FO Friday: Spring Leaves Market Bag and Yarn Review!

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Well, I'm thrilled that I've got several more FO's to show off, and this week's FO is the Spring Leaves Market Bag!

The amazing folks at LoveKnitting.com were kind enough to send me the yarn to try, (yeay, free yarn!) but don't worry, all the musings are my own, I promise!

So, yes, I did finish the bag.  

So here I was, trying to figure out what to put inside the bag for the photograph (otherwise, the bag looks really crumpled and weird!) 

Well, the answer is  -- I'm a knitter, 'yarn' would seem like the easy answer, and absolutely, this bag would make a good bag to go yarn shopping with!  I wouldn't suggest it as a project bag, though, since needles and notions would very likely escape the lace.    

Anyway, it's yarn that's definitely the star of the show here today. The folks at LoveKnitting sent me some  Rowan Creative Linen, and I think I'm in love!  This yarn was absolutely wonderful to work with!  It's a 50/50 blend of cotton and linen, and I'm quite impressed!  I was originally not sure on the yarn, since I tend to find linen yarns harsh on the hands.  But this stuff worked out amazingly well, and wasn't harsh at all!  It also didn't dry out my hands the way some cotton yarns have done.   And, despite the dark colour of the 'Stormy' colourway, the yarn didn't bleed at all!

Winding was pretty painless -- it comes in a twisted skein, so you do have to have a way to wind it.  You can't knit right from the skein.   But a basic ball winder and swift will do the trick, (or, I just used a nostepinne and my knees)!

Packaging and Shipping was great too!  Since I'm in Canada, I often have 'adventures' when it comes to international parcels, but, absolutely no trouble with customs or Canada Post, and LoveKnitting ships to Canada without a problem.  Even better, they show prices in Canadian Dollars, so no more guessing at the exchange rate!  And, if you're looking to save on shipping, they offer free shipping if you spend more then $100 Canadian. 

So yes, I'm really enjoying this yarn!  There's only one thing I wish, in a dream world, that were different, and that's that it would be even more awesome if the yarn were made with organic cotton, rather then conventional cotton.  I do try and use Organic cotton wherever I can, so if this were organic, that would be absolutely amazing!

Well, shifting topics slightly to the pattern -- this bag pattern is one of my own designs, the Spring Leaves Market Bag, and the yarn is a perfect match to the pattern!  I went down a couple of needle sizes to a *4.5mm needle, (I wanted a smaller bag), and I majorly shortened the drawstring tie.  I want to loop this over the shower head in my bathroom and use it to put stuff in, so I wanted a very short tie.  

Well, I can't think of anything else to write at the moment! (I'm that impressed with the yarn, I guess!)  So, I'll close with my usual question -- what crafty things have you folks finished over the week?  I'd love to see, so please, post them in the comments!