For all your organic produce

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I give you the Saturday Market Bag by Jodie Danenberg, from Magknits.

Up close, you can see that the yarn used for the body is actually speckled with color.

I used 1 completed 2 oz. ball of Lily Sugar 'n Cream Ombre Potpourri (100% cotton) for the body, and a bit of a larger ball of Sugar 'n Cream in natural color (sorry, lost the ball band).

As you can see, the bag stretches quite a bit. To that end, and to avoid seaming, I made the following changes to the pattern:

• I knit the bag in the round, casting on 68 stitches. Sixty-eight is a bit arbitrary, but it is small than the 90 called for in the pattern, and it's an even number, which you need to knit this in the round. Thanks to this thread for getting me off to a good circular start.
• I followed disdressed's suggestions and knit two handles instead of one.
• There is actually one fewer repetition in the body.
  

Check out the stretch on this baby. Below is the bag holding three full jars of Grey Poupon. (Why do I have three jars of Grey Poupon, you ask? That's a long story involving a former part-time telecommuting marketing job.)

I suggest that beginners wait just a bit before trying this pattern. The "lace background stitch" was tricky to figure out, and not my favorite to work. In fact, while gauge doesn't matter too much on this project, knitting a swatch of the lace will help you read it better when you're midway through the body.

Here's what I think I figured out if you want to translate the lace background stitch into the round:

Rnd 1: yo, *sl 1, k1, yo, psso both, yo* (That second yo is over the needle, not just brought to the front)
Rnd 2: *drop yo, k2*
Rnd 3: k1, yo, *sl 1, k1, yo, posso both, yo*
Rnd 4: *drop yo, k2*

Repeat rnds 3-4 until you feel like stopping. (Say about 12 to 14 rows of lace.)

My stitch marker kept migrating one stitch to the right every other row, so I'm sure I'm confusing myself here somewhere.

I like the finished product. I plan to contribute it as a last-minute addition to my church's silent auction benefitting the Four Corners Mission Team, which I'm joining in October on their trip to Shiprock, NM. This is perhaps a copyright violation, but if you're out there, Jodie, I hope you don't mind? It's for charity.