Everlasting Bagstopper

I finished the Everlasting Bagstopper a week or so ago but finally got a chance to try it out yesterday at the Farmer's Market.

Sorry about the bad picture. It was the only one that turned out with the items in the bag. Of course Sophie had to check out what I was doing.

It was comfortable to use, but it really did stretch out. Check out the bag after one use:

Now compare the length after I machine washed/dried it yesterday:

Overall I am happy with the project and know I will get much use out of it! Probably won't be knitting with hemp for awhile though.

Project Details:
Pattern: Everlasting Bagstopper
Yarn: Hemp for Knitting-Allhemp6 (Aubergine 027)
Needles: Knit Pick Options US 5, US 10 1/2
Notes:

• The hemp yarn sucked the big one while knitting but really softened up after a wash.
• I used the linen stitch (11 sts wide) for the strap and the three needle bind off-which is suppose to be sturdier and not stretch as much, but it still stretched out a bit.

Changes:

• Make 2 shorter straps rather than the one longer one.
• Make the bag smaller
• I'd also throw in a contrast color along the way. It got boring to knit in the same color with a yarn that was killing my fingers.