I continue to knit at random.

When I told a friend this, she imagined yarn strung all over the place with little patches of knitting attached. What I actually mean is that I keep grabbing patterns and making them just to keep my hands busy. My latest keep-busy knit was the tomato from Amigurumi Knits by Hansi Singh.

I also tried the carrot from the same book, but quickly realized something was wrong. The piece was coming out way too wide and I still had a bunch of rows to go. I did a quick search on Ravelry and found out that the photo in the book, which shows a very elegant carrot, does not match the pattern in the book. Many people just cut the pattern down, stopping at the halfway point, but their carrots still didn’t look like the carrot in the book. I lost all interest in making the carrot, so I have nothing to show you for the time I spent on it.

Fed up with random knitting, I decided it was time to start a project with a purpose. I pulled Folk Bags: 30 Knitting Patterns & Tales From Around the World by Vicki Square off my shelf and flipped through it. I came across the long thin Napramach Bag of Ubekistan and thought it would make a wonderful hand spindle bag. To add to the fun, I decided to use my own hand-spun yarn to make it. What could be better than a bag for hand-spinning tools knit out of hand-spun yarns?

As soon as I finished knitting the first side, I blocked it so I could see how things were going. The bag is coming out bigger than the pattern predicts, which is no surprise. I didn’t bother with gauge because 1) my yarns are various sizes and 2) it doesn’t have to fit anything (except my spindles). The good news: it’s actually a good size for carrying my spindles and other yarn-related tools. The bad news: I have to knit the second side and I’m pretty sure I’m going to run out of yarn.

I’ve launched into the second side anyway, switching two of the yarns in the pattern to help with the not-enough-yarn problem. I know I’m going to run out of some of the more distinctive yarns. I don’t know if I will just introduce other colors or if I’ll try to get more roving and spin matching yarn to finish up the bag. I’ll be at my favorite fiber store later next week, so it will probably depend on what they have in stock.

I’m having great fun working on this larger project, despite my anxieties about not having enough yarn. Knitting something out of yarn I made myself is a satisfying and pleasing experience, even though the yarn is far from perfect. The quirky bag that is going to be the result of all my efforts is going to be the perfect home for my spindles. I can’t wait until it’s done!