Sapa is a cute, easy to wear shoulder bag that’s richly embellished with glass beads.

The design is inspired by patterns and motifs of the clothing worn by the North Vietnamese hill tribe, the Black Hmong whose traditional clothing was indigo-dyed and highly decorated with embroidery.

The main panels of the bag are knitted flat, from the top down then cast off together to create a crisp external seam at the bottom of the bag. The co-ordinating beaded strap is sewn the full length of the bag and can easily be lengthened by threading on more beads and knitting extra rows. Although Sapa was originally knitted in a now discontinued indigo-dyed cotton yarn I wanted
to revisit the design as it sewed the first seeds in my mind for the technique I now call Beaded Colourwork.

So here’s a reloved Sapa, knitted in a 100% wool DK weight yarn and with a third colour of bead thrown in for that extra pop.

Skill Level
Advanced beginner / intermediate upwards

Finished Measurements
Bag excluding strap: 22.25 cm wide x 20 cm long /
(8.75 in) wide x (7.87 in) long
Length including strap: 72 cm (28.34 in)

Materials
240 m (262 yds) DK weight yarn. Yarn shown here is West Yorkshire Spinners The Croft 100% Shetland Wool DK
225m / 100g (246yd / 3.5 oz). Shown here in shade 353 Norby

Beads
Size 6 glass beads in the following quantities
992 x White (W) col 334
87 x Fruit Salad (FS) col 752
63 x Rainbow (R) col 608

Needles
One pair of 3.50 mm (US 4) needles

Also Needed
Standard size hand sewing needle and smooth, good quality sewing thread - for threading beads onto yarn before
knitting
Small shallow baking tray or Yorkshire pudding tin for keeping beads in order
Pencil & eraser
Small scissors
Darning needle - for sewing in ends
Waste yarn for provisional cast on
Stitch holder or spare needle
Spare gauge size needle for 3 needle cast off
Crochet hook for provisional cast off (optional)