Zigazig KAL: Week 2

It’s all about the bling but you’ve gotta start with the basics. If you’re knitting your Zigazig Shopper from scratch, the power is in your hands. We show you how to make it your way.

You’re in the driving seat so you can go wherever you like with this bag! Here are three ideas to get you started.

You spin me right round, baby

Our Zigazig Shopper pattern is written to be knitted as one flat piece and seamed at the sides, however if you wanna switch it up and have some circular needles to hand you can knit the shopper in the round and then seam it at the bottom.

You can use the standard pattern as your basis, but you’ll want to cast on double the number of stitches as you’ll be knitting the front and back of the bag in one seamless transaction.

We recommend that you start at the bottom of the bag, knitting up towards the handles – it’ll depend on your tension but you’re looking at knitting around 38-40 rounds.

You’ll need to make sure your handles are centred on each side of the bag so plan ahead. Count your stitches to ensure you’re placing them correctly then cast off/cast back using the techniques described in steps 3 and 4 of the Zigazig Shopper pattern.

Cast off when you reach the top of your bag, then seam the bottom of the bag using the horizontal invisible seam technique.

 

Keep it trim

If you have a little leftover Jersey Be Good in your stash (or any other chunky yarn!), why not add a contrast trim to your bag? If you’re knitting your bag on using the standard Zigazig Shopper pattern, you’ll need to use your contrast colour for both your cast on and cast off. If you’re using the circular hack above, you’ll just cast off in your contrast colour.

 

Show your stripes

If you have more than one colour of Jersey Be Good to hand, you could create a stripy fella.

If you’re knitting on straight needles, following the standard Zigazig pattern, check out our video for a whole host of tips and tricks:

You may also want to try this circular needle trick for creating a single row stripe pattern:

If you’re knitting in the round, you’ll want to use the jogless stripe technique to create nice clean stripes. Because you’re going to be knitting in a spiral fashion, your first stitch of a round is not going to meet the last stitch of the round, and when you’re knitting stripes this creates a tell-tale jump at each end of your stripe.

Here’s ONE way you can create a jogless stripe as suggested by the folk over at Craftsy – have a good Google as there are lots of other techniques that could work for you.

Knit one round with your new colour as normal. Now here’s the trick. Before starting the next round, use the right needle to lift the stitch below the first stitch of the left needle up on to the left needle. Knit these two stitches together.

 

WHAT’S A KNITALONG?

It’s simple – it’s a group of people getting together to knit a project, to share their experiences, and to help each other along the way. Sounds great, right? As our Gang are spread across the globe, we’ll be coming together online. You can join in on FacebookInstagramTwitter and Ravelry - our hashtag is #knitwiththegang.

 

 

4 Comments

  1. If you want to try it in the round what size/length circulars do you recommend?

    • Ideally, you always want to use a circular needle that’s a little shorter than the circumference of the piece you’re working on – the Zigazig measures approx 80cm all around. But if your circular needle is longer, you can use the travelling loop or magic loop techniques.

  2. Do you mean that the overall measurement of the bag is 40cm front and back (ie 20cm each side)?
    It sounds rather small compared to the picture….

Submit a comment