it’s peanut butter yelley time. . .

So here is a pattern for a bag inspired by a level of Ninjatown, the brilliant tower defense game for the Nintendo DS. Somehow four paths swarming with Mr. Demon’s minions converging in the center of the screen ended up as a modular knitted bag pattern. It’s not very complicated, but I think it’s clever. Maybe. A little.

Windmill Bag

Yarn: Sugar and Cream or other worsted weight cotton yarn. I used three colors, less than one ball of each, but color choice is up to you.
Sticks: US 6 straights and DPNs, or you can do the whole thing on DPNs if you like.
Notions: Split ring stitch marker, tapestry needle or crochet hook for seaming.
Gauge: Not really critical, knit at a gauge you feel is comfortable for you.
Finished Size: My tape measure is lost, but the finished product will depend on your gauge and number of cast on stitches, so measuring mine wouldn’t mean much anyway. Edit 7/3/09 – I’ve been getting some questions about the finished size of the bag from some people on Ravelry, so here is a bit more info excerpted from one of responses:

Well for the windmill bag the size will depend on your gauge and number of stitches that you cast on. For mine, I cast on 20 stitches and was knitting at about 4.5 stitches per inch. The base of the bag will be a square about as wide as two panels, so mine was about 9 inches across on the bottom. As for the height of the bag, that will depend on your row gauge. When the sides are sewn together, it takes up the same number of inches off the length of the bag as the width of each panel. So if you knit 100 rows for each panel and get 6 rows per inch, each panel will be about 16.5 inches long, but when you sew up the sides you will lose 4.5 inches of that (the same width as each panel), so the bag will be about 12 inches deep. You can make a larger bag by increasing the cast on stitches and increasing the number of rows knit proportionately – 20co/100rows > 30co/150rows > 40co/200rows, etcetera. Of course even at the smallest size the bag will stretch a lot with use if you use a cotton yarn like sugar and cream.

Skills Required: Garter stitch, I-cord bind off, I-cord, and seaming. Too lazy to type up tutorials for I-cord bind off, if you don’t know how, Google does! ^_^

Panel 1
With color 1, cast on desired number of stitches. For mine, I cast on 20. at a standard worsted gauge of about 5 stitches per inch. I would say that 20 is the minimum for a decent sized bag at that gauge.

Knit in garter stitch for 100 rows (50 garter ‘ridges’) or until desired length. Knitting longer will give you a deeper (and maybe more ridiculous looking) bag. At the beginning of each row, slip the first stitch purlwise with the yarn in front as if to purl, then move the yarn back through the needles and knit to the end of the row. This will leave a neat braided-look edge that will make picking up stitches and seaming very easy. After a few rows, mark one side as the right side of your work.

When desired length is reached and a wrong side row has just been completed, start the next row by casting on 3 stitches using the cable cast on and make a 3 stitch I-cord bind off. Continue until you have three stitches left, then work regular I-cord until the I-cord is the same length as the rectangular panel. Bind off the I-cord however you like.

Panel 2
With the right side facing and the I-cord off to the left, using color 2 pick up and knit 20 (or whatever number you cast on for panel 1) stitches along the lower right edge of panel 1.

Continue to knit panel 2 exactly like panel 1.

Panel 3
Knit just like panel 2, except pick up stitches along the lower right edge of panel 2.
Make sure to always pick up your stitches with the right side of the work facing you and the I-cord of the previous panel off to the left.

Panel 4
Again, knit just like panel 2, picking up the stitches from the lower right edge of panel 3. I used only 3 colors for my bag, so my fourth panel used all three of them together. To do this, pick up stitches with color 1, join and knit one row color 2, join and knit one row color 3, then alternate colors each row without breaking the yarn, continuing to slip the first stitch of each row to maintain the braided edge.
When you finish panel 4, seam the cast on edge of panel 1 to the side of panel 4.

See why I named it the windmill bag now? ^_^

Seaming
Check out my awesome not-MS-paint-because-I-use-a-Mac picture to see how to seam up the sides.

Sew the red sides together, the green sides together, etc. Weave in all the ends. Tie two of the I-cords together in a double knot to make one handle, tie the other two I-cords together for the other. Yaaaaay you made a bag. Fill it with fun things!