Dirty Shoe Bag

From Cathie's Files 

  Looks sorta weird, doesn’t it?  Obviously, it’s a bag, but what kind?  And what’s in it?

Several weeks ago Frank and I went camping.  Of course, it rained.  When we started backing up our things, it didn’t take me long to realize my camp shoes were muddy and icky.  I really didn’t want to pack them anywhere the muck could come off onto something else, and the car was full so I didn’t want to just pitch them into the trunk.  I ended up wrapping them up in an old tee shirt, but I wasn’t happy with my solution.

 When I came home, I started thinking about how I could keep this from happening again.  Easy!  A knit bag for dirty shoes!  But it had to be super easy to make (after all, this is for dirty shoes) and it had to be washable.

 I actually timed this whole sequence.  I started out by picking out some scrap yarn.  I wanted something that there wasn’t much left of and wouldn’t be good for a major project.  I found some yellow DuoMagic.  I didn’t want to have to sew up seams, so I decided to knit this Dirty Shoe Bag in the round using the ribber.  I cast on 60 stitches on both beds, tension 0/0, did my circular rows, hung my weights, and set the counter to 000.

I left the carriages set for circular knitting:  the main or back bed was set to slip to the left and the ribber or front bed was set to slip to the right.  And I knit 250 rows.  I loosely bound it off, binding off the main bed and then the ribber bed.  I didn’t steam it.  After all, it’s a Dirty Shoe Bag! 

At this point, I could have knitted an I-cord to thread through the top part of the open bag, but I wanted this to be quick.  So, I grabbed a pony-tail holder.  Total time spent, including the time looking for a pony-tail holder:  14 minutes.  I shoved a shoe inside, put the pony-tail holder on, and ----wal-la---a Dirty Shoe Holder.  Easy and Washable.

       Of course, for myself, this is good enough.  But then I got to thinking about all kinds of possibilities.

I could use only the main bed and try out different stitches such as tuck, fairisle, slip, and knit weaving.  I would have to cast on twice as many stitches since I wouldn’t be knitting in the round. Or, I could use the ribber to try out some ribber techniques such as double jacquard or racking. I would also have a seam, but not a very long one

 I could use different colors or different patterns for different shoes, especially if I were trying to keep kids’ or grandkids’ shoes separate.  For kids, I wouldn’t need to make it as wide or as long.  For tennis shoes, I might need to make it wider or longer.  I might even get the kids or grandkids to knit their own! 

 Vacation season is coming up for many families.  Making up several sets of Dirty Shoe Bags would take only a few hours, but they might come in very useful, especially for the trip home.