Evil Monkeys

After all that searching to obtain the makings of the Monkey Bag, and designing about 15 variations of it for friends and family, I have decided this thing sucks to make. The hemp cord and metal needles (plus one wooden one to round out the set) are a special sort of pain to work with.

First, the hemp comes out all twisted, so every so many stitches I have to let the thing unwind. Then, because it is hemp cord, it's terribly scratchy and tears up my fingers as I knit with it. To top it all off, the metal needles are hard, and the cord a bit stiff, so I wind up with bruises on my fingers from knitting with these things.

As I have already bought all the stuff, and ordered the monkeys online, I will finish this purse. But it may be a race to see which project is finished first - the scratchy bruising monkeys or the slippery beaded scarf.

Though, at the moment, they're both languishing because I've finally got the yarn to knit my Mariah, and am frantically going at it. I've got about 7" of sleeves done. I'm doing both at the same time, thanks to the wonderful suggestion from the last meet-up. With a pattern this complicated, and increases based on length rather than exact row number, it's perfect to do them at the same time and know that all the increases are in exactly the same rows and the patterns are coming out the same. I'm loving this design!