The fabric of the church

Well, not quite. Actually it's the string bag of the church. But I suppose that counts.

You may or may not have picked up on the fact that the church paid for the netting class. I did not get nine people, and, of the people I did get, very few bothered to take home the equipment that was provided for them; just as a reminder, everyone got one netting needle, three mesh sticks in different sizes, and a ball of cotton string. So I have a bag of netting needles with grommets on them which may or may not come in useful for future classes (I have made it clear that I'm happy to teach netting again, just not in a crowded room and not with the class arriving in dribs and drabs), and a lot of mesh sticks and string. I provided the mesh sticks myself, since I already had far more than I can use, so that's neither here nor there; but the needles belong to the church, and so does the string.

Now, one of those netting needles - which I took care to distinguish from the others by putting it in a separate bag, because it's had a good deal of use - is actually mine. It's the 21 cm one. And I had a grommet on it like all the others, and by the time the class was finished that grommet had one full round of netting on it; and I'd been a bit over-enthusiastic about winding my needle, to the extent that it was a bit tricky to get it through the half-meshes (I was a bit more careful with everyone else's). So I had the start of a string bag and a very full netting needle. That meant that the logical thing was to finish the string bag.

Actually, that was fun. The cotton string turned out to be a little inclined to shed, which was noticeable on my (inevitable) black trousers, but it wasn't too bad; indeed, the jute sheds too, but that's dark green so it's less obvious. The cotton is also thinner than the jute, so rather than the folding ruler I use for the jute bags, I was using a jumbo lollipop stick as the mesh stick, which made it surprisingly faster than working with the jute. I was expecting it to be slower, as with a finer gauge you obviously need both more rounds and more increases to make a similar size of bag; but not having to deal with the fold in the middle of the ruler more than compensated for that.

The lollipop stick turned out to be about two thirds the width of the ruler. For the jute bag I normally start with a 12-loop grommet, increase to 32 meshes round (each increase round being followed by a plain round, as is standard practice), do four plain rounds, then start working the handles. So, for the cotton string, I started with the same grommet, but I increased to 48 meshes round and then did six plain rounds.

It was at this point that I thought "I'm not decreasing from 24 to 8 meshes for the handles, because that's going to make them stupidly long." So I had another idea. After I'd made my final drop knot on the last plain round, I took the string through the next eleven meshes in turn from the top of the mesh (I was counting the mesh with the drop knot as one mesh, so I had twelve altogether). Then I took it back to the starting point, again through the top of each mesh in turn. Then I took it forwards again to where I'd looped it, still going through the top of each mesh. You could just as easily do it the other way and go up through the bottom, just as long as you're consistent. The result is a very neat edge that looks surprisingly like a plait, although it isn't (it is, in fact, cousin to the traditional rope ring). I fastened that in place and made the handle on the next 12 meshes, decreasing to 8 as usual, but from 12 that's not bad at all. Then I did the back-and-forth loop thing round the next 12 meshes, and finally made the second handle in the same way on the last 12. The result looks very neat, and I'm delighted with it; in fact, I like that edging so much that I might well try it on the jute bags.

Now, what normally happens to string bags in this house is they go to the food bank; in fact I brought four last time - I usually bring two, but I'd missed one of my fortnightly stints because of the shingles - and they were all used in pretty short order. But, of course, this not being my bag, I couldn't just automatically do that. So I decided to bring it to church on Sunday morning and enquire of the pastor (who is, let it be said, quite used to me). It was entirely possible that he'd just cheerfully tell me to go ahead and donate it to the food bank, but there was also at least some chance that the church might have a use for it, perhaps for schlepping some of the ever-increasing stock of toys belonging to the creche. (I should add that the creche itself is also ever-increasing; it's true that my favourite toddler, and his friend who was born about the same time, will shortly be moving up into the first proper Sunday school class, but there must be at least half a dozen infants who've recently come in at the other end, and another one to come in July. So, yes, they need all the toys.)

And it went about the way I thought it would. Our pastor said that the church almost certainly would have a use for it, but the food bank had a greater and more obvious need, so by all means go and donate it to them. So I shall do that, and at any rate he knows that if the church does suddenly have pressing need for a string bag, I'm the person to talk to.

Oh, and on that note, a postscript: you remember I was deeply grateful for Michael, my assistant at the netting class? It turns out that not only was Michael very good for the netting, but the netting was very good for Michael. He struggles with severe social anxiety (I had no idea of that, as I don't know him very well; he's not a regular congregation member, but he is a friend of one and sometimes accompanies her to church), but if you can provide him with something creative to do with his hands, he's in his element. So I'm really delighted. It was a bit fraught in places, but if it did that it was very much worth while.

Plus there's a string bag!