7 Drawstring Backpack Knitting Patterns You’ll Want to Make Right Now
There’s something deeply satisfying about knitting a bag you can actually use every day. Unlike a decorative pillow or a dishcloth that lives quietly in a drawer, a drawstring backpack goes with you — to the farmers market, on a weekend hike, to yoga class, or slung over your child’s shoulder on the way to school. The charm of a handknit drawstring backpack lies in its simplicity: a gathered opening, a pair of cords or straps, and a sturdy body that holds everything together. Whether you’re a beginner who’s just graduated from scarves or an experienced knitter looking for a satisfying weekend project, there’s a pattern in this collection for you.
This post walks you through seven distinct drawstring backpack knitting patterns, covering a range of skill levels, yarn weights, and aesthetic styles. Along the way, you’ll find tips on construction methods, yarn choices, and how to customize each design to fit your needs. By the end, you’ll have a clear idea of which pattern to cast on first — and probably a second one already waiting in the wings.
Why Knit a Drawstring Backpack?
Before diving into the patterns, it’s worth asking why you’d choose to knit a bag rather than simply buy one. The honest answer is that handknit bags offer things you simply can’t find at a retail store: complete customization of color and fiber, the meditative pleasure of the making process, and a finished object that carries the quiet pride of something you built with your own hands.
Drawstring backpacks are particularly well-suited to knitting because they don’t require complicated shaping. Most designs work from the bottom up, increase outward for a rounded or cylindrical body, then work straight until the top, where eyelets or a channel are created for the drawstring cord. That simplicity means you can experiment with stitch patterns, colorwork, or texture without fighting a complicated construction.
They’re also incredibly practical. A drawstring closure distributes the pull evenly around the entire opening, which means your bag closes securely without a zipper or clasp. When you cinch the cords and tie them together at the back, you get two shoulder straps that distribute weight evenly, making the bag genuinely comfortable to wear.
Pattern 1: The Classic Stockinette Sack Bag
This is the pattern to start with if you’ve never knitted a bag before. It requires nothing more than knit and purl stitches, a set of double-pointed needles or a circular needle, and a single skein of worsted weight yarn.
The construction is beautifully simple. You cast on stitches for the base using the magic loop method or double-pointed needles, work in the round to form a flat circular bottom, then increase evenly until you reach the desired circumference for the body. From there, you work straight in stockinette until the bag is tall enough — typically around twelve to fourteen inches for an adult bag, ten inches for a child’s version. Near the top, you create a series of evenly spaced yarn-over eyelets to form the drawstring channel. A few rows of garter stitch finish off the edge cleanly.
For the cord, you can use a long I-cord knitted on two double-pointed needles, a length of braided cotton rope, or even a strip of leather cord. Thread it through the eyelets, cross the two ends at the back of the bag, and thread each end through the loops at the opposite side. When you pull both ends, the bag cinches closed and the cords double as backpack straps.
Yarn recommendation: a tightly plied worsted weight in a wool-acrylic blend gives this bag structure and durability. Something like Cascade 220 or Lion Brand Fishermen’s Wool works beautifully here.
Gauge matters more in bag knitting than many people expect. A looser gauge creates a drapey, floppy bag that won’t hold its shape well. Aim for a slightly tighter fabric than the yarn label recommends — if the label suggests 20 stitches per 4 inches, try swatching at 22 or 23 stitches instead.
Pattern 2: The Textured Cable Drawstring Backpack
If you’ve worked cables before and want to bring that skill to a bag project, this is your pattern. A cable panel down the front of a drawstring backpack elevates a simple silhouette into something that looks genuinely impressive — even though the cables themselves may only be a four-stitch or six-stitch cross repeated every few rows.
The most flattering approach for a cable bag is to work the body in the round with a cable panel centered on what will be the front face. The back can be plain stockinette or a simple seed stitch to add contrast without competing with the cables. The twist of a well-executed cable naturally tightens the fabric, which is actually helpful for bag construction — it creates a denser cloth that resists stretching under load.
For this style, choose a smooth, lightly twisted yarn that shows stitch definition clearly. Cables disappear into fuzzy or heavily textured yarns. A three-ply or four-ply wool in a solid or semi-solid colorway — think deep navy, forest green, or heathered burgundy — will let the cables pop beautifully.
A popular variation of this design uses a honeycomb cable pattern across the entire body of the bag. Honeycomb cables create an all-over textured fabric that’s as striking as colorwork but doesn’t require managing multiple yarn strands. The resulting bag has a richly dimensional surface that feels luxurious even when made from a modest yarn.
Construction tip: because cables pull the fabric inward, you’ll need to cast on more stitches than a plain stockinette bag of the same circumference would require. Add approximately 20% more stitches to compensate, or work a gauge swatch in your cable pattern and adjust from there.
