Knitting BagsAmish Wicker Knitting & Crochet Project Totes

An Amish knitting bag is a handwoven wicker tote built to work from. It stands open on its own, the yarn feeds up out of it without tangling, and it carries a project from the chair to the car to knit night. Ours are woven from rattan reed over a solid hardwood bottom by the Yoder family, Old Order Amish weavers on the Iowa-Missouri border, with hand-cut steerhide leather handles, and each one is signed by the weaver who made it.

Three bags and one strap make up the family: the Knitting Bag, soft-sided, 12 x 9 x 10 inches, with four yarn grommets built into its leather handle; the Knitting Project Bag, the larger open tote at 17 x 7 1/2 x 12 inches that holds a whole sweater project; the Wicker Bag, the same size and build styled as an everyday carryall; and the Yarn Buddy, a 12 inch leather strap with four grommets that snaps onto any handle and feeds up to four skeins without tangles. A hand-sewn cloth liner made for the bags is offered as an option.

The lidded baskets with yarn feed holes, the Knitting Basket, the Homestead and the Yarn Barn, are on the knitting baskets page. If the yarn stays home beside one chair, start there. If it travels, start here.

The right bag depends on how far the project travels and how many skeins go with it. Here is each one, with its measurements from its own page.

The Knitting Bag: soft sides, four yarn grommets in the handle

The Knitting Bag is the travel bag. Soft wicker sides over a solid hardwood bottom, 12 x 9 x 10 inches, so it tucks under your arm and still stands open when you set it down. Four grommets are built into the genuine leather handle: feed a working strand through each and you knit or crochet straight from the bag, from several skeins at once. It takes a hand-sewn liner, the Yarn Buddy and protective feet as options; it cannot take an engraved brass plate. It carries 92 reviews, every one of them five stars, and a quarter of them describe a gift.

The Knitting Project Bag: the open tote that stands up

The Knitting Project Bag is the larger of the two, 17 x 7 1/2 x 12 inches tall, with firm woven sides that hold it open beside your chair. There are no holes and no lid; the open top is the working design, and the yarn feeds up out of it. Marlene called it "large enough to fit a complete sweater project, yet not so large as to be unwieldy." It takes a washable cloth liner, the Yarn Buddy strap, an engraved brass plate and protective feet as options.

The Wicker Bag: the same bag as an everyday carryall

The Wicker Bag shares the Project Bag's size and build, 17 x 7 1/2 x 12 inches with steerhide handles and a one-piece solid wood bottom, and it is styled for market days, library books and the beach. Knitters buy it when the bag will do other jobs between projects; one customer wrote that "it has room for all my stuff next to my recliner." A washable liner with bonnet ties and protective feet are optional.

The Yarn Buddy: four skeins, no tangles, on any bag

The Yarn Buddy is a 12 inch strap of USA steerhide harness leather with four grommets and a snap. Snap it onto the handle of any bag or basket, inside or outside, thread up to four strands through, and the yarn feeds while you work. It is offered as an option on the Project Bag, the Wicker Bag and the Vintage Yarn Caddy pages, and on its own page.

How the yarn feeds without tangling

A skein sits in the bottom of the bag and the working strand goes up through a grommet, in the Knitting Bag's handle or on the Yarn Buddy strap. The grommet holds the strand at one point, so the skein turns in place instead of rolling across the floor, and two or three colors feed side by side without crossing. As Veronica, who crochets, wrote of the Knitting Bag, "My yarns don't get tangled and I can move from one color to the next without skipping a beat." The Project Bag and the Wicker Bag have no grommets of their own; the open top lets the yarn feed freely, and the Yarn Buddy adds the grommets when you want them.

Built to last for life

The bottom of every bag is solid hardwood, so it sits flat and stands upright when it is full. The handles are hand cut, hand rolled and riveted from US steerhide. The walls are rattan reed woven by hand and finished with a hand-applied stain. Every bag carries the lifetime guarantee: if it ever fails in normal use, the family who wove it repairs it free. Any bag can come back for a full refund, no questions asked; you pay only the return shipping.

A gift for a knitter who travels

The Knitting Basket is the most-gifted piece in the store, and the bags follow the same pattern: Bevaline found the Knitting Bag "marvelously made" and "such a wonderful gift for my grand daughter," and Kathryn chose it for a friend who crochets because "the tote is sturdy and beautifully crafted." Add a gift message at checkout and no invoice goes in the box; the bag arrives with the family's letter and the weaver's signature. The Project Bag takes an engraved solid brass plate, two lines of up to 22 characters. Buying ahead for a birthday or Christmas, choose the "Schedule a Later Delivery Date" calendar at checkout. Free delivery takes about 3 to 5 weekdays; rush delivery, 2 to 4 weekdays, is $8.95. More ideas are in our Amish Gift Guide and our note on gifts for knitters.

Trims and liners

Each bag comes in three trims: Plain, the natural reed; Wine & Blue; and Wine & Green, a pine green. The color is woven in as dyed reed, not painted on, and the trims match our knitting baskets, so a bag and a basket bought together pair up. The liners are sewn by the Amish women from pre-shrunk cotton broadcloth, the same cloth they use for their own clothing, in Cream, Wine, Blue or Green; they tie in with bonnet ties, wash by machine, and carry the signature of the woman who sewed them. A liner can be added later from its own page. The families weave one bag at a time, so a trim can sell out for a few weeks; the notify-me button on each page emails you the day the first one is finished.