Inga’s Haekelbeutel (Inga’s Crocheted Bag)
@ Ravelry

So I made a granny square bag. It was very fun during the actual crocheting process of 16 very easy granny squares. I finished them in two evenings. I used Patons Classic Wool, which I’d never worked with before. It has a great feel–probably comparable to Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, which I also like–and was readily available (found it at my local Michaels craft store). Not a bad price, either!

The pattern is quite easy, but I made it hard for myself because I am obsessive sometimes, and wanted the color placement to be exact. (See pic: purple-green-multi-multi-multi-green-purple-multi.) Due to the construction of the bag (this awkward “four strips” thing), I had to deviate from the pattern and connect them my own way. I basically just laid the squares out on both sides to look like the picture, then single crocheted the edges together. In doing this, though, I narrowed the bottom of the bag and only ended up using 13 out of 16 squares. (I saved the extras and plan to use them as coasters.)

I think it would have been easier to follow the pattern, but my brain SO does not think in geometric patterns, so the construction just was not making sense. I’m sure someone more clever and spatially-oriented could have found a way to use the strips method and still get the colors in the right places, but I just couldn’t sort it out. I don’t plan on lining the bag, and I decided to use only one strap as opposed to two, so its contents will have to be limited to lighter-weight items.

Despite all my gripes about the construction, the finished bag turned out the way I wanted and I really like the way it looks! I just don’t know if I would make this a second time.

In other crochet news:

Crochet Noro Scarf @ Ravelry

I can’t complain about this pattern, since I didn’t use a pattern! I had two balls of Noro Silk Garden Lite, so I crocheted a lengthwise scarf. My foundation chain was either 175 or 200 stitches–I can’t remember for sure which–and I just did double crochet until I ran out of yarn. I *love* the blues in this yarn, but the brown bits were yucky, so I cut those sections out. I’ve worked with Noro in the past, and as much as I love the colorways, I don’t think I’ll work with it again anytime soon; the twigginess and weird stretches of color got on my nerves. In fact, after working with this, I went searching for some possible Noro alternatives, which led to purchases of yarns such as Plymouth Boku and Universal Classic Shades. While these other yarns don’t have the same feel/fiber content of Noro, they do mimic the color transitions, which is the main thing I’m looking for.

I’ve definitely been on a crochet kick, as you can see–so now I’m off to look in my Ravelry queue for something new to cast on and knit.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 4th, 2009 at 8:28 pm and is filed under Crochet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.