Excuse me as I get a little squeal in (eee!!!), but I received my new issue of Knitting Traditions magazine by Interweave and it's so cool to see my work within its pages!

If you're unfamiliar with this magazine, it is a treasure. Each issue focuses on a time period and features articles on all kinds of topics from that era, with knitting patterns accompanying the stories. This issue tells the story of the turn of the 20th century and hits on all kinds of amazing women's history (be still my heart!). I feel personally honored to have my Collecting Bag as the accompanying pattern for the Girl Scouts article. My mom was my scout leader and I LOVED my scouting days.

The Collecting Bag is a roomy tote with a central bee motif worked in stranded knitting. The color changes on the sides are worked using an intarsia method. It sounds complicated, but it's pretty simple. The gussets add interior space and the lining/straps makes it nice and sturdy for anything you could hope to carry (or collect!). Why a bee, you ask? Two reasons: I was inspired by the beautiful depiction of insects in both the Art Nouveau style and in the work of my favorite poet, Emily Dickinson. I named it "Pedigree" in the proposal based this poem:

The pedigree of honey
Does not concern the bee ;
A clover, any time, to him
Is aristocracy.

It was, admittedly, a mid-century work instead of the early 1900s, but it is still a favorite. If you have any questions while working this one up, feel free to send me a message or go to my message board in Ravelry!