String Bags

During the recent Guild Wars 2 at Ravelry's Ankh-Morpork Knitter's Guild there were a bunch of string bags made (for the challenge to make things for a witch's kitchen). I was intrigued & hadn't crocheted one before, so followed the link from one I liked to this pattern. The yarn the pattern calls for, Red Heart Eco Cotton Blend, is considered a size 4 (worsted weight) yarn, but the thought of crocheting a string bag with such heavy yarn did not appeal to me, so I decided to try DK weight yarn instead. I used KnitPicks CotLin for my first bag, & since I only had 2 skeins, I fudged the pattern a bit so I wouldn't run out. I used a size E/4/3/5mm hook which gave a good fabric- not too loose, but not too firm either. The brown bag in the picture came out about 10" long (excluding the handles) which is a very nice, usable size. Along with making the mesh part of the bag shorter (by about 5 rounds), I also made the top edging much briefer than the pattern calls for, working just 3 rounds before making the handles.  I made the handles from regular single-crochet rows, rather than the firmer (but yarn-eating) stitch they recommended. I think it's perfectly sturdy this way, & I like it so well that I decided to make another one.

As you can see at the bottom of the brown bag, it starts with a medallion made of single crochets. It occurred to me that you could substitute one of those lace motifs that end with a mesh for the medallion, so I looked through my trusty Harmony Guide of crochet stitch motifs & decided to try the Spiral Pentgram motif found on page 74.

I used another DK weight yarn, Elann.com's Cotone Lin limited edition, with the same size hook as the first bag. As you can see, the motif came out really nicely at the bottom of the bag.

It's about the same size in length as the first bag, although it's actually a bit bigger around (I ended-up with 35 chain spaces in the mesh, rather than 32 (as in the original pattern), but it was easy to work the top edging & handles based on the original pattern. There are a few more motifs in the book that end up with a mesh, so I'm looking forward to trying them, too. I have knitted string bag in my UFO pile, & it just may become another crocheted string bag! They work up so quickly, look nice, & are very useful (& good for gifts).