I recently finished knitting my second Briochevron Blanket as the ultimate stash-busting project, but I ended up not using up all of my stash. I felt like some of the colors weren’t a good fit for the blanket, so I saved them for another project which ended up being this Scrapbuster Satchel!
My copy of this pattern was free during the Earth Day promotion. The Scrapbuster Satchel by Catherine Salter Bayar uses a worsted yarn to knit a large bag. The construction starts with beautiful flower motifs and diamond-shaped patches that are joined together. I really liked the size of this bag and the striped diamond sections. My goal was to hopefully use up all of my left over stash yarn.
YARN + NEEDLES
Since I only had a few small balls of yarn remaining from my Briochevron Blanket 2, I also used yarn that I had dyed last year. I have quite a bit of self-dyed yarn, but I never considered it as part of my stash because it wasn’t “professional” enough to knit with in a serious project.
I dyed my own yarn for fun and I thought it looked pretty, but I didn’t really have a plan for them. This Scrapbuster Satchel was the perfect project for me to finally use up all of my purchased yarn, and start integrating some of my self-dyed yarns as well.
This pattern calls for worsted weight yarn on US 8, 6, and 2 needles. My stash yarn is mostly fingering weight yarn so throughout my Scrapbuster Satchel, I held three strands of fingering together. I knit this bag with my Chiaogoo interchangeable needles using 22″, 30″, and 50″ cables.
SCRAPBUSTER SATCHEL
I was excited to get started with this pattern so I finally could use all my left over yarns. And also because the Scrapbuster Satchel has some stitch patterns I’d never tried before, and a unique construction.
Construction
The Scrapbuster Satchel is created by knitting multiple diamond shapes, joining them together and then working the straps and base. I knit the Honey Clutch, but I hadn’t ever knit a large bag so I was excited for the finished project.
Flower Pattern
I’d never seen this flower stitch before and the instructions in the pattern seemed a little confusing. I found this video that shows the flower-wrapping/gathering technique really clearly. Once I saw a visual of the stitch, the pattern’s directions made sense.
Working the wrapped stitches reminded me of knitting the Shawlography MKAL. On my first pass, I had wrapped the yarn a little too tightly and it was difficult to unwrap and purl on the RS.
Once I understood the process, I was a little looser on the wraps which helped make the unwrapping and purls easier.
Half Linen Stitch + CDD
The half linen stitch was new to me also, but pretty easy to follow since I was familiar with other slipped-stitch patterns (like in the Rainbow Mashup sweater I made for my niece).
I had a bit of a difficult time understanding the Center Double Decrease (CDD) at first. The pattern directions were clear, but I wasn’t sure the pattern was correct on where to begin the decrease. I put a stitch marker on the center stitch as recommended, but the pattern stated to start the CDD 2 stitches before which didn’t seem to work.
I found this video which shows the CDD stitch and made it super easy to understand what to do. From there, the pattern was really easy to knit and a lot of fun.
COLOR CHANGES
I swapped out colors whenever I wanted a change. My only goal was to use up the yarn I had in my stash, but I really liked the striping in the original project so I tried to emulate that.
Because I was holding three yarns together, this Scrapbuster Satchel seemed to use up a lot of yarn quickly. My gauge was a little off from the pattern, making the bag a little larger. I was happy with that because I love a big bag and it would use up more yarn!
JOINING DIAMONDS
Once I’d knit all my lower diamonds, I was excited to join them together and to see everything come together.
I picked up and knit stitches along the length of two of the lower diamonds to join them. I found it helpful to follow the horizontal line from the linen stitch to the edge to guide where to pick up stitches. This helped me pick up the correct number of stitches and keep the correct spacing.
Working the flower motif in these larger diamonds was fun. As the fabric grew larger, I was happy to connect the diamonds and finalize the body of the bag.
STRAPS
Flower Motif + I-cord
I started working the beginning of the straps, working the last sections of flower motif and joining an i-cord loop. I was a little confused where the construction was headed at this point, but I just followed the pattern.
Once the flowers were complete, I switched to US 2 needles and worked my first 4-stitch i-cord. All the i-cords I’ve knit in the past have been over three stitches. Swapping needles is easy with interchangeable needles, but it was difficult using such small needles with three strands of yarn.
Joining in the Round
The pattern specifically calls out to pick up all stitches along the top of the bag, but to not work them right away. I’m not sure the purpose of picking up the stitches but waiting to knit them — especially when the first row is a knit row. So, I chose to P/U+K (pick up and knit) the stitches all at once just as I did when joining the diamonds together.
I used my US 2 needles and a large 50″ cable so I could join easily in the round. The P/U+K method seemed to work for me. Picking up and knitting along the i-cord was tedious though, especially with my small needles and three strands of fingering.
As I worked the first round for my straps, there were gaps between the flower motif and my i-cord because of where I picked up stitches. To close the gaps, I crossed the two stitches on either side of the gap and knit as normal — kind of like joining in the round.
During this section, and as I bound off my stitches, I struggled a little bit because my needles kept unscrewing. I think it was because my needles were so small for the three strands of yarn I was working with. It was annoying to have to keep re-securing/twisting my needles every few stitches. Once the straps were complete, I could see how everything was working together.
CREATING THE BASE
I procrastinated a bit before starting the base because I didn’t want to pick up stitches. I like picking up stitches when there is a clear selvage edge, but not when the edge stitch isn’t clear. To start the base, you pick up stitches along the bottom flower motif. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be once I got started.
I started out this section using my US 6 chiaogoo shorties on a 30″ cable. By the end, I switched out to a 22″ cable because of the decreases.
Placing Stitch Markers + CDD
The pattern has you place stitch markers at the bottom points of each diamond, and where two diamonds meet. This became a little tricky later on when I did a CDD at these points because one stitch marker was on a middle/center stitch, but the other marker was between two stitches. I just did the best I could to be consistent as I did the CDD repeats.
Welts
I thought the base section would actually be welts like the kind I knit in my Penguono, but they were actually knit/purl ridges. I tried to change up the colors for each repeat, but I focused more on using yarn that had a thicker ply since I wanted the base to be more sturdy.
Binding Off
The pattern lists a few options for seaming up the bag at the end of the repeats. I chose to do a three-needle bind off since that worked really well for me in my Marled Magic Sweater. It’s easy since you are working with live stitches and it creates a clean bind off.
Once I was all done, I trimmed the ends from inside. I weave in the ends as I go, so I only had to snip the extra to clean it up.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
The Scrapbuster Satchel is such a fun project. I used up all of my left over yarns and a ton of my own hand-dyed yarn!
Knitting the smaller shapes in the beginning was new for me and felt really fast. Joining everything together really built up the momentum. I enjoyed working with all my different yarns and striping colors to get some unique combinations.
This bag is huge, and it stretches. The handles feel strong though because of the I-cord foundation. The base also has a nice structure, but with a little more give. My gauge was a little larger than the pattern so it’s bigger than the listed schematic. It’s the perfect size to grab and go to the farmer’s market or grocery store. I plan on using it as a project bag for future knitting projects.
Check out my Ravelry page for more pictures of my Scrapbuster Satchel, and a look at my other completed projects.
