How to make a Loom Knitted Bag | Blog

Friend of Beads Direct, Angela Buxton shows us how to make a practical and easy bag using our Rectangular Knitting Rings Set. She has decided to use hers to keep her yarns and wool in but a bag can be for a myriad of uses. In the days of a ‘bag for life’ it will last quite some time and be very useful throughout its life. Happy Knitting! <3

Top tip – don’t wind thread too tight or you will struggle getting it over the pegs.

Materials used:

Long pink 50 peg knitting loom from the Long Knitting Ring Set.

200g YarnArt™ Macrame Cord

Knitting pins

Scissors

Steps 1-4 To make this fashionable knitted bag, first draw out the yarn from two balls of wool and lay them together.  For this project the two strands will be used together as one and in these instructions when a loop is mentioned it means the two strands woven together as one. To make winding the yarn around the pegs easier you may find it helps to thread them through the tube of an empty pen then use this to wind the yarn around the pegs.

Step 5 Tie the ends of the yarn to the outside peg in the loom.

Step 6 Start winding the wool around the pegs until you reach the start again.

Steps 7-12 Take the yarn around all of the pegs for a second time and then wind round the end peg to hold. Now use the hook tool to lift the bottom loop on a peg over the top loop. When you have completed this round unwind the yarn from the end peg and start the winding process again. What is being created here is the  top of the bag so continue doing a round of winding followed by a round of moving the bottom loops of yarn over the top until there are several rows knitted, approximately 20 or however deep you want the band around the top of your bag.  When you have sufficient rows knitted untie the yarn from around the end peg and pull through the middle of the loom to the bottom.  To create the band for the top of the bag take the bottom of the knitting by bringing it up through the middle of the loom. Take each stitched loop (remembering that there will be two strands of yarn per loop ) from the first row that was knitted and lift over the peg it was knitted on so that each peg now has two loops again.  Lift the bottom loop over the top loop for each peg which doubles the thickness of the band.

Now to create the body of the bag continue winding yarn and taking over the pegs until your bag is  approximately 30cm or has reached your desired length When you have knitted the required length it’s time to cast off.

To cast off, wrap the yarn around the peg to the left, next to the peg it is currently joined to and pull the bottom loop over top and off as before, now take the loop that is on the peg and move it to the previous peg to the right and pull the bottom loop over and off. Now take the loop that is here and put on the empty peg to the left. Repeat this until all yarn is cast off, pull the yarn through  the last loop and pull tight. Leave a long tail and cut yarn. Use this long tail of yarn to stitch the  bottom of the  bag closed and tie off.

If you want to use the knitting loom to make your handles there is a quick pattern at the end of this tutorial.

To make the handles of the bag with knitting needles:

Use one strand of yarn and a pair of knitting needles cast on 6 stitches and knit using Garter stitch until there are enough rows for a handle. Make another handle. Sew the handles onto the bag securely. Tie off yarn neatly on the inside of the bag and cut.

Your bag is now complete. You can have fun and get creative embellishing it with all kinds of decorations, for example:- knitted or crocheted flowers or hearts, pom poms, tassels, beads. We look forward to seeing your designs.

To make the handles of the bag on the knitting loom: Please note that the pictures shown are using the round knitting loom and only one strand of yarn. The method is exactly the same on the long loom. This is a quick and easy knit pattern for the handles. You can use a rib pattern if you wish.

Using two strands of yarn tie your knot and cast onto 6  pegs by weaving in and out.

Go around the 6^th peg and weave back to the start. Go around the 1^st peg and weave again to the end.

There will be 3 pegs with 2 loops on.

Now take all the bottom loops up and over. Then weave back to the 1^st peg.

Again take all the bottom loops up and over and weave to 6^th peg. Continue this pattern until you have your required handle length and then cast off the same as before on the body of the bag. Repeat for the second handle then sew both securely to the bag.

I hope you enjoyed this loom tutorial. Don’t forget to post your pictures in the beads direct and friend facebook group as we always love to see your crafty makes.

Happy Crafting

Wendy J  x