Masa Bag

2 balls of yarn, 1 crochet hook and a good podcast…

Masa Tote, pattern & photography: Lisa Risager

I used 2 balls of Katía Jamaica in a yellow/green/red/brown blend and a 3mm hook.

Work 48 chain stitches, turn and work in slip stitches or double crochet – whatever you prefer – untill you have rectangle 20 cm wide and 53 cm long. Or thereabouts.

The fun part is the folding, inspired by Japanese furoshiki and bukuro. I’ll sketch some instructions for you. I just have to remind myself how I actually did it…

Stitch the bag together, and make a narrow strap (8 chains wide) and attach it to the top corners.

If you like you can leave your bag flat, or you can turn it inside out and fold the bottom corners to form a flat bottom and fasten the flaps with a few strong stitches.

You don’t have to crochet this – you could also use a felted, knitted rectangle or a length of fabric.

Make it small and use it as an evening purse or make it huge and use it for shopping.

The name Masa Bag is inspired by a Canarian/Japanese sushi place in Las Palmas I visited just after buying the yarn. My bag is Spanish-Japanese just like Hideo the sushi cook!

Instructions on how to fold the Masa Bag:

Instructions for folding the Masa Bag

Shades of Purple – pattern part II

Shades of Purple shawl

If you’ve knit the first little triangle you can now start shadow knitting:

Swith to another colour but do not break the yarn, you do not want to end up with a lot of loose ends, do you?

Using contrast colour (CC) knit the first stripe:
1. row: Make 1 stitch (M1) by knitting into front and back of the first stitch, K14, M1, K1 (center stitch), M1, K14, M1
2. row: P16, P1 (center stitch), K16

Using main colour (MC) knit the second stripe:
3. row: M1, K14, M1, K1, M1, K14, M1
4. row: K18, P1, P18

Continue knitting the shawl by repeating these 4 rows:

  • 1. CC: M1, knit until 1 stitch before center stitch, M1, K1 (center stitch), M1, knit until 1 stitch left, M1
  • 2. CC: Purl until center stitch, P1 (center stitch), knit rest of the row
  • 3: MC: M1, knit until 1 stitch before center stitch, M1, K1 (center stitch), M1, knit until 1 stitch left, M1
  • 4: MC: Knit until center stitch, P1 (center stitch), purl rest of the row

If you like you can experiment with ilusions.

And now I’ll let you knit until your shawl is big enough. Then you might want to add a border – watch this space for some ideas!