/karen/

Bag learner

Wednesday, 18 June, 2008

So in 2005 I bought a bag for $8. It was in a little discount store at Hurstville station just near the bus stops. The bag was black, 17 cm wide, 21 cm long and 1 cm thick. It looked like it had been made out of crocheted mercurized cotton with little circles of mirrors running in a strip 2 cm up from the bottom. The strap was braided, and every now and then, it would break near where it joined the zipper. This probably wasn't surprising given the weight it was carrying: I used to keep in it my wallet, my phone, two handkerchiefs, a Body Shop lip balm, two of those extremely slim Asian pens (black gel, of course) and my keys which I kept on one of those retractable keyrings with a clip that I fastened to one of the straps so that I would never lose them inside the bag (not that the bag was large enough to lose things in, but anyway ...)

This bag served me faithfully for almost three whole years before the zipper finally broke at the beginning of this year. That's not bad for $8. Anyway, I thought I should really make myself a new one. I could have repaired the zipper on the old one, but I wanted something a little bigger because I wanted to add an A6 journal to my list of “essentials” that had to accompany me at all times. Naturally I thought, “I can knit! I'll make myself one. And I'll tailor it to my needs.”

Hmm, maybe that was wishful thinking. I'd made bags before—drawstring bags and the like—but I usually got stuck when it came to the lining. And the kind of bag I wanted was very particular. A recent issue of Knitty had a pattern for the kind of bag I wanted (Percy) but not the style I wanted. I had just finished the Knitty Lace Ribbon scarf for Bec's birthday—

—I thought that maybe I could adapt that pattern for a bag. Hence my Percy/Lace Ribbon bag.

I thought I'd knit a prototype first, given my lack of experience in making bags and also given the fact that I was pretty much making up the pattern as I went. I measured my phone, my wallet and my journal, and tried to estimate how big I'd need to make the bag to fit it all inside (15 cm wide x 15 long x 5.5 cm deep). I liked that the pattern for Percy involved knitting the whole thing in one long strip and then sewing it together. I got some of that cheap, white acrylic yarn that an aunt had given me and cast on 35 stitches on 4 mm needles.

The front panel involved one row of knit, two full pattern repeats of the Lace Ribbon chart, then two rows of knit. The base consisted of 26 rows of moss stitch (that's when you alternate knit 1, purl 1 like checkerboards). I probably shouldn't have done that: I did it because I thought it would look nice—and it sort of does—but it also stretches terribly and I don't really need that part of the bag to stretch. Next time I should probably use knit 1 purl 1 rib like the Percy bag.

The back panel and flap consisted of four Lace Ribbon pattern repeats. And then I picked up stitches along the side of the base, did about 50 rows, gradually decreased (another mistake: it didn't look very good), knitted the strap for about 136 cm (again, forgetting how much moss stitch stretches; it really didn't have to be that long) and mirrored it down the other side. The result was this when I blocked it:

I know I'm not that good at blocking but it strikes me that acrylic doesn't really block well; cotton and wool are better.

Oh yes, I also made the inner pocket (much like the Percy bag): I cast on 70 stitches and knitted in a round for about 15 cm, then used I-cord bind-off to finish it off. (The things you learn; I never knew you could do that with i-cord!) (By the way, I-cord is like the knitting you used to do on those Knitting Nancies. Sometimes it's also called French Knitting though I have no idea why. The difference is you do I-cord on two double-pointed needles but the principle is the same: you're knitting in circles but you're only doing it across three to five stitches.)

Anyway, then the project stalled because I was up to the sewing part and I hate sewing. It's so boring, and I hate that your eyes are pretty much glued to what you're doing so you can't really do it in front of the TV. Plus you need good light. I was fortunate, however: my mother gave me her old sewing machine. I bought a cut-off from a curtain making store—a bolt of thick, cream curtain material for about 60 cents—and I folded it over to the desired size, pinned it flat and worked out, with the aid of a very old instruction manual, how to operate the sewing machine. I haven't used a sewing machine since Year ... 7? 8? I forget. (Oh, that's a lie; I did use a sewing machine briefly when Karen was teaching me to make a skirt and that was in third year Uni.) Anyway, I was gratified when I finally got the thing to work, and I sewed the lining together inside out, then pulled it the right side out and stitched it to the long panel I had knitted.

Then I sewed the bag together and weaved in all the ends. This was the result. Front view:

Back view:

Side view (you can see that the sides tend to pucker a bit according to its contents because they're not lined; the other parts of the bag are relatively neat because the lining keeps the contents in place):

Here's a close-up of the Lace Ribbon pattern:

Here's shots of the inside:

Front pocket (notice the little loop near my mobile: that's for clipping my keys onto it):

Back pocket (for the journal and pens. Maybe in the next version I'll develop something to keep the pens in place as they tend to move around when the journal isn't in there):

Inner pocket (I actually stitched this in wrongly and had to unpick it and stitch it back in properly. The second time, I stiched the bottom closed so it would act as a proper pocket. It holds the handkerchiefs and lip balm):

A glimpse of the lining:

Then there was the problem of how to keep the bag closed. The Percy bag just has one button which fastens at the front. Because the contents kept sliding around a little, I thought this one really needed two anchor points to keep the flat down. So I crocheted two little loops on the corners of the front flap:

Then I had trouble trying to work out what they should loop around. At first I thought I could make little I-cord pomp-poms, but they wouldn't stay put, and the yarn ends I had so painstakingly woven in kept coming out in a very untidy fashion. So I pulled them out and opted for I-cord instead, knitted straight onto the front. I picked up four stitches off the pattern and knitted about 9 cm of I-cord, then tied it in knots until it looked like this:

It's not ideal, of course, and when I make this bag again, I'll probably go for those wooden buttons like the ones Paddington Bear wore (whatever they're called). The annoying thing about having two places to fasten the flap is that you can't really do that with one hand, and often you need to when you're juggling wallet, shopping, phone, change, etc.

