Strickmuse: The Market Bag

Now we have to wait until Labor Day for the next long weekend. Too bad this one flew by so fast.
I did not knit on any of my shawls, but started and finished a totally unexpected project. Here is the Grrlfriend Market Bag. What a great in between project. It was easy, fast and fun to finish. I even grafted the strap with the kitchener stitch and you cannot tell. How proud am I? Very. The pattern notes do say that the lace stretches a lot and it sure does.
This is a big bag and I will gift it to a co-worker who runs marathons and ironmans for her towels, socks and any other stuff a runner needs. While I was knitting this bag, she would constantly come to my mind and I just could not stop thinking about her - she has been going through some rough times and the year did not start out in a good way. Her mom passed away, her brother was recently hospitalized and work has been awfully stressful in her department. While knitting I tried to send my good thoughts towards her and today I heard that her brother is back home again. I now know that this bag is hers and not as I originally planned as a baby-shower gift for an expecting mom here at work. I will give it to her tomorrow and this will make me even happier.
I had fun working on it and I got to use up my Cotton Twist yarn that I had in my stash for ages. The yarn is beautiful but not fun to knit, it is glossy and slippery and I could not figure out what to do with it. This pattern is just perfect and the lace part was easy to do with size 6mm needles and the yarn did not slip around too much. I am sure that I will be knitting another one soon.