Makeup Bag with Estonian Pattern by Önling — Advent 2019 Knitting Pattern (PDF Download)
There is something quietly magical about the moment a knitting pattern catches your eye and refuses to let go. The Makeup Bag with Estonian Pattern by Önling is exactly that kind of project — small enough to finish in a weekend, beautiful enough to make you proud, and rich with the kind of cultural heritage that transforms a simple craft object into something that carries meaning. Released as part of Önling’s Advent 2019 collection, this PDF knitting pattern has continued to delight knitters around the world who are drawn to its delicate Estonian colorwork, its practical size, and the sheer satisfaction of producing a handmade accessory that looks polished, purposeful, and personal.
Whether you are already a devoted fan of Önling’s design aesthetic or you are discovering this pattern for the first time, this post will walk you through everything you need to know — the design itself, the Estonian knitting tradition that inspired it, the materials and skills involved, how to download the PDF, and why this little makeup bag deserves a place on your project queue right now.
What Is Önling and Why Does It Matter?
Before diving into the pattern itself, it helps to understand the creative vision behind it. Önling is a Danish knitwear design brand founded by Ebbe Stürup and Quentin Brun. Based in Copenhagen, the brand has built a devoted following by combining refined Scandinavian aesthetics with a commitment to high-quality natural yarns, particularly wool. Önling’s designs tend to live at the intersection of the traditional and the contemporary — they honor the long histories of European knitting traditions while presenting them in a way that feels completely current, wearable, and alive.
The Advent 2019 collection was released as a series of small, downloadable PDF patterns offered in the days leading up to Christmas. It was a gift to the knitting community in the most literal sense — a celebration of the craft through a curated set of projects that varied in scale and technique but were unified by Önling’s characteristic attention to beauty and detail. The Makeup Bag with Estonian Pattern was among the most talked-about releases in that collection, and it has remained one of the brand’s most beloved small projects ever since.
The Estonian Knitting Tradition — A Brief Background
To fully appreciate this makeup bag pattern, it helps to understand a little about the knitting tradition it draws from. Estonian knitting, particularly as practiced on the island of Muhu and in other rural regions of Estonia, is one of the most distinctive folk knitting traditions in the world. Estonian knitters developed extraordinarily intricate colorwork patterns over centuries, using them to decorate mittens, socks, gloves, and garments with dense, geometric designs that carried regional and symbolic significance.
What sets Estonian colorwork apart from, say, Scandinavian or Fair Isle traditions is a particular combination of color density and pattern structure. Estonian patterns often feature rich, all-over designs with very little background showing, creating a fabric that is simultaneously visually complex and deeply rhythmic. The patterns are typically built from small repeating geometric motifs — diamonds, crosses, stars, zigzags — arranged in horizontal bands or worked in continuous repeat across the entire surface of a piece.
There is also a distinctly joyful quality to Estonian colorwork. The color combinations used in traditional Estonian knitting tend toward the bold and unexpected — deep reds paired with creamy whites, vivid yellows alongside forest greens, rich blues contrasted with warm oranges. These are not shy, retiring palettes. They are confident declarations of craft, regional identity, and artistic sensibility.
When Önling chose to incorporate an Estonian pattern into this makeup bag design, they were tapping into that long and vibrant tradition and distilling it into a small, accessible project that any knitter with colorwork experience could approach. The result is a bag that looks genuinely special — like something that has been handed down through generations, even when it has just been knitted.
About the Pattern — What You Are Making
The Makeup Bag with Estonian Pattern is a small zippered pouch worked in the round using stranded colorwork. It is designed to hold makeup, toiletries, knitting accessories, or anything else you might want to tuck into a beautiful handmade bag. The compact size makes it ideal as a gift, and the pattern is elegant enough that it requires no embellishment beyond the knitting itself.
The bag is worked in the round from the bottom up, with the Estonian colorwork motif running across the body of the piece. The fabric is dense and structured, as stranded colorwork tends to be, which gives it good body and makes it perfectly suited to a functional bag that needs to hold its shape and stand up to regular use.
The finishing involves a zipper, which adds a clean, practical closure and gives the finished bag a professional, polished look. If you have never sewn a zipper into a knitted project before, this is an excellent first attempt — the scale is small, the stakes are low, and the instructions walk you through the process clearly.
One of the things knitters consistently praise about this pattern is its efficiency. It is a small project, but it never feels trivial. Every row of the colorwork is interesting, the motif develops quickly enough to stay engaging, and by the time you are done you have something that genuinely looks like it took far more effort than it did. That is the particular genius of a well-designed small project — it gives you a sense of accomplishment that is entirely disproportionate to the time invested.
Materials and Yarn Recommendations
Önling designs are famously tied to specific high-quality yarns, and the Makeup Bag with Estonian Pattern is no exception. The pattern is designed to work beautifully with fine wool yarn, and Önling’s own yarn lines are obvious natural choices. Their yarn tends toward lightweight, high-twist wools that are well suited to the density of stranded colorwork — the structure of the yarn helps the colorwork pattern read clearly and keeps the stitches looking crisp and even.
That said, the pattern is accessible enough that knitters who prefer to use other yarn brands can substitute freely, provided they match gauge and choose a yarn with appropriate structure. For colorwork like this, you generally want to avoid very soft, loosely spun yarns that might cause the colors to bleed into each other visually. A smooth, slightly firm wool with good stitch definition will serve the pattern best.
For the Estonian colorwork, you will need at least two colors — a background color and a contrast color. The pattern allows for personal expression in color choice, and this is one of the great pleasures of working a traditional colorwork project. You might choose to work in a historically inspired palette, reaching for deep reds and creamy off-whites to evoke the feel of antique Estonian textiles. Or you might take the motif in a completely modern direction, using unexpected combinations that suit your personal aesthetic and wardrobe.
