a bag or two

I forgot to tell you yesterday - I made a couple of the shopping bags from No 44 to take with me to give to my sister and sister-in-law as a hostess gift. When I went to San Diego in February, I made one, used it as my carry-on bag (purse, extra shoes, book, camera, etc) and then gave it to my friend Candy - she loved it! So I figured I'd stick with a winner and churn out a few more, one navy and one plum, good goes-with-anything colours. They are pretty quick to make, I have it down to about 50 minutes if uninterrupted. I have been knitting the handles tighter (T5) and a bit wider (12 sts) because I found the first one stretched out too much. Also, at the end, after knitting the side, instead of taking the whole 160 sts off on waste yarn and then having to rehang to join, try this: set to hold and bring half to hold. Knit waste yarn on the half left in work and drop off. With garter bar, take side-in-hold half off, turn and rehang with right side facing you. Now rehang the waste yarn side, putting right sides together. This eliminates having to rehang all 160 sts from waste yarn. After this, I think I'm going to start knitting them on my Brother machine so I can use the lace carriage for the every other needle thing, that should cut out several extra minutes times four!! Or, maybe a new challenge, figure out how to do the lace carriage trick quickly with the Silver Reed!! I'll keep you posted!