How to knit
A Bag
DIY Reusable Easy Breezy Knit Market Bag
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[Music]
hello and welcome to the Marley bird
YouTube channel
brought to you by red heart yarns in
this video I will show you how to make
this a super cute and very useful
breezy knit market bag to make this bag
you only need two skeins of red heart
Super Saver chunky yarn a pair of size 9
knitting needles now I'm going to use
circulars but you can use straights and
you need some stitch markers and a
tapestry needle last but not least you
will need that free pattern which is
available at red heart comm I will also
put a link to the free pattern in the
video description box right below this
video and while you're down there please
smash that like button as my kids say to
let others know you enjoyed this video
once you have your materials join me
back here and I'll walk you through all
the little ins and outs for making this
really wonderful tote
[Music]
before we jump in with the first part of
the instructions let's take a closer
look at this tote as we take a look down
here we can see that this toe is made up
of some really simple garter stitch
ridges and a really nice lace stitch
pattern in between those main Z Thomas
designed this tote to be super simple so
there is a front and a back which you
will make separately flat back and forth
and then you will seam it up along the
side and the bottom edge once you finish
those two pieces you make some simple
straps and you will sew those straps to
the inside of the bag just like so very
easy so in this video I will show you
how to work the actual stitch pattern
used for the body of the back then I'll
show you how to seam those two edges
together and how to make the straps very
easy stuff but it won't take us very
long so let's jump in for this bag I'm
using Super Saver chunky yarn in the
color turquo we want to cast on a total
of 52 stitches for one side of this back
we'll start off with a slipknot and I'm
gonna use the longtail cast on so I'm
making sure I have a nice long tail so I
put my tail in the palm of my hand take
my working yarn wrap it around my
forefinger and middle finger when I come
back up I cross over turn my hand over
go underneath the front loop grab the
back loop and off I now have a slipknot
that I can place directly onto my needle
this Slipknot when I'm working for
knitting counts as a stitch so now I'll
go ahead and work the longtail cast on
to get 52 stitches if you want detailed
instructions for how to do the longtail
cast on I have a video for that right
here on the Marley bird youtube channel
you can check out that little I button I
put right there or in the video
description box below once you have your
stitches cast on in your preferred
method we want to work in garter stitch
to get three ridges on the right side
we're just working simple knit stitches
and we want to get a total of three
garter stitch
ridges okay I feel like you know how to
do these knit stitches so I'm gonna go
ahead and move on if that works for you
and let's see it with the magic of TV
what the next part looks like and
through the magic of TV I want to show
you what I have here I have went ahead I
did my cast on edge and I have worked my
three ridges of garter stitch so that's
my six total rows I've also gone ahead
and I've worked one full repeat right
here so I've worked rows 1 through 12
and what you will notice is that rows 1
through 8 are actually the lace portion
and then rows 9 through 12 is garter
stitch row 1 has us begin with 1 knit
stitch and then you are going to place a
marker I made these wonderful markers
and I did a video for it right here so
you could make your own if you choose to
but you simply will place a marker on
your right hand needle now we will jump
in to the stitch pattern the stitch
pattern is knit 1 yarn over your right
hand needle and then knit 2 together now
that I did that fast let's do it a
little bit slower this time you will
knit one stitch just like you normally
do then we need to yarn over our right
hand needle so we're being on yarn
forward and bring it back over top of
our right hand needle our yarn is back
and back but we have this nice little
string resting on our right hand needle
now we want to take these two stitches
and knit them together so we will take
our right hand needle go into the
leftmost stitch here after the two and
then put our right hand needle into both
of those stitches now you will yarn over
and work through both of those stitches
just like you would a knit stitch and
have them jump off by working this yarn
over increase next to the decrease of
the knit two together we have maintained
our stitch count it hasn't changed but
we are getting this beautiful lace
pattern because now we have these holes
that are created with the yarn over as
long as you make sure you
the yarn-over with the decrease you will
not get off counts so it's very
important that you keep track of your
rows when you're working the yarn over
with your decrease now you'll notice in
the pattern that there is a star next to
that first that knit one there and that
indicates that that is the point that
you will repeat your pattern meaning
after I get done with this knit two
together
it says repeat from star so I go back to
the star which means I knit one a yarn
over and I knit two together and I will
do this all the way down the row to the
last three stitches I'm to my last three
stitches so I will go ahead and knit two
I will place another marker so I place
another marker and then I will knit one
and that completes my row one to move on
to row two simply turn your work make
sure your markers are on the side that
you have facing you okay it'll make
