A handy little bag to replace the flimsy plastic bags offered for produce.

Folds into a little ball, making it easy to keep in your purse.

The lace is open enough for cashiers for be able to see what is in your bag.

You can make the bag bigger to transform it into a market bag, and make the ties longer turning them into handles.

Materials

• Yarn: One 50 g (2 oz) skein of yarn that will survive being washed on hot, e.g. linen or cotton. The yarn should have a gauge of between 16-28 st. = 10 cm/4″. But gauge is not terribly important for this project.
• Needles:
• – Double pointed needles in the size recommended for the yarn. These are for bottom/pouch and ties.
• – Circular needle 80 cm long (30″). They need to be 4-5 sizes bigger than the size recommended for the yarn. These are for the body of the bag.
• 50 cm (20″) ribbon, string, yarn, shoe laces, whatever you have on hand, for the closure.

Dictionary

Increases: Any increase. Choose the one you like best.

One of the simplest increases is kfb, where you knit ind the front and the back of the same stitch.

Ridge: Garter, formed when you knit only, and knit forth and back. When you knit in the round, you knit one round and purl one round to achieve ridges.

Variations: The bottom knitted in ridges.

The bottom knitted in moss stitch.

Ties knitted in moss stitch.

Bag knitted in stripes.

Berrries.

Start

Cast on 12 stitches.

Knit one row and distribute the stitches on double pointed needles.

Continue to knit in the round.

Bottom/pouch

In stockinette stitch (or any desired pattern. Remember to take the increases into account).

Round 1: Increase in all stitches.

Round 2.-4: Knit.

Round 5: *knit 1, increase 1 in next stitch* to the end of the round.

Round 6.-8: Knit.

Round 9: *knit 2, increase 1 in next stitch* to the end of the round.

Round 10.-12: Knit.

Round 13: *knit 3, increase 1 in next stitch* to the end of the round.

Round 14.-16: Knit.

Round 17: *knit 4, increase 1 in next stitch* to the end of the round.

Round 18.-20: Knit.

Round 21: *knit 5, increase 1 in next stitch* to the end of the round.

Round 22.-24: Knit.

Round 25: *knit 6, increase 1 in next stitch* to the end of the round.

Round 26.-28: Knit.

Round 29: *knit 7, increase 1 in next stitch* to the end of the round.

(You can continue this way, if you want the bag to become larger).

Eyelet row

Round 1: Knit

Round 2: *knit 4, yarn over, k2tog* to the end of the round.

Round 3: Knit

The body of the bag

NB! Now change into the much larger circular needles.

Round 1: k2tog to the end of the round.

Round 2.: Knit.

Round 3: *2 yarn over, k2tog* to the end of the round. (Important: You wrap the yarn around the needle twice, not once as with a regular yarnover).

Round 4. *Knit 1 in the first wrap of the yarnover, let the second wrap fall of the needle, knit 1* to the end of the round.

Repeat round 3 and 4 for at total of 12 times or until the bag has the desired size.

Ties
In ridges (or any stitch pattern which doesn’t roll).

Round 1: Increase in all stitches to the end of the round.

Round 2: Purl

Round 3: Knit

Round 4: Purl.

Round 5: Knit

Round 6: Purl.

Round 7:

Count how many stitches you have. Divide by four.

Bind of 1/4 of the stitches.

Knit 1/4 of the stitches.

Bind of 1/4 of the stitches.

Knit the last 1/4 of the stitches.

Round 8:

Cast on 30 stitches (or the number you like) with backwards loop,

purl the 1/4 of the stitches you didn’t bind off.

Cast on 30 stitches (or the number you like) with backwards loop

Purl the last 1/4 of the stitches you didn’t bind of

Round 9: Knit

Round 10: Purl.

Round 11: Knit.

Round 12. Purl.

Round 13. Knit.

Bind off.

Finish

Use the cast on tail to weave around the hole at the bottom and pull thigh. Fastn.

Weave in ends.

It is not nessessary to press the bag, but I recommend to stretch it with your hands in all directions to distribute the stitches evenly.

Pull a string through the eyelets. Put the top of the bag into the bottom/pouch. Pull the string tight and tie. You can also use a spring toggle.