I’ve been curious to try the Fringe Supply/Grainline collaboration pattern of the Stowe Bag for quite a while. But my inner Midwestern farmwife kept talking me out of it, saying, “Eighteen dollars for a bag pattern? That’s only four pieces? You can figure something out that’s close.”
However, I hate engineering bags, and the Stowe bag looked like it had really good pockets, and I was tired of all my knitting stuff rattling around in one big sack….but I waited. (The inner farmwife is strong.)
Then, after the Nazi march in Charleston Charlottesville* the owner of Fringe Supply announced that she’d be donating all of that day’s profits–up to $15,000–to the Southern Poverty Law Center. I bought her pattern. And now I have a good project bag.
Turns out it’s worth the $18: the engineering is really clever and the pockets are just right to hold folded instructions, extra needles, measuring tape, and stitch markers. The flat bottom makes such a difference in seeing what’s in there, too.
I used a cheap-o Premier Prints canvas (from Amazon) that I didn’t check the scale of–I wanted something graphic and mod but when it came, I realized that if I centered the crosses, I’d look like a member of the Goth Red Cross.
So you lose some of the pattern due to the size of the bag, but it was only $9 for a yard. (My inner farmwife didn’t let me order the Japanese linen canvas I really wanted. Maybe I need two bags?)
*Shoulda had more coffee this morning