Yoga mat bags

If you don't know this about me already, you need to know that I love yoga.  Everything about yoga--the message, the spirit, the teachings, the poses, and the way that it is part of everything in life.  My love of yoga ties with my love for yarn (now that's saying something, isn't it?).  As you know Matt just completed his yoga teacher training and he has been teaching me a lot about yoga and its foundations.  He specifically has been teaching me about Raja yoga and its 8 limbs.  I have been trying to abide by the yamas (the first limb that represents the social code) and the niyamas (the second limb that have to do with the 'self').  One of the yamas is Aparigraha which says that one should not hoard things and should be non possessive.  I do have a problem with this sometimes (evidenced by my growing yarn stash).  So I have been trying to work on this in various ways.  I've been gathering items to donate, trying to get rid of items that are unnecessary to me, and also trying to destash when possible.  I am definitely not an expert on the yamas or how to live by them, but I am trying my best.

So what does this all have to do with knitting and crocheting?  Well, I have been making yoga mat bags with my stash.  I am planning on "selling" them at my yoga studio very soon.  The yoga studio has a boutique and it would be a perfect place to sell these items.  So far I have made 4 different bags and have at least one more planned before I'm going to bring them to the studio.  I've used a bag for my yoga mat that I knit back in 2011 and I'm ALWAYS getting complemented about it.  I really like it--it is machine washable and dry-able and is perfect for quickly stashing a sweaty yoga mat.  However, there were things that I could improve on--the strap was too long and the drawstring tie would come untied or be a bit of a pain to tie.  So I improved on these things with the new bags I made.

Here are the first two I've made for the studio.  The purple one is crocheted out of cotton in a ripple pattern.  You can see how they feature a shorter strap and a drawstring that cinches closed when you pick up the bag.  That's my favorite part :).  The second one is knit out of acrylic and also features the same shorter strap and cinching drawstring!

I have two others--one that looks like a tree and a blue lacy one that I developed the pattern for.  I'll post those in another entry when I get some decent photos of them.  I'll also be posting the pattern for my lacy mat bag--so keep an eye on my blog for that :).