String quartet

So, the original yellow string bag clearly wasn't ideal. It's not a complete write-off; it'll take maybe a dozen tins or so. Even so, the mouth is too narrow, and the only reason it's even that wide is that I tweaked the pattern. This Mr Holdgate was a whiz at netting, but I'm not sure he ever actually went shopping. (There was a Mrs Holdgate, who presumably handled all that side of things; nonetheless, I'm surprised she didn't provide her husband with suitable feedback on what makes a good shopping bag. Or, if she did, that he failed to listen.)

The yellow string bag started with a 12-loop grommet, increased to 24 meshes, was supposed to have rather fewer rounds than my version ended up with (if I'd left it at the number stated in the pattern, it would have been a very small bag indeed), and was also supposed to have all the meshes gathered into the handles. I looked at it, and I thought "the next one really shouldn't be shaped like a Greek urn, which is not a great shape for a shopping bag, and it also needs to be both longer and wider". So my initial thought was to leave some meshes free at the sides rather than gathering them all into the handles, and finish the top edge by first twisting a rope ring through like I did with the hanging basket and then going over that with the alternating half hitches as with the handles. That would have given a really firm edge.

But then I had a brainwave. Rather than leaving free meshes and then having to finish them, why not just work halfway along the top round, then turn, knotting the working thread into the bottom of the mesh just formed, and work back again the other way? Do this for a few rows and you're going to get automatic decreases without having to work two meshes together anywhere.

I started the black bag with this in mind. This, too, started with a 12-loop grommet (they all do; it's a convenient size), but it had a couple more increase rounds, so it went up to 32 meshes in circumference. I then worked it a bit longer, so it was 15 rounds altogether, including all the increases but not counting the initial grommet. Then I divided for the handles as described above, working down from 16 meshes to 8 on each side, and worked the handles into these 8 meshes in the same way as for the yellow bag. During the making of the black bag I found I had to slow down and alternate my netting with other activities; as I think I've mentioned before, I've been hooking the end over one of the risers of the trolley on my right, which means I've had to bend round to the right slightly to do the netting (at least till it got long enough that it reached my lap and I was working it sideways on). And this, it turns out, gives me a bad back. For my age I am very fortunate; I don't tend to get a lot of back trouble. (I did in my teens and early twenties, but that turned out to be bad sitting posture. Once I stopped doing academic work sitting up in bed, it cleared up.) So I was already starting to wonder if I could anchor it on something more ergonomic than the trolley. Quite a lot of me doesn't work properly already, so I am very keen to keep my back doing so.

Well, of course, those decrease rows give quite a lot of added length; so this time it was rather too long. I realised we were now getting into a kind of Goldilocks and the Three Bags situation. I did, however, test it out by popping the Librarian into it (who is a large and impressively fluffy cuddly orang-utan; technically he's Il Bibliotecario because he was bought in Venice, of all places, but most of my friends don't speak Italian so he's the Librarian for all practical purposes). This did what I expected and spread out the bottom of the bag so it wasn't trailing on the floor. Nonetheless, I suspect that, even when it's full of groceries (and it should take an impressive quantity), that's one for hooking over the elbow rather than carrying in one hand. It is a much better bag than the yellow one, even so.

So next came what I call the "off-red" one. The twine was sold as red, but in fact it's a sort of raspberry, or maybe deep rose madder. I wasn't quite sure about it at first, and the more I worked with it, the less I liked the colour; I don't dislike the colour in itself, but I'm not keen on it for jute twine. The off-red one is exactly like the black one except that it's three rounds shorter, so there's not a lot to be said about it.

I was in the middle of making the off-red one when I had yet another inspiration. Why not make a bag to the same basic design, but with a shoulder strap rather than a pair of handles? That seems like an even better way to schlep a load of heavy groceries about. And so the concept of the forest green bag was born. This one is still in the making at the moment, but I'm going to proceed as for the off-red bag till I get to the end of the decreases, then I'll join the meshes into a round again, proceed till I have half a shoulder strap, do it all again on the other side, and then join them all up at the top. (This may be fiddly, but I think I have a good idea how to do it.) Then all four bags will go to food bank with me next time I'm on the rota, which will be the 29th, and we'll see which one goes down best.

And the feature photo? Ah, yes. I think I get all my best inspirations in the middle of the night. I was lying in bed on Saturday night, just about to drop off to sleep, and I was thinking about netting. Partly I was thinking about designs, but mainly I was thinking about how to anchor it so I didn't give myself a bad back. And I thought to myself, "What I really need is a good sturdy wooden frame long enough to hook over my feet while I'm sitting in my chair, ideally an extendable one, and... oh wait..."

Yes, indeed. I still had the wretched Milward loom, which I hadn't been able to sell off even as a toy. So on Sunday I retrieved it from its exile in the hall, cut off all the weaving, attached a picture hook at each end (very conveniently, I'd just had to buy some so I could put up my Discworld calendar for the Year of the Luminous Lemur!), and... Bob's your uncle. One ergonomic netting frame. Granted, the picture pins wouldn't go very far into the solid wood even when I had at it with the hand drill (I don't own any power tools; don't need them often enough), so I had to bind the hooks in place with oddments of leftover twine... but, of course, I do have oddments of leftover twine, from before the point where I worked out how to join in a new length invisibly in the handles. And I'm sure the remaining oddments will prove to have equally unexpected uses.

Now, if anyone's got four spare wood screws they don't want...!