Pick up and knit around rectangle

[Christina in Ottawa]

Hi all,

I am knitting a pattern that was featured on that wonderful site knittingpatterncentral.com and I have a "how to" question ...

Its a felted bag that begins with 34 rows of back and forth garter stitch on circular needles. Here are the instructions for picking up and knitting around the rectangle ... my question is ... where do I start to pick up and knit? Do I use the right needle and pick up at the beginning of the row? :thinking:

Cast on 34 stitches on size 10 1/2 circular needles. Knit back and forth in garter stitch for 34 rows.

Now you are going to pick up stitches all around your rectangle and begin knitting in the round. Pick up and knit stitches as follows:

* Pick up and knit twisted 16 stitches along first edge of rectangle. There are 17 ridges, so you just pick up one stitch between each ridge.
* Pick up and knit 34 stitches along the bottom of your rectangle.
* Pick up 16 stitches along last edge as you did for the first edge.


Thank you!

[Ingrid]

You already have the first 34 stitches on your needle for one long side, so you start with the short side closest to your right point. Is this a booga bag?
So many people have done this one that it's become clear that picking up the stitches twisted isn't really necessary. It also is awkward to get all the stitches on the needle the first round, but that it gets easier.

You might want to do a search for booga bag and see if you can get any other pointers.

[Christina in Ottawa]

Yes it is the Booga bag ... I tried to pick up at closest to my needle and it wound up bending the rectangle in half ...

Hmmm ... I'm trying to picture the physics of it but logic isn't my strong point!

:D

[Christina in Ottawa]

hahaha ... I slid the stitches to the other side and SUDDENLY my rectangle didn't bend anymore ...

Thank you!

CIO