This was really a funny project to knit! :o)

I needed a soft protection bag for my Nikon camera, as I risked to badly damage its display if I continued to put it into my walking bag together with all the other things.

I wanted something nice and funny to bring around during our travels, nothing too serious or camera shop-like, so when I saw the Badger Purse project I thought I had found what I needed.

But that project consisted in a small bag intended to contain only an I-pod or cell phone and it was definitely too small for my camera, so I had to readjust the size and shape of the bag.

I used the “Knitting over the edge” book by Nicky Epstein to find a lovely texture for the bag body and knitted a long piece of about 15cm width to form the front, base and back part all together. Then I knitted two separate trapeze shaped pieces and I sewed them to the sides of the bag to close it in the form of a small box.

I knitted the badger head as indicated in Kirsti Hallamaa’s pattern, I only added a few stitches to make it bigger following my bag proportions.
The same for all the small details of ears, tail, hands and feet of the badger.
I added plastic eyes to make it more lively and funny, and used a few pieces of black wool to make the whiskers.

I knitted a long stripe of 7 stitches to form the bag shoulder belt, and my mom sewed a grosgrain stripe below it to make it stronger and less elastic.
I have to thank my mom also for the inside lining of the bag, as she made it with her sewing machine.
We found a lovely, quilted fabric and made the internal lining with it. My mom was able to add also 2 pockets as I had requested her, 1 for the spare camera battery and 1 for the spare memory cards - which are never enough for my photo-shooting mania…

I also decided to embellish this lovely animal bag with something sweet and feminine, so I knitted the “Anemone” flower from the book “100 flowers to knit and crochet” by Lesley Stanfield.
It was a fun knit and I was very happy with the final result. I sewed the red flower at one side of the bag just to give it a spot of contrasting colour, and I think it worked well.

I’m very happy about my new camera bag and I’m sure this funny Ugo will be a nice travelling companion during our next holidays. :o)