When I taught in Phoenix in April, my host Diane Eaton admired my crocheted bag several times, and each time she said “I want that bag” I retorted “you can crochet one, it is easy to make”. She had me convinced that she did not think she could crochet well enough, so I was very surprised when we were on our way home from dinner that she quickly pulled into JoAnn’s fabric store for some yarn to make one. I was delighted! One of the top ten happiest moments for a fiber artist is buying fiber. Another is helping someone else buy fiber.
The cool basket with yarn filling it was her booty. Lots of beautiful colored cottons and cotton blends, a crochet hook and twine. You do need a lot of colors to make this scrappy looking bag, but only a small amount of each color. So Diane will have enough yarn for several bags.
Another of my bags-in-progress is in the foreground. As I work on it, it serves to hold my yarns. I still have a few inches to crochet before finish it, and do the handles.
As it turns out, Diane had the basic crochet skills, and just needed a brushing up on the details. She was very motivated and in no time at all had the base of the single crochet bag finished. Her dog Humphrey seized the moment and grabbed a yummy looking ball of yarn before we had a chance to move everything out of harm’s way!
We are simply creating a single crochet spiral, crocheting over jute twine to add stiffness to the bag. When the diameter is large enough, stop increasing and the work will begin to form the sides of the bag. For more hints on a bag similar to this, go to Lucy24.
As you can see, Diane loves mugging for a camera, and insisted that she was actually making a large yarmulke for her head.
My encouragement seems to have paid off. After an evening jump-start, Diane is thoroughly addicted to her new crochet craft. My work here is done.
Happy creative day to you ~ Karen
PS — Here is an update on Diane’s beautiful bag:
