I’m branching out into new materials and ready to get truly original with this crocheting habit. Yarn can be just so…fragile, I want to see what I else I can crochet with and what kind of forms those new materials will sustain. Tying in my other skills from a long life of garment-making and leather-working is a huge bonus.
Hope everyone had a lovely St. Patrick’s Day. Spring is here and we are in the early-stages of some serious gardening. The indoor grow-trays are full of seedlings and Jake is cobbling together a rather sophisticated irrigation system for the outdoor beds. Spring is for fresh-greens and cute clothes and accessories that no longer have to withstand salt and wind, but a little bit of grit against a passing shower is still useful.
In the spirit of durability, while still looking cute, I created this handbag from 3mm macrame rope! No patterns or instructions to follow on this one for me; it was a head-first dive into drafting my own crochet shapes. Crocheted in the round starting with a chainstitch at the base, I added single-crochets to make a flat oblong that is the base.
Once the base was a size that felt right (I did concept work ahead of time so I had a plan for the final look and size), I kept the same number of stitches per row, still single-crochet, still in the round, to turn the flat oval up into a tube.
The body of the purse underwent several unraveling’s and re-doings as I worked out the number and location of where to make stitch-increases to give the body of the purse a very slight flare. Turns out I needed many fewer extra stitches than I had originally guessed. My first two attempts at the mid-body got too wide and the form started collapsing.
I also crocheted the arm hole twice, the first time it was too big and again, the form of the purse was unstable and too floppy. The rigidity of the macrame rope is casual enough as it is, not being self-supporting in large-sizes. I think if I wanted to make a more stand-up geometric shape in the future I could try crocheting rope around a core of either more cotton rope or jute or burlap.
To bring more durability to the form, specifically to prevent excess stretching with anticipated use, I decided that some vegetable-tanned leather handles would look great with this natural-colored purse. I still have half a cow in the closet, so I got out the punch and mallet, wet-formed some handles and laced them together.
The finished bag fits comfortably on my wrist or elbow, and in the hand, but the hole isn’t quite big enough for the shoulder. My first draft at it was, but that opening was too big for this purse. Is it a beach bag? A market tote? Where would you wear this?