things easier for you as you go along
and we'll jump into Row 2 which has us
begin with a knit one then you will slip
that marker and you will purl all the
way across these stitches this row to
the next marker when I get to the marker
I simply slip my marker and I knit that
last stitch for Row three I go ahead and
turn my work once again I want to make
sure my markers are on the side facing
me it just makes things a little bit
easier and you're less likely to get
your markers caught in your work and
we'll move on to Row 3 which has a start
off with a knit one slip your marker we
will knit one and this time we'll do a
different kind of decrease we're going
to do an SSK
so we will slip one stitch as if to knit
slip one stitch as if to knit take our
left hand needle put it in the front leg
of those two stitches and now I simply
knit just as normal and off I finish off
with the yarn over okay so
is my repeat the knit one slip slip knit
yarn over so now I will go back to my
star which has us do knit one slip one
is if to knit slip one is if to knit put
my left hand needle on the front leg of
those two stitches and then knit them
together yarn over knit one slip as if
to knit slip as if to knit left hand
needle into the front leg of those two
stitches and then knit them together
yarn over I will work this repeat all
the way down to the last three stitches
when you get to these last three
stitches don't forget that yarn over
before your last three stitches that
yarn over is the last part of your
repeat now I will go ahead knit these
two stitches slip my marker and knit one
more that completes Row 3 Row 4 is a
repeat of Row 2 so I'm simply going to
turn my work make sure my markers are on
the same side facing me knit my first
stitch slip my marker and then purl to
my marker and then slip my marker and
knit the last stitch rows 5 through 8
are just a repeat of 1 through 4 pretty
simple so let's go ahead and get that
done once you have finished rows 1
through 12 you will now notice that you
have this really great lace stitch
pattern and then two ridges of garter
stitch your now carry on in the pattern
repeating those 12 rows for a total of
six times then you repeat rows one
through eight one more time and you'll
finish off with the six rows of knitting
which will give us our three garter
stitch edges for the end of this side of
the bag so right now as we're looking at
this you can see what two repeats looks
like this is the bottom of the bag what
I did the three ridges this is a row one
through eight and then these two ridges
here are rows nine through twelve and
then this is what we just did together
we did rows one through eight and then
nine through twelve so this would count
as two of my repeats and I would have
four more to complete once I do those
four more to complete I would
another row one through eight and then I
would finish off with six rows of
knitting or it would look like three
garter stitch ridges let me show you
what that looks like because I have a
little sample done right here so right
here this is actually the start right
down here this is my garter stitch
beginning here are my eight rows of the
lace pattern
here's rows nine through twelve eight
rows of the lace pattern and then here
is my final three border of the the
pattern obviously I'm making a smaller
sample than you are for the actual bag
because I wanted to be able to work
through enough stitches here on video
without taking your entire day right you
now know how to read the pattern how to
do the garter stitch do the lace stitch
pattern how many repeats you need to do
and how to finish off this side of the
bag go ahead and complete both sides of
the bag they're done identical so you
have to make each one identical once
you've done that join me back here I'll
show you how to do this II mean and how
to work the straps
[Music]
the front in the back of your bag are
complete and let's make some straps now
here the front in the back of my bag so
let's go ahead and grab the same yarn we
used for the bag and cast on a total of
64 stitches we will start off with a
slipknot just like before and then use
your preferred method of cast on I'm
gonna use the long tail cast on once
again if you want your straps to be
longer or shorter you will simply cast
on more or fewer stitches totally up to
you of course I'm making a smaller
sample for this particular video so I'm
gonna do fewer stitches to show you how
this little strap works up it's pretty
ingenious
once you've cast on your 64 stitches go
ahead and we are simply going to knit
two rows so we will just knit across all
of those stitches for two rows and those
64 stitches represent the length of your
strap so it is not done with wise it's
done lengthwise once you're done
knitting those two rows you will then
turn your work and you will purl three
rows so I turn my work and I will begin
purling and I will do this for three
rows after you purl those three rows you
will knit two more rows so so far this
is what my work looks like and I need to
knit two more rows
once you have finished knitting those
two rows and you're back to the right
side of your fabric you will notice that
you have some garter stitch Ridge
stockinette Ridge stockinette and Ridge
now it's time to bind off all of those
stitches to bind-off to bind-off you
simply knit the first two stitches have
that first stitch you knit jump up and
over the second and then you knit one
more and then repeat the process just
like you did for the body of the bag
when you're done with the bind off make
sure that you leave yourself a nice long
tail before you snip it because you can
use this tail to actually seam the
straps of the bag the next part wants us
