'The Darkside' Bag Creation Part 1 - The Vision

I don’t know how everyone else works, but my creative process starts pretty slow. I mull things around in my brain for a while, then procrastinate, then do some minor prep work, then procrastinate some more… and then finally start making. There’s usually a nervous stage (is this going to turn out how I want it to?), followed by a just give’r stage (oh just do it, it won’t turn out that bad). As I gain more experience, there is more success in achieving the vision versus surprise at the outcome… but those surprises still happen.

The Darkside bag started with a vision for fabric. I had a bunch of Jacob fleece, which has naturally coloured black and white sections. Jacob is a bit more coarse than a lot of other wool, so textiles for bags is a perfect fit. I had seen someone spin & knit a black to white gradient from Jacob wool (the Yarn Harlot I think?), and knew I wanted to do a gradient too. For a hard wearing textile, a woven fabric is best. Since woven fabric has less stretch and can be more full (fewer gaps between strands) than knitted fabric, I decided to do a woven gamp design.

So, I knew how I wanted the fabric to look… now to find a bag pattern to show it off.

Example of gamp pattern in weaving, transitioning from black, through blues and greens, to yellow. Pure black and pure yellow are on opposite corners.

After some procrastinating and searching, the Triple Zip by Sew Da Kine made the grade.

Then… more procrastinating… and then calculations!! My most favourite part about every project (not really, but I don’t hate math, what with being an engineer hah) .

White & black Jacob wool beside my scribbly notebook. If you can decipher it, the calculations show how much yarn is needed to make the fabric required for the Triple Zip bag.

The calculations drive me bananas, since the yarn ends up stretching a lot on the loom and there’s always a lot left over. Better to have too much yarn than too little, but the danger of running out really isn’t very exhilarating when you can always make more!

Now that the vision is fully formulated, on to the making. See ‘The Darkside’ Bag Creation Part 2!