Stretchy Knit Market Bag

This was another project idea I got from Permies' SKIP program. The requirement was to crochet or knit a bag with straps, measuring at least 12-inches by 12-inches. I looked around for ideas and found a pattern for a knitted market bag from Sheep & Stitch.

For my yarn, I chose Yarn Bee's Sugarwheel cotton knitting yarn.

The pattern required two types of needles, straights for the body of the bag...

and circs for knitting the bag edging plus handles.

There's also a video that goes with this pattern, which was really helpful because I confess the pattern was a little puzzling at times. The instructions called for straight needles but the pictures only showed knitting on circular needles. I verified with the pattern maker in the video comments, that straight needles were indeed fine.

The other problem was that no knitting gauge was given. My tension must have been different because when it came to picking up for the sides of the bag, I ran out of rows before the pattern did. So I had to adapt (rather than frog it and re-do). 

Even so, I think it turned out well. It became a birthday gift for my stepmother, and she really liked it. 

Will I make it again? Uncertain. I find lace type knitting a bit fussy and I don't enjoy fussy. Still, it was good for a one time project and made a great gift. 

© 2023 Leigh's Fiber Journal

Sock Progress & A Thrift Store Find

By Leigh

Fireside sock progress?

Slow, but getting there.

Thrift store find?

This neat woven bag.

I'm not sure what the fiber content is, nor if it was handwoven. But it was only 50 cents so how could I resist?

Posted 3 March 2010 at http://leighsfiberjournal.blogspot.com by Leigh

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Fireside Sock Knitting
1st Fireside Sock Done

Small Bags For Small Gifts

By Leigh

I've always given handcrafted gifts to family members for their birthdays and Christmas. This year, thanks to the homestead, I haven't been able to make the knitted, woven, embroidered, or sewn gifts I usually do. Instead, I decided to give some of fig jam, muscadine jelly, and canned figs I made this summer from our harvest bounty.

Even so, it didn't seem like enough. I wanted a personal, finishing touch that would make it even more special. The answer? Some little bags made from handwoven samples.

These were made from the waffle weave sampler I wove in July 2008 (all those samples come in good for something :) Not only was it the right size, but it's also in Christmas colors!

The sampler was 7.5 inches wide and quite long. I cut 20 inch lengths for the bags. I purchased cording for the bag ties.

I folded them over one inch at each end. Then I seamed the sides, with the selvedges on the outside of the bag. The selvedges made a nice finished side to the bag with no turning and no bottom corners to neaten.

I only sewed the side seams up to where I sewed the fold. Unfortunately the photo showing this didn't turn out.

I think they made a perfect wrapping for my gifts. Plus, once the goodies are gone, recipients will have the bag forever.

© 19 December 2009 at http://leighsfiberjournal.blogspot.com

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Sock Knitting Bag

Sock Knitting Bag

By Leigh

My project over the weekend was to make a new bag to carry my sock knitting.

You might remember this fabric as from an earlier post. It is leftover from one of my space-dyed warp experiments. The warp was variegated 4-ply cotton yarn. The weft was an 8/2 white cotton. Part of the fabric was used to make a diddy bag for my dad, but I had enough leftover for a bag for myself.

For my purposes, I wanted a small bag with a squared bottom and handles. Since the handwoven fabric wasn't dense enough to guarantee that I wouldn't loose any double pointed knitting needles, I also decided to line it with a commercial fabric. For the handles, I found a sturdy polyester belting at Hobby Lobby.

Before I could start sewing however, I needed to do something about my sewing machine. The tension knob was not at all responsive, and I was afraid that the machine needed some extensive repair. I did some searching on the Internet first, and found an excellent article on Secrets of Embroidery. From that article, I learned about tension problems and how to fix them. It gave instructions about how to adjust the bobbin tension, though Singer doesn't make this at all easy to do! Fortunately, I achieved an acceptable bobbin tension without too much difficulty. Then I could start sewing on my bag.

The fabrics were cut into 12 by 24 inch pieces. I sewed the sides up lengthwise. To make the squared bottom, I opened the side seams and sewed them across the bottom of the bag, to forming triangle shaped flaps.

When turned right side out, this forms a nice, square bottom on the bag...

I tacked down the handles on the right side of the bag, and then sewed the outer and inner pieces around the top, right sides together. I left a four inch opening to pull it outside out.

After turning, I slip stitched the opening closed, gave it a quick press, and there you have it.

© 12 Nov 2007 at http://leighsfiberjournal.blogspot.com

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Gallery Photos: Bags

What I Took Off My Old Loom - The fabric & a diddy bag.

What I Took Off My Old Loom

With all of my weaving efforts and energy focused on my new Glimakra 8 shaft countermarche loom, my little Schacht Mighty Wolf 4 shaft loom has stood forgotten and neglected for quite awhile. I had been in the enthusiastic midst of my summer and winter explorations when I found the ad for the Glimakra during the first week of June this year. Every thing else got set aside after that.

Eventually I realized that I would have to finish up that project and get it off the loom, so here is what I was working on and what I've done with it since then.

