Handy Bag

My new pattern is a riot of colour, featuring no less than twelve different shades of yarn.

This is my Handy Bag, worked in the round using my favourite knitting technique - slip stitch. This gives a lovely, complicated looking finish while being super easy to do. But what about all those ends to sew in, I hear you cry?

Just knot them together and hide them under a fabric lining. Problem solved. Actually, I think the wrong side of this stitch pattern looks good too ...

What with changing colour every two rounds, I found it  handy to make a little shade card to remind me which one to use next. You can also pre-cut lengths of yarn, should you not feel like carting round twelve balls of yarn in your knitting bag. As I hardly leave the house, this wasn't a problem for me.

Inspired by fabric bags with a contrasting casing sewn on to the outside, I decided to copy this look. It turned out to be quite straightforward to do actually.

The top of the bag uses a reversible stitch pattern so that it looks good on the inside too as that part of the bag isn't lined.

I used another fun technique for the drawstrings to give a double sided strip with the knit side of stocking stitch on both sides. I like to knit outdoors and wanted to be able to attach the handles / drawstrings of the bag to my chair handle to keep it off the ground. I was going to put buttons and buttonholes on the end but then my son pointed out that I would be too lazy to button and unbutton them and suggested a magnetic clasp instead.

And here it is in action - out in the garden on a sunny day recently.

Obviously, you can use any combination of colours for your bag. Mine was inspired by this charity shop scarf that I bought ages ago, purely because I liked the combination of colours.

I think choosing colours for a project is one of my favourite parts of designing.

You can also adapt the pattern to make other sizes of bag. I made a little gift bag on half the number of stitches; here it is having a cuddle with the Mother bag.

I hope you like this pattern. It would be lovely to see your own versions of it; I really like it when people start with one of my patterns and develop into something uniquely their own.

The next pattern will either be a set of knitted round nesting boxes like the square ones I published earlier this year or a crochet mini stocking, similar in size to my Mini Dotty Stocking.