Sushi Date Bag: A Drawstring Stranded Colorwork Knitting Pattern You’ll Love Making and Carrying
There’s something deeply satisfying about knitting a bag you actually want to carry everywhere. Not just a functional tote that sits in the closet after the novelty wears off, but a bag that sparks conversation, makes you smile every time you reach for it, and quietly announces your love of both fine craftsmanship and good food. The Sushi Date Bag is exactly that kind of project — a drawstring bag worked in stranded colorwork featuring charming sushi motifs, perfect for yarn lovers who want their finished objects to be as fun as the process of making them.
Whether you’re a seasoned colorwork knitter or someone who has been curious about Fair Isle-style techniques and finally wants to take the plunge, this pattern is designed to be approachable, satisfying, and completely addictive. Let’s talk about everything you need to know before casting on.
What Is the Sushi Date Bag?
The Sushi Date Bag is a small-to-medium drawstring bag knitted in the round using stranded colorwork. The design features repeating sushi motifs — think nigiri, maki rolls, and maybe a little sprig of ginger or a pair of chopsticks — arranged in neat horizontal bands around the body of the bag. The result is a graphic, playful design that reads as cute without being juvenile, making it equally at home slung over the shoulder of a teenager headed to school or tucked under the arm of someone heading to a farmers’ market.
The bag is worked from the bottom up, starting with a flat or circular base, then joined to work the colorwork body in the round. A simple drawstring threaded through a row of eyelets closes the top, and the whole thing comes together into a neat, compact shape that’s sturdy enough to hold your essentials — a wallet, a phone, some keys, a lip balm, and maybe a small skein of sock yarn, because we all know that happens.
Why Stranded Colorwork?
Stranded colorwork, also known as Fair Isle or two-color knitting (though it can involve many more), is the technique of carrying two or more yarns across a row and knitting each stitch in whichever color the pattern calls for. The unused yarn “floats” across the back of the work, creating a fabric that is thicker, warmer, and structurally more stable than single-color stockinette.
For a bag, this is genuinely ideal. That extra density means your bag holds its shape, doesn’t stretch out when you load it up, and has a beautiful drape that still maintains structure. The floats on the inside also give the bag a nice, slightly padded feel. If you’ve ever knitted a colorwork hat or sweater yoke, the body of a drawstring bag works on exactly the same principles — and because you’re working in the round, you’re almost always looking at the right side of your work, which makes reading the chart much more intuitive.
If stranded colorwork is new to you, a bag is actually one of the most forgiving first projects you can choose. The stakes are lower than a sweater, the yardage commitment is manageable, and the cylindrical shape means you’ll get into a real rhythm with the motifs before you’ve finished your first repeat.
Materials You’ll Need
Before you cast on, it’s worth gathering everything you need so you can knit without interruption. There are few things more frustrating than running out of contrast yarn halfway through a maki roll.
Yarn: For this pattern, you’ll want a smooth, tightly spun yarn in a DK or worsted weight. Woolen-spun yarns work beautifully because they have a slight halo that helps the colors blend softly at their edges, but a worsted-spun yarn will give you crisper, more graphic motifs — both are lovely choices depending on the aesthetic you’re going for. You’ll need a main color (MC) and at least two contrast colors (CC1 and CC2), though some versions of the pattern use three or four colors for more detailed sushi illustrations. Plan for roughly 150–200 yards of your main color and 50–75 yards of each contrast color, though always buy a little extra to account for tension differences and potential frogging.
Needles: A set of double-pointed needles or a short circular needle (either 16 inches or magic loop on a longer cable) in the appropriate size for your yarn. For DK weight, you’ll often be in the US 4–6 range; for worsted, US 7–9. Go down a needle size from what the yarn label recommends, because colorwork tends to knit up looser than plain stockinette, and you want the fabric to be nice and firm for a bag.
Notions: A tapestry needle for weaving in ends, stitch markers, a row counter or phone app if you find charts tricky to track mentally, and a length of cord, ribbon, or I-cord for your drawstring. A crochet hook in a small size is helpful for pulling the drawstring through the eyelets.
Optional: Lining fabric. Many knitters choose to line their bags with a coordinating cotton fabric, which protects the floats from snagging on items inside the bag and gives the whole project a more polished, finished look. This is entirely optional and purely a matter of personal preference.
Reading the Colorwork Chart
The heart of any stranded colorwork pattern is its chart, and the sushi motifs on this bag are no exception. Charts for colorwork are read from the bottom up, right to left for right-side rows (which, when you’re knitting in the round, is every row). Each square represents one stitch, and each color in the square corresponds to your yarn color key.
Before you start, it’s worth taking a few minutes to sit with the chart and trace the motifs with your finger. Can you see the nigiri? The little oval of rice with the rectangular piece of fish draped over it? Can you see where the maki roll sits, with its dark nori border and lighter rice interior? Getting a visual sense of what you’re building before you start knitting makes it much easier to catch mistakes early, because you’ll recognize when a stitch is clearly in the wrong color without having to refer back to the chart every single stitch.
For managing two yarns, many knitters prefer to hold one color in each hand — one tensioned over the index finger of the left hand (Continental style) and one tensioned over the right hand (English style). This keeps the floats even and prevents the yarns from twisting around each other. Others prefer to hold both yarns in one hand and pick them from different positions on the finger. Whatever method you use, the most important thing is consistency: always pick your MC from the same position and your CC from the same position, because this affects which color sits dominant in the finished fabric.
