Around the time I was working on this knitwear, I read ‘the Teahouse Fire’ by Ellis Avery. Taking a closer look at how the yarn between the stitches in this design seems to be woven, it came to me that it (in my imagination) looked like the tatami mats in this book. Tatami mats covered the floors in the traditional Japanese houses that were very common until the start of the twentieth century. Therefore I call this pattern the Tatami Stitch.

I made three versions of this stitch. Each of them looking like a completely different pattern. First of all there is the bright green and yellow pencil purse with funny pompons. Secondly I made the elegant black and white crayon case (or make up bag) with a playful flower application added. And last but not least the third version of this pattern is a marble bag decorated with a picot edge and it has a twisted thread to close the bag.

Even though I used two threads of sock yarn, it is also suitable for a single yarn that is a bit thicker.