to go ahead and you will take this strap
you will fold it lengthwise see how you
have that nice little fold point right
there and you will go ahead and you will
seem together the edge of the strap
that's the cast on edge to the bind off
edge once that's all sewn you'll have
this nice tubular strap that now can get
sewn onto your back but before we sew it
onto the bag we need to actually stitch
up our back so let me show you how to do
that
[Music]
by this point you have the front and the
back of the back complete and the two
straps remember you have to make two
straps as you take a look down here you
can see I have a front and a back of the
back complete and I've gone ahead and I
have whip stitched these two pieces
together the reason I wanted to show you
what the whip stitch looks like is
because one you absolutely could use the
whip stitch and I wanted to make sure
you saw what it looked like when it was
done because - it's not nearly as clean
as when you use the mattress stitch
which is what I'm going to show you how
to do in this video so as we take a look
down here you can see that there is a
definitive seam right here where the two
pieces are joined together and that's
because I simply put the right sides of
the fabric together just like so and
then I whipped the side together just
you know whip and stitch it together no
big deal and can you finish it that way
absolutely if you have no problem with
the fact that there's a definitive seam
then whip stitch it together don't
overthink it just do it but if you don't
want this definitive seam I'm gonna show
you how to do the mattress stitch okay
so for the mattress stitch we actually
want the wrong sides together so we want
to make sure that the wrong sides of our
fabric are together and I'm going to use
a different colored yarn for this
demonstration so you can see how this
works I'm going to start at the bottom
of my bag this is my bind off edge up
here and this is my cast on edge so I'm
gonna start down here at my cast on edge
and with my edges nice and butt it up
together I'm gonna go ahead and join
this yarn so for me I like to join the
yarn through one side leave myself a
nice little tail and then go to the
opposite side and then come back through
this side okay it kind of gives me a
figure eight and I can tighten that up
now that we have the yarn joined we can
go ahead and begin see me
together now when we seem together the
Garter stitch section the first thing we
want to do is we want to make sure that
our ridges are butted up to each other
and when you seem a Ridge to a ridge you
see how there's like a smiley face right
there with that stitch and then you
could also see that over here there's a
frown okay see how those ones are upside
down you think of a smiley face and a
frown we want to make sure that we're
working one or the other on either side
so this one I just went up a frown and
over here I want to make sure I go up a
smiley face and then over here I want to
go up a frown so this is a frown right
there and then over here I want to go up
a smiley face and I'm making sure I'm
going to row for row over here here's a
frown and then here's a smiley face as I
pull the string together you're gonna
see that that really pulls those two
edges together and it's gonna look
seamless yeah you can barely see the
Flamingo color yarn right there once I
get past that garter stitch section I'm
into the portion where it's the lace but
it's not just lace down here at the
edges we have some nice knit stitches so
what we want to do over here is we want
to go in between so if you go in between
those stitches see how I'm able to pick
up two bars there so I'll pick up two
bars on that side come over here go in
where you came out and pop up and pick
up two bars on this side come over here
to the opposite side go in where you
came out go up and pick up two bars do
the same over here go in where you came
out come in and pick up two bars as long
as you're picking up those bars within
the same column of stitches you will
have a nice and beautiful seam all the
way up to where it's time for us to join
our garter stitch again and remember
you're always going in where you came
out and then going up and picking up two
bars I'm gonna pause here for a second
see how it's separated out right now you
can see that string okay you can see it
watch what happens when I pull this nice
a taut first off you can't see that
string anymore right it looks like it is
seamless see how those knit stitches but
up to those knit stitches that's the
beauty of the mattress stitch if I
finish this whole side right here it's
gonna look nice and clean when it gets
the stockinette portion it'll look nice
and joined together at the Garter stitch
because we know how to do those garter
stitches as opposed to over here where
it is a definitive seam right here
because I just did a whip stitch now
here's something cool that you can do if
you did a whip stitch cuz you're not
really comfortable with the mattress
stitch maybe you go ahead and you get a
different color yarn and you use a
running stitch using like embroidery
running stitch or a slip stitch if
you're comfortable with crochet right
along the top part of this Ridge and
give it a really nice column down the
side of the bag that's something really
cool you can do and make it super unique
now once you have seemed the side of the
bag you can then go ahead and seam the
bottom of the bag now when I seam the
bottom of the bag to me I like the
bottom of my bags to have a nice solid
base I feel like it just gives them them
some stability so what I like to do is
this I did not finish seaming up I'm
going to show you how to do this I'm
gonna turn the bag inside out okay so
