Sunday, July 19

Crocheted Mini Tote Bag

Crocheted Tote - felted

Clara is going through a stage where she likes carrying buckets around and putting things in them and she also likes walking around with my purse. She will even put the purse up and walk around with it on her shoulder (super cute). So even though my history with crocheting is not particularly spectacular, I decided now was a good time to give it another shot and thereby avoid some small diameter knitting in the round, which is not my favorite. I dug out some wool scraps and after a quick look for a pattern I decided I would just make it up as I went. I must say, I was pleasantly surprised, the bag went quickly and smoothly. I think quicker and more smoothly than if I had knit it. Altogether it took no more than 3 hours to crochet and that includes changing my mind a few times. I have a feeling I will be doing more crocheting in the future.
Raveled

Here is the bag before felting and below are the instructions, such as they are.
Crocheted bag - prefelting

Pre felting dimensions (laying flat): 10" wide, 8" high, handles 16" total
Post felting dimensions (sitting up): Diameter ~6", 5" deep, handles 13" total.

Yarn: Feltable wool, I used two strands worsted for this. I used up scraps but I think altogether it was well under 100g so a single skein should do it.
Hook: I used size K or 6.5mm

Using magic circle technique (or whatever other technique you prefer) make circle with 6 stitches (green)
Round-
1: sc2 in each stitch - 12 stitches
Place marker at first stitch (I used a safety pin)
2: sc2, sc - repeat - 18 stitches
3: sc2, sc twice - repeat - 24 stitches
4: sc2, sc three times - repeat - 30 stitches
5: sc2, sc four times - repeat - 36 stitches
6: sc2, sc five times - repeat - 42 stitches
7: sc2, sc 5 times - repeat - 48 stitches
8: sc2, sc 6 times - repeat - 54 stitches
9: sc - 54 stitches
10: sc2, sc 7 times - repeat - 60 stitches
11-18: sc - 60 stitches
Switch to second color
19-24: sc - 60 stitches
Handle
25: slst to join round, crochet 10 stitches and turn
26: crochet first two stitches together, sc 8 st and turn
27-30: repeat decrease of first two stitches until your handle is 6 st wide
Sc each row until handle is about 16"
Increase at the end of each row until handle is 10 st
join to body opposite the other end.

Crocheted Tote - felted

4 comments:

Not Lucy said...

So, does she like it? Where is the picture with her?

Rose said...

Very cute; love the color combo too.

Aspiring Domestic Goddess said...

Hi,

Do you think 220 yards would be enough for the bag? I'm going to custom dye yarn and want to know if I need one skein or two... I'm going to use Paton's Classic Wool.

Thanks!

Chelsea said...

220 should be enough.