Finally lined this. I spent all of the winter holidays knitting this from a pattern in Stitch ‘n’ Bitch, although I skipped the intarsia as I wasn’t sure what design I wanted to use, and didn’t take any wool other than the red with me anyway. I plan to embroider a design on it eventually, but to all intents and purposes it is one completed rucksack!

See the way the white makes the zip look like a mouth? So far I have 2 votes to add eyes and turn this into an odd little rucksack creature… I’m not entirely sure,  it might be a little creepy.

Turns out I’m not very good at following patterns particularly well. I miscounted some of the measurements and ended up having to do some  grafting on the gussett and some creative sewing in one corner to get all the pieces to work together. I also sewed the body together before knitting the straps… which are supposed to be sewn into the seams. Oops. Turned out alright though, I grafted them on instead so now they grow out of the back 🙂

And here it is with my current, slightly more adventurous, project peeking out. A stripey hoodie. Pattern also from Stitch ‘n’ Bitch, wool is a silky brand called Debbie, and my choice of colours are red, orange and purple. They looked so yummy together! Despite being in the sale, they still cost a whole pile of money, (Thank you, Dad and S. Birthday/xmas present has already given me hours of joy!) but its so nice to work with, and I’m hoping the cost will encourage me to actually finish it sooner rather than later. I’m using bamboo knitting needles, which are so much more pleasant than metal or plastic, I think I’ll have to amas a collection of them… The black and psychedelic patterned box in there is a pencil-box in which I keep all my little knitting things, like tape-measure, stitch counters, tapestry needle, etc. It makes me smile when I look at it because the patterns so funky!

The hoodie so far… wish me luck!
This is the back piece, the purple stripe will be about 4 inches wide, with another inch wide orange stripe and then more red… with, hopefully, a red hood and pocket and purple sleeves (probably with an orange stripe or two as I’m not sure I bought quite enough purple :P)