Crochet festival bag TaDah!

I’ve been running a Bagalong this month – on my blog, on Instagram and on Facebook. So when I went on holiday, to the North Yorkshire coast at Robin Hood’s Bay, what else would I take as my holiday crochet project but a new bag…

I’d been sent five balls of Studio Chunky acrylic yarn by Deramores. This is their own brand of chunky and its almost super chunky. The five colours I received to try were glorious bright shades – fuchsia (the bright pink), mustard (the lovely duster yellow), fir (the gorgeous green), burnt orange (no explanation needed) and jade (bright turquoise). I wanted to make a small bag and see if I could make it entirely out of these 5 x 100g balls, which contain 80 metres of yarn.

I used the retro granny square pattern as the basis, using a 6mm (size J) hook, starting by doing round 1 in each of the five colours. I then made round 2 using a different colour, working each round of each square rather than completing one square then another…

I missed out round 3, moving straight from round 2 to round 4, the first round in which the square is made by adding corners:

After completing round 4 and round 5, I changed round 6 to a simple round of double crochet stitches (UK terms) [single crochet stitches in USA terms], making one in each stitch of round 5. This edged the squares nicely. The overall squares measure 21cm (7 inches) across – as I said this Deramores chunky yarn is seriously chunky!

The squares worked up very rapidly and brightened up some of the duller days on holiday… we stayed in an interesting cottage, which had quirky handles for the cupboards…

It also had a lovely terrace overlooking the bay – the perfect spot for sewing in all those pesky ends…

And, finally, all the ends were done and the five squares were complete…

I chose to join using the vibrant jade yarn. I used the same assembly technique as I’ve used in my retro granny stash bags.

The crochet festival bag handles

I had enough yarn left in the jade ball to complete the joining and to work three rounds of double crochet (UK terms) [single crochet USA terms], but not for the handles. In fact, I didn’t have enough of any single colour to do anything but very short handles so I decided on stripy handles for this bag.

I also made them flat – this yarn works up to give a lovely firm fabric, so I didn’t need to fold over the handles or strengthen them with cotton yarn or cotton piping cord.

I started with a round of mustard, working round the top of the bag and then starting a chain to run up from approximately 2.5cm (1 inch) in from the centre square on the front and back of the bag. For my handles I made 50 chains before joining back into the top of the bag.

I made two rounds of the mustard and then two rounds of fuschia, working along the top of the bag between the handles and then over the top of each handle.

I then started working inside the handles, completing one round of fir and two rounds of fuchsia. The final step was to add a row of slip stitch on the inside and outside of the handles. I also made a row of orange slip stitches on the inside of the handles – but not yet!

The final step was to work a small closing flap. Starting at the back of the bag I used the fuchsia yarn that I had left to work dc (UK terms) [sc USA terms] backwards and forwards between the handles, decreasing one stitch at the start of each row (by making a chain and working into the second stitch) and at the end of each row (by working two stitches together). I worked five rows in total.

The final step was to add a round of orange between the handles, working a slip stitch into every stitch on the inside of the handles themselves, and working a double crochet around the flap. I attached a large press stud fastener to the inside of the flap and the outside of the front of the bag so that the bag could be closed.

Buying Deramores Studio Chunky yarn at 20% off the full price

Deramores regularly has special offers that you can take advantage of but if its full price, you can get 20% off by doing two things:

• Go to Deramores by clicking the link below
• Use the code TREATS at the checkout. This discount code is exclusively for use with my link and for Crafternoon Treaters! It gives you 20% off Deramores Studio Chunky and Deramores Studio DK and can be used up to the end of July! [Note Cannot be used in conjunction with any other coupon code or discounted item. Terms & Conditions apply.]

And I also get a small commission from your purchase to help fund future blog projects and free patterns (at no cost to you!) Learn more about me and Deramores…

And if you’ve enjoyed this tutorial please consider making a small donation to my Just Giving page to fund Marie Curie cancer nurses. Thank you xxxxxx