My Thoughts on the Punk Rock Backpack

I’ve finished knitting the pieces for my second punk rock backpack. While I seam, and seam, and block and sew the lining, and sew in the zipper and seam some more I thought I would share my thoughts on this pattern. First, I really like the result. That’s my first thought. I like the result. It’s cute and playful and useful at the same time. I always carry a purse or a bag and most of the purses or bags that I have owned in my lifetime have been ugly. Just, ugly. So this project is fantastic for me because I really like the end product and I believe that I will use it often.

My next thought is in the same vein, but slightly different. While I think that the pattern results in a really cute bag, I also think that it’s a little small. I haven’t actually finished mine yet, and I didn’t get to try out the one that I gifted to my sister, but I think that it will prove to be a tad on the small side. The good news is that I might actually clean out my purse more often.

As far as the actual pattern goes my main thought at the moment is: no pain, no gain. Seriously. First, you have intarsia, which is a bit of a nightmare for me. I’m one of those people that likes things to be neat and orderly when I’m knitting. I want to sit just so and I want the yarn to sit next to me or on me just so and I want the yarn to pull from the ball or skein just so and on and on. I want to be comfortable when I knit and intarsia makes me supremely uncomfortable. It’s all the ends hanging off the back of my work and the tangling of the individual balls and the calculating of how much yarn should be in each ball. Not too much (wasteful) and not too little (have to cut another length of yarn.) But mostly, I have to be honest here, it’s the tangling. Oh! The Tangling! It makes me want to scream (and yes I may be wound too tightly these days.) Then, once you’re done with the intarsia there is nothing but endless miles of stockinette: a stockinette back, a stockinette gusset, and stockinette straps. Need I say more?

Why yes, I do, because once you’ve finished the endless miles of stockinette you have the seaming. First you have to seam up the straps (or strap in my case.) Yards of strappiness must be seamed, neatly. Then you actually have to construct the bag itself. Let me put it this way: if you hate seaming, do not choose this project.

All that aside, I do like the bag. And all this bitching may simply be the result of my general bitchiness, or to put it more accurately: I feel like my heart is being squeezed in a vice and this is making me a tad uptight at the moment. If it weren’t for that I would probably enjoy the stockinette more.

Maybe I should just give in and drink the Kool-Aid?