I am finally getting back into the blogging saddle after several months of not writing much. Actually, I have been writing, but it’s been freelance copy writing to bring in some extra income. I also took time off to create a new website, Tarot Empowers to share my other passion, the tarot. The site is finished, and I’m on a break from freelancing, so now is a good time to write some blog posts.

I wrote a few years ago about how Hawaii was about to institute a ban on plastic bags and that it would be a good time to start crocheting some market bags. That blog post features two patterns that I modified to suit my needs.

In those intervening years, the grocery stores provided free paper bags, but I guess that got to be too expensive. Now they are charging 15 cents a bag, regardless of size. So I figured it’s a good time to crochet a few more market bags.

I have four patterns to share with you. One I modified, and the other three I pretty much followed the pattern.

Skull Tote

Okay, this isn’t a market back, but I wanted to share it because I thought it was cool. Plus, my daughter, for whom I crocheted it for her birthday, is actually using it, unlike many of the other items I’ve crocheted for her that sit on her shelves. Skulls are hard for her to resist.

I modified a scarf pattern I found on Ravelry. It’s crocheted in blocks, and then the blocks are sewn together to create the scarf. But I decided to use the blocks as a foundation for a tote. There’s an example of one in the Ravelry photo array, and the crocheter kindly provided instructions on how she created it.

I used one skein of a wonderful cotton-blend, DK-weight yarn (darn, can’t find the yarn label – I’ll look for it and update this when I find it) and an F/3.75 mm crochet hook. The lining material, I think, is a raw silk that I had in my fabric stash.

To make the bag, I added two extra rows of plain granny square stitch on the bottom (for a total of 5 rows) and 5 rows on top of the skull. Then I added 5 rounds of sc around each square and lined the bag after sewing the squares together. The strap is two rows of sc and a final round of slip stitches all the way around to reinforce it.

Honestly, the hardest part was lining it. It’s a really simple pattern, even with the short rows that create the skull’s eyes.

Granny Stitch Bag

I was captivated by this bag when a Facebook friend shared her creation online. She directed me to the Fiber Spider’s very well done videos that take you step by step through the creation of the bag (first video) and the strap (second video).

I thought it was several granny squares pieced together. But it is actually one granny square with an ingenious way of creating the sides of the bag by decreasing in the middle of each side.

I used worsted-weight cotton I had in my stash and an H/5 mm crochet hook. As you can see, I ran out of yarn at the very end, so I tried to match the red in the bag with red in my stash. Now red is a color I hardly ever crochet with, unless it’s for Christmas gifts. So I had to be satisfied with a hot pink. I will definitely be making more bags with this pattern.

Tuck-Away Tote

This is one of my all-time favorite bags to crochet. I made one for my daughter several years ago, and she actually uses it! For this one, I used two or three skeins of Lion Brand 24/7 Cotton and a G/4 mm hook. Actually, I used an G hook for part of the bag, put it down, and picked it up again, thinking I’d been using an F/3.75 mm hook, but you really can’t tell.

As you can see, the bag expands quite a bit. I could probably get away with using it as a beach bag, but I’ll have to reinforce the straps with a round of slip stitches so they don’t stretch too much. I might even add some extra rows.

The only thing I modified on this one was the yarn and hook size. This is another bag you can make in any size depending on the yarn you use.

Fresh Market Bag

Here’s another pattern I found on Facebook. It’s Kristin Omdahl’s Fresh Market Bag. What I love about this pattern is the fact that you can adapt it to any size. And there’s an excellent video that accompanies the pattern instructions. I made the smaller version to familiarize myself with the pattern and am thinking it would make a great Christmas gift. I have one of my many tarot decks (the Thoth deck) inside this bag.

I turned to my stash again for this one, using Glenspun by Jaeger, a really nice Irish linen/cotton blend that isn’t sold anymore. A friend gave me the yarn a while back, and I think she got it from her grandmother when she passed away. Ravelry classifies this yarn as fingering weight, but I’m thinking it could be sport weight. I’m pretty sure I used an F/3.75 mm hook.

I apologize for the sketchy details, especially about how much yarn I used. I was not thinking of blogging when I made these items. The patterns will tell you how much yarn was used with the pattern yarn. So you can work from there if you decide to substitute another yarn. Good luck! And I’ll be a lot more precise in future blog posts.