Marianne’s Loom Knit Market Bag Un-Pattern Draft 1
No copyright - do what you want with it. Credit me if you want.http://www.mariannesmotifs.com
Two of of the inspirations I used when designing this piece were Rostitchery's Loom Knit Market Bag. and Knitty BYOB pattern. Since I am pattern reading impaired, it was really just easier for me to do my own thing. I am also really lazy and refuse to do any sewing or finishing so this bag has no sewing or finishing required.
It came out a little on the small side to use as a shopping bag for a large grocery trip, but I was able to fit a 1/2 gallon of OJ, packet of pasta, jar of Peanut Butter, crackers, and a box of tea in there with no problem. I think it might stretch out with use, so who knows maybe it's fine. I just don't think a whole big box of cereal would fit well in there - the bag has a lot more stretch up and down than it does width-wise. Next time I will use the Blue Long loom instead of the Green one as it is longer. (I am working on that version right now see the end of this document for more info on my plans for making the bag on the blue knifty knitter long loom for a larger bag)
The bottom is seed stitch done flat panel and then I re-distributed the stitches to go across the loom to form the bottom of the bag. The rest of the bag is done in the round from there. The bottom third is seed stitch, the middle third is mock crochet stitch and the top third is a knit1/purl1 rib. Then I bound off some stitches to make a self-handle and then cast ‘em back on and did a few more rows to finish that handle. Then I used the super stretchy bind off so that it would be nice and stretchy for groceries.
Here is how I made the first bag on the Green Knifty Knitter long loom.
Supplies:
Green Knifty Knitter Long Loom was used in this example. The blue knifty knitter long loom would make an even bigger bag probably better for groceries - see my notes on "bag try 2" in progress on the blue loom.
Worsted Weight Yarn sufficient for bag. Sample was knit using Bernat Handicrafter 100% cotton. I used less than one large sized skein.
Notions: Loom Tool, tapestry needle for weaving in ends, locking stitch markers to help re-distribute stitches around loom for stretching bottom of bag across loom before starting to work in the round.
Method:
E-wrap cast on one side of the loom, including the middle pegs. (This will make it easier to stretch over the whole loom when we are finished with the bottom of the bag) I knit 42 rows of seed stitch. (flat knit, purl, alternating, and then the opposite on the next row)
Once you knit as far as you like for the bottom of the bag (this pattern is quite flexible) you will need to stretch the bottom of the bag across the loom and hook the stitched onto the other side of the loom. However, its not as simple as stretching it across and then going on your merry way because we now have east and west “sides” of the bottom of the bag as well as the two north and south sides which are the cast on edge and the working edge. What I did was to re-distribute the stitches around the loom in an even manner. I used the type of stitch markers that open and shut to hold my live loops, and moved everything around until it was even and stretched across the loom. About a third of the pegs had 2 stitches on them to account for the extra side, stitches. I didn’t really worry about making it perfectly even and it looks fine. But I am not a super perfectionist, so if you are you probably would want to take the whole thing off the loom and redistribute the stitches onto the pegs perfectly evenly, like one stitch on a peg, two stitches on the next peg, etc. I have to work out this detail on the next bag I make when I write up the pattern.
Once I had the bottom of the bag stretched across the loom and all the pegs of the loom had one or two stitches on them, I started working in the round. I did 30 rows of seed stitch in the round for the bottom 1/3 of the bag.
Then I switched to the mock crochet stitch for 10 rows, or about the same length as the bottom third of the bag. If you were going to switch colors of yarn this would be a good time to do that. I think a variegated yarn looks really nice in the mock crochet stitch. Here are instructions for the stitch. (It’s basically a group of three knit stitches going back and forth so you are working three rows at a time)
http://site.loomknit.com/files/mockcrochetstitch.pdf (requires Adobe pdf viewer)For the top third of the bag I did a rib stitch. I was planning on doing more seed stitch but I got tired of the way it looked with the yarn I was using so I switched to a k1 p1 rib to change it up a little. I did 20 rows and then bound off 10 pegs to make the handle. I cast the pegs back on on the next row with a e-wrap and did 10 more rows to finish the handle. I would like to work on shaping the handle and top of the bag a bit more, but I am actually a beginner at this stuff so I did it very simply. The only fancy thing I did was on one row just on the top of the handle I think I did two stitches instead of one to make it curve a little bit.
Then I used the “super stretchy bind off” to bind off so that the bag’s mouth would be able to stretch wide to accommodate big stuff. That is a nice bind off for this bag. Here’s a link with instructions for the super stretchy bind off:
http://yarngear.com/looms/tips.htmThe bag has more stretch up and down than it does side to side. On the green loom it makes a bag just a bit too small for a real grocery bag - more like a tote bag or library book bag. I am working on a second try on the blue knifty knitter long loom which is larger. On the second bag I am planning to make the following changes: I am going to use a solid color yarn for the seed stitch bottom, I am going to do less rows of seed stitch for the bottom third of the bag and more rows of mock crochet in the variegated color for the middle third of the bag, and I think am going to do the top third in seed stitch in solid color. That decision will wait until I see how it is shaping up. I may try something fancier with the handle too - we’ll see how well I can figure out how to decrease the edges of the bag so the handle is more rounded up over the top.
The “un-pattern” is very very flexible - I think any halfway experienced loomer could easier make it their own with all kinds of variations using different sized looms, yarns, stitches.
I welcome your comments, feedback, suggestions, criticisms, as well as grammar spell-checking help. I would love for people to be able to make this bag and use my instructions.