I'm not sure if I'm up for making my first proper one yet. But I know that it will be in black Bendigo Woollen Mills 100% wool, and I've already bought some cheap fabric from Reverse Garbage to do the lining.

Current:

Blinks:

Blog archives: ----------- January, 2012 November, 2011 September, 2011 June, 2011 April, 2011 March, 2011 February, 2011 January, 2011 December, 2010 November, 2010 October, 2010 September, 2010 August, 2010 July, 2010 June, 2010 April, 2010 March, 2010 February, 2010 January, 2010 November, 2009 October, 2009 September, 2009 August, 2009 July, 2009 June, 2009 May, 2009 April, 2009 March, 2009 February, 2009 January, 2009 December, 2008 November, 2008 October, 2008 September, 2008 August, 2008 July, 2008 June, 2008 May, 2008 April, 2008 March, 2008 February, 2008 January, 2008 December, 2007 November, 2007 October, 2007 September, 2007 August, 2007 July, 2007 June, 2007 May, 2007 April, 2007 March, 2007 February, 2007 January, 2007 December, 2006 November, 2006 October, 2006 September, 2006 August, 2006 July, 2006 June, 2006 May, 2006 April, 2006 March, 2006 February, 2006 January, 2006 December, 2005 November, 2005 October, 2005 September, 2005 August, 2005 July, 2005 June, 2005 May, 2005 April, 2005 March, 2005 February, 2005 January, 2005 December, 2004 November, 2004 October, 2004 September, 2004 August, 2004 July, 2004 June, 2004 May, 2004 April, 2004 March, 2004 February, 2004 January, 2004 December, 2003 November, 2003 October, 2003 September, 2003 August, 2003 July, 2003 June, 2003 May, 2003 April, 2003 March, 2003 February, 2003 January, 2003 December, 2002 November, 2002 October, 2002 September, 2002 August, 2002 July, 2002 June, 2002 May, 2002 April, 2002 March, 2002 February, 2002 January, 2002 ----------- Amusement Anime Canada/USA 2005 Comics/graphic novels Craft Depression Depression Talk 2006 Divorce Dreams and nightmares Forgiveness Gender Hong Kong 2007 Links Love and relationships Melbourne 2005 Melbourne 2006 Money Moore College MTS Notices Photoblog Pregnancy, birth and parenting Quotes Reading Recipes Reflections Scribbles St George Girls High Story of my life Talks The Arts Victoria 2008 Web geekery Writing ----------- Current archives: ----------- September, 2010 August, 2010 July, 2010 June, 2010 May, 2010 April, 2010 March, 2010 February, 2010 January, 2010 December, 2009 November, 2009 October, 2009 September, 2009 August, 2009 July, 2009 June, 2009 May, 2009 April, 2009 March, 2009 February, 2009 January, 2009 December, 2008 November, 2008 October, 2008 September, 2008 August, 2008 July, 2008 June, 2008 May, 2008 April, 2008 March, 2008 February, 2008 January, 2008 December, 2007 November, 2007 October, 2007 September, 2007 August, 2007 July, 2007 June, 2007 May, 2007 April, 2007 March, 2007 February, 2007 January, 2007 December, 2006 November, 2006 October, 2006 September, 2006 August, 2006 July, 2006 June, 2006 May, 2006 April, 2006 March, 2006 February, 2006 January, 2006 December, 2005 November, 2005 October, 2005 September, 2005 August, 2005 July, 2005 June, 2005 May, 2005 April, 2005 March, 2005 February, 2005 January, 2005 December, 2004 November, 2004 October, 2004 September, 2004 August, 2004 July, 2004 June, 2004 May, 2004 April, 2004 March, 2004 February, 2004 January, 2004 December, 2003 November, 2003 October, 2003 September, 2003 August, 2003 July, 2003 June, 2003 May, 2003 April, 2003 March, 2003 February, 2003 January, 2003 December, 2002 ----------- Bible Books Concerts Exhibitions Graphic novels, comics, manga Movies Music Musicals Series Talks and lectures ----------- Twitter archives: ----------- January, 2012 December, 2011 November, 2011 October, 2011 September, 2011 August, 2011 July, 2011 June, 2011 May, 2011 April, 2011 March, 2011 February, 2011 January, 2011 December, 2010 November, 2010 October, 2010 September, 2010 August, 2010 July, 2010 June, 2010 May, 2010 April, 2010 March, 2010 February, 2010 January, 2010 December, 2009 November, 2009 October, 2009 September, 2009 August, 2009 July, 2009 June, 2009 May, 2009 April, 2009 March, 2009 February, 2009 January, 2009

More /Karen/ ----------- Blog About me Testimony Favourites Wishlist Contact me ----------- Writing ----------- Articles Mixed Poetry Prose

Hippocampus Extensions H/E Ben Shots fired Sermons

Open links in new windows

Feeds

• Full posts
• Full posts and del.icio.us feed
• Excerpts only
• del.icio.us feed only
• All comments

Social media

• Flickr
• Last FM
• LibraryThing
• Listal
• Ravelry
• Twitter