Knit Tote Bag

This bag would be fun to use to carry your knitting projects around. I know I always like to have my knitting projects with me because every line that I stand in, and every waiting room I’m in, I bust it out and start working on it.

The bag is knit on circular needles and finished with DP needles.
 4 balls of TRIO, 2 balls each in 2 colors
 shown in colors (A)9090-kiwi/white & (B)2856-circus/celery

Size 11 circular 26" CPY Bamboo Needles; 8" DP size 11 needles

With 26" circulars, cast on 79 sts loosely with color A and join to form circle being careful not to twist sts when joining.
Note: A cable cast on is suggested since you will be adding I-cord to this bag edge later. (See here if you don't know how to do a cable cast on.)

Begin Bag (knitting from top down):

Work in Seed St (k1, p1 for round, then p the k's and k the p's next round, keep reversing sts each round.)
Knit to finish ball of color A.

Tip: Make the I-cord handles and top edging on the bag using color B before knitting color B in center band of the body of the bag so that you can use up the rest of Color B in the body of the bag. See below for I-cord instructions.

Back to body of the bag: Change to color B and continue in Seed St on 79 sts. Use up the rest of Color B from which you made the I-cord handles and trim in the body of the bag.

Change back to Color A. Knit 1/3 of the height of the first band you knit in Color A and begin decreasing.

Dec round 1 by working in Seed St for 5 sts, k2 tog - repeat 9 times, 70 sts [Note: some of the dec will disrupt the seed st, you will have some k or p sts next to each other - this is OK.] Work another round.

[Change to DP needles when the circumference gets too small for circular needles.]

Dec round 2 by working Seed St for 5 sts, k2tog - repeat 10 times, 60 sts. Work an additional round.

Dec round 3 by working Seed St for 4 sts, k2 tog - repeat 10 times, 50 sts. Work an additional round.

Dec round 4 by working Seed St for 3 sts, k2 tog -10 times, 40 sts. Work an additional round.

Continue in Seed St working 2 sts, k2 tog until down to 10-12 sts, now repeat k2tog until you can bind off last sts.

I-Cord Handles and Trim

If you need it: Here's a How-To for I-cord and here is an animated how-to

With Color B make two 4-st I-cord pieces each 14" long (or desired length) using the DP needles.

With Color B make a 3-st I-cord trim for the bag. I did this by casting on 3sts and then picking up 1 st at a time from the outer edge of the cast on edge of the bag. Knit the first 2 sts of the I-cord tog (that is 1 st from the bag edge and 1 st from the I-cord needle). Slide 3 sts to opposite end of DP needle and repeat, again picking up the next edge st and k2tog for next I-cord row, continue all around the bag's edge. Stitch the finished end to the beginning end of the I-cord. Use a sturdy cotton thread to sew.

Sew the I-cord handles using sturdy cotton thread.