Float length is something to keep an eye on. When a color isn’t used for more than about five stitches, you’ll want to catch the float by twisting the working yarn around the unused yarn at roughly the midpoint. This keeps the floats short enough that they won’t snag and maintains an even tension across the back of your work.
Tension, Gauge, and Why It Matters for a Bag
Gauge swatching is one of those things knitters love to skip and always regret. For a bag, the stakes are a little more forgiving than for a fitted garment — if your bag comes out slightly larger or smaller than the pattern specifies, it’s still a functional bag. But getting your gauge close does matter for a few reasons.
First, it affects the drape and structure of the fabric. If your stitches are too loose, the bag will be floppy and won’t hold its shape. If they’re too tight, the fabric will be stiff and the colorwork might pucker. Second, if you’re using a lining pattern sized to match the knitted bag, you need your dimensions to be approximately right.
For colorwork specifically, most knitters find they need to go down one needle size compared to what they’d use for plain stockinette in the same yarn. Knit a small swatch in the round (the most accurate method is to knit a tube swatch or to cut your flat swatch and measure it flat) and measure it before committing to your cast-on. Taking twenty minutes to swatch can save hours of frogging.
Construction: Step by Step
The Sushi Date Bag is typically constructed in three stages: the base, the body, and the finishing.
The Base: Depending on the pattern version, the base is either worked as a small flat rectangle or circle and then picked up around for the body, or it’s created by casting on in the round and working a series of increases to form a flat disc. The flat disc method produces a rounder base and works beautifully with circular motifs; the rectangle base gives the bag a more boxy silhouette. Neither is better — it’s purely a matter of the shape you prefer.
The Body: Once your base is established and your stitch count is set, you begin working in the round. The first few rounds are typically worked in your main color only to create a clean transition between the base and the colorwork, and then you join your contrast color and begin following the chart. The sushi motifs repeat around the circumference of the bag, with the number of repeats depending on your stitch count and the size of each motif. You’ll work through several bands of pattern — perhaps a row of nigiri, then a simple geometric border, then a row of maki rolls, then another border — until the body is the desired height.
The Drawstring Eyelets: Near the top of the body, you’ll work a simple eyelet row. This is usually done by working a round of yarn-overs and k2tog pairs spaced evenly around the bag. These small holes create the channel through which your drawstring will thread. Some patterns have you work a folded hem above the eyelets for a cleaner edge; others simply bind off a few rounds above the eyelet row.
The Drawstring: This can be a purchased cord, a length of ribbon, or a three-stitch I-cord knitted from one of your project yarns. Threading it through the eyelets with a crochet hook or blunt tapestry needle, then tying knots or adding beads at the ends, is one of those small finishing details that transforms the project from “knitted tube” into “actual bag.”
Tips for Making Your Sushi Date Bag Even Better
A few small choices can really elevate the finished object. Consider using a variegated or hand-dyed yarn for your main color — the subtle color shifts add depth to what might otherwise be a flat background and make the sushi motifs pop even more. Alternatively, a very neutral MC (a warm off-white, a soft grey, or a deep navy) lets the bright contrast colors in the motifs do all the visual work.
If you want to add a lining, cut two pieces of cotton fabric slightly larger than the bag’s dimensions, sew them together right sides facing, leave the top open, fold the raw edge down and press it, and slip the lining inside the finished bag. A few whipstitches around the top edge, just below the eyelet row, will secure it neatly.
For gifting, the Sushi Date Bag is a wonderful project. It makes a perfect birthday present for a friend who loves Japanese food, a bag for carrying a small crochet or knitting project, a makeup bag, or an accessory pouch. Knit it up in someone’s favorite colors and it feels completely personal even with a repeating motif pattern.
Caring for Your Finished Bag
A bag made from animal fiber — wool, alpaca, or a blend — should be hand washed in cool water with a gentle wool wash. Press out the water gently (never wring colorwork, as it can distort the stitches and cause colors to bleed into each other), roll it in a towel to absorb excess moisture, and lay it flat to dry away from direct heat. Acrylic or cotton yarns can often be machine washed on a gentle cycle, which is a real practical advantage if you plan to use the bag daily.
Block the bag gently after washing to open up the colorwork and even out the stitches. You can stuff it lightly with a towel or bubble wrap while it dries to help it hold its shape.
Why This Pattern Is Worth Your Time
In a world full of quick knits and instant gratification projects, the Sushi Date Bag sits in a sweet spot: it’s not so fast that you don’t feel the satisfaction of real craft, and not so slow that you lose momentum before you reach the finish line. Stranded colorwork rewards patience and attention, but it also has a wonderful meditative quality once you settle into the rhythm of the repeats. The sushi motifs are charming without being kitschy, graphic enough to be modern, and playful enough to make people smile.
More than anything, knitting something you’ll actually use — something you’ll carry to coffee shops, farmers’ markets, concerts, and family dinners — keeps the joy of making alive every time you reach into it. Every bag has a story: the audiobook you were listening to when you knitted the maki row, the afternoon you finally got your float tension exactly right, the moment you finished the bind-off and held the whole thing up to see it complete for the first time.
That’s the real magic of a pattern like this. It’s not just a bag. It’s a small, stitched record of your time, your hands, and your love of making beautiful things.
Cast on. The sushi awaits.
