Sari silk yarn hurts at first. Ouch! But it feels nice once knitted up. And I love that this is being knit out of scraps of sari silk - way to recycle!

I started this poor little Sari Bag several days ago and continually had to frog it. This was in part because I was traveling in a car without access to the Internet to help me understand new concepts, and partly because I’m simply an idiot. I’ve never done short-row shaping before, so the first time that I hit the words, “k1, turn” I looked from the pattern and back again multiple times. “But, but, I haven’t reached the end of the row!” my brain cried, and then I took a deep breath and put my trust in the pattern (and hoped it had been written correctly).

I’m not a very fast knitter, nor am I very experienced at patterns. I frogged this thing so many times that it is a very good thing that sari silk is so tough, else I would have utterly destroyed it. I frogged back to the beginnng three times, and then had to frog back to the beginning of certain sections (the pattern has ten sections on each side of the purse) when I had screwed up and forgotten what line I was on.

I will say that this is not entirely my fault, as the pattern’s third row creates a ridge, and when you look at the actual project, you want that ridge to be the beginning of the 4-row rotation, not the middle of it. So if I got too wrapped up in multi-tasking I was prone to screwing up.

But I am happy to report that I am successfully making my way through the first side panel of the bag, and I’m actually loving the slightly clown-barfy colors. The sari silk is rough on your fingers at first, until you get the hang of the stitches, and then it settles down. The bag right now feels very soft but sturdy. I love it! :D

2013 Update: I never finished this bag. I’m sure this was because doing shortrows for your first time with very complicated yarn isn’t smart. I pulled it out recently and realized I really didn’t want a purse that looks like clown barf, no matter how much fun it is. Clearly I’m well past my college hippie days. So I’ve frogged it.