THIS NEVER HAPPENS: All Field Bags on sale 20% off*

Five years ago today, I published these beautiful photos — the first public view of this little project bag I had designed, now known as the Fringe Field Bag — shot by my friend Kathy Cadigan. At the time it was just called the Fringe Supply Project Bag and only came in natural, and it was the star of the first lookbook I ever put together. (Then, as now, I’m the “model.”) I’d been working on it all year, with my friend Alyssa Minadeo’s invaluable help — obsessing over every dimension and detail, and trying to find a way to produce it. For the sake of that holiday season, and to find out if anyone even liked it, I hired Alyssa to make a small initial batch, put these photos out into the world, and held my breath.

I never could have imagined what would happen next.

I was still a new knitter at the time, and I designed it because I desperately wanted it and couldn’t find anything like it — a simple, utility-grade bag that stood upright and open-mouthed, had pockets specific to a knitter’s needs, was made from natural materials, responsibly and in the US, and had a wrist strap for toting it around when not stuffed into a larger bag. I hoped enough other people would want one that we’d be able to sell that first batch, and if that happened I’d keep trying to find a domestic factory that could sew it. I also had no idea how hard that would be, but during the course of that year, Bob and I had moved to Nashville (out from under Bay Area cost of living) to see if I could turn my little fledgling website into a small business. And the response to this bag — combined with the luck of eventually finding a factory right here in Nashville — is what gave Fringe Supply Co. a fighting chance.

The landscape has changed so much in these five years. These days, you have a lot of choices when it comes to project bags, and the fact that so many of you have chosen the Field Bag (in all its ensuing variations over the years) is deeply humbling and definitely one of the most unexpected experiences of my life. Your support of it has contributed to jobs for my tiny crew and the sewers at the small, woman-owned, local factory where it’s now made; revenue for the stores that carry it; charitable donations; business for the professional contractors we work with (my bookkeeper, photographers …); and far from either last or least, my collaboration with Jen Hewett on the various printed versions we’ve done together, past and present.

We don’t normally offer discounts (we don’t pad our prices), but in order to say THANK YOU and honor this milestone, that’s exactly what we’re doing. Today and tomorrow only, all Field Bags (canvas, waxed and printed) are 20% off!*

Thank you from the bottom of my heart. And happy birthday, little bag.

*No code required. In-stock items only; not retroactive. Offer expires at Midnight CT on Nov 22, 2019, and is good at Fringe Supply Co. and participating stockists (check with the one nearest you to see if they’re participating).