Rowan sent a kit to me with my subscription to their magazine last year. It’s a kit for a denim bag called Charlie, which includes the pattern and six balls of Rowan Denim. The Charlie bag in the kit pattern is a plain stockinette shoulder bag with a flap. Very nice, but the pattern didn’t excite me, so the package had been chucked aside. I like the yarn, though, so I cruised the ‘net and my pattern stash for ideas.

I found Tasha on Knitty, a bag pattern that uses (hey!) Rowan Denim. The cable on the bag is very neat, but I didn’t like that it had an open top. Big zipper fan, that’s me. I’m good enough at losing things that I need all the help I can get. Also I found a pattern in Rowan #35 by Martin Storey, for a bag very similar to Charlie but with cables on the flap. I liked that MS lined his bag and saw zipper potential under that flap, esp with the lining. Hmm.

The thing that all of these patterns have in common is that you knit all the pieces, wash/block them, then sew it all together. Blech. Plain stockinette is boring enough without knitting plain stockinette rectangles that have to be sewn together later. One thing I really liked about Tasha was that cable, but not that it only ran along the strap. So, I began to ponder…

What if the strap was one continuous loop, knit with that cable pattern, and made the bottom and sides of the bag as well?

What if I picked up the stitches from the base, then knit the bag in the round to the top opening? That would eliminate the seaming. Hmm.

Let the calculations begin!

I started with the bottom and made a strip of the cable pattern. The cable pattern is 14 stitches wide (5 x 2 st stockinette cables plus 4 purl stitches in between), so I cast on 24 stitches. For each right side row, I slipped the first stitch, P4, work the cable pattern, P5. For each wrong side row, I slipped the first stitch, K4, work the WS of the cable pattern, K5. (If you’re looking at the Tasha pattern, the designer has 3 stitches on either side of the cable. The first stitch is slipped on each row, but that’s not listed in the pattern directions, just the P2 or K2 at either end.) I worked for about 10 inches in length, ending with a WS row.

Then I switched to two circular needles. One side of the bag and one end would be on each needle. This is much easier (I learned) than working on 4 dpns – the long sides want to jump off the needle – or one circular – the curve is too tight.

Here’s what it looks like now, so you can visualize what’s going on:

You could technically join the bag into a complete circle and work it in the round, but I left one seam open and am working it back and forth – it’s easier for me to keep track of the cable pattern that way and I don’t mind sewing one seam.

So, I worked the next row of the cable pattern across the end of the bag base, then picked up all those slipped stitch loops on the left end of the cable needle. I worked down that long side, knitting one stitch into the first loop and two into the next one – for every two loops, I picked up three stitches. This might be a bit full, and I’m thinking now that four stitches for every three loops might have worked better. We’ll see.

To make one stitch in the loop, you simply knit the loop. To make two stitches in a loop, you knit into the front of the loop, then without removing the loop from the left needle, knit into the back of the loop. Then you remove it from the left needle.

I switched to the second circular and picked up 22 stitches from my cast-on, purling above the purl and knitting above the knit stitches. (I initially cast on 24, but the other two stitches – one at each end – became the slipped stitches which were picked up for the long sides. Each end is now 22 stitches, with four reverse stockinette stitches on either side of the cable.) Then I picked up the other long side, the same way I’d picked up the first one.

When I’d gotten all the way around the bag, I turned the work and worked back on the WS. The front and back of the bag are in stockinette, so I purled all those stitches I’d made, then kept the ends in the cable pattern bordered with reverse stockinette.

At the beginning of the next row, I made one stitch at the beginning of the cable panel. This is the seam stitch – I’m knitting it on the RS and purling it on the WS. When I sew that seam, it will disappear into the back of the bag. There are some holes along the bottom where I picked up all those stitches, but I’m going to border the bag with I-cord so the holes will be covered up.

The picture is the bottom of the bag. The opening, which will be the seam, is at the top left corner. The stitches on the left side and across the bottom are on one circular needle. The stitches on the right side and across the top are on the second circular needle.

I have a feeling that the cable pattern stitch on the side of the strap that came from the picking up the cast-on is upside down or backwards or something. I’m just knitting to make it look right and not following the directions anymore, so if you try this, keep an eye out on that side.

Back and forth I’ll go, until the bag looks deep enough – probably about ten or twelve inches, guesstimating from the other pattern instructions. Then I’ll cast off one long side and divide the straps from the other long side. The remaining long side will become the flap and the straps will continue to make that big loop. I think I’ll knit the strap on one side and graft the strap at the top of the bag on the opposite side. And I suspect that the flap will need a cable, maybe one that starts on the back side. I’ll have to have a peek at some cable designs.

For the moment, I’m happily keeping track of that braided cable – you can see at the top right that I crossed one the wrong way. I picked that back and fixed it. Then, after I’d worked about two inches from the base, I was able to put it all on one circular needle and just work back and forth.