This week, we’ve been looking at ways to use up leftover yarn to make items for the 2018 holidays, and some of these projects are well suitable for other occasions throughout the year.
Today’s knitted gift bag is a final addition to the possibilities. Deluxe Worsted Tweed Superwash is an excellent yarn that knit at a tight gauge is very sturdy. In 2016, I talked about Knitting with Deluxe Worsted Tweed yarn and I had some scraps left over which were perfect for today’s project.
Yummy tweed yarn
The sturdy base of this gift bag works up easily in Deluxe Worsted Tweed Superwash.
The design features a sturdy garter stitch bottom, and then you switch to knitting in the round with slipped stitch corners.
Picking up stitches in the bound-off edges and selvedge stitches provides corners between the base and sides of the knitting gift bag.
The knit gift bag pattern
Cast on 18.
Knit 32 rows, decreases 2 sts evenly across last row. 16 sts
Set-up Rnd: Turn work to knit across ends of rows. Pick up and knit 14 sts across. Across cast-on ridge, pick up and knit 16 sts. Pick up and knit 14 sts across ends of rows on next side. 60 sts
Rnd 1: [K1, p13, k1, p15] twice.
Rnd 2: [K14, k2, k2tog, k8, k2tog, k2] twice. 56 sts
Rnd 3: [K1, p13] 4 times.
Rnd 4: Knit.
Rnd 5: [Sl 1, p13] 4 times.
Rnd 6: Knit.
Rep Rnds 5 & 6 until the bag is the desired depth.
These gift bags work for wine bottles, or for other beverages, but any type of gift that is narrow and square or cylindrical will fit nicely.
Next Row: [K1, p13] 4 times.
Next Row: Knit.
Next Row: [K1, p13] 4 times.
Last Row: Bind off 12 sts, k4, bind off 22, k4, bind off remaining sts—10 sts rem on needle.
Cut yarn and close gap at beginning of row and weave in end.
Join yarn to next set of 5 sts and knit 6 ridges of garter stitch. Bind off, fold tab and sew to inside top edge to make a loop. Repeat for other 5 sts.
The two tabs serve as places to hold handles, but an entire handle can be knit and grafted to one end.
OPTIONS
The tabs are there so that you can attach a handle of some kind, with ribbon, or raffia, or whatever you can muster up. If you’d rather just knit a handle, you can start on one set of 5 stitches and graft to the opposite corner.
If you work the whole bag in garter stitch with the plain corners, you’ll have somewhat sturdier sides.
A piece of plastic canvas can be sewn into the bottom of the bag to help it stand up better.
This knitted gift bag can be knit to any height to hold a narrow gift.
I trust you have enough scrap and odd balls in your stash that you can try out any of the projects we’ve been sharing with you for the past two weeks.
This is part 5 of 5 in this series.
Go back to part 4: Using hyperbolic theory to knit a holiday ornament
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