In addition to yarn, you will need a small set of double-pointed needles or a short circular needle in the appropriate size for your yarn, a stitch marker, a zipper in a complementary color and appropriate length, and basic sewing supplies for attaching the zipper. Tapestry needles and scissors complete the toolkit.
Skill Level and What You Need to Know
This pattern is best suited to knitters who have some experience with stranded colorwork. You do not need to be an expert — if you have successfully completed a colorwork project before and have a reasonable handle on managing two yarns at the same time, you should find this bag quite approachable. The pattern is small enough that even if you struggle a little with tension in the early rows, you will be through the colorwork section quickly and can apply what you have learned.
Key techniques you should be comfortable with before starting include knitting in the round, working with two colors simultaneously in stranded colorwork, maintaining consistent tension across the floats on the wrong side of the fabric, and basic finishing techniques including weaving in ends neatly. The zipper installation is the one element that might feel unfamiliar if you are new to it, but it is not complicated, and the instructions are clear.
If you are newer to colorwork and this is one of your first attempts, the small scale of the project actually works in your favor. The consequences of uneven tension are far less visible on a small makeup bag than they would be on a sweater, and the repetitive nature of the colorwork pattern means you will naturally begin to find your rhythm as you go. Many knitters have used small projects like this one as colorwork practice before tackling larger, more complex pieces.
The PDF Pattern — What to Expect When You Download
The Makeup Bag with Estonian Pattern is available as a PDF download, which means you can purchase it once and have it available to you on any device, at any time. The PDF is formatted in Önling’s clean, beautiful house style — clear instructions, well-rendered charts, and a general sense of considered design that extends even to the pattern document itself.
The colorwork chart is central to the pattern and is presented in a clear, readable format. If you are comfortable reading knitting charts, you will find it intuitive. If you are newer to working from charts rather than written row-by-row instructions, this is a good pattern to practice with, since the chart is straightforward and the motif repeats in a logical, easy-to-follow rhythm.
The PDF includes all the technical information you need — gauge, needle size, yarn requirements, stitch counts, and finishing instructions — as well as the beautiful photography that Önling is known for. Those photographs do double duty: they show you exactly what you are working toward, and they inspire you to cast on immediately.
Once downloaded, the PDF is yours to keep. Many knitters print a copy for use while knitting and keep the digital version archived for future reference. If you plan to make this bag more than once — as many knitters do, given what an excellent gift it makes — having the PDF on hand means you can revisit it whenever inspiration strikes.
Why This Makes Such a Perfect Gift
Let’s talk about the gift potential here, because it is significant. A handmade makeup bag with genuine folk art colorwork is a deeply considered, personal gift. It communicates that you care enough to make something by hand, that you have taste and an appreciation for beautiful craft traditions, and that you put real time and thought into the process. These are things that no purchased gift, however expensive, can quite replicate.
The makeup bag is universally useful. Almost everyone carries a small pouch of some kind — for makeup, for toiletries when traveling, for keeping a knitting project tidy, for storing small tech accessories, for tucking away the small accumulated objects of daily life. A beautifully knitted bag of this kind is not just decorative. It actually gets used, which means it is seen and appreciated again and again over time.
Because the project works up relatively quickly, it is also practical as a gift-making project. Knitters who plan ahead can produce several of these bags in the lead-up to the holiday season, varying the color combinations so that each recipient receives something that feels tailored to them specifically. A deep jewel-toned version for one friend, a more neutral palette for another, a bold and graphic combination for someone who loves color — the same pattern, made deeply individual through yarn choice.
Incorporating the Bag Into Your Knitting Practice
Beyond its gift potential, this pattern also offers real value as a practice piece for techniques you want to develop. Stranded colorwork is one of those skills that rewards repetition — the more you do it, the more natural the rhythm of managing two yarns becomes, and the more consistent your tension grows. A small, satisfying project that produces a useful finished object at the end is the best possible vehicle for building that skill.
The Estonian motif itself is worth studying as you work it. Look at the way the geometric forms build on each other, the way the positive and negative space of the two colors interact to create a surface that feels dense and rich without becoming muddled. This is centuries of design thinking compressed into a simple repeating chart, and working through it with your hands is a genuinely different way of understanding it than looking at a photograph.
How to Find and Purchase the Pattern
The Makeup Bag with Estonian Pattern PDF is available through Önling’s official website and is also listed on Ravelry, where you can add it to your queue, browse project photos from other knitters, and read notes from people who have already made the bag. Ravelry project pages for patterns like this one are an invaluable resource — seeing how other knitters have approached the color choices, reading their notes on modifications or fit, and being inspired by the range of finished objects that a single pattern can produce.
When purchasing the PDF, you will receive an immediate download link. There is no waiting, no shipping, no physical object to lose — just the pattern, ready to use as soon as you have completed your purchase. This instant accessibility is one of the great advantages of PDF knitting patterns, and it means that if inspiration strikes at midnight, you can be looking at the chart within minutes.
A Few Final Thoughts
The Makeup Bag with Estonian Pattern by Önling is one of those patterns that justifies the small, joyful world of PDF knitting downloads. It is beautifully conceived, rooted in a rich cultural tradition, designed for practical use, and achievable by a wide range of skill levels. It is the kind of project that makes you feel good about the time you spend knitting — because the time is short, the result is lovely, and the connection to something larger and older than your own crafting practice is quietly present in every stitch.
Whether you are knitting it for yourself or for someone you love, whether you are drawn to it for the technique, the aesthetic, the tradition, or simply because you need a beautiful little bag, this pattern delivers on every level. Download the PDF, choose your colors with care, cast on, and let the Estonian pattern work its gentle magic on the needles.
