Beach bag pattern: knit a summer bag

Knitted in cool cotton yarn, our knit beach bag is guaranteed to keep you looking and feeling fresh this summer. There’s room for all your essentials, while the zingy colours will get you noticed as you hit the beach or pool. And when you’re not lounging by the water’s edge, it also doubles up as a perfect knit tote bag pattern for market days.

If you haven't tried lace knitting before, this knit beach bag is a great place to start. The simple mesh pattern is worked over four rows, so it's easy to master and to memorise.

We suggest using metal knitting needles for lace, as they're more slippery than wood or plastic, so your stitches glide along smoothly, plus they tend to have nice sharp tips – making it easier to work all those decrease stitches!

Our knit bag pattern was designed by Sarah Murray and first appeared in Simply Knitting issue 136. You can find the full pattern below, or skip to the bottom of the page for a free downloadable PDF.

Choose your own colour sequence for this stripy bag and create a piece that’s unique!

Knit bag pattern materials

• Cascade, Ultra Pima (100% Pima cotton, 100g/200m), 1 skein of each: Yarn A Sprout (3740), Yarn B Chartreuse (3746), Yarn C Buttercup (3748)
  • For yarn stockists contact LoveCrafts.com
• A pair of 3¼mm needles

Knit beach bag pattern

Knit beach bag tension

Yarn used knits as DK to this tension: 21 sts and 28 rows to measure 10x10cm (4x4in) over st st using 3¼mm needles. For more on tension and why it is important, see our article on knitting tension squares

Knit beach bag measurements

The finished beach bag measures 34x34cm.

Knit beach bag front & back

Make 2 the same.

Abbreviations for this pattern can be found on our knitting abbreviations page.

Cast on 72 sts using 3¼mm needles and Yarn A.

**Next row Knit.

Next row Purl.

Row 1 K1, *K1, yfwd, k2tog; rep from * to last 2 sts, K2.

Row 2 P1, *P2, K1; rep from * to last 2 sts, P2.

Row 3 K1, *K1, k2tog, yfwd; rep from * to last 2 sts, K2.

Row 4 P2, *K1, P2; rep from * to last st, P1.

Rows 1–4 form patt. Rep rows 1–4 three times more, then rows 1 & 2 once more.

Next row Knit.

Next row Purl.**

With Yarn C, knit 2 rows.

With Yarn B, work from ** to **.

With Yarn A, knit 2 rows.

With Yarn C, work from ** to **.

With Yarn A, knit 2 rows.

With Yarn B, work from ** to **.

With Yarn C, knit 2 rows.

With Yarn A, work from ** to **.

Knit 3 rows.

Cast off knitwise.

Knit beach bag handles

Make 2.

Cast on 135 sts using 3¼mm needles and Yarn A.

Knit 2 rows.

With Yarn B, knit 2 rows.

With Yarn C, knit 2 rows.

With Yarn B, knit 2 rows.

With Yarn A, knit 2 rows.

Cast off.

To make up the knit beach bag

Join side and bottom seams. Sew handles in place using photo as a guide.

Download your knit bag pattern

We know many visitors will want printer-friendly version of the knit beach bag, as printing from the website is uses a lot of paper. So we have created a downloadable version of the knit bag pattern. The download is an A4 PDF with 2 pages. Click to download your Knit bag knitting pattern PDF

More like the knit bag pattern

Learning to knit lace? Start here! We have some great guides to get you lace knitting like a pro. We'll teach you how to avoid and fix lace mistakes and how to join yarn when lace knitting. Brush up with our Lace knitting tips and our How to block lace knitting. We have loads of great patterns for you, too! Try our Free mohair scarf knitting pattern or our lace snood knitting pattern or our easy lace scarf knitting pattern. You can download our ring bearer pillow pattern free of charge, which is a brilliant beginner lace knitting project, as is our how to knit baby booties tutorial Our how to make a chunky knit blanket tutorial is an easy lace projects to try too, or for an advanced blanket, knit our chunky knit blanket pattern.