Valley Yarns Thornes Market Bag Knitting Pattern

Valley Yarns Thornes Market Bag

What is Being Made

The Thornes Market Bag is a spacious knitted tote designed for serious shoppers. This cavernous bag measures approximately 18" x 14" x 7" after felting and provides ample storage space. The design features a main bag body paired with two sturdy handles, creating a practical carryall that combines functionality with visual appeal through colorwork techniques.

Knitting Techniques Used

This market bag employs mosaic knitting, a colorwork technique that creates intricate patterns while remaining surprisingly straightforward to execute. The magic of mosaic knitting allows you to work with only one color per row, making the process much easier than the finished appearance suggests. The bag and straps are knitted separately and then felted individually before being sewn together, which simplifies construction and allows for better control over the felting process.

Felting is a key finishing technique used to transform the knitted fabric into a durable, structured tote. The pattern recommends hand felting in a bathtub rather than machine felting, as this method can produce superior results and take less time. Hand felting involves repeated exposure to alternating hot and cold water combined with agitation and soap, which causes the wool fibers to bond and shrink, creating a dense, finished fabric.

Stitches Used

• Garter stitch forms the foundation of both the bag body and the straps, providing a textured, reversible fabric that works beautifully with the mosaic colorwork
• Slip stitch (abbreviated as S) is employed as part of the mosaic knitting technique to create the color pattern effects

Materials

This pattern calls for Valley Yarns Northampton, a 100% wool yarn available in 240-yard skeins. The colorway uses 2 skeins of Color A (Lt Green Heather) and 3 skeins of Color B (Dk Green Heather), totaling 5 skeins. Knitting is worked on #8 needles. The gauge before felting is approximately 4 stitches to 1 inch in garter stitch; however, the finished dimensions after felting will be smaller due to the shrinkage that occurs during the felting process.

Construction Details

The bag body is created by casting on 80 stitches with Color B and knitting 64 rows in garter stitch before binding off. The two straps are each made by casting on 100 stitches and knitting 8 rows in garter stitch (or more if wider straps are desired) before binding off. After felting both pieces separately, the side seam is sewn up, the bottom of the bag is firmly attached to the base with corners aligned, and all loose ends are woven in. The felted straps are then sewn to the bag body to complete the tote.