Mum's Knitted Bags

My latest pattern is not actually mine at all but was one of my Mum's.

Mum could turn her hand to any number of different crafts but, in later years, she was pretty much a full time quilter. When all her quilts finally have a proper place to live, I'm looking forward to showing them all to you. Be warned, it might take a while.

She did have a phase of knitting bags though, some from patterns but mostly making them up as she went along. I've got a few of those too ...

That bright stripey one with the flowerpot buttons was one of her favourites. It was nice and big and she did like to carry lots of things with her when she was out and about. 

Do you see the little blue and gold one peeping out just below that bag? This is the one that I'm going to talk about today. Mum actually wrote down her notes for this one so I thought it would be nice to publish it as a pattern.

It's knitted in the round in a combination of garter stitch and stocking stitch and has a pleasing shape. Mum used one of these to hold her knitting tools and another one for one of her many appliqué projects. She would machine sew in the day and hand quilt in the evening while watching television but she also had little collections of apliqué blocks in progress complete with scissors and threads all over the place ... just in case. There was normally one in the glove box of the car ready for picnic sewing.

All of Mum's bags were lined ad she liked using bright fabrics for this. This one has a beautiful Batik lining.

So, over the last couple of weeks, I've been knitting some of these bags and playing around with the pattern a bit to get it ready to publish. I've tried not to change very much so that it's still her design but I did change the purl garter stitch to knit as most people find that easier (including me).

This is the first one I made. It's bigger than hers which were all knitted with DK weight yarn. I used James C Brett Chunky for this one which is more of an aran weight really and the finished bag is about 23 cm or 9" tall.

The button was from Mum's button box and I used some another of her Batik fabrics for the lining.

Then I thought I'd try out the pattern with different weights of yarn to give different sized bags. The medium size one is knitted with King Cole Bramble DK and the little one is thin sock yarn left over from my Basic Socks pattern.

These are quick to knit and don't use much yarn. I'm sure you could find a use for any one of them. The pattern, as normal, is free to download from my ravelry designer page. The link to the actual pattern is after the next photo. 

Ann's Pockets

Before I go, here's where Tolly has been while I've been writing this ...

... as high as he can get in this very high room. This time he managed to get up there without knocking anything down; last time he dislodged two knitted donkeys and an angel en route. He does love to climb. Yesterday I had to remove him from the outside sill of my bedroom window - it's two floors up! - given that he jumps at sudden noises, I didn't think that was the safest place for him to be.