A year ago as I was browsing through the beautiful images of Craftgawker, I came across a gorgeous crocheted ombre bag by Maize Hutton HERE. She had made some modifications to a free “Knit-O-Matic” grocery bag by Haley Waxberg (free pattern can be found on Ravelry HERE) and I was super excited to make my very own when I was pregnant! It’s taken me a year to blog about it, but better late than never, right?
I had A LOT of fun working on this bag pattern as it was unlike anything I had previously crocheted. Working in the chain spaces round by round went by very quickly, and keeping track of the beginning of each round was a must!
This pattern called for DK/Light (3) cotton yarn, so I opted to use my favourite Patons Grace mercerized cotton (which is actually a Sport/Fine (2) yarn) in grey. This is the same yarn that I used to make Dragon, the Teddy Ornaments and my Ruffled Crochet Bib Necklace. If it isn’t evident enough, I really like this yarn 🙂 I still used a 4 mm crochet hook as stated in the pattern.
I had read some Ravelry comments stating that the bag had turned out smaller than they had expected. Thus, I made some modifications to the original pattern since I wanted my bag to be larger (and also because I was using a thinner yarn). The bag was starting to look like a giant flower! I was a little nervous that this project was not looking very bag-like at this point since it was so large and flat…
…but it did start looking like a bag as I progressed further thankfully!
Instead of making my bag a uniform colour like the bags I had originally seen, I decided that I wanted to make the last rounds and straps a contrasting colour!
I decided to use pink since I absolutely LOVE pink and grey together 🙂
Isn’t it a beautiful combo?
I decided to modify the edging by making it thicker and a bit more decorative with some spacing in between the stitches 🙂
Here is a close-up!
I also made the straps a bit wider!
Finally, the bag was finished! The pattern recommends placing 3 or 4 big cans of food in the bag to help stretch it out. This bag can stretch a lot, so if your finished product seems smaller than you had hoped, have no fear! It will get larger 🙂
These are the modifications I made to the original pattern:
- I repeated the “Increase Round” with 36 spaces an additional four times (i.e. in total it was repeated 12 times)
- I added another Increase Round as follows: *{[Ch5, make 1 sc] twice into same ch5 space, [ch5, make 1 sc into next ch5 space]}; repeat from * to end of round (54 spaces). *(Ch5, make 1 sc into next ch5 space); repeat from * to end of round (54 spaces). Repeat this round 2 more times.
- I followed the decrease rounds as stated, except I had 54 spaces instead of 36 spaces. I also followed the “*make 1 sc into next sc, make 2 sc into next ch2 space; repeat from * to end of round” as written (resulting in more than 108 sc- I didn’t count how many single crochets I ended up having). This was my last round of grey.
- For the decorative pink edging I did 2 rounds of single crochets, 1 round consisting of *Dc 1, Sk 1, Ch 1* around, and then 2 more rounds of single crochets (5 rounds in total).
- Instead of chaining 38 for the handles, I chained 60. I also made four rows of single crochets to make the handles thicker.
Here I am with my beautiful crochet mesh bag! Isn’t it gorgeous?
I love the overall look of the mesh and how you can see the contents of the bag. It gives such a light, airy and modern feel!
You can always add charms, lace, beads or anything you want to glam up your bag! You could also add your own lining (like this beautiful sequin lining here) if you don’t want your bag to stretch as much or if you don’t want your bag to be as open. I attached my cute amigurumi teddy keychain to my bag here 🙂
What a great way to carry your yarn when yarn shopping! Obviously this bag would not be so great for holding your hooks though…
Part of what makes this bag so special is how portable it is! Look how small it becomes when you scrunch it all up 🙂 It takes up such little space in your regular bag or in your car and can be pulled out whenever you need it. It’s perfect for grocery shopping or when visiting a farmer’s market! Thanks to those of you who tried to guess what this was based on the picture below- we loved reading all of your guesses, from scarves, bath scrubbies to sea anemones!
This would be such a great summer bag to bring to the beach too! Throw on a pair of shades, your favourite flip flops and your newly crocheted bag and you’re ready to go! The bag could hold your swimsuit and sunscreen too, and you wouldn’t have to worry about sand getting stuck in it 😉
Find the free pattern for this beautiful bag on Ravelry HERE! Who else is going to give this bag a try? I love sharing the crochet projects I have made on my blog, and I thank you so much for your enthusiasm and support of my work!
