appropriated in the first place.

I decided, for lots of reasons, on the Monteagle Bag from Mason-Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines. It looked cool (see above requirement).  It was Anne and Kay.  I haven't knit a Mason-Dixon pattern in a while (and no, I am still not willing to talk about the state of the mitered square blanket, so don't ask). Besides, I actually have a stash of Euroflax Sport that I need to start knitting up.

I scanned the Ravelry projects for tips.  Provisional cast-on to do a three-needle bind-off instead of sewing up at the end?  Sounds good to me; three-needle bind-offs are fun.  That, and I don't really trust my whipstitch to hold up under pressure. Then I got to all these, well, I can only call them grim prognostications. Warnings.  Caveats about the "trippy" stitches.

No way, I thought.  This is Anne and Kay.  This will be a great knit.  I did my cast on and knit the first four rows last night.  Then I got to the 5th row.  The 6th row is no better.  Neither is the 7th.  Need I go on?  Go ahead.  Take a look. There's a link to a free copy of the pattern here (scroll down to below the picture).  I'll wait.

Now all those warnings about dropped stitches and video tutorials make sense, don't they.  This is going to be an even better conscience-salver than I realized.  It might even cross the line over into penance. 

The subtitle of the books reads "Patterns, Stories, Pictures, True Confessions, Tricky Bits, Whole New Worlds, and Familiar Ones, Too."  (Italics mine.)  Indeed.