Pattern 3: The Colorwork Stranded Fair Isle Backpack
Colorwork knitting and bag construction are a natural match. Because bags are worked in the round without any seaming, you always have the right side facing you — which means you’re always working the chart in the same direction, making stranded colorwork considerably easier to manage than it would be in flat knitting.
A Fair Isle style drawstring backpack typically features a repeating geometric motif that wraps around the entire body of the bag. Traditional Nordic star patterns, diamond lattices, herringbone designs, and snowflake motifs all work beautifully at this scale. The bag becomes a wearable canvas for the kind of pattern work that makes handknitting genuinely breathtaking.
For beginners to colorwork, a simple two-color repeating stripe or a checkerboard pattern is a great introduction. You’re managing only two yarns at a time, and the floats — the strands carried across the back of the work between color changes — are short enough that they won’t catch on anything inside the bag.
Yarn choice is particularly important for stranded colorwork. Using two yarns of the same weight and fiber content ensures that your bag wears evenly and the colors don’t compete for dominance in the fabric structure. A DK weight Shetland wool in two high-contrast colors — cream and black, red and white, or gold and deep teal — gives results that feel authentically traditional. If you prefer a modern palette, a muted sage and off-white combination has a quieter, more contemporary feel.
The double layer of yarn at every stitch also means a stranded bag is naturally sturdier and less prone to stretching than a single-color bag of the same yarn weight. Your Fair Isle backpack will hold its shape beautifully even when loaded up for a day out.
Pattern 4: The Chunky Beginner Bucket Bag
Not every bag needs to be a long project. A chunky drawstring bucket bag worked on large needles with bulky weight yarn can be completed in a single afternoon — and the results are anything but rough. Bulky yarn creates a warm, tactile fabric with a hand-knitted quality that’s immediately visible. The thick stitches have a sculptural quality that finer yarns can’t replicate.
This style works especially well in a single bold color. A deep rust, a warm mustard yellow, or a classic charcoal gray all look striking in chunky stockinette. If you want to add visual interest without colorwork, a simple broken rib pattern — alternating two knit rows with two purl rows around the body — creates subtle horizontal texture that photographs beautifully.
Because the yarn is so thick, gauge swatching will quickly tell you how many stitches you need. Most chunky bag patterns require only 30 to 40 stitches for the body circumference, and the entire project from cast-on to finished cord might take only three or four skeins.
For the drawstring, use a piece of natural cotton macramé cord in a complementary color. It threads easily through large eyelets, is strong enough to bear the weight of a loaded bag, and adds a nice textural contrast to the knitted body.
This pattern is ideal as a gift project. You can make one in a weekend, customize the color to the recipient’s style, and add a handwritten tag that says it was made for them. It’s the kind of gift that people actually use rather than storing away.
Pattern 5: The Linen Stitch Market Backpack
Linen stitch is one of knitting’s quiet secrets. It’s worked by alternating a knit stitch with a slip-with-yarn-forward, which creates a woven-looking fabric that’s denser and more structured than stockinette. The result looks almost like woven cloth — flat, firm, and elegant — but it’s entirely made from basic knitting movements.
A linen stitch drawstring backpack has a market bag quality that works equally well as a grocery tote and as a travel bag. The tight, almost non-stretchy fabric holds its shape under weight, and the smooth surface is easy to wipe clean. When worked in a cotton or linen blend yarn, the bag also breathes well, making it comfortable to carry in warm weather.
Because linen stitch uses more yarn per row than stockinette (you’re slipping half the stitches, which carries the yarn along the row without actually knitting it), plan for about 25 to 30% more yardage than a plain stockinette bag of the same size would require.
Color works differently in linen stitch than in other patterns. Variegated or self-striping yarns often look muddy in linen stitch because the slipped stitches bleed one color section into the next. Solid colors, on the other hand, look extraordinarily polished. A natural ecru, a warm terracotta, or a slate blue in a cottony yarn are all excellent choices.
The construction follows the standard bottom-up approach, but it’s worth noting that linen stitch is almost always worked flat rather than in the round, because the slip stitches create a different look on right-side and wrong-side rows. This means seaming the sides — a small trade-off for a fabric that’s genuinely beautiful.
Pattern 6: The Children’s Mini Drawstring Backpack
Children love having a bag that’s truly theirs — scaled to their size, in colors they chose, with enough room for a few toys, a snack, and their most important small treasures. A mini drawstring backpack is one of the most rewarding knitting projects you can make for a child, and because the bag is small, it works up very quickly.
