Knit Ditties

For all the years I've been knitting, I've kept my work in 'ditty bags'. These are actually old 'Outdoor Products' bags that I bought at an army surplus store in 1992. I used them to organise clothes in my bag as I backpacked around Europe. Since then, they've been repurposed to many uses.

I like them for knitting - the nylon fabric actually works well because it's slick enough that the yarn just rolls around inside. All of the project bags sold at yarn stores in Toronto are made out of this same ripstop nylon.

Mine are a bit worse for the wear after so many years. I examined the construction and realised that I could easily sew some up myself, so I did! I went to King Textiles to pick up the nylon fabric. I bought a half-yard of five different colours, plus some more thread and little pins to hold them together, plus cord and the clasps, which look like little pig noses. In terms of costs, the supplies for the first batch came out to $30. From that amount, I was able to sew up 9 small bags, 5 large ones!

The first bag I tried to sew up was yellow. I really didn't know what I was doing, but I dove in with enthusiasm and a great deal of patience. A half-hour later, I was holding a beautiful little bag in my hand! It was really that easy!

There was a learning curve around sewing through multiple layers, but this is one tough little sewing machine. I'm finally becoming more skilled at feeding my fabric through and sewing on a straight line. This is actually a fabulous sewing project to start out with because if things get a bit crooked, it doesn't really show up much in the finished product.

The bags turned out far more awesome than I would have ever predicted! They look very nice - very professionally done! The only change I'm going to make in my production moving forward is to reinforce of the seam where the cord comes out.

The commercial bags have an additional strap that snaps onto things - or your wrist. I decided not to bother with this because the cord on the bag can actually be tied onto things and it wraps around the wrist. I used my red bag on the train last night during my commute and it's great!

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