bag | Love Is All You Knit

I’m looking for a couple of people to test knit an upcoming design I’ve been working on, the Zip-n-Zag Bag.

Details:

I’m looking for two testers that can complete the item and provide feedback to me by 3/15/13.

Skill level: Intermediate.

Skills required are: knitting stranded color work in the round (only two colors are used), provisional cast on, knitting, purling, basic bind off, three needle bind off, sewing in a zipper and fabric lining by hand, making a tassel.

Experience: Experience using stranded color work is preferred, but not required.

Finished size: 9.25” wide by 6.25” tall

Gauge: 22 stitches and 25 rounds = 4”/10cm in stranded colorwork pattern, worked in the round. Gauge is important to this project to ensure that your zipper will fit into the finished pouch.

Materials:

Yarn requirements: 300 yards/275 meters of worsted weight yarn in two contrasting colors (150 yards/137 meters of each color). Sample was knit using 2 skeins of Berroco Vintage Worsted in Cast Iron (#5145) and Butter Cream (#5102). Other brands and colors of yarn can be used, but I would prefer you stick to a worsted weight.

Needle sizes: Needle A: One 16” circular in size needed to obtain gauge (Suggested size US 8/5.0 mm), and Needle B: One 16” circular three sizes smaller than Needle A (Suggested size US 5/3.75 mm)

9” plastic zipper

Fabric for lining, cut to 9.5” wide x 12.5” long

Notions: Tapestry needle, stitch marker, sewing needle and thread for zipper and lining, pins.

Any questions you encounter as you are knitting, please feel free to email to me. I would like feedback at the end of the project regarding your gauge, what size needles you used to obtain gauge, finished size, and your thoughts on sewing in the zipper and lining.

Compensation:

A copy of the final tech-edited pattern will be provided as compensation.

If you’d like to test knit this, please leave a comment below letting me know and I will be in touch via email!

Gettin Zippy With It

I’ve been working on a design for a little zig zag bag since before Christmas and I’ve been putting off the finishing- sewing in a zipper and a fabric lining. I have to admit I have always been a little intimidated by finishing things. You spend so much time knitting something and if you do a shoddy job at finishing, it can ruin the whole thing. (See here for the story of the Five Year Sweater that literally sat around unfinished for years because I was too afraid to sew in the sleeves.)

Well today, I armed myself with needle and thread and just dived right in.

I unzipped the zipper and pinned one side of the tape to the inside edge of the bag and just stitched away. Then I pinned the other side and stitched that down too. And lo and behold, I sewed in that entire zipper in with no major catastrophes.