Bobble Bag
Take a ball of Adriafil Retro, knit it to a tight tension and you get ... bobbles! It makes a dense and tactile fabric, ideal for a bag. My bag is about $20\,\mathrm{cm}\,/\,8^{\,\prime\prime}2$
Materials
$100\mathrm{g}$ Adriafil Retro (I used Shade 063) $100\mathrm{g}$ Lamb's Pride Worsted (Clematis) 6mm / US size 10 and 4mm / US size 6 needles. The Adriafil Retro is crucial to this design but you could use any chunky weight yarn with a yardage of about $75\mathrm{m\,/\,50g}$ for the contrast colour.
The Bobbly Bits (make 2)
With Adriafil Retro and 6mm needles, cast on 20 sts using the long tail method. Knit 34 rows. It's easy to lose or gain stitches with this yarn so keep checking. Now change to your contrast colour and knit into the front and back of every stitch in the next row (40 sts). Next row: Purl, purling into the front and back of the $20^{\mathrm{th}}$ st (41sts). Now work 24 rows in heel stitch as follows: Row 1: K1, \*sl 1 pwise wyib, K1, repeat from \* to end of row. Row2: Purl. Cast off. Fold this band in half to the inside and sew down. Sew the side seams.
The Sides and Strap
These are knitted in the contrast colour and are worked in fabric stitch: Row 1: Sl 1 kwise, \*yf, sl 1 pwise, yb, K1, repeat from \* to end of row. Row 2: Sl 1 kwise, P1, \*yb, sl 1 pwise, yf, P1, repeat from \* to last st, K1. Make the base of the bag first. Using 6mm needles, cast on 11 sts. Work in fabric stitch until the knitting is just shorter than the width of the bag. My base was 20 cm / 8" long. The strap of the bag is knitted in exactly the same way as the base but needs to be made long enough to fit along the sides of the bag and then over a shoulder. My strap measured 122cm / 48" all together.
Putting the Bag Together
Before sewing the bag together the front and back bobbly panels can be lined if wished. First sew the base to the front and the back. Work with the wrong sides together (which side of the fabric stitch you use as your right side is up to you) and sew with a running stitch just in from the edge. Then sew the two ends of the strap between the front and back in the same way. When you get to the contrast colour panels at the top of the bag, oversew these to the strap. Join the ends of the strap to the base.
Button Tab
Cast on 9 sts with 4mm needles. Work 34 rows in moss stitch (K1, $\ast_{\mathrm{P1}}$ , K1 repeat from \* to end on every row). The tab should now measure $9\,\mathrm{cm}\,/\,3\%"$ Now work the buttonhole and shape the end of the tab. Row 1: K1, P1, K1, cast off 3 sts, P1, K1. Row 2: K1, P1, K1, cast on 4 sts, K1, P1, K1. Row 3: (K1, P1) three times, K2tog, P1, K1. Row 4: K1, \*P1, K1, repeat from \* to end of row. Row 5: P2tog, K1, (P1, K1) three times. Row 6: P2tog, (K1, P1) three times. Cast off knitwise. Sew the tab to the bottom of the contrast band on the back of the bag and sew a button on the front.
Abbreviations
st / sts stitch / stitches Kknit Ppurl kwise knitwise pwise purlwise sl1 slip 1 stitch wyib with yarn in back, keep the yarn at the back of the work yf yarn forward, as if to purl yb yarn back, as if to knit K2tog knit 2 stitches together P2togpurl 2 stitches together
