The Tangly Joy of the Monteagle Bag

Dear Kay,

Sometimes knitting isn’t much like knitting. Sometimes it’s like macramé. In recent days, I’ve been obsessing over Ann Hahn Buechner’s Monteagle Bag, a free pattern that makes good use of Euroflax Mini Skeins.

The great thing with this project is that you can totally screw up the stitch, but as long as you do it consistently all the way around, it looks like something you might have done on purpose.

For instance, there are two opportunities to do the Veil Stitch—the long, skinny stitch. On the first attempt, I didn’t wrap it around both needles; I wrapped it around the working needle, which meant it was really tight and hard to get off the needle on the following round. But it also made a different effect from the Veil Stitch I did next, which had a lot of twistiness to it.

Toward the end of the knitting, you want to sew up the bottom so you can put in something heavy to see all the stitches stretch out. That’s maybe the most fun of all. It’s kind of a squirgly mess when you’re working on it, but you know something wonderful is going to happen, soon.

Fun fact: garter stitch turns into something very different when it’s a strap on a bag filled with potatoes.

I made a pair of bags using one set of mini skeins in the Forest colorway, using a different mix of colors on the second one so I didn’t run out of any of the colors.

When you’re done hauling potatoes, the Monteagle Bags roll up into pocket-sized linen burritos.

I don’t know how I can go back to plain stockinette after this. Doing these crazy stitches makes me want to sit down and make up some more crazy stitches. It’s fascinating to see where your yarn ends up, how a stitch can end up going completely sideways, how a stitch can be an inch and a half tall.

Love,

Ann