Woven Bag

I made this knitted bag to use it daily! It is big enough to put in there my laptop, a folder or whatever I need to carry with me at any time!

***As additional details, I sewed the woven cotton strap around the whole bag, along its inside (both sides and the base) to reinforce it in case of carrying a lot of weight in the bag. I also sewed a fabric lining inside the bag to add an additional pocket, a zipper to get a more secure closure and a wooden button to finish the project. All these details are optionals and the bag can be knitted without them.

Supplies

To make this project you will need:

• Yarn: As many colours as you want. If you want to use one single color, you'll need 2 balls of yarn. My bag was knitted with acrylic yarn but I also knitted a new version using 100 % Wool yarn.
• A pair of knitting needles nº 7 mm.
• 1 sewing needle to join the strap to the knitted part of the bag.
• Woven cottond strap: you can use a nylon strap too. The quantity of strap you will need will depend on the height at which you want to carry the bag and whether you also want to sew it on the inside along the base of the bag. In my case (I sewed the inside of the bag) I used 2,3 meters of cotton strap.
• Optional: auxiliar needle to separate the two parts of your knitted project.

Step 1:

Step 1: Cast-on 44 stitches on one of your knitting needles. The number of stitches you will cast-on will determine the size of your bag: if you want your bag smaller, then you need to cast-on less stitches and if you want it bigger, then you need to cast-on more stitches. Anyway, YOU NEED TO CAST-ON A PAIR NUMBER OF STITCHES.

Step 2:

Step 2: To knit the main body of your bag, you will use the "two-needle tubular knitting technique". To do that, you have to:

• Knit the first stitch
• Put the yarn in front of your work
• Slip one purl-wise
• Put the yarn in back of work again
• Knit the next stitch

*** Repeat these steps until the last stitch in your left-hand needle.

Step 3:

Step 3: Switch hands on both needles and repeat again "step 2" until you get the desired size of your bag. In my case I knitted 11 lines in brown color (11 full rounds knitted, 22 back and forth) + 3 lines in beige color (3 full rounds knitted, 6 back and forth) + 1 line in gray color (1 full rounds knitted, 2 back and forth) + 3 lines in beige color (3 full rounds knitted, 6 back and forth) + 17 lines in brown color (17 full rounds knitted, 34 back and forth).

Step 4:

Step 4: *Knit the first stitch and slip the second one in an auxiliar needle* Repeat this until the end of the round.

Step 5:

Step 5: Cast-off the stitches on your main needle.

Step 6:

Step 6: Knit the stitches in the auxiliar needle as follows:

• Round 1: Knit all stitches
• Round 2: Purl all stitces

*** Repeat "Round 1" and "Round 2" until you get the desired length of the bag flap.

To make the buttonhole put the yarn over (YO) your needle and keep knitting as regular. Once you want to finish the flap of your bag, cast-off the remaining stitches.

Step 7:

Step 7: Sew the strap in the inside of your bag and in both sides and join the edges. Sew a button. Optionally you can sew a fabric lining and a zipper for a more professional efect.

Hope you enjoyed this project, feel free to adapt it to your own preferences regarding color, size and shapes, and show off your bag wherever you go!!!

For more knitting and crochet projects follow me on my Instagram account @aracknits https://www.instagram.com/aracknits/?hl=es