Blog

A reader emailed me questions about the market bag I made a long, long time ago. That wonderful pink bag didn’t last, by the way. The baggers at the grocery stores just really crammed too much in it. Not sure why they thought it was indestructible. It ripped several times. The first two times I could repair. The last time, it was too far gone to fix.

The reader was having trouble with Ruth Shepherd’s pattern and asked for my help. So, since making another bag has been in my queue for awhile anyway, I thought I’d make it my next project and document the process for her – and anyone else who cares.

I think the reason the reader was having trouble is that the piece doesn’t look like a bag until you’re nearly finished. All through the mesh segment of the bag, it looks like a floppy doily.

It’s not until round 26 where one works the single crochets at the top that tightens the mesh into something that begins to look like a bag.

Since the last bag didn’t hold up, I looked for something tougher. What could be tougher than carpet yarn, right? I intended to use it as a carry along, but I like it better just all by itself. Cheap stuff, too! We’ll see if this bag holds up better than the pink Knit Cro-sheen I used last time.

Some of the tweaks I made to the pattern:

• The pattern says to go to a 9 chain mesh at round 10. I just kept going with the 7 chain mesh. I like a tighter bag.
• Like the last time, I made the handles wider. The pattern calls for just a two stitch wide handle, which I think would cut into my hand. So, I made my handles four stitches wide.
• The pattern has you break the yarn after completing the first handle. I didn’t. I just single crocheted around to the proper spot and made the second four stitch wide handle without breaking my yarn.
• After finishing the pocket, the pattern says to break the yarn and sew the pocket to the inside bottom of the bag. I didn’t do either of those things. I wanted to have right sides facing out when the bag is tucked into the pocket. So, I positioned the right side of the pocket together with the right side of the bottom and with my yarn still attached to the pocket, slipped stitched it to the outside leaving the 20 stitches open to create the pocket.

This bag came out a bit smaller than the pink one. But that’s OK. I really don’t like bags that stretch too far vertically.

This yellow, pink and brown bag I made recently is linen. It’s a Reynolds knit kit that seduced me with its pretty colors at my LYS. As you can see, it stretches quite a bit. I’m 5 ‘ 4″. When this thing is full, it stretches so freakin’ much that I have to do a bicep curl to carry it! I wasn’t happy with the Reynolds yarn either as their skeins had a lot of breaks/knots in them. Nevertheless, it was my first knitted lace project and was really good practice. You probably can’t see the mucked up pattern in the brown portion

Anyway, I’ve got a lot of leftover cream rug yarn. There’s enough left to make two more bags … and I’ve got a roll of a pretty brown, too. But first — I’ll wait and see how the bag I just made holds up.

Vicki, I hope this helps   Everyone else, click here to get Ruth’s pattern. And click here for another vintage version that I’ve yet to work.