I usually clean my desk when I finish a book, but last week, things went a bit further. I published a book that had fought me from start to finish (inevitably, this means that I love the result) and so I did a long-overdue spring clean on my office. I also have my sewing table in there and a bunch of yarn stash, so this was a huge sort, clean and reorganization process. I found many projects in the works that I’d forgotten about, and now that everything is shiny and clean, I’m determined to finish some of them up.

First up, I completed some knitting project bags. I had made some a few years ago (here’s that blog post) and at that time, I’d cut out some more. Last week, I pulled out the pieces. There were some combinations that didn’t sing for me, so I ended up cutting more pieces 🙂 plus I found the remnants from my dragon quilt and put them to work. In the end, I have eight new project bags. I don’t need them all, but they’re not taking up space in my to-be-sewn pile anymore.

(This was a bit of a challenging photo-shoot, btw. We had a blizzard over the weekend and while it’s sunny today, the wind is wild. That blue bag was in the snow indent below the black and pink one when I went to take the picture.)

I’m still using the free pattern mentioned in that blog post, but I’ve finalized some more changes. Each of these new bags has a zippered interior pocket – the zipper is in the seam between the two parts. Once the zipper is sewn in, I sewed a square of matching fabric behind it to make the pocket. I often take a small pair of scissors with my knitting and don’t want them to cut the yarn. A zippered pocket is also a good way to keep track of a darning needle.

None of these new bags are interfaced, because the additional layer of the pocket gives them enough structure, I think. I added a loop of grossgrain ribbon as a handle at the top, and also another loop of ribbon with a clip and a charm, just for fun. Each zipper has a pull of the same ribbon used for the charm and clasp.

This one reminds me of a pink grapefruit. It’s the green one at the middle bottom in the picture above.

Here’s the dragon one. I’ll definitely keep this one myself!