Late last year, as I drew close to finishing the Mitered Square Blanket of Doom, I realized that I still had ::ahem:: a lot of leftover yarn. I began to fantasize about other mitered square projects I could do. Up first: this mitered square bag.
It’s a simple project, really. You just knit three large mitered squares, fold them in half, seam them together, and attach a handle.
But if there’s one thing I know, it’s that sometimes, it’s just more comfortable to make a project with a little guidance. That means I’ve got another one of my free tutorials for you. This blog post will walk you through the basic process, cover the specific numbers for my bag, and then give you some guidance for freewheeling a bit with your own materials.
Materials
First things first: let’s talk materials. You can knit this mitered square bag using any weight of yarn you’d like and any size needles, truly. You just need to swatch to figure out how much yarn you need and how many stitches you want to cast on for your square. I’ve got some guidance on how to do that in this blog post about making a mitered square blanket (same basic principles apply).
For my bag, I used 190 grams of fingering-weight yarn. There are several different yarns in this thing, and they’re not all the exact same yardage. If we assume an average of about 420 yds (384 m) per 100 g, that puts us at right about 800 yds (732 m) for the whole bag.
If, like me, you’re using scraps, you’ll want to think about the color palette of those scraps. I chose lots of leftovers in a similar color palette, but that might not be your goal. This blog post has some tips at the end to help you combine yarns in different colors.
For needles, I knit my squares on US 10.5 needles. Again, you can use any size needles you’d like, so long as the end result has a gauge that works for you.
Knitting the Mitered Squares
Once you’ve gathered your materials, it’s time to knit three large mitered squares. How large is large? Well, again, that’s up to you. My squares were 19″ on each side, which gave me a diagonal length of 26.9″ (shout out to my 9th grade geometry teacher, Ms. Burns). To get that size with my specific yarn and needles, I cast on 75 stitches, but remember: your gauge may very even if we’re using the same needles and yarn. Swatch to be on the safe side.
There are lots of ways to knit a mitered square, and you might prefer the look of one over another. Here are a few options with the steps for how to knit each kind.
Seaming the Mitered Squares
Once your three mitered squares are done and the ends woven in, it’s time to seam them together. Fold them in half, corner to corner, as shown in this photo below. I folded them on the diagonal that crosses the line of decreases in the square, but you can fold along the diagonal if you’d rather.
Then, arrange your triangles as shown in the photo below. One triangle should be in the middle with the fold at the very bottom and the two points at the top. The other two triangles should be on either side with their folds on the very right and very left and the two points in the middle. The points of all three triangles should meet.
Using some yarn that blends in well and your favorite seaming method, seam along all the edges where one triangle touches another. I used mattress stitch for mine, but I seamed through the slipped edge stitches because the directional flow of the garter stitches wouldn’t work for traditional garter mattress stitch.
Making and Attaching the Bag Handle
My bag currently has a strap made of three strands of braided I-cord. I haven’t decided yet whether I want to make it thicker, and I think I’ll need to wear it around a little bit before I make up my mind. Here’s how I made the strap.
First, knit three strands of I-cord. If you’ve never knit I-cord, don’t worry, it’s very easy. I even have a tutorial for you. The length of your strands should be a little longer than the actual strap length that you want for your bag, for two reasons. First, you’ll be tying knots in either end of the strap, and that will eat up some of the length. Second, braiding also eats up some length.
When you have your three lengths of I-cord, insert the tips through a spot near the tip of one of the upper corners on the outer triangles, like in the photo below. You don’t have to knit a special hole for the straps in these corners because the stitches will be loose enough to get the cords through with just a little wiggling.
Once the cords are through, tie a nice knot to secure them, and then start braiding. Braid your three straps together until you reach the end. Before tying a knot at the end, push the three tails of the I-cords through the top corner of the other triangle on the other side of your bag. This anchors the handle at the tops of each side of the bag. Then, tie a knot to hold the three I-cords together and keep them from sliding back through the bag.
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