Use Welts to Add Color to a Circular Bag

One of the easiest ways to use a little bit of leftover yarn in another knitting project is to add stripes. The Lollipop Crossbody Bag from Ainur Berkimbayeva gives you a chance to use leftover yarn (or new yarn for that matter) in several colors, or in one color if you prefer.

Her version shows three contrasting colors but there are six welts, so you could do most of a rainbow, or an ombre with several shades of the same color, or even just a single color or one multicolored yarn to see what would happen.

The pattern has options to work the bag with fingering, sport or DK weight yarn, and I imagine you could do it with worsted as well. It’s written for one size but since it’s worked from the center out you can just keep increasing in the same manner and adding tucks regularly to make the bag whatever size you like.

It also includes the option of adding a zipper and a felt lining to make it more functional as a bag. I also think this one would be fun to try making larger than described and felting it to make it more solid.

The designer suggests a wool yarn or something with good elasticity for making the welts. The original was worked with a wool blend on the welts and a cotton base. It requires between 155 and 185 yards (or 140-170 meters) of yarn depending on the weight of yarn you are using. The pattern includes a video tutorial and a color planner to help you figure out how you want to stripe your welts.

This project looks like a lot of fun and would be a great little summer bag, especially with bright candy colored stripes. You can get the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Ainur Berkimbayeva]

Bags to Knit for Your Travels

Easy Linen Market Bag Knitting Pattern

Knit a Bag for Your Market Shopping

Next Pattern:

Santa and Saint Nicholas generally get all the good press, but Central European kids know you don’t want to just be good so you get presents from St. Nicholas; you also want to avoid the ire of Krampus. (He’s depicted as a human-like figure with horns and usually hairy or furry who gives birch rods instead of gifts to kids who are bad.)

If you’re the type to embrace the naughty side (or you just want to scare the children into good behavior over the holidays), maybe you’ll want to knit a Krampus sweater.

This one, from Sofie Amalie Laulund, is a top down circular yoke sweater with Krampus faces at the top and cavorting Krampuses further down the body, with some traditional Scandinavian snowflakes thrown in for fun.

Because of the large motifs there’s not a lot of room for adjusting the fit, but it is available in five sizes (the Ravelry page doesn’t say what the sizing is, and it says its worked with no ease but the photo looks like the sweater has a bit of positive ease, so if you decide to make this one just check the measurements and your own comfort level for ease when picking a size).

It also uses five colors, but there’s very little red and brown so you can probably use scrap yarn for those parts. It calls for DK weight yarn. You’ll want a background color that helps the creatures stand out. You could also work the snowflake bands in different colors if you want to mix it up.

The pattern is available in both English and Danish, and you can find it on Ravelry. This is the designer’s first pattern, which kudos to them because it’s such an ambitious (and fun!) project I’m happy to add to my collection of whimsy-filled knits.

[Photo: Sofie Amalie Laulund]

Next Pattern:

Have you read?