Field Tested: A Knitting Designer’s Year With the ARTIFACT Project Bag

There’s a difference between liking a product when it arrives and knowing how well it works after living with it.

Alicia Plummer is a knitwear designer, teacher and author based in Maine. She has been designing knitwear for more than 15 years, with hundreds of original designs to her name.

About a year ago, we sent Alicia one of our No.103 Project Bags to use. Recently, after putting the bag to work for a year, she shared this:

“As a designer of 15+ years, I get 2 to 3 offers A DAY in my email for gifted items to share on here, and I ignore about 95% of them. Getting a bunch of things just to tell you to go buy it for the sake of ‘being an influencer’ or ‘getting free stuff’ doesn’t sit well with me. Once in a while though, a collab comes through that I’m genuinely interested in.

This bag by @artifactbags is the best knitting bag I’ve ever used. It’s roomy and can hold 6 skeins of Aran weight Harrisville Shear. It has outer pockets that fit my interchangeable needle set and my sketch notebook. It has brads if you want to thread the yarn through it and leave the balls on the bottom. You can add on extra accessories to store cable needles, stitch markers and measuring tape.

After a year of heavy use the canvas still looks new, the handles have a slight patina, and I do NOT go easy on my things (ask my family) 🤣 this one has also become a combo knitting/handbag because it holds so much that it can do double duty.

if I’m going to tell you that I love something, it is because I’ve spent time with it, used it extensively, and I truly actually love it.

This is why I’m definitely comfortable standing behind this company and if you’re looking for a new project bag, you should strongly consider it! It hits my New England heart’s little sweet spot of form and function!”

Designed Here. Field Tested There.

We know how to design and make bags. We don't pretend to know knitting the way Alicia does.

The No.103 began as our approach to a simple, durable open-top tote: a wide base that allows it to stand upright, heavy cotton duck canvas, a double-ply bottom, full-grain leather handles, exterior pockets and steel rivet construction.

Over time, knitters began adopting the bag as their own. Their feedback and the ways we saw them using it eventually helped us develop an entire family of project bags and organizational accessories.

That makes long-term feedback like Alicia’s especially meaningful to us. It tells us not just how a bag looks when it leaves our Omaha studio, but how the decisions we made at the cutting table and sewing machine hold up after a year of actual use.

The slight patina on the leather handles?

We consider that a feature.

About Alicia Plummer

Alicia Plummer is a Maine-based knitwear designer, teacher and author whose work includes hundreds of original knitting patterns.

Explore Alicia’s work on Ravelry:
https://www.ravelry.com/designers/alicia-plummer

Follow Alicia on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/aliciaplums/

The Bag

Alicia uses our No.103 Project Bag, handmade in small batches at our Omaha, Nebraska studio from water-repellent cotton duck canvas, full-grain vegetable-tanned leather and steel hardware.

Explore the No.103 Project Bag →

ARTIFACT provided Alicia with the bag featured in this story. She was not paid for this review.