now my right sides are facing each other
and what I am going to do I'm gonna take
my yarn once again and I will join it
down here just like I did before okay so
I'm gonna join this down here just like
I did alright so now I have a nice joint
and then what we're doing here is we
have these are our cast on edges and if
you did the long tail cast on you'll
notice you have some nice little V
looking stitches and what I like to do
is this I will go into the V okay so
I'll go in
this side and then I'll go into the same
V on the corresponding side okay you
worth me here and I'll come up now what
I will do is I will go into the V right
next to it on that side but I'm gonna
come back and go into the V that I went
into on that side see how I'm going like
diagonal okay
I'm not going straight across I'm going
back into the stitch that I originally
went into on this opposite side now I'll
skip over one stitch over here and then
I'm gonna go diagonal and come into that
stitch that I went in over there you see
that I'm gonna do that over here I'm
gonna come on diagonal make sure you
come in diagonal and as I work this
stitch all along what it's gonna do is
it's going to pull this together really
nice and this section here is going to
pull together and I'm gonna get a nice
sort of bump seam on the inside of my
bag and honestly I really like the way
that feels it feels like my bag is a
little bit more secure so that way when
I take it to the yarn store and stock up
on red heart Super Saver chunky yarn I
am not worried that I'm gonna blow out
the bottom of my bag right so let me
pause there for a second I'm gonna
tighten this up let's just tighten this
nice and tight just like we did before
see how that tightens that up and let's
take a peek what it looks like so on
this side I have a nice little bump and
on the opposite side see how it looks
like I have this nice kind of garter
stitch right there it looks like the
Garter stitch flows in to each other
it's a really nice beautiful way to seam
this together now if you are a little
bit more advanced and you want to try
something a little bit different with
this bag what you could have done is
picked up the amount of stitches that
you needed to cast on for either the
front or the back no let me rephrase
that
what you could have done is finish the
front and then instead of recasting on
the total number of stitches you could
have just picked up stitches along the
cast on edge of the completed front and
work at the back so that we would
already be joined at the bottom so
that's one way you could change up this
pattern
little bit and have a little bit less
seeming all the way along right so once
everything is seamed together and you
have seamed together your strap here
which I haven't done but we're gonna
we're gonna make believe okay let's turn
this right side out and it's kind of
funny because everything is sort of
seamed together here right so we turn
this right side out ignore all the
strings and if this strap were complete
it would be just like so and you have a
decision to make you either want to have
this nice Ridge that's the center fold
point either towards the inside okay so
if I were to put the strap here and then
put the other edge over here on this
side so have it on the inside or switch
it around and have it on the outside and
all you will do here is you will take
the string at the end of the edge of
your strap here and you can use it to
actually sew on to your actual bag and
have that nice and secure and then of
course use this one you can either go to
the opposite side and have straps going
along that way or you could have the
straps go this way you know what I mean
this way totally your choice it's really
simple I'm sure you know how to seam
straps on at this point you can just
whip them on you can either make the
actual needle itself and yarn go to the
total opposite side and have a design
feature or just keep it all on the
inside of the bag and not have the
straps show at all just as Nancy did in
the sample bag alright so here is the
actual sample bag and let's take a peek
right here you can see Nancy use the
mattress stitch along her edges and so
they're nice and clean they look really
nice and joined and then when it comes
to the straps she actually joined them
one to the front and one to the back so
this is one strap and she joined it one
to the front and one to the back and she
did not have it come all the way through
so the stitches do not pop all the way
through they are simply just stitched to
the inside of the bag just like so she
also made it so that way the folding
point that I was mentioning before is
towards the inside of the bag on both
straps okay
but you can change that up if you want
you could switch it to the outside you
could make it so that your straps are go
from the same side of the bag it's
totally up to you you have a chance to
really customize your bag but hopefully
you will run out get yourself some Super
Saver chunky yarn and any color you want
like shoot you could even make this like
multicolored make each section repeat a
different color that would be one way to
make this a really unique bag and make
this really super cute breezy knit
market bag that you can use on your next
trip to the yarn store or I mean
supermarket wink wink I'm Marley bird
proud spokesperson for red heart yarns
and I hope you will come back here and
check out more videos teaching you how
to become a better knitter and crochet
thanks everybody bye
[Music]
everything you need to know about
knitting or crochet can be found right
here on the Marley bird YouTube channel
learn with Marley per visit youtube.com
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[Music]