I first started exploring summer and winter last March, because I participated in an Online Guild summer and winter weaving workshop. Between March and June, I wove samplers, dishtowels, and rugs, focusing quite a bit on Fibonacci stripes. One thing I began to wonder is whether I could use variegated, space dyed type yarns with summer and winter. I had two cones of Peaches and Creme 4-ply cotton yarn, so I decided to experiment and see what I could come up with. In the back of my mind I was thinking about place mats.....

.... but I did some samples as mug rugs first. I experimented with different colors for both pattern weft and tabby weft. I was fairly satisfied with these, so I warped the loom for a series of 6 place mats. However, once I started weaving, I really wasn't happy with them.

Here is one and a half place mats, and it was at about this point that I decided that the space dyed areas and the summer and winter areas didn't compliment one another the way I had hoped. So I decided to just weave the rest of it off in plain weave with an 8/2 cotton weft, like so ........

I have long been intrigued by the space dyed look. Marie does this quite a bit, but she dyes her own yarns. Since my space is very limited at the moment, I've been looking for ways to fake this technique. Hence the use of these yarns. This experiment involved cutting each length of warp separately and tying it on. I did this in an attempt to tie on each warp end at the same spot in the yarn's color sequence. I wasn't particularly careful about it however, so the effect I like got lost. I did discover that they color sequence on the yarns was a little irregular, so that didn't help either.

Oh well. It was an experiment after all. When I gave up on the summer and winter, I also gave up on the place mat idea, as it was weaving up narrower than I'd wanted. However, after staring at the fabric for awhile, I did use some of it to make this diddy bag for my Dad for his birthday. The drawstring is an i-cord knitted from the blue. He was happy with it. I also have an idea to make either a purse or a sock knitting bag for myself as well.

Of course, going back to this project gave me with some new ideas regarding using space dyed yarns. Even with the temporary interruption of learning my new loom, I hope to get back to this. Better yet, I hope to someday be able to do my own dying, which I'm sure will yield better results. Happily, I recently found out that Kaz will be doing an ikat workshop next year for the Online Guild. If you are interested in this type of weaving, then I encourage you to join the OLG! For more information, click on the above link, and then on "Subscription Information."

© 2007 Leigh's Fiber Journal

Related Post:

Sock Knitting Bag

Sample Strip Bag Completed

The challenge has been “What do I do with all my handwoven sample strips.“ I presented an idea in my last post, and I completed it over the weekend. In contemplating the suggestions from the comments for this post, I was able to work though several things I had questions about.

My first question was about the bottom. I had vaguely thought to simply use one of my handwoven strips for the bottom, but Valerie’s suggestion to use commercial fabric made more sense as it addressed a couple of things: waste (as in, who’s going to see the bottom anyway), and wear (as in, why wear out handwoven fabric when commercial fabric will do), not to mention possibly getting the bottom of the bag dirty.










First I braided the i-cord. It took about 7 yards for a two yard braid. I really liked Tricia’s idea of fulled i-cord, as it would have prevented any stretching of the handle. But since I wasn’t working with wool, I’ll have to save this suggestion for another time.

The handwoven side panels were whip stitched together and the i-cord was stitched to the outside in the same manner. Next, the end panels were placed wrong side together with the sides. I used a running stitch to sew them together, leaving the selvedges exposed on the outside of the bag to make a nice edge. Lastly, I sewed the bottom panel on by hand.

Another problem I had contemplated was that I didn’t want the bag to have a soft, droopy bottom. Initially I had wondered about putting cardboard in the bottom, but Charleen came through with the suggestion to use plastic canvas. Perfect!

I tucked the plastic in under the seam allowance around the bottom. This took care of the possibility of the corners of the plastic poking through my handwoven fabric. I tacked it down in a couple of places to prevent slippage. The result was a beautiful, firm bottom to the bag.

I made the lining from a simple rectangle of the same fabric I used for the bottom. After sewing up the side seams I measured for the corner seams. Using a ruler to keep the liner’s side seam centered, I measured and marked a line as long as the bag’s width.










Stitching across this line made a nice squared corner








I sewed the lining to the bag with right sides together, leaving an opening on one end. I pulled the bag right side out and hand stitched the opening closed. I added a couple of reinforcing stitches for the hand straps and that was it!















My plan is to use this for my Winter Knitting Project. I love to use baskets for yarns and knitting, but find that they are often awkward to transport. So this bag will be used for that.

© 2006 Leigh's Fiber Journal

Related Post:
Bag Idea for Sample Strips
Gallery Photos: Bags

Bag Idea for Sample Strips

With the discussion and ideas for samples and sample strips, I’ve been thinking about possible things to do with some of the extras.

Sometimes inspiration comes from unexpected places:











That “Oh, no” moment led to an idea:

Each scarf is 6 inches wide, so I can sew three together to make the body of the bag with an 18 inch width. I'll use another sample scarf for the ends. Haven't decided about the bottom yet.

After contemplating several options for the strap/handle, I finally decided to knit an i-cord:

I reckon a couple of miles ought to do. I’m thinking about braiding it to make it sturdier.

© 2006 Leigh's Fiber Journal

Next - Making the bag.