Crystal Palace Yarns
free knit felted tote bag pattern
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Felted Tote Bag: Be There with Bells On
And you
shall have music wherever you go!
This tote is bright, cheerful and fun.
Bag Designed, knit and felted by Terry L. Ross for
Crystal Palace Yarns
Materials:
3 - 100 gr balls Crystal Palace Yarns
Iceland:
1 each: 9719-Claret (Color A). 9660-Violet (Color B), 1219-Fuchsia (Color C)
1 - 50 gr ball Crystal Palace Yarns
Musique
in 9362-Berry Parfait (Color D)
2 - 50 gr balls Crystal Palace Yarns
Little Flowers:
1 each: in
435-Blueberries and Grapes (Color E) and 409-Spring Picnic (Color F)
1 - Circular Crystal Palace Bamboo or
DAISY US size #11 (8.0 mm) 26" or 29"
4 stitch makers, 1 a unique color
1 tapestry needle
2 yards gold-tone belt material for purse straps, or any other suitable
materials
4 purse rings
4 - ½” brass grommets
Coordinating sewing thread
Closure hardware, if desired
Embellishments – shown here are 10 jingle bells attached to 10 flat gold-toned
disks, you could use buttons or beads, too.
Gauge: Unimportant, but please note that because of the stitch pattern, this bag will shrink slightly more during felting horizontally than a bag that is knit in a typical straight stockinette stitch.
Measurements:
Before felting – 14½" wide, 15" tall, 3½" deep
After felting – 12"wide, 11½" tall, 3" deep
Special stitches used:
Double decrease (dd) – Together instead of one at a time, slip two
stitches knit-wise from the LH needle to the RH needle. Knit the next stitch.
Pass the two slipped stitches together over the knitted stitch. A decrease of 2
stitches which becomes the bottom of the chevron point.
Knit front and back (Kf/b) – First knit in the front of the next stitch,
then without removing it from the needle, insert the
RH needle into the back of the loop and knit another stitch and remove both new
stitches to the RH needle. When two
Kf/b are worked together, they become the top of the chevron point.
Chevron Stitch Pattern:
Round 1 – *Kf/b, K3, dd, K2, Kf/b* around
Round 2 – K
Abbreviations:
K Knit.
P Purl
CO Cast on.
PU Pick up
PM Place marker
DD Double decrease
Kf/b Knit front and back
BO Bind off
Bottom of bag:
With Color A, CO 44 stitches and work back and forth in garter stitch (K all
rows) for 22 rows, or until 11
garter ridges have been formed. Slipping the first stitch of each row with the
yarn in front will result in an elongated
stitch that will facilitate picking up stitches later, and there will be one
elongated stitch for each garter ridge.
Body of bag:
Continue with Color A, PM, and pick up 11 stitches along the first short edge of
the knitted rectangle. PM and pick up 44
stitches along the CO edge. PM and pick up 11 stitches along the remaining short
edge of the rectangle. Place the
uniquely colored marker to denote the beginning of the round. Join and begin to
knit in the round on 110 stitches.
Continue with Color A and knit stockinette stitch (knit all rounds) for 4
rounds. Cut yarn.
Use one strand each of Colors D, E, and F and begin chevron stripe pattern. The
pattern will be used throughout the rest of the bag, changing yarns as follows:
2 rounds – Colors D, E, and F together
12 rounds – Color B
2 rounds – Colors D, E, and F together
12 rounds – Color C
2 rounds – Colors D, E, and F together
12 rounds Color B
2 rounds – Colors D, E, and F together
4 rounds – Color A
BO
Felt the bag using your preferred method.
Finishing:
Shape the bag to dry by pleating in the sides and bottom and pinning to a firm
surface. The pleats will serve to outline
the structure of the bag. Install the grommets and the purse rings to the straps
and attach to the purse as shown in the photo. Attach closure hardware if you
are using it.
Embellish
the bag as you prefer. Shown here are ten bell bangles that were made from
easily found sewing notions and
craft items. A length of chain belt material with flat gold-tone disks was used
here. The disks were separated into
individual disks, leaving a ring on one end to which a craft-department jingle
bell was hung. A bangle was then sewn to
each bottom point of the chevrons at the top edge of the middle stripe (a total
of 10).
Necessity and creativity can result in some great embellishing inventions.
Pattern Copyright 2006 Crystal Palace Yarns/Straw Into Gold, Inc. - We are happy to share this pattern with knitters. The pattern may be used for non-commercial personal or knitting guild use. It is not to be used in any publication in print nor should it be reproduced in electronic/digital format without permission. Knitting shops carrying CP Yarns Iceland, Musique and Little Flowers are welcome to print and share this pattern with customers of our yarns.
Retail shops in the USA should contact CPY Wholesale for information on
purchasing
Crystal Palace Yarns and email cpyinfo -at- straw.com
(replace the -at- with @)
or write to:
Crystal Palace Yarns, 160 23rd St., Richmond, CA 94804
phone: 510-237-9988, fax: 510-237-9809