t shirt yarn bag CUSTOM TO YOU!

so I have been afk for a long time, but as an offering, here is a new pattern! my LYS is doing what they are calling Yarn Adventures, and I get points for (1) making recycled yarn (2) knitting a market bag out of that yarn and (3) writing up a pattern for it! I have only two Tshirts, but they are XL so hopefully that will be enough yarn.

for this bag you need a plethora of tshirts (like I said, i have two but you might need more) and BIG needles (i used 16" circular size 15 (10 mm) needles)

find a T shirt yarn tutorial and make yarn. I will probably also make plarn (plastic bag yarn) for a second bag, but GOODNESS one thing at a time! to attach one ball of yarn to the next, i knotted mine together, but you can glue or sew yours. :)

**A note about working with T shirt yarn - just because it has tons of stretch does NOT mean you should stretch it while you're knitting. make sure to keep your stitches loose enough!!




Handles: make 1 or 2 depending on your preference
** the reason we are making the handles first is so that you are not trying to guess how much yarn you need left over for handles. that way you can knit to the end of your yarn without worries!
CO 26 stitches
R1: knit all stitches
R2: knit all stitches
BO

the reason you knitted two rows instead of one is to have ends at each end of your handles. DO NOT weave these in - you can use them to attach your handles to your bag. (my pictures will show an alternate bag because i didn;t think of this brilliant idea until after I had finished my handle)






Body:we're knitting the body from the top down
CO as many stitches as you need to knit in the round comfortably (I cast on 42 stitches which is going to make a HUGE bag)
join in the round - be careful not to twist! and then KNIT one row
after you knit that first row, you can either continue knitting in the round or do what I did and try a mesh pattern - I did the Faggot stitch which is K2tog, YO for a bunch.

when you get near the end, knit solid for a couple rows, then BO using a kitchener stitch to make the bottom of the bag. if that is not something you wanna do, you can BO and then seam the bottom

add the handles! that's it! you're done!

my two XL shirts made a nice produce bag, and you can add more shirts and cast more on your needles for a bigger bag :)