Bramble Bag Gone Wrong

norah Flickr

Ok...I wanted to make the Bramble Bag by Donna Yacino. This picture is lovely and I left the Flickr picture owner's name there to give credit where credit is due. Anyway, this is a free pattern from Berroco. I had some various Lion Brand Cotton around and thought I'd use that for a bag. Now, let me say that I'm not really an "accessory" person. I usually have 1 purse and I use it to death and then hunt out a replacement (usually at Salvation Army because I hate the prices of bags I see in the store and I'm super picky about purses, so spending a little for a not-quite perfect bag is preferable to spending a lot for a not-quite-perfect bag.) Well, I started working on it one evening up in my room and made several inches progress. The next morning I showed Nicole and she didn't like it at all. I noticed that it wasn't coming out looking ANYTHING like the picture, but it did have an interesting texture so I decided to keep going with it.

I was about 1/2 way finished when I realized that I was knitting row 2 & 4 of a 4 row pattern completely WRONG! No wonder why mine didn't look like the Bramble! Well, it is a kinda cool texture and I had knit so much of it I decided to finish it up. Here's some pictures of what it's looking like so far.

I'm sure that I didn't invent the stitch, but I haven't searched through stitch books to figure out what this one might be called.


On the Knit side, you knit 3 and Pass the first stitch over the next two, all the way across the row. Now it's on the Purl side that I ran amock. I was suppose to pick up a stitch in the bar between the second and third stitch and purl it. However, I brought the yarn to the Back and slipped the right needle through the wrapped stitch and purled that.
It looks OK and it's going to be sturdy and -- HECK, I'm a woman who buys purses at Salvation Army! What difference will it make R E A L L Y ? ? ?

Well, the project picture for the Bramble Bag has amazing handles which sell for about $40 for the strap and $12 for the dowels with finials. Since this was a "test" bag and it's not AWESOME, I didn't want to spend that much.



Putting on the thinking cap and looking around JoAnn's I found some curtain tie-backs that would work . They're a bit short, so I'll have to make a loop to attach them to, but that won't be a problem. I really like shoulder bags, and being a big woman, I need them to be 30" to 36", depending on whether or not I'll be tossing it over a shoulder wearing a winter coat. Here's a picture of the tie-backs. They cost $3.00 each. Not bad!

I found this remnant fabric which is the perfect color of dark greenish-teal. Cost, $.97 -- another piece of good luck.

I'll make 3 or 4" loops and attach the tie-backs to them to extend the length. I'm considering making a covering for the brown cording so the entire handle will be the teal color. I haven't quite made up my mind yet, but I have plenty of fabric if I choose to do so.





This picture shows the fabric I found for the lining. It's going to rather fun and a little bit funky. All in all, I'm eager to finish the knit fabric now. I've got 7 more repeats to make a 30" piece. That should do it. Today Nicole and I went hunting in Lowe's for a dowel and end finial, but couldn't find an end piece that wasn't too huge. We did find a curtain rod that would have been perfect except it was gold-tone (and I'm not into gold or brown, for that matter.) I've been picturing a teal strap all along. We decided to check out Michael's Crafts and Nicole discovered THE perfect dowel caps. I couldn't make up my mind whether the small or medium size would be best, so I got both. Those and some Aqua acrylic paint came to a total cost of $9.00. (I've already cast on a wool version of the TRUE Bramble Bag, so I'll use one of the dowel sets on that.) So I spent around $11.00 instead of the $50 for the leather, but I think it will still look OK. I've been dreaming of a bag that I saw at a LYS and am designing my own version of it. On that bag I'm going to spring for the gorgeous leather straps. If I really love using this test Bramble-wanna-be bag, I'll make myself a super one with gorgeous yarn and one of the kids can get me the amazing leather handles for a birthday or Xmas gift.

It should be finished completely be next weekend. I'll post a finished picture then.