So as I’ve gotten into knitting, my little corner of the living room has become a mess of…knitting stuff. I have bags and baskets hanging all over my chair back (when I get up, it threatens to tip over backwards every time), and I have more sitting on the floor between my chair and my wall. Unforunately, the vent for the furnace is also there, so I have a little circle of space between my stuff and the vent, which makes for a mess of a pile. I had a small bag of stitch markers (nothing major – just little generic plastic rings) that I haven’t been able to find for a month now, and I’ve been using cut-up straws in their place.

It’s kind of sad, actually.

So I began looking for some kind of knitting bag, or items that could help me at least get a little bit of organization going on. I couldn’t really find anything I liked much, but one night my husband and I were talking about finally getting rid of the diaper bag (since our youngest doesn’t need diapers anymore), and I realized it had all kinds of cool features. I’ve been using it as one knitting bag for about 2 weeks now.

As I continued on, I made a sketch of what my perfect knitting bag would be like. The diaper bag was a good idea starter, as were some couture bags I came across while searching for inspiration. Once I had the idea, I ordered some fabric, and got down to it.

Now, I’m not one for sewing without a pattern. I’ve been sewing since I was a kid – my mother taught me and as I was growing up I could hack together clothing now an again. (I was always much better at making costumes than “real” clothes though.) But I had recently made a tote bag for groceries, and it turned out very nicely – so I was feeling pretty confident I could pull it off.

It turned out okay. I ended up messing things up, and because I used a felled seam (damn those things are strong) I couldn’t easily take it apart. I had thought it might be too big in the first place, so I didn’t mind cutting it up and starting over – but after all was said and done, I wished I’d kept the original size.

It does come apart to make 2 bags – which was the inspiration from the diaper bag. The outer bag is actually a pretty nice handbag. Too bad I hate carrying purses I love the fabric though – it’s microsuede and feels very nice. I used interfacing in the sides to stiffen it up, and my husband bought a sheet of thin plastic at some store (sorry – not sure which) that he cut for me, and drilled holes in so I could insert it between the lining and outer fabric to make a firm base and put feet into.

I will be making a secondary attempt. This one turned out okay but it’s not exactly what I wanted. But I made enough mistakes (and have been using it for a week now) to understand where the issues lie and what I need to do to fix them. The next one, I think, will be perfect