The construction mirrors the adult version but on a reduced scale. A children’s bag typically has a body circumference of about 18 to 20 inches and a height of 8 to 10 inches. At worsted weight, this might be only 50 to 60 stitches around.
Where this pattern really shines is in embellishment. A simple striped body in a child’s favorite colors — alternating every two rows to create crisp horizontal stripes — is always a hit. You can also add an intarsia motif on the front face: a simple star shape, a heart, a small animal face, or the child’s initial. These details transform an already lovely bag into something unmistakably personal.
For durability, choose a machine-washable yarn. Children’s bags get dirty, and a yarn that can go straight into the washing machine is an enormous practical advantage. Superwash merino blends, cotton, or acrylic all work well. Avoid plant fibers like linen for a child’s bag — they’re beautiful but tend to stretch significantly under load, which means the bag will eventually look saggy and tired.
The cords on a children’s bag should be slightly shorter than on an adult version, but still long enough to wear comfortably on small shoulders. A bright contrasting cord color is always a fun touch.
Pattern 7: The Boho Macramé-Inspired Openwork Backpack
This final pattern takes a different approach to the drawstring backpack silhouette, using yarn overs and decreases to create a lacy, open fabric that has the look of macramé while being entirely knitted. The result is a lightweight, bohemian-style bag that’s perfect for summer festivals, beach days, or any occasion where you want something that looks handmade and artisanal.
The openwork pattern is typically worked over a multiple of four or eight stitches, making it easy to adapt to any size. A simple yarn-over, k2tog sequence repeated around every right-side row creates a diagonal mesh. A more structured double-eyelet lace pattern creates a grid-like openwork. Either way, the fabric has a beautiful lightness that makes the bag feel airy rather than heavy.
Because the fabric is open, this bag works best as a market tote or beach bag where the contents aren’t too small to fall through the gaps. A rolled cotton towel, a bottle of water, a book, and a few personal items are all perfect cargo. For carrying smaller items, a simple cotton drawstring bag lining can be sewn in — a quick project on a sewing machine that takes about twenty minutes and completely solves the problem.
Yarn choice for an openwork bag should lean toward natural plant fibers. A cotton-linen blend gives the fabric a wonderful drape and a slight crunch that holds the open pattern beautifully. Avoid wool for this style — its natural elasticity tends to close up the yarn-over holes over time, and you’ll lose the openwork effect.
General Tips for Knitting Drawstring Backpacks
Across all seven of these patterns, a few principles apply universally and are worth keeping in mind as you start any bag project.
Always swatch, and swatch in the round if your pattern is worked in the round. The tension you hold when knitting in the round is often different from flat knitting tension, and a bag that’s even slightly off-gauge will end up noticeably larger or smaller than intended.
When creating the eyelet row for your drawstring, make sure you have an even number of evenly spaced eyelets. If your bag has 60 stitches around, for example, working a yarn-over with a k2tog at every 6th stitch gives you 10 eyelets — a nice, even number for threading the cord cleanly.
For the drawstring itself, cut two cords each long enough to go around the entire circumference of the bag, plus an extra 18 inches on each end for the straps and the tie. Thread one cord starting from the left side of the bag, going in through the first eyelet and out through each subsequent one all the way around, ending where you started. Thread the second cord starting from the right side and threading in the opposite direction. When you pull both cords, the bag closes evenly.
Block your finished bag before using it. Wet blocking a knitted bag relaxes the stitches, evens out any irregularities in your tension, and helps the bag settle into its final shape. Stuff the blocked bag with plastic bags or a balloon to hold the shape while it dries.
Finally, consider adding a simple circular base of stiff cardboard or a plastic needlepoint canvas cut to fit inside the bottom of the bag. This small addition makes an enormous difference in how the bag sits and holds its shape when loaded.
Choosing Your First Pattern
If you’re new to bag knitting, start with either the Classic Stockinette Sack Bag or the Chunky Beginner Bucket Bag. Both are straightforward constructions that will teach you all the fundamental techniques — bottom-up circular knitting, increasing for the base, working straight for the body, creating an eyelet row — without any complicated techniques.
If you want a bag that will genuinely impress people, the Fair Isle Colorwork Backpack or the Cable Drawstring Backpack will deliver that impact. They require more focus but no techniques that aren’t accessible to an intermediate knitter.
And if you’re knitting for purpose rather than show — something you’ll actually use hard, every day — the Linen Stitch Market Backpack is your best bet. It’s the most durable, most structured option in this collection, and its quiet elegance makes it suitable for nearly any occasion.
Whatever you choose, a drawstring backpack knitting pattern is one of those projects that rewards you twice: once in the making, when each round brings the bag closer to completion, and again every time you put it on your back and walk out the door carrying something you made yourself.
Cast on, and enjoy every stitch.
