Bag Completion!

Okay, finishing the bag took less time than I thought, so here are the pictures!

Here's the bag all done! Empty and on it's side. The seam shows up here worse than it does in real life. The seam is noticeable, but doesn't bother me at all. This may have been the first time I've done a mattress stitch since I was blundering it as a child.

This is the bottom of the bag, just trying to show my shaping a bit. I think this part eliminates me writing a pattern, as I just sort of did it as I was going and forgot to take any notes. I may try to recreate the bag at a later date and make a pattern then since I imagine that would be easier to get my brain around.

I do like the final shape I got, and while being worn with weight in it, it looks quite nice.

This picture turned out a bit blurry, but it was the only one I got of the whole length of the bag. I have my Kindle with cover and my large wallet inside. The weight stretches it a fair bit, but while wearing it the bottom of the bag comes down to about my hip, which I think looks flattering. I'm not sure how much more it would stretch with added weight, but I don't really like lugging around a bunch of weight on my shoulder anyways.

Here is another picture of the bag hanging that is a little less blurry.












Over all I am pretty pleased with how it turned out. I think I will knit another one in the round at a later date and write the pattern while I am making it. I had an interesting time trying to find an explanation online for grafting (also called a kitchener stitch) a double rib for connecting the handle, so I will see if I can write down how I managed to do it. It was tricky at first, but simple once I "got" how to do it.

For the bag I used size 7 US needles and Red Heart Super Saver Yarn in "Cafe." The point of this project was to experiment making bags and use up left over yarn. The skein I used was not quite full, and I was left with enough yarn to make a ball the size of a golf ball. Considering I used up the skein and would wear this bag into public, I'd call this little experiment a success :)

I won't be starting another project until my yarn comes.  I've got some reading to do and some spring cleaning to do that I've been putting off, so hopefully I won't be going crazy missing my knitting.