I used about 1 8-oz skein of Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool (might have been a bit more, I'm not sure), died with Grape (dark and medium purple), Strawberry (red), Orange (well...orange), and Tropical Punch (blue). Apparently there is a difference between some Canadian and American colours. I live in Canada, so I used Canadian Kool-Aid.

Knit in the round on 6 mm needles.

Gauge before felting - 16 sts, 24 rows to 4" square
Gauge after felting - 17 sts, 29 rows to 4" square

Cast on 4 sts
Divide among 3 (or 4) DPNs. Join and work in the round.
On first round, increase one stitch in each of the first 3 sts, knit the last st (7 sts).
Knit one round.
Increase 1 st in each st (14 sts). Knit one round.
(k1, inc1) around (21 sts). Knit around.
(k2, inc1) around (28 sts). Knit around.
Continue increasing 7 sts every second round, up to 119 sts. Switch to a circular needle whenever you need to.

Continue on 119 sts, knitting every round, for about 100 rounds. Work stripes as desired.
My stripes are as follows (from bottom up):
Bottom plus 10 more rounds in dark purple
5 rounds blue
2 rounds dark purple
6 rounds orange
15 rounds red
3 rounds medium purple
6 rounds orange
4 rounds dark purple
8 rounds blue
7 rounds red
4 rounds orange
7 rounds medium purple
9 rounds orange
13 rounds medium purple

When bag has reached the desired length, knit 15, cast off 30, knit 30, cast off 29, knit 15. You should have 2 groups of 30 stitches.

Work each strap separately in stocking stitch, working back and forth., as follows. (I switched to orange at this point - after casting off.)
Dec 1 st at each end of first five rows (20 sts)
Dec 1 st at each end of next 3 alt rows (14 sts)
Dec 1 st at each end of 4th subsequent row (12 sts)

12 sts remain for each strap. Place one set of strap sts on a holder. Work even in stocking st on the other strap until desired length.
Using 3-needle bind-off, with straps ends right sides together, join strap ends and bind off all sts.

Felt bag as desired. I felted both my swatch and bag in the washing machine. A hot water wash (about 15 minutes) with my regular laundry load, then dried them in the dryer. The colour did fade slightly.

This pattern is free for individual use, not to be distributed without permission.

This is my first time writing up a pattern, so please tell me what you think.

Questions?

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