No doubt, I probably should have been doing something else, but I wasn’t; instead I was reading this article about Melanie Griffith.

There is speculation that her marriage to Antonio Banderas is on the rocks because instead of a wedding band on the ring finger of her left hand, as this photo from radaronline.com shows, she sported this large gem on the middle finger of her left hand:

The way Ms. Griffith wore the ring reminded me of a Janet Kauffman’s Obscene Gestures for Women, a collection of short stories I was assigned when I was in graduate school. It would seem that in both understated and super sparkly way, Ms. Griffith was sending a message to her absent husband.

While the article focused her missing wedding ring, I was entranced by the tableau Ms. Griffith had managed to create as seen in this photo from radaroline.com:

The only things missing? A playful crochet scarf, and as can be seen from this photo:

an upgrade on the grocery bags. So today, I set out to design one that would do anyone’s groceries proud.

First, I needed to make the base.

I recalled having read a general guide to measurements for rectangles worked in the round, but I could not remember where I had read it in, or what the guideline was, so I decided to just plow forward.

Using a 4.5mm hook and Red Heart Super Saver cafe latte, I got work, and in relatively short order, I had made a base that measures approximately 9″x 6-1/8″:

It was after I made the rectangle, that I finally remembered the guideline: The length of the rectangle minus the width of the rectangle equals what the beginning length of the center chain should be, and as this photo show, the beginning chain was 3 inches:

which is just about exactly the difference between 9″ and 6-1/8″.

Tomorrow, I hope to figure out a workable stitch pattern for the sides of this bag, and hopefully, by the end of the day tomorrow, I will have a grocery bag worthy of being included in Ms. Griffith’s grocery cart.